“There’s an 80 percent chance that Windows Vista, Microsoft’s next generation operating system, will be ready for its scheduled release in January, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said,” Margaret Kane blogs for CNET.
“According to a Dow Jones Newswires report, Gates told Microsoft software partners in South Africa this week that the operating system could be delayed yet again if beta testers turn up problems,” Kane reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: Microsoft’s most-recent plan is to inflict the operating system upon corporate customers in late 2006 and consumers in January 2007.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Too Hot!” for the heads up.]
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As much as I hate MS and am generally unimpressed with Vista (the consumer version, I am a beta tester and use it daily)… many in Corporate IT actually ARE looking forward to Vista. The “Longhorn” version (server version) has a lot of improvements that make administration more powerful and easier, as well as overall security fixes. They have focused on the Corporate version and once that is released will go full speed ahead finishing up the consumer version.
I am *not* defending MS, so please don’t flame this… it’s just that to say that “no businesses are awaiting Vista” is a bit simplistic and distorted. You will need to read the corporate IT professional publications to see this side of the story.
Now, that said… the beta is extremely buggy and crashes an awful lot especially on third-party software. There are a lot of bugs still. However, there has been another build released that I don’t yet have that supposedly makes it a lot more stable. I will believe that when I see it. Overall, I’m not overly impressed with Vista, but it is a nice improvement over XP. Many of the technologies behind the scenes are improved, but those aren’t really readily apparant and won’t be until new software is released that takes advantage of the new capabilities. I won’t be buying Vista right away, or even officially upgrading to it on my PC. My next PC will be an Intel Mac, and may run Windows for games at some point, but that’s it.
“if beta testers turn up problems”
…as if there was any doubt.
Come on,
can’t an opportunity for a tasteless
joke be afforded to me once in a while?
It seems Apple released Mac OS X to the buying public in Alpha and Beta forms (Jaguar and Panther) and just patched things as they went.
With Microsoft they released true Alpha and Beta verisons of Vista for thse willing to test it before they start selling it on new hardware.
Any truth in the rumour that George W. Bush and Stevie Wonder have been appointed chief Beta Testers for Vista?
“Them folks over there, they need this software to set them free from the tyranny of the al-Qaeda virus.”
“No, Bill, there’s no problems with it that I can see…”
MDN word: ‘seen’. Uncanny!
I’m sure corporate customers will be lining up to install an OS that isn’t even fit for consumer desktops yet.
>”It seems Apple released Mac OS X to the buying public in Alpha and >Beta forms (Jaguar and Panther) and just patched things as they went.
>
>With Microsoft they released true Alpha and Beta verisons of Vista for >thse willing to test it before they start selling it on new hardware.”
WTF. Idiot. Apple did release a public beta of Mac OS X to the public which came BEFORE 10.0. Then there was Cheetah (10.0) which was still a bit buggy (as WinXP is in present form, and Vista Beta 2 is), and there wasn’t much software to take advantage of its new APIs. There was Puma (10.1) which fixed a lot of bugs in Cheetah. Then came Jaguar which was defintely not alpha, much better than windows xp in the opinions of anyone who used it. Personally my first Mac was on Panther (but Id used OS9 before) which is a much more stable, fast, secure, and other things, than Windøze will ever be. Ive been using it for 1 1/2 years now and now don’t use Win except when forced to (work). I’ll admit it probably was a bit steep of Apple to charge $129 for 10.0, but before that there was a free public beta of OS X. Panther is definitely not a beta release, Tiger just provides additional improvements, and I’m fine with using Panther until Leopard comes out.
MW=french, as in, HAHA you lost the world cup. England should have won (but Rooney’s an idiot) but whatever. come on EUland, fine Micro$pazz lots of money. I bet Dynamic Mesh is French.
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Also to note, Apple gave people a free upgrade to 10.1 (which was a fully stable working version of the OS) after theyd bought 10.0 previously.
Ah, Bill and his constant confusion of the word when with the word if.
it’s possble to delay again. why? there is 20% bugs couldn’t resolve yet on windows vista. now, it’s kind of late to fix all of them. 20% is huge number. vista is hurry product to catch up mac os x it looks like. right now, it is no more new, any developing happening anymore. well, I don’t care.
I will remember how stable OS X is next time my iBook just completely freezes and I have to remove the battery just to get it to reboot. Sure does happen alot for something that ‘Just works’.
And go ahead and flame we for pointing out the truth all you fanboys want. Won’t change anything.
Apple is working on making OS-x better and Microsoft is working on fixing Windows. I think that sums it up pretty well.
Stop beating me!
LOL!
Complementary lolerskates to Macro$haft
To Hanzo
I will remember how stable OS X is next time my iBook just completely freezes and I have to remove the battery just to get it to reboot. Sure does happen alot for something that ‘Just works’.
Please make sure that you didn’t install the cheapest PC ram that you could get, if you did, replace it. It worked for me.
Heads rolled at Airbus for delays & problems far less severe.
Here’s betting the A380 will get off the ground before Vista does.
When the most optimism your chief engineer can muster is a 8 in 10 chance of launching on time, that’s not good. Where’s the cheerleading, the 100% confidence?
Sad to think NASA can launch Shuttles faster than MS can launch OSes.
englanddidntwintheworldcupbyamile
6 days 22 hours and 49 minutes since I last rebooted my MacBook. Let’s be honest, as long as we are entrusted with putting stuff on our computer hard drives, and as long as we are entrusted to do the software and system updates — well, it’s more than likely we’ll do a shitty job of it from time to time.
Naturally, once we’ve screwed up our system and various bits and pieces of software – it’s God Damn Apple’s fault!
Joop:
“Longhorn” enterprise edition is a different beast than the consumer “Vista” edition(s). Read up on IT news for the scoop.
But, still, your point is taken and I mostly agree. Since a lot of the code base is the same, if it’s not stable yet in one, why would it be in the other. I know. I agree. I have not had access to the non-consumer builds, so I can’t comment from personal experience. My only point is that there is a large portion of the IT community that is actually anxiously awaiting Vista/Longhorn.
It’s sad, I know… very very sad.
Dynamic Mesh, you’re dumber than me!
I predict that Steve Jobs, after the WWDC keynote, will turn and say…”Oh, just one more thing…Leopard is shipping today.
I think the WWDC was delayed for a reason. Look at the iPod sales over Christmas season last year…Jobs will have Leopard pre-installed and shipping with new Macs before Christmas seaso if he is smart. Introducing Vista, er…Leopard. It is important to get Leopard out the door before Vista, not after. If even one percent of all the sheep go out and buy Vista, the hype from that will blanket the Leopard release. I predict that Leopard will ship before the Christmas season. There is no move smarter, and compared to previous releases, Apple has had enough time to get it pre-tested and out the door.
>It seems Apple released Mac OS X to the buying public in Alpha and Beta forms (Jaguar and Panther) and just patched things as they went.
…moronic comment
There was a Mac OS X beta released before version 10.0. Version 10.0 (Cheetah) was still like “beta 2,” but Apple gave early adopter a free upgrade to 10.1 (Puma). There was certainly nothing “alpha” or “beta” about Jaguar and Panther, 10.2 and 10.3, respectively. I’m using 10.3.9 right now; it is so rock solid I do not see a need to upgrade until I get a new Mac, which will come with Tiger.
A couple of points.
a) The expectation – for the past several months – was that Vista had slipped until sometime next Spring or Summer. Gates is saying “we’re pretty sure we can do better than that”. If they miss, it would be unlikely they would miss beyond next Summer. Or … see below.
b) Dell needs six months in the lab with a product before that product ships on a Dell. Dell is Microsoft’s biggest client – by a significant margin. As in, Apple (no. 6?) and HP (no. 2?) together don’t match Dell. If Vista is going to be released to the public in January, Dell has to have something close to “gold” by … well, NOW! And they will need the version they agree to ship within three months. Else … so sorry, MS, we’ll ship when we finish testing.
A side comment, if you don’t mind. Longhorn initially had a feature set that might have challenged Leopard. By the time it became “Vista”, the feature set was trimmed and retargeted so heavily that it might not even challenge Tiger. All this troll-talk about “Apple, meet your Doom” is at best Trash Talk and at worst proof of sheer idiocy. The flip side is, most PC users neither know nor care how great Tiger is or Leopard should be.