Is there any limit to Microsoft’s success, or their confidence (read arrogance)? For what is dubbed as “history’s biggest IT project”, Microsoft is making the final preparations to launch Windows Vista.
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You could say that the new version of Windows, and its new version of MS-Office and Sharepoint hot on its heals, is an indication that MS is in the throws of reinventing itself. Well, not really. But they are certainly doing their damnedest to energize their battered stock price (about $7 less than it was at the start of 2002), their flat income and its continually maligned software from bugs, outside attacks, and rhetoric from the developer community that likes to put rival Apple on an evangelical pedestal.
Here’s what we know about Windows Vista:
- Business customer rollout (Christmas 2006); consumer rollout (early 2007)
- Slick new user interface (look-and-feel and navigation) with lots of graphics, animation and motion video as well as translucent window borders
- Main screen sidebar with ‘help’ gadgets including a calculator, a news reader and a currency converter.
- A window flipper where the user’s current open windows flash through a full rotation akin to a slide show
- Additional security including tougher treatment and protection against viruses (my favorite is that it apparently warn you when ANY program is to be installed on your computer including spyware and trojans) and the ability to see if anyone (such as your neighbor) is piggy-backing on your wireless network
- Users (e.g. parents) can restrict online activities (by age or by content type) such as blocking certain games and limiting computer use (
- Multimedia tools for better managing photos and videos including meta tags and instantly turning photos into videos
- Hinted but not really confirmed:
How eager is Microsoft to have you buy
“not necessarily free Vista upgrade”. MS estimates this coupon program will cost them $1.5 billion in revenue.