VistaBillGates.com | Vista!

By Steven Levy

?

Feb. 12, 2007 issue - Is Vista, Microsoft’s latest version of Windows??eleased last week with press events, parties, rock bands, a circuslike “human billboard” in downtown New York City and a multimillion-dollar ad campaign??he last operating system to launch in a sea of hype? Clearly, we’re no longer in the era when the rollout of a computer OS is greeted with the hosannas showered upon a conquering army returning home. At one of the events last week held under banners declaring that with Vista the wow starts now, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer sat on a stage with five other middle-aged executives, all of whom worked for chipmakers or computer manufacturers, in what seemed to be a contest over who could say the word “excitement” the most. But the midnight release of Vista did not generate blocks-long lines serpentining around computer stores to buy an upgrade. Ballmer himself explained that only a small percentage of Windows users would be sufficiently thrilled by Vista to purchase an upgrade. Instead, people will get Vista when they replace their current PCs with a new one, a process that will occur over a period of years.

True, that’s not terribly different from the way that systems like Windows 95 were adopted. The difference is that in 2007, operating systems, however important, aren’t where people seek the wow factor. Obviously, OS upgrades are essential for helping our computers keep pace with mightier processors, gluttonous storage, skyrocketing use of media and persistent high-speed connectivity, among other mileposts in the march of high tech. And Vista indeed is an improvement over its predecessors (especially in terms of securing your PC from malfeasants). But the real excitement in technology in recent years has come from Internet-based start-ups that take advantage of the aggregate power of a connected population, like Google, Flickr or YouTube. We’ve also been wowed by devices dedicated to delivering a single experience so well that they transform our behavior??he BlackBerry, the iPod or game consoles like Microsoft’s own Xbox. In comparison, operating systems are infrastructure, and wildly feting a new version is like throwing a party for scaffolding.

So will this Vista launch be the last OS rollout that comes on like an MTV “My Super Sweet 16″ on steroids? (In fairness, Microsoft paired the Vista celebration with a launch of its revamped productivity suite, Office 2007.) Chairman Bill Gates, who jetted in from Davos for the events, insists that it won’t be. “People have said that at every major Windows release,” he says, citing predictions that the Java programming language would obviate the need for Windows, or network computers would kill the PC. “People don’t seem to have a good memory about having cried wolf every single time. Will the [next] operating system advance so that speech and vision and ink are built in? Well, you can bet against that, but the breakthroughs that Microsoft research is making in these things [will be] very advantageous to users.”

Gates does admit that with Vista, Microsoft may follow the industry trend of doing significant upgrading every couple of years, maybe even yearly. But he won’t budge on his insistence that the era of the big release isn’t over. He says that the major decisions on Vista’s successor will be made before his departure from a full-time role at Microsoft in mid-2008, and the release of this newbie in 2011 or whenever will generate just as much hubbub as previous launches. At that time, he jokes, “we’ll tell you how Vista just wasn’t good enough.” Oh, wow.

By Steven Levy

?

Feb. 12, 2007 issue - Is Vista, Microsoft’s latest version of Windows??eleased last week with press events, parties, rock bands, a circuslike “human billboard” in downtown New York City and a multimillion-dollar ad campaign??he last operating system to launch in a sea of hype? Clearly, we’re no longer in the era when the rollout of a computer OS is greeted with the hosannas showered upon a conquering army returning home. At one of the events last week held under banners declaring that with Vista the wow starts now, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer sat on a stage with five other middle-aged executives, all of whom worked for chipmakers or computer manufacturers, in what seemed to be a contest over who could say the word “excitement” the most. But the midnight release of Vista did not generate blocks-long lines serpentining around computer stores to buy an upgrade. Ballmer himself explained that only a small percentage of Windows users would be sufficiently thrilled by Vista to purchase an upgrade. Instead, people will get Vista when they replace their current PCs with a new one, a process that will occur over a period of years.

True, that’s not terribly different from the way that systems like Windows 95 were adopted. The difference is that in 2007, operating systems, however important, aren’t where people seek the wow factor. Obviously, OS upgrades are essential for helping our computers keep pace with mightier processors, gluttonous storage, skyrocketing use of media and persistent high-speed connectivity, among other mileposts in the march of high tech. And Vista indeed is an improvement over its predecessors (especially in terms of securing your PC from malfeasants). But the real excitement in technology in recent years has come from Internet-based start-ups that take advantage of the aggregate power of a connected population, like Google, Flickr or YouTube. We’ve also been wowed by devices dedicated to delivering a single experience so well that they transform our behavior??he BlackBerry, the iPod or game consoles like Microsoft’s own Xbox. In comparison, operating systems are infrastructure, and wildly feting a new version is like throwing a party for scaffolding.

So will this Vista launch be the last OS rollout that comes on like an MTV “My Super Sweet 16″ on steroids? (In fairness, Microsoft paired the Vista celebration with a launch of its revamped productivity suite, Office 2007.) Chairman Bill Gates, who jetted in from Davos for the events, insists that it won’t be. “People have said that at every major Windows release,” he says, citing predictions that the Java programming language would obviate the need for Windows, or network computers would kill the PC. “People don’t seem to have a good memory about having cried wolf every single time. Will the [next] operating system advance so that speech and vision and ink are built in? Well, you can bet against that, but the breakthroughs that Microsoft research is making in these things [will be] very advantageous to users.”

Gates does admit that with Vista, Microsoft may follow the industry trend of doing significant upgrading every couple of years, maybe even yearly. But he won’t budge on his insistence that the era of the big release isn’t over. He says that the major decisions on Vista’s successor will be made before his departure from a full-time role at Microsoft in mid-2008, and the release of this newbie in 2011 or whenever will generate just as much hubbub as previous launches. At that time, he jokes, “we’ll tell you how Vista just wasn’t good enough.” Oh, wow.