At the end of my recent Impressed by Vista? post, I posed the question “is anyone out there really impressed by Vista?” Of the responses that were left, one especially caught my attention and I thought that I would post it on the homepage for all to enjoy since it’s an entertaining and good read.

The comment was left by BobSongs and goes…

Well, I’m impressed!

I’m impressed that it took five years for Microsoft to produce the next generation O/S. It took a while between Windows 3.1 and Windows95 because it was a major upgrade, not just a face-lift. And I’m sure many are thinking: “Yeah, but Microsoft wasn”t asleep during that time, y’know. They released Windows Media Center and Windows 2003 Server!” Sure. But consider their release schedule with their previous Windows family line: Windows95 in 1995, Windows 95b in 1996 (major improvement in stability and added all kinds of support for new technology and FAT32), Windows95C in 1997 (with Internet Explorer 4.0 making Windows95 look and feel almost like Windows98). Windows98 in 1998, Windows98SE in 1999 and Windows Me in 2000. Longhorn should have been named Long-time-in-coming.

I’m impressed that many of the promised features to be added to Vista were eventually reconsidered and dropped.

I’m impressed that some of the cutting edge, innovative new technology that will eventually be released with Vista is old Mac O/S X stuff.

I’m impressed Microsoft decided to release Vista in first quarter 2007 for several reasons.

First: each release of Windows lives a 5-year support cycle. After that Microsoft is no longer obliged to really offer any more support. So, in effect, home users of Microsoft Windows XP Professional and Home will technically no longer be supported. Technically. Microsoft tried to dump their support for Windows 98 but were shocked to discover they were abandoning a majority of their home user-base.

Second: companies that sell computers are deeply disappointed with the release schedule because it will seriously damage their 2006 income. Vista could be released with various features removed for the end of 2006 while patches could be released to include the new features. But who’s going to tell Microsoft how to do things, right?

And I have yet to be impressed by the price tag with which Microsoft is going to hit the end user. And by the line ups of the faithful who will lay down those dollars as though they had to.

The list goes on…

» This entry was filed under General