WINDING DOWN
An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week's net and technology news
by Alan Lenton
It's a very short Winding Down this week. There are two reasons for that. First it was the US mid-term elections, which caused virtually everything else to be put on ice while everyone awaited the result of the Virginia cliff-hanger. Second, we have been moving offices at my day job. This has completely disrupted my normal schedule, leaving me with a pile of unread material. It also left me with creaking muscles and joints. I think I'm getting too old for this sort of thing!
Of the few stories that peeped round the corner in spite of the everything else going on, the most significant one was that of Microsoft announcing the launch of Vista soon - and actually providing dates into the bargain.
At the start of the week Microsoft began the process of handing Vista over to the PC manufacturers (in the trade these are known as 'Original Equipment Manufacturers' - OEMs for short). The OEMs now have to do the work to add the fixes necessary to make Vista run on the machines they sell (this is called 'pre-loading').
This time round Microsoft is giving the OEMs 12 weeks to work their work on Vista - that's a lot longer than previous launches, and I suspect it's because Vista is more complex and requires more of the hardware than previous incarnations of Windows.
And the date for the launch? That's down as January 30 for consumers to be able to buy new machines with Vista as the operating system. You will also be able to buy an upgrade for your existing XP systems, but I'd advise against it, because most existing machines won't be able to run the new system fast enough to make it useable.
So what does Vista have to offer?
Well, if you want a truly cynical view:
1. An opportunity to spend your hard earned cash on move expensive hardware.
2. Some nice 3-D eye candy for the journalists to drool over.
3. Reduced functionality vis-a-vis XP as Microsoft seeks to exert more control over your computer via its 'security' and digital restrictions management impositions.
I suffered a massive drop in computing speed when I moved from Windows 2000 to Windows XP, in spite of a doubling of processor speed, memory and a much faster hard drive. I have the suspicion that Vista is going to be the same. In a normal competitive situation Microsoft wouldn't be able to get away with this sort of reduced functionality, but, because it has an effective monopoly on the desktop it knows that its customers have nowhere else to go.
And, incidentally, contrary to popular myth, there is nothing illegal about Microsoft's desktop monopoly. They gained it perfectly legally by the simple process of making far less silly mistakes than their competitors - unless, of course, you believe in voodoo and think Bill Gates bewitched his competitors into committing corporate suicide at the critical juncture!
And please don't write into me indignantly extolling the virtues of Linux as an alternative. I know all about Linux. My company has been using it for development work and on our servers since before some of you were born, but it simply isn't ready for the consumer desktop yet.
Why not? For a very simple reason. if you want to design a consumer desk top then you ask the geeks to code it - and there are plenty of open source programmers out there. But what you don't do is to ask geeks to design the desktop. For that you need graphic and industrial designers. And guess what? There is no tradition of working for just the praise of your peers in those two cut throat industries. One day, hopefully someone will come along with the resources to design a really useable consumer desktop for Linux and have the marketing muscle to promote it. Then there will truly be an alternative to Windows.
But don't hold your breath waiting for it...
Alan Lenton
alan@ibgames.com
12 November 2006
Alan Lenton is an on-line games designer, programmer and sociologist. His web site is at http://www.ibgames.net/alan.
Past issues of Winding Down can be found at http://www.ibgames.net/alan/winding/index.html.
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