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Microsoft Vista - I Can See Clearly Now!

I recently had a robust discussion with a close, Microsoft, friend on the upcoming release of the Microsoft Vista - The Home Edition. Not its official designation, but just like the typical board game, it'll take a while to understand, a little longer to get good at and eventually become as addicting and important as board games with the kids on Saturday night.

Now far be it for me to shout at the wind, but as I was telling him, I can already predict the issues with Vista even before the consumer version hits store shelves. Now in full disclosure, I could simply check out the Zolved.com archives of issues and questions but what would be the fun in doing that. I could be like CNET and actually do some product research or heaven forbid actually try a beta of the product to write this blog ... but that would ruin the surprise if I am right! After all, good prognostication takes place pre-game not after it's been played.

Now it was just about at this point where my friend started spouting Balmerisms and Gatespeak about revolutionizing the way we use computers, convergence and bringing the web search experience home to the desktop - like it was your girlfriend being brought home to meet your parents. Now I don't doubt that the upcoming capacities will greatly empower users, but what will version 1.0 of the product really function like?.

Sub-par product quality on new product releases has followed all of Microsoft's new introductions. Now in truth, I don't blame Microsoft for this entirely. I blame you and me too. You see in an increasingly price sensitive world, full of lightening fast change, companies are forced to bring products to market more cheaply, more quickly and often with substandard R&D and QC. And we allow this (heck expect it) by still supporting these products and rushing all gaga to get the newest and the brightest. In Microsoft's case, they're trying desperately to maintain their domination in a world that is increasingly becoming web-centric and distributed. Two open source derivatives that don't mix well with billion dollar monopolistic returns. For high tech companies, that means be the first to market or die. XBox lagged behind PS2 in sales when it came out after it, but XBox 360 (out first) kicks PS3 at the time of this writing.

In my view, homes of the future will utilize central informational hubs and high bandwidth pipelines for distributed work for audio and video communications, processing, web, broadcast video, UGen video, appliance diagnostics and operations, household monitoring and environmental systems, etc. Why buy increasingly large storage systems when on-board ROM and small flash card storage devices will power peripherals? Increasing large storage needs will drive the leased storage space industry where for a few dollars a month, you'll be able to securely access terabytes of space via the web. Software will eventually be licensed for a monthly subscription fee ensuring people always have access to the newest software and versions. A plethora of peripherals will be integrated and require the ability to seamlessly communicate and share data. Microsoft wants its operating system to be the base platform that holds the whole thing together. To get there, they have to start with the pc and update its capabilities which brings us to Vista. Be everything to everybody and it'll have to be really large. The more code, the bigger the chance for error. The more it tries to be open for all, the higher the risk for security breach. Sufficient out of the box for the 60% of the people that know enough to use and self-service the product under average conditions. However, the newby 20% will expect Vista to be childproof while the fickle top 20% will expect it to be as powerful and wise as Gandalf from Lord of the Rings, Vista will come with challenges fueling tons of activity on Zolved. Expect a Vista dedicated channel in the weeks to come and expect to see issues along these lines.

- Lost files and data in transition from lower versions of Windows to Vista.

- Third party software compatibility with Vista.

- Unexpected system crashes and hang-ups.

- At least one major security hole identified in first 30 days of launch.

- Trouble accessing older file types and extensions from Microsoft products like Outlook, etc.

Join the unbiased and uninformed prognostication revolution and suggest some issues you expect to see arise by commenting below. Together, we'll see what the Vista is like tomorrow!