Vista still not approved by Abacus 21 for System-441

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Microsoft Vista Update
July 17, 2009

Microsoft Vista™ -

In follow-up to our June 2008 evaluation, Abacus 21 has still not found MicroSoft's Vista™ Operating System of a standard to qualify for certification.

We are not alone in this assessment. For example, NewsFactor notes that:

Mike Kent, newsfactor.com Tue Jun 24, 4:51 PM ET

With many business and individual PC users rejecting Windows Vista, Microsoft took an unprecedented step this week by promising support for Windows XP for a full 13 years. That is three years longer than it has allowed for previous Windows operating systems.

In a letter sent to customers this week, Bill Veghte, a Microsoft vice president, also seemed to confirm that Windows 7 will be released in 2010. That OS, Veghte wrote, will ship "approximately three years" after Vista became available in January 2007.

Avoiding Vista

Meantime, security patches and updates to Windows XP will be provided until April 2014, Veghte promised. In what could be considered an understatement, he wrote, "Our ongoing support for Windows XP is the result of our recognition that people keep their Windows-based PCs for many years."

Many large businesses have avoided upgrading to Windows Vista, which has been plagued with widely publicized problems, including incompatibilities with drivers for legacy hardware and applications. Upgrading to Vista could also be very expensive for enterprises that would need to upgrade older hardware. Many businesses and individuals have opted to buy Windows XP on new PCs.

While June 30 remains the cutoff date for selling Windows XP, retailers such as Dell are still selling preconfigured PCs with XP. And enterprises with volume licensing contracts will still be able to install XP even on new machines.

Downgrade Option

In addition, Microsoft has promoted a licensing loophole that allows new hardware buyers to purchase Windows Vista and then downgrade it to a previous version of Windows. Microsoft has cited such purchases as evidence of support for Vista, but many Web postings have disputed that.

"It's true that we will stop selling Windows XP as a retail packaged product and stop licensing it directly to major PC manufacturers," Veghte's letter says. "But customers who still need Windows XP will be able to get it."

Microsoft will also continue to sell a version of Windows XP to makers of low-cost computers through June 2010. Such machines as the Asus Eee PC are incapable of running Vista and the alternative would be for the makers to install open-source Linux as the operating system.

And, here is yet-another Tech-Article (published June 29th):

Oh, the irony of the situation. On the eve of the official retirement of Bill Gates from Microsoft today, Intel has indicated in a published report that it will not be deploying Microsoft’s current flagship operating system — Windows Vista.

As with almost everybody else, the leaked reason was because Intel found “no compelling reason” to upgrade to Vista. Still, this is particularly embarrassing given the closeness of the two company’s business relationship and branding over the years. Excerpt from InformationWeek:

Intel isn’t alone in its decision to bypass Vista. Most large corporations have not upgraded their PCs to Vista, despite the fact that it’s now been on the market for 18 months and that a service pack designed to fix a number of bugs was recently released by Microsoft.

So there you have it, computers running on Vista might have “Intel Inside”, but Microsoft’s latest and greatest operating system won’t be finding its way inside Intel any time soon.

I don’t know about you, but if I were looking for a reason to persuade management not to switch to Windows Vista, this must be it.

Abacus 21 is continuing to monitor the situation with this new Operating System.

Until you receive notification (via the Release Notes... and a general Support Announcement as well), do not utilize PC's with the Vista™ Operating System in conjunction with Abacus 21 software... as these have not yet been certified by Abacus 21.

At this point in time, it is doubtful that Vista will ever "pass muster" with respect to our products... as Microsoft is shortly going to be releasing a new generation Operating Sytem.

Note that it is still fine to run Abacus software from a Vista Workstation if it is running as Terminal Service (and the Terminal Server is not Vista).

If you have any questions, please contact Abacus 21 Support.