Yesterday ActiveWin had the exclusive of Windows Vista's official release date. Today, Microsoft confirmed all that by updating its release schedule and making an official press release. "Microsoft today confirmed that Windows Vista, the next generation of the Windows client operating system, is on target to go into broad consumer beta to approximately 2 million users in the second quarter of 2006. Microsoft is on track to complete the product this year, with business availability in November 2006 and broad consumer availability in January 2007."
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Member since:2005-07-09
But I doubt that is going to happen. I saw the Novell Desktop 10 demo and it was absolutely awesome. Nothing over the top, just pure functionality and boy was the demo fast! The search (Beagle), the seamless integration of all the apps was just stunning. Novell took how long to get a 3d accelerated desktop, faty search, integration of all apps, etc etc to get built in Linux? But unfortunately this will only be important to power users or users who are not mere sheep. To the average Joe User the word Linux strikes fear in their heart whereas Microsoft and Windows dont. It is quite unfortunate.
Of course i have not played with the Vista beta so I cannot comment how good it is going to be though I am anticipating good things from it mainly because I am tired of using XP and I want a refresh. Also Direct3D 10, the new digital photography colorspaces etc etc are appealing enough for me.
Well I guess the point I am trying to make is Linux needs to be heavil advertised if they are to make a big impact. I for one am going to get a copy of the demo OS they showed as soon as it gets released. Brilliant work Linux boys! I applaud! But reality does not always represent elegance.
Member since:2006-03-22
I agree the odds are against us... You'd have to be a fool to think otherwise, but we still stand a CHANCE 
And with the way things have been progressing over the last couple years, Vista may be pivot point to really make things happen.
As you pointed out, DirectX 10...or just gaming in general is probably the number one advantage Windows still has over both Linux and Mac OSX. That's why it was also very good news the other day that OpenGL might still be viable after all on Vista, as it's the only way to go if a developer wants to make their engine cross-platform.
Hell, if Linux adoption could go up from the 5% marketshare it has now (mostly in servers too), to about 10-20% I'd be more than happy 
Member since:2005-07-06
Actually If you are to believe Gartner they will have much more time than that before Vista will have any major market impact on the market. According to them, Vista will not have more than 10% market penetration two years after its introduction.
I have no reason to doubt the Gartner figures as last year when Microsof ended their win2k support, it was still the most used OS in business in Sweden. If these companies have been good Microsoft customers they should have upgraded to XP by now.
Even Microsoft salesreps have admitted that XP users will have very little to gain from upgrading to Vista, so I guess that the main jump to Vista will happen 2011 when XP is end of lifed.
2011 is a whole lot of Gnome, KDE, OpenOffice.org,.. releases away. Just remember how Linux looked in 2001
and compare how it look now. Then take into account that major Linux venders like Red Hat and Novell during most of that time have had a no intent of making a Linux desktop.
By then there will most likely be much more desktop applications available for Linux. One exampele of such new promising application would be Xaraextreme a very good cross platform graphical application. See http://www.xaraxtreme.org/
The new licencing of qt, will also help as we can expect that many KDE applications will migrate to the windows desktops making the treshold for switching to Linux much lower. What I'm hoping most for is PIM applications like contact that could replace Microsoft Outlook and its Vista replacements. Good windows clients will be esential to replacing Exchange that is a big expense in many organizations. Possible candidates as Exchange replacements would be Hula and Kolab.
Yes, it certainly looks good for Linux.
Member since:
2006-03-22
This is very good news as far as I can see...
Now Ubuntu (and other Windows-switching/newbie friendly distros) will have time to roll out another full release before Windows Vista's available. If Linux ever has a chance of taking a good chunk out of MS's dominance, now is the time!