backtop

Print E-mail del.icio.us 54 comment(s) - last by JAS.. on Mar 23 at 12:41 AM
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.

Comments     Threshold


This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled
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.


*This* is Microsoft
By braytonak on 3/21/2006 7:11:06 PM , Rating: 1
Big freakin' shocker! To think that MS could adhere to a release date is foolish. What makes their constant slips a Bad Thing is that they promote, hype and show off their new toy, like a carrot on a stick. They do it do drive people to a frenzy. Actually, the release date "slips" are probably a planned thing.




RE: *This* is Microsoft
By Milliamp on 3/21/2006 7:22:30 PM , Rating: 2
I think software companies do this more because their programmes get more done when they are perpetually just outside of one deadline or another.


RE: *This* is Microsoft
By Shining Arcanine on 3/21/2006 7:30:43 PM , Rating: 2
It is that they keep changing their focus. First it was on Vista, then it was on XP SP2 and now it is on Quality. If they had stuck to the first focus, Vista would be out by now.


RE: *This* is Microsoft
By TomZ on 3/21/2006 9:27:19 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Actually, the release date "slips" are probably a planned thing.

Probably not. Schedule slips cost software companies tons of money in actual lost revenue and customer goodwill. Microsoft wouldn't be changing the date unless there was a really good reason to do so.

I'd be willing to bet the schedule slip has more to do about ensuring product quality than any lack of focus, or decision to change any functionality. Time will tell - I'm sure that information will come out in the coming weeks, if this story turns out to be true.


RE: *This* is Microsoft
By Fnoob on 3/21/2006 10:56:41 PM , Rating: 2
could it be lack of broad enough 3rd party driver support?


Just as when Windows XP was released...
By Creig on 3/22/2006 8:18:23 AM , Rating: 2
I think I'll wait a year or so after Vista is released before buying it and let other people do Microsoft's bug hunting. There just doesn't seem to be enough incentive to jump at Vista on its release date (whenever THAT turns out to be).




RE: Just as when Windows XP was released...
By bongobear on 3/22/2006 8:46:06 AM , Rating: 2
Well I think the date thing will be a moot point. By the time Vista is released Mr Gates will probably be near to completing his world takeover. After completing his aquisition of business and governments, next step up from there will be seeing himself as a religious icon. Should be able to reinvent the calendar at that point and state that Vista is not late...

LOL, I think we can all don "the end is nigh" placards then.


RE: Just as when Windows XP was released...
By masher2 (blog) on 3/22/2006 10:00:19 AM , Rating: 2
> "By the time Vista is released Mr Gates will probably be near to completing his world takeover."

It's always amusing to read a comment like this, especially from a person who obviously doesn't realize that Microsoft barely makes the list of the largest 50 companies in the US, much less the world.

If you want to worry about corporate world domination, why not pick on H. Lee Scott? His own company is four times larger than Microsoft and Intel COMBINED. And I suspect you've never even heard of him.


By TomZ on 3/22/2006 7:28:30 PM , Rating: 2
Folks always resent those who are successful, and at least in America, they always favor the underdog.

WalMart will have its time - once folks realize how successful they have been, how they have ruthlessly crushed their competition, how they pursue cost control to the n-th degree, and that they are just another "evil" (sarcasm) corporation pursuing profits.

In my book, these are all good things - the sign of a successful business - but as I said, folks always seem to resent the successful.


vista & its quest for quality
By crystal clear on 3/22/2006 4:28:17 AM , Rating: 2
Microsoft is in no hurry to release Vista as it already has Winxp pro/64bit running well after 2 service pack & the 3rd expected sooner or later.They are well aware of the fact ,many if not most computers will have to upgraded or discarded for new matching one.Not everybody will be ready to discard their computers or upgrade their existing one just for Vista.Having Vista on your computer does not make you something special.Yes people will discard their old computers or upgrade their existing ones in the course of time- the process is slow.There is some sort of connection with Intel as they also are in the process putting out new technologies/products this year end or next.Put conroe & vista together as a good start can be a good example.There are many system builder aroung the world who build& sell Intel only computers.I do not say because of Intel,Vista is being delayed-no.Microsoft is not short of revenues, it can afford to wait/delay -the buyers will come eventually-Vista will sell.Intel also thinks/behaves the same way-Qualtiy first revenues later.They Msoft have many valid reasons to delay the launch of Vista-what? they will never say, they keep you guessing.They do not look at USA as their only market rather the whole world.Their biggest headache is hackers,pirated software(OS),EU ofcourse- just a few to name.So whats the hurry if they MS are not in a hurry.




RE:vista&itsquestforquality
By Snuffalufagus on 3/22/2006 5:05:07 AM , Rating: 1
Sorry,ButHadToBeDone.MicrosoftisinnohurrytoreleaseV istaasitalreadyhasWinxppro/64bitrunningwellafter2se rvicepack&the3rdexpectedsoonerorlater.Theyarewellaw areofthefact,manyifnotmostcomputerswillhavetoupgrad edordiscardedfornewmatchingone.Noteverybodywillbere adytodiscardtheircomputersorupgradetheirexistingone justforVista.HavingVistaonyourcomputerdoesnotmakeyo usomethingspecial.Yespeoplewilldiscardtheiroldcompu tersorupgradetheirexistingonesinthecourseoftime-the processisslow.ThereissomesortofconnectionwithIntela stheyalsoarintheprocessputtingoutnewtechnologies/pr oductsthisyearendornext.Putconroe&vistatogetheasago odstartcanbeagoodexample.Therearemanysystembuildera roungtheworldwhobuild&sellIntelonlycomputers.Idonot saybecauseofIntel,Vistaisbeingdelayed-no.Microsofti snotshortofrevenues,itcanaffordtowait/delay-thebuye rswillcomeeventually-Vistawillsell.Intelalsothinks/ behavesthesameway-Qualtiyfirstrevenueslater.TheyMso fthavemanyvalidreasonstodelaythelaunchofVista-what? theywillneversay,theykeepyouguessing.Theydonotlooka tUSAastheironlymarketratherthewholeworld.Theirbigge stheadacheishackers,piratedsoftware(OS),EUofcourse- justafewtoname.SowhatsthehurryiftheyMSarenotinahurr y.


By MetaSyntacticVariable on 3/22/2006 6:53:56 AM , Rating: 2
Aaaaaaand... breath.

feel better?


good thing
By albundee on 3/21/2006 6:37:56 PM , Rating: 2
good thing they didnt call it Windows 2006




RE: good thing
By PrinceGaz on 3/22/2006 7:56:46 AM , Rating: 2
Even better thing that they didn't start calling it Windows 2004 as Longhorn was originally intended for release in late 2003. So it has only slipped by three and a bit years so far.


Meh oh well
By latino666 on 3/21/2006 9:23:16 PM , Rating: 2
I'm not really into Vista. I want the OS after this Vista which should have WinFS. Just something new to learn and play around with.




RE: Meh oh well
By TomZ on 3/22/2006 7:10:40 PM , Rating: 2
You'll be able to run WinFS on top of WinXP, so no need to even upgrade if you don't want to!


Its not ready
By RDGadz on 3/22/2006 1:07:28 AM , Rating: 2
I am using vista now on 2 computers, soon to be 4 and I've had a great time installing drivers that don't work and new fancy graphics to mess everyhing up even more.

http://ryangadz.com/blog/2006/03/q uad_vista_aero.h...

That is a picture of my main computer in action. Quad Vista Aero monitors... yes it is dreamy... when it works.




RE: Its not ready
By RDGadz on 3/22/2006 1:10:55 AM , Rating: 2
the autolinking feature didnt work .. there is no space (%20) at the end of the link before aero... can an admin fix this for me?... cant edit our own posts


Windows XP Home users should be relieved
By stupid on 3/22/2006 10:19:40 AM , Rating: 2
Well, at least this gives a little reprieve to all the Windows XP Home users since MS stated they will support Home for 2 more years after the release of Windows Vista. But I am sure 95% of Home users a oblivious to this fact.

I'll hold out on Vista until Service Pack 1 is released for it. No sense in paying to be a Beta Tester.




By TomZ on 3/22/2006 7:22:11 PM , Rating: 2
But better yet, why not wait until there are zero bugs before buying Vista. Because after all, the OS you're running now has no bugs, right?

For the record, Vista beta is available to qualified individuals right now, and costs nothing besides your time.

Look, I realize with new software will be new bugs, but Microsoft internally spends tons of resources on testing, in addition to having tens of thousands of external beta testers, and a 1-2 year beta testing period. Do you have any other thoughts or ideas on how they might improve the situation, to deliver you the perfect software you desire?


lol
By sieistganzfett on 3/21/2006 6:29:38 PM , Rating: 2
jan 07 eh... lol i hate these threshold things, first posts do fail with them.




Eh!
By Mitul89 on 3/21/2006 6:33:10 PM , Rating: 2
Well than again, its Microsoft... I did hear rumor some time ago of Microsoft pushing Vista back so i was kind of expecting it. Well it doesnt really matter to me anyways, i like my WinXP and we all know that the first year of Vista will be worthless and it will get better as Microsoft does updates. So i will be keeping XP or switching to linux.




'Second' delay???
By UNCjigga on 3/21/2006 10:28:24 PM , Rating: 2
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that's either the fourth or fifth delay involving Vista...and second delay for 2006?? Or maybe you mean that's the second "official" delay involving an actual release date (whereas previous delays were changing the timeframe for release.)




MS song
By Anemone on 3/22/2006 7:42:10 AM , Rating: 2
This is the beta that never ends. It just goes on and on my friends. (if you know the song you know the rest)

:)




WWDC
By hiscross on 3/22/2006 8:03:30 AM , Rating: 2
WWDC is in August. Steve will demo 10.5. Bet those camera phones that the M$ folks have will be capturing all the "New Features" for Visa can offer.




quest for quality?
By kitchme on 3/22/2006 8:51:17 AM , Rating: 2
All that marketing mumbo jumbo about quality... That's what marketing is all about and MS has plenty of money to invest in some tight, 'quality' marketing for their product. At least for me, the more you market, the worse your product is. You don't hear the banks talking about how honest they are, it would just be a red flag for all of us. Does this have anything to do with PS3 being postponed and grabbing more market share over Sony, while thinking that people would buy Vista sooner or later? It's even ridiculous that IE6 has been around for over 5-6 years. Maybe they've been working on quality (because it needs it).




Mini-Microsoft sums up the situation.
By JAS on 3/23/2006 12:41:48 AM , Rating: 2
Excerpt from a MS employee's web log:

http://www.macdailynews.com/index. php/weblog/comme...




Too many
By firewolfsm on 3/21/2006 6:41:08 PM , Rating: 1
LMAO




Pardon me, but:
By bersl2 on 3/21/06, Rating: 0
MS needs a look at OS 10.5, first.
By JAS on 3/21/06, Rating: 0
first post
By pepsione1 on 3/21/06, Rating: -1
Well that's good news for the clueless.
By cornfedone on 3/21/06, Rating: -1
By TheGee on 3/22/2006 12:48:39 PM , Rating: 2
Well thats me! I'm in a frenzy! 'Yawn'about Vista 'ZZZZZZ' Ngh huh wassa? Sorry must have dozed off thinking about the vista overhead and how it probably won't work it's magic unless you've got SLI'd twinGPU RD980 cards in you two PCIe x64 slots. One would have to settle for the saymo saymo folders and boring backgrounds!! Poor bastards - the programmers -- all those new API thingies!!

Still where was I - oh yea - first put the DOS disks in and then feed the 3.11 disks -- sounds easy!! All be done in a jiffy!!! or maybe 2007/8!!!


"Young lady, in this house we obey the laws of thermodynamics!" -- Homer Simpson

DailyTech Poll
Which web browser do you use on your primary personal machine? 






44 Comments









botimage
Copyright 2009 DailyTech LLC. - RSS Feed | Advertise | About Us | Ethics | FAQ | Terms, Conditions & Privacy Information | Kristopher Kubicki