Exclusive: Microsoft Delays Vista Beta 2 to Late May, RTM to October 25, 2006
A Web Exclusive from WinInfo
Paul Thurrott
Microsoft announced on Tuesday that it will not be able to deliver Windows Vista in time for the Holiday 2006 selling season. The company now plans to ship Windows Vista to manufacturing on or before October 25, 2006, approximately two months later than the previous shipment schedule. And the next major Windows Vista milestone, the Beta 2 release has been delayed from April to late May 2006.
The official announcement contains none of these details. In a statement, Microsoft said that it will ship the volume-licensed, business-oriented versions of Windows Vista in November 2006 and then ship consumer-oriented versions in January 2007. The company curiously blamed this latest delay on its computer industry partners. "Product quality and a great out-of-box experience have been two of our key drivers for Windows Vista, and we are on track to deliver on both," Microsoft co-president Jim Allchin is quoted in the statement. "But the industry requires greater lead time to deliver Windows Vista on new PCs during holiday. We must optimize for the industry, so we've decided to separate business and consumer availability."
Additionally, there is a new Vista roadmap. The Beta 2 release, originally scheduled for April, has been delayed until late May. Windows Vista, originally codenamed Longhorn, has been delayed repeatedly over the past few years. The Windows XP successor was originally expected to ship sometime in 2003.
Man, if Leopard ends up being as optimized for intel as we are lead to believe and if Adobe and MS MBU get with the program, this could easily be the best opportunity for switchers and market share gains in Apple history since 1980!!
I assume the gui tweaks in Leopard will eat Vista's lunch ... as long as Apple can actually decide to market the thing!!!
Also with the fade of XBox mania and PS3 also being delayed, this gives Apple a wide open field to the holiday season promise land! It will own the buzz!! Hopefully there is a product or two sitting in the wings, cause there is no reason Apple can't duplicate the iPod phenom. No technical or marketing or competition or any other reason.
My dream is a pocket media player with an ~7" screen that can run H.265 and Keynote and the iApps as an uber pda, but I know that is just me.
I had CNBC's Power Lunch on yesterday and they had some analyst talking about this. He was making light of the fact the Leopard would be the 5th major release of OS X, while Win Vista wont even be at 1.0 by then. He predicted an increase in Mac sales over the time period as well.
....... if Adobe and MS MBU get with the program,........
The last domino to fall. And Steve is pushing that domino real real real real hard.
Come on Adobe/Macromedia, yes, even microsoft Office for Mac, we love ya to bits, push out those little beautiful universal binary babies --- hey. we'll even pay you some crossgrade fee for your trouble
The last domino to fall. And Steve is pushing that domino real real real real hard.
Come on Adobe/Macromedia, yes, even microsoft Office for Mac, we love ya to bits, push out those little beautiful universal binary babies --- hey. we'll even pay you some crossgrade fee for your trouble
With the opportunity that seems to be unfolding, there has got to be some knashing of teeth at Apple over Adobe's seeming slow release of UB for their cs suite.
With the opportunity that seems to be unfolding, there has got to be some knashing of teeth at Apple over Adobe's seeming slow release of UB for their cs suite.
I think this all makes sense though, since the Intel transition was going to show itself best in the low wattage comsumer side of the market. I don't know what a quad core duo thing might do, but the G5 has enough legs to get the creative pros to 2007. By then the highend look at the Intel cpu's and motherboards will be optimized for Leopard AND those gpu hogging apps.
I doubt Apple loses anything in the delay. How many of you would be buying Photoshop as a Christmas present? But it has to be executed very well and it has to be marketed to all the world how much better Leopard will be than Vista for at least several years!!!!!!!
I think this all makes sense though, since the Intel transition was going to show itself best in the low wattage comsumer side of the market. I don't know what a quad core duo thing might do, but the G5 has enough legs to get the creative pros to 2007. By then the highend look at the Intel cpu's and motherboards will be optimized for Leopard AND those gpu hogging apps.
I doubt Apple loses anything in the delay. How many of you would be buying Photoshop as a Christmas present? But it has to be executed very well and it has to be marketed to all the world how much better Leopard will be than Vista for at least several years!!!!!!!
Power Macs are expected to come ouyt in the fall. Adobe plans to release CS3 in the q2 of 2007. Thats close to a one year spread. If you use CS3 why would you buy a new PM?
This is a very interesting blog - basically what looks like dozens of Microsoft engineers complaining in some detail about the state of MS, its managers and management systems and the state of VISTA. Apologies if this has been posted before.
The blog is here - scroll down the page for all the comments from inside MS.
This is a very interesting blog - basically what looks like dozens of Microsoft engineers complaining in some detail about the state of MS, its managers and management systems and the state of VISTA. Apologies if this has been posted before.
The blog is here - scroll down the page for all the comments from inside MS.
If those comment really is from MS programmers (and not just a few wroting 20+ each) then that is one fucked up company.
Sounds like a real implosion over there. I'm sure large projects like these are stressful, but is this unusual? Sure sounds like it from the outside but I'm not in the industry.
I think most blogs from large companies would sound a lot like what you are seeing on that site. There are some interesting comments in it but I don't see MS imploding anytime soon. Good times for Mac users though.
Vista will be a hard sell no matter when it comes out. Although if they wait another year or two, the migration will happen just because its been so long...
*sigh* even using win xp 64bit (much cleaner code base imho) after about 3 months i'm starting to see some windows computer rot setting in (you know, things mysteriously slowly starting to start more slowly etc...). it's sort of my fault, i corrupted the registry once or twice with some *ahem* shall we say, "aggressive" overclocking experiments. (kids, overclocking is evil and wrong! ) but its a pity the win xp 64bit registry isn't more robust.
but really, the windows registry (any version of the OS) is like a fracking house of cards. that's the one area microsoft really needs to improve. it's a fracking piece of garbled engineering.
An ironic aside to the DVR discussion. Media Center is rumored to be part of Vista's delay.
Although the reasons for the delay are cited as beefing up the security of the product, there are said to be major problems in other areas of the code too - in particular the Media Centre (MCE) is said to be seriously flawed. One comment says 'why exactly IS MCE so bad? Didn't anyone test this puppy before kicking it out the door and having another PM party?'.
Marketing Manager of Acer Australia as saying 'The decision to delay Vista into the consumer market will have an impact on hardware sales particularly in the Media Centre market. We have been told that Microsoft has bought in programmers from the Xbox team to work on the problems.
I would classify this information as unsubstantiated rumor at best. But still.
Without a doubt getting Media Center to work as advertised with thousands of different computer configurations with hundreds of different televisions is a monumental task. I would even dare say impossible.
Does any one still ask why doesn't Apple want to do this?
Does any one still ask why doesn't Apple want to do this?
Yes. Me, for one.
1. Apple will only have one or two configurations. Unlike M$ which will have to deal with an impossibly wide array of dealer-made and home-made machines.
2. The TV-out issue. All Apple needs to do is have a wide enough choice of adapters. At a little cost to the consumer You want SCART? Component? S-video? No worries.
3. 1 and 2 above are very separate issues. This separation is very beneficial because Apple can focus on the iHome device, and have a separate team focus on the video out adaptors ala what's available for laptops.
4. The only caveat is BluRay vs HD-DVD. Until something becomes clearer there IMHO Apple will NOT move on any sort of iHome thingy.
Comments
A Web Exclusive from WinInfo
Paul Thurrott
Microsoft announced on Tuesday that it will not be able to deliver Windows Vista in time for the Holiday 2006 selling season. The company now plans to ship Windows Vista to manufacturing on or before October 25, 2006, approximately two months later than the previous shipment schedule. And the next major Windows Vista milestone, the Beta 2 release has been delayed from April to late May 2006.
The official announcement contains none of these details. In a statement, Microsoft said that it will ship the volume-licensed, business-oriented versions of Windows Vista in November 2006 and then ship consumer-oriented versions in January 2007. The company curiously blamed this latest delay on its computer industry partners. "Product quality and a great out-of-box experience have been two of our key drivers for Windows Vista, and we are on track to deliver on both," Microsoft co-president Jim Allchin is quoted in the statement. "But the industry requires greater lead time to deliver Windows Vista on new PCs during holiday. We must optimize for the industry, so we've decided to separate business and consumer availability."
Additionally, there is a new Vista roadmap. The Beta 2 release, originally scheduled for April, has been delayed until late May. Windows Vista, originally codenamed Longhorn, has been delayed repeatedly over the past few years. The Windows XP successor was originally expected to ship sometime in 2003.
I assume the gui tweaks in Leopard will eat Vista's lunch ... as long as Apple can actually decide to market the thing!!!
Also with the fade of XBox mania and PS3 also being delayed, this gives Apple a wide open field to the holiday season promise land! It will own the buzz!! Hopefully there is a product or two sitting in the wings, cause there is no reason Apple can't duplicate the iPod phenom. No technical or marketing or competition or any other reason.
My dream is a pocket media player with an ~7" screen that can run H.265 and Keynote and the iApps as an uber pda, but I know that is just me.
Originally posted by MacGregor
....... if Adobe and MS MBU get with the program,........
The last domino to fall. And Steve is pushing that domino real real real real hard.
Come on Adobe/Macromedia, yes, even microsoft Office for Mac, we love ya to bits, push out those little beautiful universal binary babies
Originally posted by Zenga
The Windows XP successor was originally expected to ship sometime in 2003.
Hell Blackcomb was supposed by be released by 2005 with Vista being a stop gap essentially enforced by antitrust regulations.
Originally posted by sunilraman
The last domino to fall. And Steve is pushing that domino real real real real hard.
I've been watching that with interest myself.
Tic... tic... tic... tic... crash............................. see ya Adobe.
Originally posted by sunilraman
The last domino to fall. And Steve is pushing that domino real real real real hard.
Come on Adobe/Macromedia, yes, even microsoft Office for Mac, we love ya to bits, push out those little beautiful universal binary babies
With the opportunity that seems to be unfolding, there has got to be some knashing of teeth at Apple over Adobe's seeming slow release of UB for their cs suite.
Originally posted by backtomac
With the opportunity that seems to be unfolding, there has got to be some knashing of teeth at Apple over Adobe's seeming slow release of UB for their cs suite.
I think this all makes sense though, since the Intel transition was going to show itself best in the low wattage comsumer side of the market. I don't know what a quad core duo thing might do, but the G5 has enough legs to get the creative pros to 2007. By then the highend look at the Intel cpu's and motherboards will be optimized for Leopard AND those gpu hogging apps.
I doubt Apple loses anything in the delay. How many of you would be buying Photoshop as a Christmas present? But it has to be executed very well and it has to be marketed to all the world how much better Leopard will be than Vista for at least several years!!!!!!!
Originally posted by MacGregor
I think this all makes sense though, since the Intel transition was going to show itself best in the low wattage comsumer side of the market. I don't know what a quad core duo thing might do, but the G5 has enough legs to get the creative pros to 2007. By then the highend look at the Intel cpu's and motherboards will be optimized for Leopard AND those gpu hogging apps.
I doubt Apple loses anything in the delay. How many of you would be buying Photoshop as a Christmas present? But it has to be executed very well and it has to be marketed to all the world how much better Leopard will be than Vista for at least several years!!!!!!!
Power Macs are expected to come ouyt in the fall. Adobe plans to release CS3 in the q2 of 2007. Thats close to a one year spread. If you use CS3 why would you buy a new PM?
Redardless, 2004...2005...2006...2007
I think the redmond water supply must be tanted.
The blog is here - scroll down the page for all the comments from inside MS.
http://minimsft.blogspot.com/2006/03...rship-now.html
Originally posted by Tony Swash
This is a very interesting blog - basically what looks like dozens of Microsoft engineers complaining in some detail about the state of MS, its managers and management systems and the state of VISTA. Apologies if this has been posted before.
The blog is here - scroll down the page for all the comments from inside MS.
http://minimsft.blogspot.com/2006/03...rship-now.html
If those comment really is from MS programmers (and not just a few wroting 20+ each) then that is one, sorry, wrong pathgoing company.
Originally posted by Anders
If those comment really is from MS programmers (and not just a few wroting 20+ each) then that is one fucked up company.
Sounds like a real implosion over there. I'm sure large projects like these are stressful, but is this unusual? Sure sounds like it from the outside but I'm not in the industry.
Vista will be a hard sell no matter when it comes out. Although if they wait another year or two, the migration will happen just because its been so long...
but really, the windows registry (any version of the OS) is like a fracking house of cards. that's the one area microsoft really needs to improve. it's a fracking piece of garbled engineering.
Although the reasons for the delay are cited as beefing up the security of the product, there are said to be major problems in other areas of the code too - in particular the Media Centre (MCE) is said to be seriously flawed. One comment says 'why exactly IS MCE so bad? Didn't anyone test this puppy before kicking it out the door and having another PM party?'.
Marketing Manager of Acer Australia as saying 'The decision to delay Vista into the consumer market will have an impact on hardware sales particularly in the Media Centre market. We have been told that Microsoft has bought in programmers from the Xbox team to work on the problems.
I would classify this information as unsubstantiated rumor at best. But still.
Without a doubt getting Media Center to work as advertised with thousands of different computer configurations with hundreds of different televisions is a monumental task. I would even dare say impossible.
Does any one still ask why doesn't Apple want to do this?
Originally posted by MacGregor
...
My dream is a pocket media player with an ~7" screen that can run H.265 and Keynote and the iApps as an uber pda, but I know that is just me.
...and me
Btw, the thing should contain a video out slot,
that would satisfy me.
Does any one still ask why doesn't Apple want to do this?
Yes. Me, for one.
1. Apple will only have one or two configurations. Unlike M$ which will have to deal with an impossibly wide array of dealer-made and home-made machines.
2. The TV-out issue. All Apple needs to do is have a wide enough choice of adapters. At a little cost to the consumer
3. 1 and 2 above are very separate issues. This separation is very beneficial because Apple can focus on the iHome device, and have a separate team focus on the video out adaptors ala what's available for laptops.
4. The only caveat is BluRay vs HD-DVD. Until something becomes clearer there IMHO Apple will NOT move on any sort of iHome thingy.