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22 Mar 2006
Microsoft has delayed the release of its consumer Windows Vista operating system until January 2007. The application will be made available to enterprises in November this year.
Jim Allchin, co-president of platform products and services at Microsoft, said in a conference call that the company decided to delay the consumer version of Vista because PC manufacturers required more time to test and prepare their systems.
Windows Vista was hit by quality issues that caused the release to be pushed back "a few weeks". But this prompted manufacturers to ask Microsoft to delay the consumer version until 2007 because they had insufficient time to test and prepare their systems for availability this year.
"Quality is the top-line message, and we needed just a few more weeks," said Allchin. "We will release to manufacturing and sit on the disk for the consumer launch."
Windows Vista was originally promised for the second half of 2006, but delays have plagued the operating system throughout its development.
The software was originally planned as an upgrade to Windows XP and was expected to arrive in 2003. Development was delayed after Microsoft decided to add more features, and by pulling developers off the project to work on the security oriented Service Pack 2 for XP.
The decision to delay the release of the consumer version of Vista will cause the software to miss the 2006 holiday shopping season. This could have a negative impact on PC sales for this year, analyst firm Gartner warned earlier this month.
"No matter how I look at it, the news is a blow to many Microsoft partners as they will not have Windows Vista to sell during the lucrative holiday sales season," noted Joe Wilcox, a senior analyst with Jupiter Research, on a company blog.
"I cannot imagine why any PC manufacturer would not want to have Windows Vista systems to sell for the holidays. They will lose the benefit of massive Windows marketing, as well as a brand new operating system to dress up their PCs."
Windows Vista is currently in beta and has been made available to a limited group of testers through Microsoft's Community Technology Preview.
The next test version is slated for the second quarter of this year and will be available to a broader group of testers.
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THIS IS THE TIME TO TAKE OVER....
While Microsoft licks it's open wounds other operating systems can now slide in and take over the show and sales of course. All have cried and complained about Bill Gates and the monopoly so...get your balls in gear take over or forever shut up!
Posted by: Joel Miller 04 Nov 2006
Vista
I have Vista easy to install, and once you find your way round, good to use with many very useful security features. However it is spoilt by the lack of available drivers that limit the usage. Why are there so few drivers? we all know that it is going to be sold ready installed in new PC's... I give up. The exception being ATI.
Posted by: John Michaelson 05 Oct 2006
hopping
with this new window hope they fix dame spyware crap im sick going round friends have fix there computer cos dame spyware would help if made it inposable to download to to windows folder or accsess is over the net so nothing download to it should have it own folder for crap like that ie most all download to systm 32 folder in window that wrong if own folder say C:/winintern start nice blank when get pc if have you del all content in it be fine without shaging up windows main program i dont mine waiting is it going be good operating system as long not like crap we had so far ie me xp both rush had unstable windows... hope worth wait
Posted by: paul 31 Jul 2006
Good
its kinda nice that microsoft isnt going to turn out complete crap like they did with XP. they are actually fixing the problems thereselves and not making everybody eles find them. It will still be a year or 2 after its released that it will be secure enough to actually be ran.
Posted by: Joel 24 Mar 2006
:(
I've been on board with you Microsoft all this time, but this is a big blow. This sucks. :(
Posted by: drewjoh 22 Mar 2006
This Sucks!
I was going to get a new PC at christmas, expecting Vista! Now I have to wait or something! Crap!
Posted by: seanthebond 22 Mar 2006
heh
vaporware?
Posted by: dave 22 Mar 2006
rewriting from .net to c++
Now they are realizing what a huge blunder to rewrite huge chunks of Vista in .net. They are going to rewrite back to c++ to get adequate peformance, I guarantee you! Keep it all c++ to keep it snappy foos!
Posted by: Tom Miller 22 Mar 2006
Is anyone shocked?
Of course it got delayed. This is the upteenth time its been delayed. And guess what... you have about 99% chance that it won't be released in January, but will be delayed yet again. The reason? Microsoft can't get anything right. Never have, never will (and no, I'm not an Apple zealot).
Posted by: Not Surprised 22 Mar 2006
Vista
I downloaded the trail version of Vista and really liked it. The only problem I had with it was the tight security. I was unable to accesss certain sites no matter what settings I tried.I had to delete it
Posted by: Penny 22 Mar 2006
Like enterprise is going to jump right in.
No company is going to just start rolling this out either. They have as much testing if not more, than an OEM. I think the only reason they will bring it to enterprise is because many companies pay big dollar for a maintenance contract that hasn't paid off since XP. I?m expecting an early service pack for Vista.
Posted by: C Mac 22 Mar 2006