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Microsoft runs into even more setbacks with Vista

Details are still coming in, but the Wall Street Journal has just reported that Microsoft will delay the release of Windows Vista from the second half of 2006 until January of 2007. This marks the second delay for Microsoft's next generation operating system.

In a conference call with press and analysts, Jim Allchin, the co-president of Microsoft's Platforms & Services Division, said that the company plans to release Windows Vista under "general availability" in January 2007.


Microsoft has previously stated that it would delay the release of Vista if it meant launching with a higher quality product. This is a January 26th quote from Microsoft's Jim Allchin:

When we do something like Windows that’s literally going to [have] hundreds of millions of users using it, we want to build the highest-quality piece of software we can within a reasonable time frame. But at a certain point we make a determination: is this good enough for hundreds of millions or not? And if you rush something like that, then you end up harming everyone—our partners, us, our customers, so it has to be top of line.

Microsoft just released the latest Enterprise CTP build of Windows Vista late last month. You can read Paul Thurrott's thoughts on that build here.



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Reality = September 2007?
By timmiser on 3/21/2006 6:28:11 PM , Rating: 2
Reminds me of the delays that Windows 95 had when it was released. After all was said and done, it barely made it out in 1995. The trend speaks for itself.




RE: Reality = September 2007?
By Perium on 3/21/2006 7:27:36 PM , Rating: 3
I bet its the reason why they stop using years in there products names


RE: Reality = September 2007?
By Fnoob on 3/21/2006 9:28:18 PM , Rating: 2
Bet your right on that one. It does have the literal impact of negatively dating a product in an industry where old = bad, perceptually and generally.

What is Vista gonna DO for me that compels me to need it? How long will it be before its required for me to function?

I do think, possibly, it will be the last OS they ever make for personal computers. I'm thinking by the next 5-6 year cycle I will be paying a monthly fee for (offsite) supercomputer power to run my 144"LCD (w/SSiHDMI and Fiberlink!) which, naturally, can broadbandcast to my COMbadge. Someone will do it. Prolly them.


RE: Reality = September 2007?
By Xenoterranos on 3/21/2006 10:47:51 PM , Rating: 2
you wouldn't need "SSiHDMI" if you had fiberlink! (Ah, delicious photons)


RE: Reality = September 2007?
By Fnoob on 3/21/2006 11:00:18 PM , Rating: 2
and of course it translates as "superduper special improved HDMI"...

warp speed marketing dpt!


RE: Reality = September 2007?
By TomZ on 3/21/2006 9:51:55 PM , Rating: 2
Uh, no. Lots of Microsoft products still have year names in them.

If Vista was scheduled to ship towards the end of the year, and they decided to give it a "year name," it might have been called Windows 2007 anyway. For example, Office is scheduled for release later this year, and it is called Office 2007.


RE: Reality = September 2007?
By Fricardo on 3/22/2006 2:06:08 PM , Rating: 2
Pwned!


RE: Reality = September 2007?
By timmiser on 3/22/2006 6:45:54 PM , Rating: 2
Pwnd? Do you even know what that means??

Here is my favorite def from the urban dictionary:

A variation of the word "owned". The only reason that this word came about was because of a typo, and given that P and O are right next to each other. It has nothing to do with combining words or anything of the sort. It is rumored to have come about from an early Warcraft3 map, in which the creator meant to have a trigger say "Player X got ownd", trying to use the "1337speak" variation of "owned", but hit P instead of O, thus giving birth to "pwnd".You have been pwnd. Etc...


What else did you expect?
By greatwhiteslark on 3/21/2006 6:31:38 PM , Rating: 2
Has any major software company published their amazing new killer app on time in the past decade?

No one comes to mind, and it seems most hardware providers are moving in the same direction (save for nVidia).




RE: What else did you expect?
By kelmon on 3/22/2006 4:10:38 AM , Rating: 2
I can't speak for the Linux community (if someone else can then please chime in on this one) but I should note (and I don't want to get into a Microsoft vs. Apple debate here) that Apple has managed to release versions of OS X since XP was released in 2001 and, possibly, will release 10.5 before Vista sees the light of day (probably not but it will be close). I can't say whether each release of OS X has been on-time according to the schedule but it is odd that Apple has managed to release 3-4 iterations of their OS in the same time that Microsoft will have released 1. Given this, are the delays that have plagued Vista really acceptable, or is it just the result of poor project management through setting a scope that they could never achieve in a timely manner?

In fairness to it, Vista is close to being the Duke Nukem Forever of the OS world, although at least it looks like it will see the light of day at some time.

Speaking of which, does anyone know whether Duke is even being worked on anymore? Just curious now that I've mentioned it...


RE: What else did you expect?
By PrinceGaz on 3/22/2006 7:50:54 AM , Rating: 2
Duke Nukem Forever (and ever and ever before it is released) is still in development according to a recent interview with a lead guy at 3DRealms-

http://www.1up.com/do/feature?page r.offset=1&cId=3...

"1UP: And when's that due out again?

GB: [Laughs] I think it'll be out when pigs fly. But it's definitely going well now. Things are together; we're in full production. We're basically just pulling all the pieces together and making the game out of it. There's a lot that's finished. All the guns are finished. Most of the creatures are finished. And as I said, we're just basically pulling it all together and trying to make it fun. We've kind of got all these disassociated elements that make up a game, and you put them together and things happen. And then you just tweak it and polish it until it's fun, and that's kind of the phase we're in now, just trying to make something that is really fun to play and interesting."

In other words, it's taken them nine years and they've finished the guns and some of the creatures. Which suggests they still have level-design and gameplay to do or as he said "making the game out of it". At that rate it should be finished sometime in the next fifty years or so :)


RE: What else did you expect?
By kelmon on 3/22/2006 12:41:20 PM , Rating: 2
Cheers for the link. Interesting comments. What sort of worries me here, but maybe this happens normally, is that monsters, guns and general tech seems to come before the game - I'd have thought that the game itself was paramount. Sounds like "putting the cart before the horse" but this might be how all games happen for all I know. I sure hope something good comes out from all of this as it'd be terrible to have worked for 10-years on a title and then have it die on its ass.


RE: What else did you expect?
By kilkennycat on 3/22/2006 1:52:33 PM , Rating: 2
Yeah, real fun... that and the Steam umbilical cord. Sigh.. having to get yet another junk email-address so that the game can be traded or donated later to another family member.


RE: What else did you expect?
By Tebor0 on 3/22/2006 11:50:13 AM , Rating: 2
I have no facts to base my thought but...
I think Apple is faster with software refreshes because they don't have as many hardware possibilities to worry about.


RE: What else did you expect?
By kelmon on 3/22/2006 12:20:52 PM , Rating: 2
I was thinking about that myself and I was initially thinking that this was indeed true, although, like you, I have no facts and am speaking based on supposition. What made me think again was the thought that Microsoft themselves should not be needing to worry too much about the different hardware permutations but rather the different number of interfaces supported by the OS. The OS itself should be providing an abstraction of the computer hardware but the drivers provided by the manufacturers of the hardware should be providing an abstraction of the specific hardware devices themselves. Presumably the OS only needs to support a number of interfaces that the hardware manufacturers plug into using their drivers so that only those interfaces need to be tested.

I have no idea whether this is true in reality but given the near limitless combinations of hardware devices possible I cannot believe that Microsoft would be attempting to test Vista against all of them.


RE: What else did you expect?
By TomZ on 3/22/2006 7:09:48 PM , Rating: 2
Microsoft supplies thousands of hardware drivers - you can be sure that takes some work! Their hardware drivers are a major part of the Windows code, and yes, they have to test them with Vista. But Microsoft doesn't directly do all the testing themselves. The hardware vendors also do some testing, and of course the thousands of beta testers also in effect do driver testing.

Microsoft also does a lot of application compatibility testing (not just MS apps, but lots of third-party apps) with new versions of Windows and with new components like updated versions of their .NET Framework. Also a big chunk of work.

People complain a lot about Microsoft, but I don't think many people understand what it means to deliver a platform to a very large number of users, with a large number of hardware configurations, running a large number of applications. It's a big responsibility.


LOL - On the Vista Reqs post
By Snuffalufagus on 3/21/2006 9:24:18 PM , Rating: 3
everyone was bitching about the HW reqs for Vista and commenting how they wouldn't get Vista for years. Now its delayed 6 more months and everyone takes the opportunity to bitch and whine simply cause its Microsoft. If they would have stuck to the ship date simply because they committed, and then a severe vulnerability was found, they'd bitch more. If a crash bug was found, more bitching, bunch of whiney little bitches here lately.




RE: LOL - On the Vista Reqs post
By pmercier18 on 3/21/2006 9:42:24 PM , Rating: 2
I'm with you, all these people give Microsoft so much crap about anything and everything they can.

Microsoft cant produce ebough Xbox 360's: "OHH M$ SUCKS"
Apple cant produce enough iPODS: "I will pay more for the one i dont want, but its ok."

People complain when microsoft tries to make quality products, and delays are inevitable when 100 million people will be using your product. And when it comes out people will say "it's not good enough, they rushed it"

If no one can tell yet, i work retail and have to hear this crap everyday, and it pisses me off too!


RE: LOL - On the Vista Reqs post
By AlexWade on 3/21/2006 9:45:23 PM , Rating: 2
I agree.

Fine, delay it. But get it right. Win95 was rushed out the door before it was finished. Better to be late than lame.

And please remove the rights-restricting DRM. Well, that won't happen because there is too much money in taking away rights.


RE: LOL - On the Vista Reqs post
By jconan on 3/21/2006 11:41:48 PM , Rating: 2
that was Sony's mentality w the PS3. Maybe they found more security issues...


RE: LOL - On the Vista Reqs post
By Wonga on 3/22/2006 2:24:45 PM , Rating: 2
I'm another person in agreement. Windows XP SP2 really does feel like the most stable and secure windows yet for workstations. I hardly ever get problems, but even when something does stop responding, XP does a much better job of containing it than any of the Win9x OSs ever did.