Choices Multiply as Vista Arrives
As the VAR Guy sipped his morning coffee, he couldn’t help but notice Window Vista ads filling the Sunday newspaper.
Windows Vista debuts in the consumer channel on January 30. Dell began taking orders for Vista this weekend. Big retailers such as CompUSA plan to open their doors at 10pm on Monday for special Vista promotions, and will begin selling the operating system at midnight. Office superstores such as Staples are offering a free 1GB flash drive and free installation for buyers who want to upgrade their existing PCs to Vista. For systems builders, specialty retailers like Micro Center are offering OEM licenses for Vista.
Vista will likely fuel new PC sales, but this isn’t the second coming of Windows 95. That release–with built-in TCP/IP support, 32-bit preemptive multitasking and a refined user interface–was a radical improvement over Windows 3.x. By contrast, most testers–including eWeek, Fortune and The Wall Street Journal–applaud Vista but stop short of calling it a must-have upgrade.
The world certainly welcomes a more reliable, more secure Windows. But at what price? Micro Center is charging OEMs from $99 to $199 for Vista. The operating system doesn’t run too well with anything less than 1GB of memory. And The VAR Guy still isn’t willing to trust Microsoft with security issues. When he takes Vista for a run, he’ll continue to turn to third-party software providers–such as McAfee, Symantec and Trend Micro.
Vista’s broad arrival represents an inflection point for VARs. It’s an opportunity to determine if Microsoft spent its time wisely developing Vista over the past five years. And it’s also an ideal time to weigh Vista’s merits against Apple’s forthcoming Mac OS Leopard; and desktop Linux options from Novell, Red Hat and Ubuntu.
Some VARs and customers will surely migrate from Windows to Apple and Linux alternatives. Most VARs, however, will build a business case for Visa. Either way, this is a great moment for the software industry; a time when businesses and consumers truly have innovative choices on the desktop.
