The Chicago Tribune James Coates Computers Column: Pitches for Vista Focus on Vitality
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By James Coates, Chicago Tribune  Feb. 11--Last week, Microsoft Corp. marketers and sales reps descended on Chicago to talk up the company's new product and boast about how the Vista operating system's huge "footprint" is about to stomp on Illinois.
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Microsoft is counting on its beta testers to be "aggressive" as they start working on Release Candidate 1 of Windows Vista if the software maker is to make its ship dates.
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An IT professional discovers a way of getting a full version of Vista for the cost of a simple upgrade.
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'Some of these apps are mind-bogglingly cool' Jim Allchin, Microsoft's outgoing Windows chief, has issued a rallying call to developers to Windows Vista, in an open letter emphasizing industry support for the delayed operating system.â¦
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Natural interfaces such as touch, speech and ink will play a much bigger role in the successor to Windows Vista, Chairman Bill Gates tells CNET News.com.
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InfoWorld's "Save XP" petition asking Microsoft to keep Windows XP available indefinitely, not end most sales on June 30 as currently planned, has prompted many readers to suggest that maybe the best answer for those who don't like Vista is to switch to another operating system completely.                                                    "Don't be afraid. Just switch to Linux and become a member of a really free society," wrote Carlos Raul Gutierrez.[ Find out the deployment secrets of early Vista adopters ]"Windows Vista was the reason I bought a Mac mini. I didn't want my only choices to be an operating system that would soon be obsolete (XP) or one that was buggy and would break much existing hardware (Vista), and I'm not enough of a geek to use Linux (do things from the command line? Puhleeze...)," wrote "Jack."How realistic is a switch to Linux or Apple's Mac OS X? For some users -- often technically savvy people such as engineers, consultants, designers and CTOs -- it is clearly an option that already works quite well. In the past year, running Mac OS X or Linux as your default OS has been made easier by the capability to run Windows in a virtual machine, giving you access to both Windows-only applications and Web sites that rely on Microsoft's Internet Explorer-only ActiveX technology. But in a business environment, switching to a Mac or Linux PC may not be quite as easy.The Mac OS X option Of the plausible alternatives to Windows, Apple's Mac OS X has the largest market share and history. InfoWorld chief technologist Tom Yager has written that the latest version of the Mac OS, Leopard (10.5), is simply the best operating system available. And Macs are indeed popping up more frequently even within IT circles -- I've seen more MacBook Pros in the hands of CTOs and IT execs at conferences in the past year more than I've seen Mac notebooks in such venues ever. Although there are no real numbers on just the business adoption of Macs, it's clear that Apple is in growth mode, gaining an increasing proportion of all new computer sales for more than a year now.InfoWorld's Yager has chronicled the adventures of one PC user who switched to the Mac OS, showing that for an individual, the conversion was ultimately a rewarding one. The TechWeb site has also provided a good guide on how to make the switch to Mac OS X.A key tool for any Mac OS X switcher is a virtual machine to run Windows for those apps and Web sites that require it. Both Parallels Desktop 3.0 and EMC VMware's Fusion software will do the trick, as InfoWorld's comparative review has shown.Although Macs are compatible with most typical hardware, such as monitors and drives, fitting a Mac into an enterprise's management systems and ERP applications can be a different story. Yager's Mac Enterprise blog and the Mac Enterprise user group both provide advice on managing Macs in a traditional IT environment.The Linux option The more technically inclined may be attracted to Linux, the most popular form of desktop Unix. Linux desktops typically are challenged by limited hardware compatibility (due to lack of drivers), limited application options, and user interfaces that require active participation to get work done, which tends to keep Linux away from the general user population. But those who work with a Linux server all day may find that using it on the desktop as well actually makes their lives easier.Just as Mac users need occasional access to Windows, so do Linux users. Because Linux distributions run on Windows-compatible hardware, it's straightforward to use desktop virtualization software, such as Parallels Workstation, Sun's (formerly Innotek's) VirtualBox, and EMC VMware's Workstation software, to provide access to both environments.Although some enterprises have committed to wide Linux deployment -- such as automaker Peugeot Citro?n's plans to install 20,000 Novell Suse Linux desktops -- most have left Linux to the engineering and development staff.InfoWorld Enterprise Desktop blogger Randall Kennedy argues that desktop Linux is doomed to remain a tiny niche OS, given the Linux community's lack of interest in providing a UI that regular people could use. Kennedy tried to spend a week working on nothing but the Ubuntu distribution of Linux but gave up on the fifth day.But Kennedy's take isn't the last word on desktop Linux. Frequent InfoWorld contributor Neil McAllister put together a special report on how to move from Windows to Linux, concluding that the effort was not as hard as you might think.Who's right? As with any platform choice, they both may be. A one-size-fits-all approach may be unrealistic. And that likely explains why many businesses will have a mix, dominated by Windows XP today (and perhaps Vista in a few years) but not exclusively tied to Microsoft's OS.
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Vista continued to eclipse technology news headlines on Thursday as everybody from industry analysts to tech bloggers to home users chime in on the arrival of Microsoft's latest operating system.
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Vista's still in its early days, which means plenty of adjustments for Redmond, its allies and competitors.
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Although Microsoft's forthcoming operating system, Windows Vista, has slipped from its proposed ship date several times, a Wall Street analyst is now predicting Microsoft will be able to remain on schedule from this point forward.
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With the launch of Vista, Microsoft is likely to keep its dominance on the desktop intact, but the company's fresh focus on mobility could help boost its share in the wireless market.
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By C.S. Lee  DEAR Editor,  THE other day, I read an interesting interview with Microsoft's Bill Gates.  One of the things he mentioned was the introduction of a light- weight computer that children can bring to school to replace heavy textbooks.
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As Microsoft Technical Fellow Mark Russinovich demonstrated during one of his more popular talks at TechEd, one of Vista's many internal kernel changes includes a special prioritization feature especially for multimedia and Media Player.  You might be surprised to learn what priorities get sacrificed just to make sure MP11 doesn't skip a beat.
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Edward Rothstein ponders Microsoftâs new Vista system from inside the belly of one of its beasts.
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Vista's first service pack addresses performance and reliability. Also on tap: a beta of the third and final service pack for Windows XP.
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It was indeed an astounding quarter for Microsoft, with operating income having grown last quarter at an annual rate of 32%. A big part of that growth is attributable to Windows Vista. But does the fact that customers are adopting it truly signal that customers are embracing it? Yesterday, the company's chief financial executives offered some very revealing data.
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John C. Welch writes for InformationWeek, âIâve yet to see anything in Vista that blows away the Mac OS, even a version of the Mac OS thatâs over a year old.â
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Although some companies may be ready to jump on the Vista bandwagon, analysts said most enterprise users will take their time testing the new operating system before rolling it out to employees.