Microsoft Windows Vista is now available to all, not just businesses and those with subscriptions. Microsoft released the product today with lots of fanfare.
The coverage by mainstream press is really making me laugh. Sky News (UK cable/satellite broadcaster and sister of Fox News) is running a piece by an American broadcaster, CBS. In it, the "journalist" (and I use that word loosely) interviews a mom who was "1 of 50 test users". 50? Hmm, that doesn’t sound right. If they’d said 50,000 I wouldn’t have questioned it. Considering that Vista was downloaded in beta and RC by countless thousands of test users and the public, 50 just aint right. It’s no wonder the US press is the laughing stock of the world. And Sky is just as bad for playing that piece. I sure hope people don’t make technology based purchasing decisions based on this sort of mainstream press rubbish.
So Vista is done. What’s up next? The next big release and the one of real interest to businesses is Windows Server "Longhorn". There’s loads of features in Vista that we’re either not aware of or not able to use yet until "Longhorn" is released. The public beta is coming up soon. General release is expected at the end of this year or early next year.