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, 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.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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I'm surprised
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Delayed even after dropping so many features
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.
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Delays
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As much as I'd like to believe people will buy Mac
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Re: Delayed even after dropping so many features
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!
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They had an excellent reason
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.
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Monopoly
They've taken so much schtick for security, that if they really have the security figured out, this delay probably won't be remembered.
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Re: I'm surprised - I'm not
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.
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Re: They had an excellent reason
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Griping about Vista Delays
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Re: Re: Delayed even after dropping so many featur
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http://www.putfile.com/blackcow
And tell me a mac is better looking!!!! Oh my, i think im ranting.
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Re: They had an excellent reason
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"
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HAHA
Maybe Apple needs to comment on that!!! :)
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Re: They had an excellent reason
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Restating...
-by Midnight on Mar 21st, 2006 @ 6:51pm
Two words:
Xerox Corp.
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Mac idiots
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.
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PC Fanboys
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.
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Re: Mac idiots
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Rock on Linux
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Re: Re: Mac idiots
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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.........
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Vista release for the January Sales!
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.
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Re:
People are just so stupid.
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Why Windows Vista Delay is Bad News for Apple and Google
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Better late than buggy!
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.
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Re:
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Re: As much as I'd like to believe people will buy
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Anyone see a double dip coming?
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maybe it is the 'hardware' delay?
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Re: Re: As much as I'd like to believe people will
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OH MY GOD, WHO CARES!!!!
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...)
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Re: Re: As much as I'd like to believe people will
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Re:
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
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Vista and criminal hackers
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Re: OH MY GOD, WHO CARES!!!!
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.
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Re: Delays
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Mac/Linux coders are weenies
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.
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Re: OH MY GOD, WHO CARES!!!!
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Microsoft needs the extra time
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.
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Re: Microsoft needs the extra time
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!
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Good Dirt
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Retarded retard
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.
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Re: They had an excellent reason
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Re: They had an excellent reason
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Re: Rock on Linux
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Re: Re: Delayed even after dropping so many featur
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Re: They had an excellent reason
Are you just stating past memories and experiances, Windblowz boy?
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