Acer: PC Industry Disappointed with Vista

In an interview with Financial Times Deutschland, the president of global #3 PC manufacturer Acer once again conveyed his overall disappointment with the lack of contribution he believes Microsoft's Windows Vista provides to PC sales. Though Gianfranco Lanci's comments were only briefly excerpted, for the first time, Lanci purported to speak not just for Acer but for his competitors as well, telling the paper, "Die gesamte Industrie ist enttäuscht über Windows Vista." ("The entire industry is disappointed with Windows Vista.")
Most likely, Lanci's comments were in Italian and translated into German. But a summary of his explanation by FTD points to two factors, the second being what he characterized as Vista's relative instability and lack of maturity. Lanci and other manufacturers had apparently hoped for a surge in sales comparable to what Windows XP and its predecessors provided.
Microsoft Shares Details on Windows 7

Forget another five-year wait for the next version of Windows. Microsoft has shared a few details of its next-generation operating system, tentatively named "Windows 7," due in 2010. The next version will come in both 32 and 64-bit versions, and include both business and consumer versions. Microsoft is also looking into the concept of subscription service as a way to extend the functionality of the operating system.
More importantly, the company is now focusing on Windows Vista Service Pack 1, which some news sources are saying may be available by the end of the year. "As part of our ongoing outreach to enterprise customers and partners, Microsoft has begun sharing plans for how they will continue to deliver value to businesses in the future, including Software Assurance customers in particular," Microsoft said in a statement.
Microsoft Reminds: No Vista SP1 This Year

Following reports that Microsoft would deliver a beta of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 this week, well before the originally-stated November date, the company has taken the unusual step of issuing a statement to quell any expectation, saying no changes have been made to the release timeframe.
The first news of a Vista SP1 beta arriving this week came from Microsoft watcher Mary Jo Foley, who cited sources that said a release would be made to a group of select testers. Although Foley never specified how widespread the beta would be, and never characterized it as a public release, the news quickly circled the Web.
Microsoft Updates Vista Assessment Tool

Those still considering whether to make the jump to Windows Vista will have additional help with today's 2.0 release of Microsoft's Vista Hardware Assessment Tool. The application takes inventory of a computer system and makes recommendations if upgrades are required.
Version 2.0 of the Assessment Tool is primarily designed for businesses with a large number of systems networked together. It automatically connects to each PC and acquires the necessary information through Microsoft's WMI protocol, and can handle up to 25,000 systems per domain. The tool also prepares reports displaying how many systems are Vista-ready, and assesses compatibility with Office 2007 as well. The download, when it goes live, will be available here.
End of Vista Family Discount Upsets Some

Even though Microsoft had already warned users that its Family Discount Program would be ending on June 30, it still hasn't stopped some from taking issue with the move.
Windows Vista team member Nick White reminded consumers of the program's imminent demise in a blog post to the Windows Vista web log Wednesday afternoon. When it was announced, the company also added a sunset clause as well.
Adobe Lightroom 1.1 Supports Vista

Adobe on Wednesday rolled out version 1.1 of its Photoshop Lightroom application, the company's image processing application for professional photographers. The update brings support for Windows Vista, a new image management system, improved noise reduction and sharpening, and additional RAW file support.
"Although the beta period has ended, we are happy to say that Photoshop Lightroom continues to incorporate user feedback with this latest update," remarked Lightroom product manager Tom Hogarty. Adobe's goal with Lightroom is to offer consumers the simplest such tool for managing RAW files, and the company says it has no plans to compete with Apple's Aperture feature-wise. The update, for Mac and Windows, is free to existing customers. Photoshop Lightroom is priced at $299 USD.
Google Moves Vista Desktop Search Complaint to New Venue

In what could be the company's only option for prolonging its complaint about Microsoft's deployment of its Windows Desktop Search component in Windows Vista, Google - which many believed had actually won a concession from Microsoft last week - has filed an amicus brief with the US district court overseeing Microsoft's compliance in its antitrust settlement with the US Justice Dept.
As first discovered by Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporter Todd Bishop, Google's brief asks the court to effectively compel the Justice Dept. -- which is charged with overseeing Microsoft's conduct with regard to compliance with court order -- to reveal more information about what Microsoft agreed to do.
Vista Security Report Raises More Doubts Than It Relieves

When Microsoft's director of its Security Technology Unit Jeffrey Jones previewed a report that was soon to be published about the number of reported and addressed vulnerabilities in Windows Vista over the first six months of its consumer market shelf life, at TechEd in Orlando two weeks ago, the generally confused and negative reaction among attendees who ended up arguing with Jones for most of the session, prompted BetaNews (who was there) to decide that, amid the other news emerging that week, it wasn't worth covering.
The essence of the report is that Windows Vista had a far fewer number of reported security vulnerabilities during its first six months not only than Windows XP after its introduction, as recorded in the US National Vulnerability Database, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 WS, Ubuntu 6.06 Long Term Support Desktop, Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10, and Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger).
Windows Vista SP1 Beta Due This Year

Within its recent response to the United States Department of Justice that stated it would modify Windows Vista to enable end users and OEMs to change the default desktop search it uses, Microsoft for the first time discussed Service Pack 1 for the OS, saying a beta will come this year.
Microsoft has remained unusually silent about its SP1 plans for Vista, encouraging users and businesses not to wait for the first major upgrade. With a beta slated for the end of 2008 2007, Vista users could see the final version of SP1 by the middle of next year. For the update, Windows Desktop Search will continue to run in the background, but other programs such as Google Desktop Search can replace Microsoft's results - if the user chooses to do so via a link. Few other details are known about Vista SP1 at this time.
Who Flipped and Who Flopped on Microsoft's Vista Virtualization Licensing?

Last February, a Microsoft Windows Vista client team product manager was quoted by the Associated Press as having said that his company actively considered canceling virtualization support in Vista after a Black Hat security demonstrator showed a tool that could leverage virtualization capabilities to make the operating system blindly run within a malware hypervisor. That claim has since been denied by Microsoft representatives who work more closely with, or who lead, its virtualization projects.
This morning, sources cited the same team product manager, Scott Woodgate, as having indicated his company would be announcing a licensing change to Windows Vista with respect to virtualization, perhaps today. Consumers were to expect Vista licenses adjustments to enable Vista Home Basic and Vista Home Premium editions to run in virtualized environments, perhaps supported by Mac OS X or VMware. When such an announcement did not come, and when the company issued a brief statement to reporters indicating it would not come, it was reported that Microsoft "flip-flopped" on virtualization.
Microsoft Concedes to Google and States, Will Change Vista Search

In agreeing to make what could be described technically as a minor change to the way it handles its options for consumer desktop search, Microsoft last night may have made its most symbolically significant statement to date with regard to its current stance in the technology market: It backed down, in response to a complaint from Google that its placement of desktop search capabilities within Windows Vista constituted a breach of its antitrust settlement agreement with the US and states' governments regarding middleware.
The question centered around Windows Desktop Search, a feature built into Vista but which essentially competes with Google Desktop Search, which a user must download separately and install intentionally. Google filed a formal complaint, which it never formally acknowledged or even publicly mentioned, but whose existence was finally entered into the public record yesterday by the US Justice Dept.
Cost of Vista Business License Offset by Savings, Says Microsoft

For a great many large businesses, "the move to the next Windows" has been an ongoing, daily affair for at least well over a decade. And up until recently, the reasons why this migration tends to proceed so slowly have been, to Microsoft, a complete mystery.
If the company can just get Vista pushed out to the corporate desktop, its foot will be in the door just enough, it believes, to make enough of a clearance to push through its more profitable business services: SharePoint, BizTalk, Office Communications, Exchange, audio and video.
TechEd 2007: Vista's Priorities Now Favor Media Player, Russinovich Demos

ORLANDO - Perhaps the closest thing to a rock star you find at a technology conference is a guy whose talks are so good, that the same attendees will attend their encore performances. If anyone makes a list of three "rock stars" at TechEd, one of them would have to be Mark Russinovich, the former SysInternals security engineer, now a Technical Fellow with Microsoft.
Russinovich's "Kernel Changes" talks are among the "must see" items on attendees' schedules, and is often the only place where you can find them walking up to the podium to shake the presenter's hand and introduce themselves...before the session begins. Each time, Russinovich mixes the talk up a bit. This time around, he used virtual XP and Vista sessions to demonstrate an interesting new set of priorities on the part of the operating system, as provided by Multimedia Class Scheduler Service.
Adobe Reader 8.1 Brings Vista Support

Adobe on Tuesday released the first major update to both Acrobat and Reader 8.0, adding support for Windows Vista and remote printing capabilities through a partnership with FedEx Kinko's. Version 8.1 (download from FileForum) also brings integration with Microsoft Office 2007.
Acrobat users can now export Office documents to PDF files by right clicking, as well as preview multi-page PDF files from without Outlook 2007. Adobe has additionally added Flash movie playback for Mac users, removing the need to use QuickTime. The new "Send to FedEx Kinko's" toolbar button quickly sends a document to the company's remote printing service, primarily designed for business users when traveling.
Vista Edition of Halo 2 Delayed Due to Nudity

Hoping to avoid a "Hot Coffee" type incident, Microsoft said Friday that it is delaying the Vista release of Halo 2 to the first week of June, approximately two weeks behind schedule. At issue is the discovery of partial nudity in one of the scenes within the game, the company says. The issue is not easily found during game play, and has since been fixed.
The rating on the game will not change as the first run of discs are the only ones to include the content. A warning label will be placed on those discs, and a patch made available to remove the offending content. Subsequent shipments would have the patch pre-applied at the factory.
© 1998-2025 BetaNews, Inc. All Rights Reserved. About Us - Privacy Policy - Cookie Policy - Sitemap.