Guys & Gals, I won't think less of you when you see the light....

--Rugg

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After five years of hard work and 9 billion dollars worth of investments, Windows Vista fails to provide an answer to a simple question: “Who needs it?”

Ever since 2002, Microsoft has not missed a single chance to tell how revolutionary, how reliable and how special the new Windows would be (dubbed Longhorn up to 2005).

However, under the pressure of time, competition and many other factors, some services have been eliminated; others have been rethought while others have not even been mentioned again.

The final result? An operating system whose hardware requirements are met only by half of the computers currently used in the US (there’s no point mentioning the rest of the world), an OS which brings several significant transformations to what Windows has meant so far.

The first and most talked about change that Windows Vista brings is its new graphic interface, also known as Aero (the simple truth that can not be avoided is that Aero is inspired by Apple).

In order to support Aero, a PC must have at least 1GB of RAM and a video card of 256 MB RAM. Although the new interface is spectacular, it’s hard to believe that there will be a great number of companies or users willing to pay for it.

The interface is not the only major change though that Windows Vista brings.

Windows vista is the first OS designed and created after Bill Gates’s famous e-mail, through which he was asking employees and colleagues to be especially careful about security. Thus the long, 5 year journey began, with this concept of trustworthy computing in mind; this weekend brought it nearer to its end.

Microsoft says Windows Vista is the safest operating system ever. The users’ login system management has been modified almost completely, applications no longer have easy access to Windows’ basic components and these are but few of the changes the Redmond company has made.

Microsoft has wanted to lose its label of unsafe OS so badly, acquired through Windows 95 and Windows 98, that it invested heavily in security, purchasing companies and products and even starting a bit of a conflict with established producers such as McAfee and Symantec.

Nevertheless, from what has been shown so far, Windows Vista doesn’t get rid of the necessity to install an anti-virus, a firewall and even an antispyware program. That all this comes under the name of MicrosoftOneCare is a matter of personal taste, but users should not hold the wrong impression that, once Windows Vista installed, their security problems become history while their PCs become bona fide fortresses before hackers.

Another function that Windows Vista hopes to seduce consumers with is a new search engine that those prone to sarcasm once again say is inspired by Apple. Due to pressure coming from Google, Microsoft has invested enormous sums of money not only in MSN Search, but also in the new Windows Live Search platform, and implicitly, in its sequel.

Despite the effort, the kind of search that Windows Vista is proposing is still inferior to that provided by Google Desktop Search, a free application offered by the Google company.

To conclude, Windows Vista is a sum of useful functions and updates that a 2006 OS would be expected to bring, but it doesn’t provide anything more than what Windows XP itself offers, for example.

The latter’s advantage is precisely the fact that it has been on the market for five years, and that in this time period all programs, both possible and impossible, have been designed and launched, programs which can control virtually any aspect, from graphic interface to an operating system’s security.

As it is, Gartner itself has not given Windows Vista much credit compared to Windows XP. The analysis company estimates that PCs running on Vista will not outnumber those running on XP before 2010.

Has Windows Vista arrived too late for Microsoft? Considering the hardware specs, the market is not prepared yet for such an OS, but analyzing things from the perspective of functions offered by Vista, there isn't a single one customers would crowd stores for.

Maybe it would have been safer for Microsoft to concentrate on a Windows XP SP3 now and launch Windows Vista at a later time. All these options are no longer unavailable unfortunately, and history can’t be changed. Microsoft has taken the Vista road: there’s no turning back and all that’s left for the company is to realize where it’s taking it.