PC now or Vista later?
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Microsoft Corp.'s planned release of its long-awaited Vista operating system on Jan. 30 is scrambling the calculations of computer makers, retailers, and shoppers in the final week before Christmas.
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The new waiting game Comment Vista is a step forward in security, but many businesses will be stuck with Windows XP for years to come, due to the cost of upgrading, the value of existing assets, and compatibility issues that trump security features.â¦
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Reviewing Windows Vista for St. Paul Pioneer Press, Julio Ojeda-Zapata concludes, âGet a Mac with [Mac] OS X unless your home-computer needs are Windows-specific, or if the fine Media Center is a must for you. You likely wonât regret a Vista-PC purchase, but Iâm betting youâll enjoy a Mac much more.â
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The talk in the computer world seems to be whether or not to get Microsoft&#39;s Windows XP Service Pack 2. Both sides of the argument offer pros and cons as to whether or not computer users should proceed with this upgrade.
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By Liu Baijia  Microsoft's latest operating system Windows Vista hit the consumer market yesterday.  Those using Windows XP for almost six years, keen to embrace digital convergence, have been looking forward to Windows Vista, which offers richer and safer applications.
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Online retailer Amazon.com has begun to accept pre-orders for Windows Vista, which it says "will be released on January 30, 2007." The company is charging $399 USD for the Ultimate Edition of Vista, $239 USD for Home Premium and $199 USD for Home Basic. Vista Business is priced at $299 USD.
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(InfoWorld) - Gartner Inc. analysts expect theÂ release of Windows Vista next year will have little effect on boosting PC sales. In a recent report on PC revenue, analysts for the research firm said they don't think Vista's release in early 2007 will do anything significant to affect the growth of PC sales, which they expect to be up 10.5 percent in 2006 over 2005. "While we think the [Vista] marketing campaign will attract people, we don't see enough there to attract a mass movement or a big growth spurt," said George Shiffler, a Gartner research director. "We don't think it will encourage enough people to replace [their PCs] right then and there." Moreover, he said PCs in general are not at the top of consumers' minds, particularly with the approaching Christmas holiday shopping season. Other consumer electronics may be a bigger lure, especially since Vista will fail to make its originally promised appearance on PCs before the holidays. "There are lots of things people can spend their money on," Shiffler said. "What are PCs going to have going for them? Vista's not going to be out." Microsoft originally promised to have Windows Vista on PCs by November, but in March pushed back its release to consumers until January 2007. Some analysts predict the OS will be out later than that, though online retailer Amazon.com Inc. has Jan. 30, 2007, as Vista's availability date in listings for presales of the OS. In lieu of Vista, Microsoft said Thursday it will have a new consumer electronics product on retail shelves in time for the holidays: its Zune digital music player. The product will allow users not only to play music, photos and videos on a three-inch screen, but also allow them to share files with friends via a wireless connection. This is unlike Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod, with which it is designed to compete. It also differs from the iPod by offering an FM radio tuner. In addition to the Zune player, Microsoft also will offer the Zune Marketplace, an iTunes-like service where users can purchase music tracks, and accessory packs for using the Zune player at home or in automobiles.ADVERTISEMENTMAKE SOA REAL WITH IBM WEBSPHERE PODCASTStreamline processes and maximize efficiency within a proven service oriented architecture. Take back control of your business processes with IBM WebSphere.
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By Joe Blundo, The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio  Feb. 13--Windows Vista has arrived amid much hoopla.   The new Microsoft operating system is supposed to make computers more secure and less crash-prone and confusing.   So you can be certain that it will be a bitter disappointment.
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An early version of the first significant Vista update is released to about 12,000 testers. Meanwhile, a near-final "release candidate" version of Windows Server 2008 is set to be available for download within 24 hours.
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Software giant Microsoft confirmed Monday that the first update to its Windows Vista operating system will be available as an official download in mid-March. Windows Vista Service Pack 1 will address various performance and stability issues and improve the desktop OS's hardware support.
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(InfoWorld) - As Microsoftâs five-year-long development effort slouches toward completion, details began to emerge last week that showed the company is (finally) gearing up to release Windows Vista after the new year, as promised. Pricing information popped up on a Canadian Web site, and Amazon.com told visitors that the new OS would be going out on Jan. 30, only to replace that date with a squishier âEarly 2007.â Finally, by the time you read this, Microsoft has promised to release the penultimate test version of its Vista operating system, dubbed âRelease Candidate 1â to an army of testers around the world. Are anticipatory chills running down your spine? They shouldnât be. Because a Release Candidate must be stable enough to allow corporate buyers to evaluate the product for deployment, Microsoft will have done quite a bit of work to RC1 over Vistaâs previous beta incarnations; so get set for a number of improvements. On the other hand, because of this concentration on stability, donât look for any noteworthy new features. Hereâs what Vista RC1 will likely have to offer: Installation: A late beta release dubbed âPre RC1â received kudos from more than one online reviewer for the improvements in this area, and rumors out of Microsoft say RC1 is the first version of Vista (or any Windows version) that has seamlessly installed on a variety of new notebooks and desktops â no muss, no fuss, and with full detection of PC Card and USB peripherals. Graphical interface: Aero has reportedly given Microsoft quite a few Advil moments, and even Beta 2 users were reporting intermittent difficulties. Look for this to be smoothed out in anything that receives RC status. That doesnât mean, however, that you should try to run it on your anemic graphics subsystem from 2003. Microsoft recommends at least 32-bit-per-pixel graphics capability. To you and me that means that for really smooth Aero-nautics, you should have a DirectX 9-capable 3-D accelerator card with 128MB of dedicated video RAM. If your test box lacks this video muscle, RC1 will support a non-Aero interface for weaker or older PCs. Audio: Microsoft has been having trouble with audio in even its most recent Vista Beta release. Toolsmixer controls are intermittently absent, and audio playback is often interrupted or missing. This should be solved in an RC1 release. If youâre a systems or network administrator, RC1 wonât be much different from Beta 2. The new release will ship with Internet Explorer RC1 installed, but even that has few differences from IE7 Beta 2. There will be a new, easier-to-use integrated backup tool, but itâs of little interest to corporate users whoâll most likely be using a centralized third-party app or Windows Shadow Copy. The pricing and availability info â coupled with the OSâs slow march toward âgold,â aka a finished version of Windows Vista ready for manufacturing â shows that Microsoft is serious about meeting its ship date. However, the key criterion for Vista RC1 will be stability. If it installs smoothly, runs smoothly, and gives us the full Vista experience that Microsoftâs been promising, consider it a success. If not, itâs back to the drawing board.
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As expected, Microsoft on Friday issued the second release candidate of Windows Vista - the last public build before the next-generation operating system is released to manufacturing. As with the interim build before it, RC2 will be available to a limited number of CPP participants.
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For a lot of users, the cost of upgrading to Windows Vista could be the first of many outlays needed to bring their system up to date. You've also got to update all those programs -- and a lot of vendors may not offer free compatibility updates.
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Configuring a PC around the minimum hardware requirements of an application or operating system may not be the best idea for users who hope to get the most out of Windows Vista.
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By Ryan Blitstein, San Jose Mercury News, Calif.  Jan. 31--At long last, Vista is here. But Tuesday's San Francisco launch  of Microsoft's new computer operating system, which it hopes will  revolutionize the technology world, didn't pack much punch.
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A massively multiplayer beta test Review The most prominent feature of Windows Vista is its cost. So, before we get into the nuts and bolts of how it behaves, let's talk about value for money. Because at these prices, it had better be good.â¦
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Blog: The first update for Windows Vista could enter testing as early as next week, according to reports.