Travel Technology - Microsoft Delays Release of Windows Vista

Reuters: "Microsoft Corp. said on Tuesday it plans to delay the consumer launch of its much-anticipated Windows Vista operating system to January 2007 from its earlier target of the second half of 2006, sending its shares down nearly 3 percent."

A small slip, hardly unprecedented in software, but apparently a significant one. One corporate version of Vista is still scheduled for November release.

Full story on CNN.money here (http://money.cnn.com/2006/03/21/news/companies/microsoft.reut/index.htm?cnn=yes), plus surely many other places.

Can't say this surprises me. They have never released an OS on time, with the possible exception of Windows ME :D

And a follow-up story from CNET (http://news.com.com/2061-11199_3-6052404.html?part=rss&tag=6052404&subj=news)

And a follow-up story from CNET (http://news.com.com/2061-11199_3-6052404.html?part=rss&tag=6052404&subj=news)

LOL... I'm sure masses of XP users will now be running to buy a Mac! Perhaps Apple will manage to gain a cool 0.05% of the Windows user base.

Just because it runs a chip all windows users know, doesn't mean people are willing to make the move.

I give them credit for this. Missing a ship date is embarrassing and expensive. Once upon a time, they'd have shipped it anyway, and scheduled service pack 1 for February. I wish more software companies would wait until their software is done.

Their announcement is still a little confusing; claiming only the consumer launch will be delayed doesn't make sense... Does this mean vendors like Dell WILL be selling it on time?

I'm a little confused as well. What do they mean by corporate customers? Their volume licensing customers? The large box builders (Dell, Gateway, Lenovo)? I seriously doubt it'll do anything for Apple at all. Most Windows users wouldn't know MacOS 7.5 from OS X 10.5 from Gnome.

It could be that the media center stuff is late. It could also be they feel safe releasing the corp version, since no corp will deploy it before sp1 and lots of testing.

As far as the effect on Apple, I'd guess the number of people who will switch because of this is 0. I mean, it's already years late. Another few months shouldn't matter.

It's still a big misstep from Microsoft. They really should have something in the market this year. But clearly the emergence of Google lead search, Web 2.0, Apple's iPod adventure are casuign them to rethink what Vista should do.
Gates was slow to tune into the internet. Looks like he's been slow again to spot the swift change in the way people are using the net now.

the emergence of Google lead search, Web 2.0, Apple's iPod adventure are casuign them to rethink what Vista should do.


Could you please explain how these things are to blame for the delay?

I suspect it is simply that they need more time to get it ready for the market. There are too many new technologies that are not even ready yet, but somehow need to be worked out on time for release (HDDVD/Blueray to name just one).

There is nothing in in the ipod that has caused Microsoft to change their mind on anything; they have Playforsure nicely worked out, with Google MS has Microsoft Live and as far as web 2.0, I simply don't see the link with Vista....

I suspect it's because their software engineering process is fundamentally broken. Microsft has some of the smartest developers in the world. Not being able to ship an OS in less than 5 years is quite simply a project management failure. Apparently they realize this, because they're bringing on the head of Office dev to run the Windows project. Office consistently makes their date.

The fact that Ballmer just last week reiterated that they'd make 2H2006 shows just how out of control the project has become.

It's still a big misstep from Microsoft. They really should have something in the market this year. But clearly the emergence of Google lead search, Web 2.0, Apple's iPod adventure are casuign them to rethink what Vista should do.
Gates was slow to tune into the internet. Looks like he's been slow again to spot the swift change in the way people are using the net now.I really doubt those are the issues. If they wanted to respond to anything along those lines it would mean major changes in the specs and in large chunks of software (even if not in the kernel). They're not going to change the approved functional spec this many years into development. If they did, it would mean way more than a two-month slip: think two years, and expect that to be too optimistic.

I don't believe major software release dates until the fourth revision. :p

Could you please explain how these things are to blame for the delay?

I suspect it is simply that they need more time to get it ready for the market. There are too many new technologies that are not even ready yet, but somehow need to be worked out on time for release (HDDVD/Blueray to name just one).

There is nothing in in the ipod that has caused Microsoft to change their mind on anything; they have Playforsure nicely worked out, with Google MS has Microsoft Live and as far as web 2.0, I simply don't see the link with Vista....

I think he's (she's?) referring to the "digital hub" trend of late, which is likely reshaping MS's vision for Vista. Of course, Apple has been talking about the digital hub and digital lifestyle now for years.

Also, considering that Apple's marketshare has doubled in the past 1-2 years, I think we can expect about a .5% increase in marketshare during the 6 month delay. :) (This, of course, presumes a linear curve, in spite of the fact that the iPod's has been hyperbolic.)

The only benefit I see that might result in additional market share picked up by Apple would be in XP's security woes, which have led many to examine OS X as an alternative. The longer XP is out there, the more opportunity there is for people to desire a more secure OS. Some new vulnerabilities in OS X have been identified lately, but compared to XP, it still offers users significantly greater peace of mind.

The only benefit I see that might result in additional market share picked up by Apple would be in XP's security woes, which have led many to examine OS X as an alternative. The longer XP is out there, the more opportunity there is for people to desire a more secure OS. Some new vulnerabilities in OS X have been identified lately, but compared to XP, it still offers users significantly greater peace of mind.

And the more people make the move to OS X, the more hackers will devote their spare time to finding exploits for it, it is all about supply and demand :D

And the more people make the move to OS X, the more hackers will devote their spare time to finding exploits for it, it is all about supply and demand :D

There are fewer Linux users out there but way more malware exploiting Linux than there is exploiting OS X.

If it was really an issue of user base, then OS X would have as much malware as Linux.

I'm a little confused as well. What do they mean by corporate customers? Their volume licensing customers?
.......
Yes... Business editions only.

Box builders like Dell wait till 2007.

There are fewer Linux users out there but way more malware exploiting Linux than there is exploiting OS X.

If it was really an issue of user base, then OS X would have as much malware as Linux.

err, I'd look at the user base demographics a bit closer.

err, I'd look at the user base demographics a bit closer.

ok... demographics are below...

BoinBoing's stats (http://boingboing.net/stats/) show 19.7% of their visitors are Mac users while 3.9% use Linux

Google no longer reports OSes used to access their site, but here's an old Zeitgeist (http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist/zeitgeist-jun04.html) with some stats from 2 years ago. 3% Mac, 1% Linux

More figures (http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp) showing OS use through browser hits. 3.6% Mac, 3.4% Linux.

An independent study (http://www.mi2g.com/cgi/mi2g/press/170903.php) showing that Linux servers are the most vulnerable to attacks while BSD systems, including OS X (which is a BSD-based OS), were the least vulnerable...
"Out of a total sample of 197,488 successful and independently verifiable overt digital attacks against online servers worldwide recorded by the mi2g SIPS database over the last twelve months the least breached Operating System (OS) was BSD including BSD/OS, OpenBSD, FreeBSD and Mac OS X which together recorded just 6,278, ie, 3.2% successful hacker attacks....

Linux, including Debian, Mandrake, Red Hat, SCO and Suse distributions, recorded 105,848 breaches, ie, 53.6%...

All flavours of Microsoft Windows Servers recorded 68,398 online server breaches, ie, 34.6%." It does mention that Linux servers are more frequently used in server environments than Macs. Even if we throw out the BSD data and only look at Windows and Linux, Linux is more at risk than Windows, according to this study.

Microsoft's announcement of Jan 2007 for Vista's release just means I will be adopting it for my Wintel PC no earlier than Jan 2008. I give them a year to get the kinks out. :D

Their announcement is still a little confusing; claiming only the consumer launch will be delayed doesn't make sense... Does this mean vendors like Dell WILL be selling it on time?

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Confusing? Really?

For all who, like Scott, may not know, "enterprise" customers and "consumer" or home users are not considered, nor treated the same, by MS, nor most other tech companys, in my experience. Incidentally, this was noted here:

"Microsoft said Vista would be ready for large business customers, who typically buy the company's software in multiyear licenses, in November. But the consumer rollout will be pushed back to January 2007..."

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=353768


Incidentally, for those who may be interested, there is also some additional information concerning Vista, formerly referred to as "Longhorn" posted at this link above.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=353768


Thanks very much, in any case, for posting this, Efrem. :)

Mark

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Confusing? Really?

For all who, like Scott, may not know, "enterprise" customers and "consumer" or home users are not considered, nor treated the same, by MS,

Where did I say I didn't know this? Don't assume stuff you don't know. I've been a certified solutions provider for Microsoft for almost 15 years now and I was confused by their announcement, not by what you assume was lack of knowledge, but by a lack of clear communications by Microsoft.

Where did I say I didn't know this? Don't assume stuff you don't know. I've been a certified solutions provider for Microsoft for almost 15 years now and I was confused by their announcement, not by what you assume was lack of knowledge, but by a lack of clear communications by Microsoft.

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Ah, yes, I'd thought that surely you would know. Please excuse me and accept my apologies. I'd thought that you were asking the question "Does this mean vendors like Dell WILL be selling it on time?" and had actually wanted an answer. My bad! :)

Mark

I've been a certified solutions provider for Microsoft for almost 15 years now and I was confused by their announcementMicrosoft really dropped the ball on this one. My company is a MS partner and the communications we've received have been pure junk. Since we're developing software for the Vista platform, we were aware in advance of the delay. However, we're left scratching our heads as to what the delay will do to our release dates. It's never good when a business partner leaves you completely uninformed.

1. Office 2007 is now delayed to match. Details on this page on CNET News.com (http://news.com.com/2100-1012_3-6053504.html?part=rss&tag=6053504&subj=news).

2. Some analyst opinions on the impact of the delay in this article (http://www.macworld.com/news/2006/03/22/analysts/index.php?lsrc=mcweek-0324). Since it's from a Mac publication, it may not be entirely unbiased, but the folks they quote aren't on Apple's payroll.

My Dell desktop, from before the turn of the century, is on it's last legs. Sounds like I will need to squeeze a few more months out of it. I will not buy a computer until it comes with the new operating system.

1. Office 2007 is now delayed to match. Details on this page on CNET News.com (http://news.com.com/2100-1012_3-6053504.html?part=rss&tag=6053504&subj=news)...

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This was also noted earlier, FWIW, over in OMNI, where there is also some other information concerning Vista, previously referred to as "Longhorn":

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=353768


Thanks very much, once again, in any case, Efrem, for posting this.

Mark

ok... demographics are below...
I was implying who the users are. Linux users are a bit more in the hacker demographic than the average mac user. :rolleyes:

I'm not sure that's so true any more. Go to any non-OS specific tech conference and you'll see a ton of Apples. Macs are much more popular in the geek and scientific communities than they are in the general population. If it's good enough for James Gosling, it's good enough for any geek.

LOL... I'm sure masses of XP users will now be running to buy a Mac! Perhaps Apple will manage to gain a cool 0.05% of the Windows user base.

Just because it runs a chip all windows users know, doesn't mean people are willing to make the move.

...and to be very honest, I hope and pray they don't! 3%? 4%? 3.0000000232163552%, if you also count the big wet slurps my Mac receives from my puppy? I'm fine with that! No spyware, no viruses, not anything that comes with a larger user base.