Windows Vista hits the shelves

January 31, 2007 on 11:15 am | In Computing |

So the dream of every Windows geek has come true: the new Windows Vista finally arrived yesterday. One thing is for sure: Microsoft will sell millions of licenses because it’s such a heavy weight in the market. However, I see one important ingredient missing: excitement.

Back in the days when we upgraded from Windows 98 to Windows XP, there was a simple reason to upgrade: system stability. Microsoft never admitted it, but Win 98 crashed a lot. Win XP finally had the stability of the NT/2000 line together with the gaming suppport known from Win 98. There was a simple reason to upgrade and pretty much every user instantly understood the reason why.

Win XP could have been a good product if the spread of broadband access and the by default offline firewall (before service pack 2) hadn’t made it vulnerable to worms. Microsoft had to catch up on security while other players in the field (Linux, OS X) were upgrading their user interfaces at a higher speed than Microsoft was able to keep up with.

So now we have the Vista long waited for. The problem is, unlike Windows XP nobody among the people I know has been waiting for it. There is no obvious reason why they should upgrade, the most obvious probably being the new Aero surface. However, I still wonder how many users are going to buy the Home Basic edition and end up disappointed when the cool Aero surface is missing.

This morning I browsed the electronics ads while eating breakfast. Interdiscount featured an entire page on a computer coming with Windows Vista, but several pages up front another page was dedicated to the iPod and all its accessories. Steg pretty much dedicated its entire catalogue to Windows Vista, but half a page was used to explain the differences between the various and confusing editions and pricing.

So what got released yesterday? A confusing product that lacks a killer application. It definitely is going to shape the computing experience of millions of home and business users, but they are not going to be enthusiastic about it. Microsoft has caught up, but once more is far from having the lead in innovation. In the meantime I will be waiting with arms wide open for all the used computers that still make a great Linux rig but are useless with Vista.