New Horizons

By Chris Gledhill, Managing Director, PDMS

Vista, the latest version of Microsoft Windows was launched at the end of January. According to Wikipedia.org (the pub quiz setters bible) Vista means a distant view or prospect or a site offering such a view. It is also the Latvian word for chicken, a fact which keeps making me laugh for no particularly good reason although I doubt it has the same effect on the Microsoft marketing department.

Anyway, what's the big deal about a new version of Windows? According to the 17 or so emails I have had from Microsoft so far on the subject - the "Wow" starts now -, whatever that means in Latvian. Bill Gates himself asserts with characteristic understatement that this is "by far the most important release of Windows ever" and "the highest quality release we've ever done" which will no doubt result in a collective sigh of relief from help desk workers everywhere. It also coincides with the release of the rather more prosaically named 2007 version of Office, Microsoft's other great money spinner.

So what's new in Vista? According to informed industry opinion the new buttons look gorgeous and animated backgrounds are very funky especially as you probably won't have enough processing power left to actually do any work. It is also rather harder to infringe other people's copyright in various vaguely irritating ways. But enough of the grumpy old man cynicism because in economic terms at least, a major release of Windows is a very big deal indeed.

Vista has been five years in the making, a project that has involved 10,000 people and is estimated to have cost £10 billion, more expensive in fact than the Channel Tunnel which puts it into perspective both as a feat of engineering and as an indication of the financial strength of Microsoft which has financed the development without any noticeable pain. All that investment has resulted in a product which is prettier, more secure and easier to use, with better searching and a far more integrated feel when managing digital media. But it's still Windows which is pretty similar to the latest version of Apple's operating system and not that different from the latest version of Linux, the free version of the UNIX operating system (Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu one of the most popular versions of Linux is based on Circular Road incidentally).

Unlike the Channel Tunnel most industry analysts see the investment in Vista as a pretty safe bet for Microsoft. It will come preinstalled on the vast majority of new computers purchased over the next few years; this channel known as the OEM market has been the backbone of Microsoft's success since Bill Gates acquired the rights to a product called QDOS for $50,000 in 1981, shortly before the release of the original IBM PC. Renamed as MS DOS, this rapidly became the standard operating system on what were then known as IBM compatible computers and the rest is history (as was the IBM PC almost).

There is something of a symbiosis between the major PC manufacturers and Microsoft. A new version of Windows creates a demand for new more powerful PC's to fully enjoy the Vista eye candy, whilst Microsoft sells vast numbers of new licences almost by default as consumers and businesses upgrade their systems.

But Vista isn't just about the PC. In the consumer market at least the lines between different sectors are continuing to blur. Digital music and now downloadable films are becoming increasingly mainstream. Modern LCD televisions are capable of supporting PC screen resolutions and broadcasters like Sky are packing more and more computing power, hard disk space and networking technology into their set top boxes. Also, more and more software is becoming available directly through the web browser so that there is no need for a local copy of Office just to do a bit of word processing.

These changes are so profound that some analysts are asking if this will be the last major Windows release. Personally, I doubt it - I'm sure this chicken still has legs. But I do agree that there remains a gaping hole in the market for a product which gives a non technical user access to the internet, decent photo, video and music functions and a simple word processor without the complexity and security worries people still associate with any PC operating system.

If Vista doesn't pass the grandma test (no offence Mum) then maybe it will turn out to be a turkey after all!