Let the Disinformation Begin

The news hit recently that the next version of Windows, Vista, will come in 7 different “flavors”, or SKUs. I’m making the prediction right now that this is a completely false story cooked up to divert attention from the disaster that Vista has become. After dropping pretty much every decent feature from Vista, Microsoft had another Windows Me release on their hands; a dressed-up version of the previous version.

Why do I say that? First, Microsoft may be dumb, but this would colossally dumb. People can’t figure out the fact that Win XP has two versions; it’s inconceivable that the general public could begin to fathom what they need to ask for when there are 7 versions.

Second, this is way to complicated for even Microsoft to support. Windows as an OS is very, very difficult to support from Microsoft’s standpoint because of their insistence at maintaining backward compatibility. Introducing limited releases of an OS (which is what 6 versions of Vista would essentially be) is a logistical nightmare for Microsoft. Now, instead of maintaining security on one stripped-down version (XP Home), they have to protect 6 versions from hacking, cracking, and security risks.

If Vista comes in more than 3 versions, one of which will be Windows Vista Home Theatre Crashing Edition, I’ll buy a Mac. I’ll have to.

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4 responses to “Let the Disinformation Begin”

  1.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    You say…After dropping pretty much every decent feature from Vista. What are you smoking LOL

  2.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    Hmm… let's see:Longhorn was originally supposed to have three major changes: a new file system, WinFS; a new graphics and presentation engine known as Avalon; and Indigo, a Web services and communication architecture.Microsoft is making changes to all three pillars. WinFS will be available as a beta when the Longhorn release comes out as a client. Avalon and Indigo will be part of Longhorn, but also made available separately for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. [source] So if Avalon and Indigo will be available for Win XP, and WinFS will be beta, why would I upgrade?But, that's beside the point of my post. This is exactly the type of news Microsoft wants people to forget about, hence the disinformation campaign. In the time remaining before Vista's release, we're going to hear so much double-talk and bait-and-switch rhetoric, no one will know what's actually in Vista until it's up on Newegg.

  3. Here goes Microsoft's marketing team again.It's not clear to me what will and what will not be included in the next release of Windows. On top of all of the talk of 7 different editions; it's just rediculous. As a developer in the IT industry this feels like marketing deja vu.Roll back to 2001/2002 where Microsoft is rigorously plugging “.NET”, a framework for building applications. Microsoft marketing gets their hands on it, hypes it up, and then every team in Redmond starts branding their products as “.NET” (i.e. SQL Server .NET, BizTalk Server .NET, etc.) Next thing you know every manager thinks they need SQL Server .NET to take advantage of “.NET” and it quickly became this anommaly. So at this point marketing has failed because everyone is asking “what is .net” or perhaps they suceeded?As far as I know the only difference between Windows XP Home and Pro editions is that Pro can install/support Component Services and IIS… my guess is Vista will be similar, except Microsoft will most likely try and offer subscription services to tack on as well. Maybe AV and anti-spyware subs?

  4.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    It's not clear to me what will and what will not be included in the next release of Windows.Which is a fricken disaster in the making, from my perspective. You're the person that has to develop for the platform. Wouldn't it be kick-ass if MS would tell developers (developers! developers! developers!) what is going to be in the system. If they're within one year of release, they better know what's going in.It always seems like the Marketing department fully subscribes to the “any publicity is good publicity” religion. They have awful campaigns all the time, but seem content that at least people are using the right nomenclature while they tear the product a new one.The subscription thing is almost a given at this point with all the companies MS has purchased in the last couple of years. The Anti-Spyware beta has been well-received, but there's no clear direction there. So, yeah, buy the Ultimate Edition and get free MS AV and AS until the next service pack… that sounds like a likely scenario. I think it will cost them a lot of customers (business, mostly). Why should we shell out more for insecurity that can be “fixed” with a subscription fee?

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