by Playfuls Staff |
4th December 2006
After five years of hard work and 9 billion dollars worth
of investments, Windows Vista fails to provide an answer to a simple question: “Who
needs it?” [more]
Ever since 2002, Microsoft has not missed a single chance
to tell how revolutionary, how reliable and how special the new Windows would
be (dubbed Longhorn up to 2005).
However, under the pressure of time, competition and many
other factors, some services have been eliminated; others have been rethought
while others have not even been mentioned again.
The final result? An operating system whose hardware
requirements are met only by half of the computers currently used in the US (there’s no
point mentioning the rest of the world), an OS which brings several significant
transformations to what Windows has meant so far.
The first and most talked about change that Windows Vista
brings is its new graphic interface, also known as Aero (those inclined toward
sarcasm haven’t been able to refrain from commenting that Aero is inspired by
Apple).
In order to support Aero, a PC must have at least 1GB of
RAM and a video card of 256 MB RAM. Although the new interface is spectacular,
it’s hard to believe that there will be a great number of companies or users
willing to pay for it.
The interface is not the only major change though that Windows
Vista brings.
Windows vista is the first OS designed and created after
Bill Gates’s famous e-mail, through which he was asking employees and
colleagues to be especially careful about security. Thus the long, 5 year
journey began, with this concept of trustworthy computing in mind; this weekend
brought it nearer to its end.
Microsoft says Windows Vista is the safest operating
system ever. The users’ login system management has been modified almost
completely, applications no longer have easy access to Windows’ basic components
and these are but few of the changes the Redmond
company has made.
Microsoft has wanted to lose its label of unsafe OS so
badly, acquired through Windows 95 and Windows 98, that it invested heavily in
security, purchasing companies and products and even starting a bit of a
conflict with established producers such as McAfee and Symantec.
Nevertheless, from what has been shown so far, Windows
Vista doesn’t get rid of the necessity to install an anti-virus, a firewall and
even an antispyware program. That all this comes under the name of
MicrosoftOneCare is a matter of personal taste, but users should not hold the
wrong impression that, once Windows Vista installed, their security problems
become history while their PCs become bona fide fortresses before hackers.
Another function that Windows Vista hopes to seduce
consumers with is a new search engine that those prone to sarcasm once again
say is inspired by Apple. Due to pressure coming from Google, Microsoft has
invested enormous sums of money not only in MSN Search, but also in the new
Windows Live Search platform, and implicitly, in its sequel.
Despite the effort, the kind of search that Windows Vista
is proposing is still inferior to that provided by Google Desktop Search, a
free application offered by the Google company.
To conclude, Windows Vista is a sum of useful functions
and updates that a 2006 OS would be expected to bring, but it doesn’t provide
anything more than what Windows XP itself offers, for example.
The latter’s advantage is precisely the fact that it has
been on the market for five years, and that in this time period all programs,
both possible and impossible, have been designed and launched, programs which can
control virtually any aspect, from graphic interface to an operating system’s
security.
As it is, Gartner itself has not given Windows Vista much
credit compared to Windows XP. The analysis company estimates that PCs running
on Vista will not outnumber those running on
XP before 2010.
Has Windows Vista arrived too late for Microsoft? Considering
the hardware specs, the market is not prepared yet for such an OS, but
analyzing things from the perspective of functions offered by Vista,
there isn't a single one customers would crowd stores for.
Maybe it would have been safer for Microsoft to
concentrate on a Windows XP SP3 now and launch Windows Vista
at a later time. All these options are no longer unavailable unfortunately, and
history can’t be changed. Microsoft has taken the Vista
road: there’s no turning back and all that’s left for the company is to realize
where it’s taking it.
