Microsoft Announces Vista Delay, Is Anyone Surprised?
from the old-faithful dept
Microsoft has a well-deserved reputation for product delays. In 2003, they announced that their next operating system, then codenamed Longhorn, wouldn’t be released in 2005 as planned. Well, 2006 is here, and it looks like more of the same. This evening, Microsoft announced that their forthcoming operating system, now called Vista, <a href=?http://today.reuters.com/business/newsarticle.aspx?type=tnBusinessNews&storyID=nN21351171&imageid=&cap=”>would be delayed from the second half of ’06 to January ’07. While some claim to be stunned by the news, is anyone really surprised? The company did the same routine with Windows 98. Will this even have a material effect on the company? The corporate version will still be launched as planned, and the consumer migration to the new OS will happen gradually regardless of when it’s released. Then again the announcement could end up hurting sales of the PC manufacturers. Come Christmas season, buyers may opt to buy trendy Macs, as opposed to PCs whose operating system will be obsolete within a matter of weeks. While Apple has been chided in the past for being dependent on third party technology (like underperforming IBM chips), their independence from Microsoft may be paying off.
Comments on “Microsoft Announces Vista Delay, Is Anyone Surprised?”
I'm surprised
The earlier delays were what we’ve come to expect, but now we’re coming up on two years past the infamous codebase “reset”. You’d think that a company with the resources of MS would have a minimum package ready to go out the door: slick looking shell with transparency, new Direct X, some security features worth talking about, an 0.9 release of some desktop search stuff, and an upgrade installer. That’s it. All the rest can be deferred until “second edition” or “Vista Reloaded” or SP2. How can they not be ready to ship that in September 2006?
Re: I'm surprised - I'm not
The reset was done because the Windows code had become a mess of cross dependencies. http://www.wsjclassroomedition.com/archive/06jan/bigb_microsoft.htm
You do not fix a problem like that by putting a new interface on top of the existing mess – its like trying to paint over rot. The new interface has to link to so many different pieces to work it becomes part of the problem. Microsoft would have to start from the kernel and work up from there re-engineering the whole thing. Some code fragments will be salvageable but it is unlikely that any dlls will survive the rewrite untouched.
wait. so when is it being delayed to?
Re: Re:
… i hope your joking
Microsoft announced that their forthcoming operating system, now called Vista, would be delayed from the second half of ’06 to January ’07.
… straight from the article
Delayed even after dropping so many features
Wow. They had to drop most of the real features from Vista to get it out “on time”. It’s barely more than a window dressing upgrade compared to what they originally promised. Now they’re delayed just getting this out.
Glad I’m a Mac user. I’ll probably be using OS X 10.5 before Vista is out. Maybe that is why the delay. MS is waiting for 10.5 so they can steal yet more UI features.
Re: Delayed even after dropping so many features
I read that in the initial review about Vista, that MS stole so many features from MAC, that it might as well be MAC O/S.
Typical Microslop, always stealing from other developers and claiming everything as their own. It’s been that way since the beginning for MS and it’s not about to change, anytime soon.
Once a thief, always a thief and Gill Bates & company are just that, a bunch of thieves, with no respect or regard for other people’s efforts and accomplishments. They take the easy road to wealth!
Re: Re: Delayed even after dropping so many featur
Then I suppose Mac should be Xerox/OS, since that’s where Jobs got his ideas?
Re: Re: Delayed even after dropping so many featur
I dont care about Microsoft or Gates, but saying MS is just a bunch of thieves and always have been…is a statement riddled with blind ignorance. The very nature of technology is learning and adapting from other developers AND users. The Apple founder and MS founder BOTH visited Palo Alto in the early 80’s and saw ALL that Xerox had INVENTED on their OWN…including the first GUI, the first serial mouse, and the first LAN. This is just a small sample of the ingenuity that Xerox had on display. Jobs and Gates both took notes frantically and both developed their own GUIs from Xerox. When Jobs foolishly sought legal action against Gates, the case was thrown out when Gates showed the courts that he got his ideas from Xerox JUST LIKE JOBS DID!!! So please, get a grip on what you are talking about….technology evolves based on the conglomerate work of MANY…not just Gates sitting in his basement waiting to see what the idiots at Apple develop next so he can copy it. We all benefit from many different companies developing new things.
Delays
It’s always the same excuse with Microslop. They need more time to add more bugs to their bloatware, excuse of an O/S, so why not give them more time? Nobody’s going to buy that crappy software anyways and it won’t work on the average PC, so why even bother?
Re: Delays
Right… “Nobody’s going to buy it anyway”. Only the vast majority or computer users, that’s all.
As much as I'd like to believe people will buy Mac
I doubt people will start running out and buying Macs. Until Macs have a better software base (think more games) and until the prices come down, the average user will still buy a PC with some form of Windows on it. Also, as much as I hate to say it, Windows is rather ubiquitous now and although Macs market share may go up a bit, most people still think Windows when they think PC.
Re: As much as I'd like to believe people will buy
People are buying Macs today. The days of the PC being THE game
machine are dwindling. The XBOX 360 is far superior to a PC
game playing, so MACs are better suited to the average daily
grind. Why buy a PC to play games?
Re: Re: As much as I'd like to believe people will
Great point, Harold. PC’s for gaming is obsolete. One needs to use the right tool for the job when gaming. I’m a firm believer in MS products in day to day biz for prevalence and cost. On average, MS biz products are much cheaper for the “daily grind”. But, I’ll side with mac’s capabilities for video and image editing capabilities and software. One gets what they pay for in this arena.
Re: Re: As much as I'd like to believe people will
Would agree that Xbox360 and/or PS3 ( if ever actually released) are now superior to any PC/Mac for gaming, but how does that equal better for the daily grind. to me the daily grind is Office like function and Email. for that a $300 Dell for the non-tech person or a $200 generic setup running your favorite flavor of LINUX for the person with some tech skill makes much more since than the $700 entry level Mac. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Mac, but can’t justify the extra cost for my business (set up all 3 employees with work stations for the cost of one Mac), margins are just to tight these days.
They had an excellent reason
If they didn’t delay it what would all the Apple and Linux fanboys have to cry about this week?
Sure they could mindlessly rage in their familiar and to be honest, getting tired holier than thou attitude about how Vista STOLE! the idea of a sharp sleek looking OS from Apple. Clearly.
Or perhaps they could go on about what a resource hog it’s going to be, requiring a whopping half a gig of ram! Oh noes! That could cost almost 70 dollars if you’re one of the 20 people on the planet with less than that much these days, maybe we could start a collection? Of course it’s still in early beta and has all sorts of debugging features enabled for testing, which is what you do in beta. Though in the current beta crazy would I could see how some of the dim bulbs might mistake beta for meaning released and should be working perfectly for their benefit and what took you so long?!
Or they could rant about how it’s going to spy on them and delete all their videos and mp3s. Because really, it’s true and makes perfect sense.
Or they could bring up flaws from windows 95, 98, me and xp pre service pack 1 that have been long since patched because they’re still relevent all these years later. No really, we love hearing about things that arn’t problems anymore.
Or they could just spew more mindless garbage that Bill Gates, who has very little to do with the actual technology anymore, is evil and throw in some M$’s because it’s still so witty, say something stupid about Firefox and something overly nice about Google and start pounding f5 to see if anyone cares.
Re: They had an excellent reason
You say Apple/ linux fanboys mindlessly rage? Take a look at what you just posted.
Re: They had an excellent reason
“They had an excellent reason by Echostorm on Mar 21st, 2006 @ 7:10pm”
eh firefox? whats wrong with firefox? o.O isn’t it like the #1 browser right now?
and i agree.. with ya and only thing Microsoft ever stole was part of linux for Dos other then that “windows” has been staying one step over the rest for thay keep things uptodat and add more
eg vista yes mac had the soo called “good” GUI first but microsoft has not stolen one thing from mac.
for one if thay did there be a few law suites and thats why there are “copyright laws”
Re: They had an excellent reason
I’m sensing some sarcasm here.
Re: They had an excellent reason
the reason why mac users such as myself are so proud of our sytems, and have a holier-than-thou attitude is becase its fact; macs are better. the only negetive things you hear about them are from the jealous pc-owning commies. take it from someone who uses both windows and macs when i say: Macs are better, get over it.
Re: They had an excellent reason
Great post. i felt the same way, but never had the words so clear 😉
Re: They had an excellent reason
This guy is a toolbag, F5 changes my volume and many other macbook users as well.
Are you just stating past memories and experiances, Windblowz boy?
Monopoly
Most hardware manufacturers will offer a free licensed upgrade to Vista probably a couple of months before Vista arrives… the same happened with 98 and ME. Upgrading w/o losing your data is a different issue.
They’ve taken so much schtick for security, that if they really have the security figured out, this delay probably won’t be remembered.
Griping about Vista Delays
I don’t see the point in bitching about the delay. When you think about the code sophistocation in such a product, it really is quite amazing that it gets released in the time that it does. Software engineers can attest to this point. Plus, if your losing sleep over its release, you may want to consider getting a mac just to find something to do with your time. Then, when the bits actually do drop, you can get off your twinky-built ass and start makin’ some loot with the new rich features found under the hood of Vista (e.g., WPF, WCF, WF (w/built-in rules engine), digital ink, xaml, etc.,). Most every post I see on here dings the Winbox for the UI stuff, which is really just marketing for the mom and pop. It’s what’s under the hood that makes the difference.
Why do I get the feeling this place is full of mac lovers. I cant wait for Vista (it better be good though!) Problem with macs is that there is like no software out for it, no games, and you cant realy build your own computer with macs. They expect that “people are to stupid to put a computer together themselvs” And what is with this “our computers are works of art” bull sh*t. My computer is a friggen sexy beast and much cooler then a mac. (just look at pix on my site)
http://www.putfile.com/blackcow
And tell me a mac is better looking!!!! Oh my, i think im ranting.
Re: PC Fanboys
Why do I get the feeling this place is full of PC lovers? You all seem keen to dish on the mac, but when the mac can run windows xp (onmac.net) faster then an average PC can, (albeit with much less driver support) and an operating system which blows microsoft’s offerings out of the water, and then microsoft finally realises their own technology is as buggy as everyone said it was, you wail and whine and blame everyone else but yourselves.
I am not a mac fanboy – I have an equal investment in linux and microsoft technologies too. Don’t try and palm your absolutist viewpoint off on everyone else as completely neutral – you are as bad as these ‘mac fanboys’ you describe.
Re: Re:
That computer case is probably the ugliest piece of sh.t I’ve seen in a LONG time. Buying some fancy designed case with a psuedo-futuristic design (YOU’RE SUCH A REBEL!!11ONEONEone) does not make you cool anymore, maybe in 1992 it did, but move on. Buying Alienware does not make you original or special, it makes you a spoiled little kid who gets his parents to pay for retarded objects that no one cares about except your small circle of friends who will respect you now (and for all the right reasons too).
People are just so stupid.
HAHA
Micro$oft was sure quick to comment about how the XBOX360 would capitalize on Sony’s delayed launch of PS3, now they’re announcing a delay of their OWN flagship product?
Maybe Apple needs to comment on that!!! 🙂
Restating...
“Once a thief, always a thief”
-by Midnight on Mar 21st, 2006 @ 6:51pm
Two words:
Xerox Corp.
Mac idiots
Are there still Mac users out there? It’s been a while since I’ve seen one if these flame wars and I guess I just thought all Mac users now used an XBOX or PS3 to play games or an IPod. Their market share hasn’t increased in 20 years and if it wasn’t for the IPod and Bill Gates wanting to help Apple out and make MS Office actually good for Mac, they would probably be out of business today.
Now MS on theother hand has 40 Billion dollars in the bank. Thats not including Bill’s money. I bet that’s because their products suck and don’t work right?…………… immature jealous idiots.
Re: Mac idiots
word to your mom. MACs are retard boxes crusted in diamond that come with an unwarranted feeling of superiority. There is nothing wrong with any MS product that cant be fixed in 3 seconds as long as your are not a complete idiot.
Re: Re: Mac idiots
“Retard boxes”- I love it!!!
Rock on Linux
And from the rear, here comes Linux. Come on, people, face it, Linux and BSD variations are the only OS’s that should ever be put on a PC. At work, it may be Solaris but at home, well, just rock on.
Re: Rock on Linux
That is ridiculous…..
There is not enough hardware or software for linux (and thus also mac) to draw people to those systems.
Mac and unix messed up years ago, mac didnt want to play nice with others, and unix was for pros not users.
Now both those will ahve to deal with payin the price, Microsoft / windows won.
Windows XP pro, and windows server 2003 are great systems, they are stable, and as said before most issues are fixed easaily.
If mac or unix had the same user base as windows, you think people wouldnt find all the exploits in it?
If microsoft needs some extra time to make a better more stable os, then so be it… everyone uses what they have know, and noone will jump to mac jsut because it can run on intel a little faster… if it still doesnt support any of the products people use.
yes, its a shame windows is delayed, and its a shame microsoft is so large that occasioanlly there will be organizaion issues, and a product that doesnt work right, in which case like thye are doing this time (rightfully so in my opinoin) you dont release the crud product, you hold back, fix it, and maintian the number one OS.
Also, its nice and easy for mac people to say mac 10 is great, a brand new os, that didnt have backward support for anything, try installing mac 10 on a mac 9 suppodidly its not so easy. ( i never actually tried ), but the point is micrsoft never had the luxury of max to say F&$ck you to it’s existing users, and force everyone to buy all new hardware. or stop supporting devices.
so the sample of mac running faster on intel, when hthere is almost no driver support, or software to run with it… is a useless performace comparison.
Why do all of you people crash on microsoft windows…… I’ve been using computers now for about 25 years and I can honestly say that the latest version of windows is about some of the best software I have ever seen. Yes its bloated… yes it has security problems……
But ask yourself… could you make anytihng better that the average user could learn quickly?
I don’t think so.
Linux is a better OS than windoze….. but will the average person like it and use it…. I think not…. Windows works great as long as you don’t fuck with it………
Vista release for the January Sales!
w00t! Great news! Vista will be in the bargain bin January sales for us suffering from consumption!
But there’s clearly no good reason for this delay. It must be tactical. The disks will have been manufactured by November anyhow.
Perhaps this is a play at getting consumption sufferers salivating for the release and trying to install pirated copies with their employer’s VLK and thus generating more “news” about how secure Vista has become?
Microsoft is a has-been.
Here is an interesting perspective on Windows Vista and how it will affect online video, music, and photos and it is bad news for Apple and Google
Why Windows Vista Delay is Bad News for Apple and Google
Re: Re:
Please post a link that is not broken!
Better late than buggy!
I don’t understand why people care if a release is late, as long as it is feature rich and stable. I’d rather developers took time to release a good, compatible, stable and secure, feature rich product that justifies the $200+ price tag. I don’t want some cosmetic makeover buggy rush job.
Give MS a break. If you can do better, then participate in the Open-Source community and quit whining.
Thanks for taking the time to get it right, Microsoft.
Anyone see a double dip coming?
hmmm, can’t get Vista out in time for the holiday buying rush…so consumers will have to buy XP…Then a month later, we’ll release Vista and charge another $100 or more for that upgrade…sounds like a typical Microsoft mindset…it’s all about them and their pocketbooks…and of course Best Buy is going to agree…who do you think is selling the Vista upgrades?
maybe it is the 'hardware' delay?
At work we were wondering if it would be a good idea to delay the lauch if you were a hardware supplier.
You have all these laptops, chips and other hardware sitting around that really won’t run Vista well.
So hold off on the Vista release until the industry can offload em over the ‘hot selling’ XMas period… on all the not so PC savvy consumers.
Then 2007 WHAMO, you can start selling VISTA hardware to all the people who just bought XP hardware – thats now out of date!
Now thats a business model 🙂
And the bad news for all you ‘bad Apples’ out there is that all the
Xerox stuff is true! Have a read about the early days of Smalltalk Xerox as an OS with the first windows on the screen and who spied that? The Apple with windoz OS’s were born 😉
OH MY GOD, WHO CARES!!!!
You guys really need to get a grip. Who cares. Linux/Mac fan boys will sieze on this as another reason why they think MS is crap. MS fanboys will make excuses for the delay and try to point to all the reasons why Mac/Linux are crap (serioulsy folks, what is the point of owning a PC if you can’t get any software for it???). But who really cares. You guys really need to step in from the cold and take a dose of reality. 95% PC users don’t give a rat’s back-end what operating system is running on their PC. They just want it to work. The fact that Vista will or will not be on PC’s at the end of ’06 will not effect 90% of the purchasing public. They won’t care. You will not see the same hype we saw with Windows 95 ever again.
When these people pull up Dell.com and look for a PC, they really don’t care what operating system is on it. They care about hardware. They care about applications. Most will not even make a conscious choice between XP Home and XP Pro. They accept whatever the default is. Most don’t even know what the difference is. Or could care less. As long as they can plug in their digital camera’s and print out their photo’s and email them to the grandkids / grandparents, they don’t care.
IT guys at large company’s won’t switch because they have learned not to trust anyone. As recent as 3 years ago, I had the head of an IT department for a large regional bank try to tell me that Windows 95 was better than XP. You can’t argue with someone with that mindset.
Vista will not make a difference. They are still going to have the same amount of sales whenever they release because the Dell’s and the Office Depot’s will just stop carrying XP and will go to nothing but Vista. Of course, MS will get more revenue because the middle men will have to carry 8 different versions of Vista as opposed to just 2 versions of XP (if you exclude Media Center that is only supposed to be sold with new hardware!!! what a joke…)
Re: OH MY GOD, WHO CARES!!!!
This is not a flame war launched by a bunch of die hard Apple fans.
The Windows delay is important not because of the delay per se but because of the reason for – namely that Windows code is an unmanageable mess. That unmanageable mess is directly related to the problems users have with Windows – fragile registry, security holes everywhere.
I use Windows machines everyday. I am not about to switch to Mac or Linux but Windows should be much better than it is.
Re: OH MY GOD, WHO CARES!!!!
Geez…. do you feel better now?
Vista and criminal hackers
Maybe it dawned on MicroSoft that their upgradable protected environment *can* be hacked by criminals who can insert *their* upgrade code into the upgrade ready free space provided by MicroSoft upgraders who are upgrading systems where criminals are hiding their upgrade code from MicroSoft’s upgrades. It’s all so confusing. Best to avoid Vista altogether.
Mac/Linux coders are weenies
When will the pea-brained Mac and (even worse) Linux crowd wake up that they’re irrelevent to the discussion about how ‘real’ software gets built. Microsoft is slipping the date for Vista to ensure it has the best quality possible and is not a steaming pile like Mac OS 10.x or (any) Linux distribution. We’re talking real software here, not cobbled together crap that has to be configured from a command line or plain unusable until the first update.
You have no market share, you have no technology, only big mouths and weird ideas about how computers are used. Get a life or better yet, go buy Vista when it comes out — you know you will anyway.
Sorry Bill, I’ll just wait for the Google OS.
Microsoft needs the extra time
Microsoft needs the extra time. I normally don’t mess with MS betas anymore, but there had been a lot of interest at work about the Aero Glass interface so we decided to put the latest CTP build of Vista on a brand new Dell with a Radeon video card which web searches confirmed was “recommended” by Microsoft for Vista. The first embarrassment was that the beta DVD in the Technet kit wouldn’t boot. Putting it in another PC launched a browser window that said due to deadline issues, this DVD contains an ISO image file of Vista which you can write to a blank DVD yourself. Gee thanks, MS! Having done that we installed the beta, which took a bit less than an hour. Then the computer rebooted to a black screen, nothing more. Booting into safe mode was fine but of course without Aero Glass goodness. We turned on Remote Desktop, and booted ‘normally’ to the black screen again. We were now able thru Remote Desktop to confirm that the computer was up and working, just with a totally black screen. A co-worker said this version apparently included the “tinted Aero Glass” option.
Google searches returned more than 50,000 results for the search > “black screen” windows vista
The trifecta was reading that a recent Office 2007 beta doesn’t run on the Vista CTP beta either. Bravo Microsoft! We’ll try again with Vista beta 2 or the next CTP, whatever comes next. But clearly they need the extra time, and I’d rather have a well-polished new OS early next year than a lousy POS late this year, ya’ know? In the meantime, my office is mostly happy on Windows 2000 and waiting for a new version of Windows that is worth the upgade headaches.
Re: Microsoft needs the extra time
Hmm, apparently Techdirt doesn’t like comments with less-than signs. Here is the paragraph of my post above that got truncated:
Google searches returned more than 50,000 results for the search ‘ “black screen” windows vista ‘ . That was kinda sad. We were able to get confirming info from multiple sites that both recent nVidia and ATI video cards with either the shipped or latest drivers often resulted in nothing but a black screen with the CTP beta. Nice!
Good Dirt
I really enjoy stirring the pot a bit :). Heh … Especially when it’s way off topic …. but…
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060321/sftu089.html
Retarded retard
Could you gifted folks please stop using retard and retarded every third word because you lack any original, well-honed descriptive insult.
This repetitive use of “that’s retarded” for anything you don’t like is not only undescriptive, unimaginative and monotonous, it is a display of ignorance, intolerance and bullying.
Most mentally retarded people lack the intellectual sophistication to play the name-calling game with you and are unlikely to discern humor in the remarks.
Pick on someone who can pick back; do not beat up on those who cannot defend themselves. This is as relevent for the verbal arena as it is for the physical.
It is clear that many here consider the mentally impaired as an “inferior product”; yet these same superior minds cannot locate a relevant insult or engage in an entertaining name-calling battle. It’s boring.
I love how they mention that windows xp runs faster on the mac than on an average pc. here pretty boy, take the amount of money you spent on that piece of garbage you call a mac, build a pc with it and tell me the mac is still faster…. damn you’re stupid. the average mac is at least 4X more expensive than a pc. dell is selling some shitty but useful pcs now for what 300? what is mac at? 1200?? yea.