MS OS NEWS: Windows Vista

[TechZ]

Kotaku has posted some screenshots showing the games that will come with Windows Vista. You got your Solitare, Minesweeper and FreeCell. And it looks like they are adding a few new games to the stable: Mah Jong (Microsoft's version apparently will be called Shanghai Dragons), Purple Place and Windows Vista Chess. What's interesting about the screenshots is the 3D effects, shading and animation. Even if you don't plan on playing Quake 4 on your PC, it looks like you'll have to splurge on a new machine to get the full effects for even the basic stuff.

[TechZ]

Several sites report that they found 20 different version of the coming Microsoft Windows Vista inside an .xml file. The list with so called SKUs contains one unofficial version: from the .xml file it seems that Microsoft will release an Itanium version of Vista.

The already known version are: Vista Home (Starter, Basic, and Premium), Professional, Professional Small Business, Enterprise editions and the Ultimate edition. For the Home users there will come OEM versions called Digital Boost. The European Union will get a Vista without Media Player called Basic N. Vista Ultimate will also get the regular OEM version.

Source: WinSuperSite | Extended64

Windows Vista Starter
Windows Vista Home Basic
Windows Vista Home Premium
Windows Vista Ultimate
Windows Vista Pro Standard/SB
Longhorn Enterprise Server (ADS)
Longhorn Enterprise Server - IA64
Longhorn Standard Server
Longhorn Datacenter Server
Windows Vista Pro Std/SB/Ent - VL Binding Service
Windows Vista Pro Std/SB/Ent - VLGeneric
Windows Vista Pro Std/SB/Ent - DMAK
Windows Vista Starter Digital Boost - OEM
Windows Vista Home Basic - OEM
Windows Vista Home Premium - OEM
Windows Vista Ultimate - OEM
Windows Vista Pro Standard/SB - OEM
Longhorn Enterprise Server - OEM
Windows Vista Home Basic N
Windows Vista Pro Standard N

[TechZ]

Vista To Include Antispyware Software

Following the release on Monday of the latest beta of Windows Vista, Microsoft has confirmed that it plans to integrate its antispyware software into the operating system. The move could set Microsoft in a pitched battle against Internet security vendors and potentially government antitrust regulators as the company prepares for the 2006 release of Windows Vista.

Even More Windows Vista Client/Server Product Key SKUs

Link

Windows Vista Starter
Windows Vista Home Basic
Windows Vista Home Premium
Windows Vista Ultimate
Windows Vista Pro Standard/SB
Longhorn Enterprise Server (ADS)
Longhorn Enterprise Server - IA64
Longhorn Standard Server
Longhorn Datacenter Server
Windows Vista Home Basic N
Windows Vista Pro Standard N
Windows Vista Ultimate - OCUR
Windows Vista Pro Std/SB/Ent - VL Binding Service
Windows Vista Pro Std/SB/Ent - VLGeneric
Windows Vista Pro Std/SB/Ent - DMAK
Windows Vista Starter Digital Boost - OEM
Windows Vista Starter - OEM SLP Bypass
Windows Vista Home Basic - OEM SLP Bypass
Windows Vista Home Premium - OEM SLP Bypass
Windows Vista Ultimate - OEM SLP Bypass
Windows Vista Pro Standard/SB - OEM SLP Bypass
Windows Vista Starter - OEM SLP COA
Windows Vista Home Basic - OEM SLP COA
Windows Vista Home Premium - OEM SLP COA
Windows Vista Ultimate - OEM SLP COA
Windows Vista Pro Standard/SB - OEM SLP COA
Windows Vista Starter - OEM nonSLP/SBC COA
Windows Vista Home Basic - OEM nonSLP/SBC COA
Windows Vista Home Premium - OEM nonSLP/SBC COA
Windows Vista Ultimate - OEM nonSLP/SBC COA
Windows Vista Pro Standard/SB - OEM nonSLP/SBC COA
Longhorn Storage Server - Express OEM SLP Bypass
Longhorn Storage Server - Workgroup OEM SLP Bypass
Longhorn Storage Server - Standard OEM SLP Bypass
Longhorn Storage Server - Enterprise OEM SLP Bypass
Longhorn Storage Server - Express OEM SLP COA
Longhorn Storage Server - Workgroup OEM SLP COA
Longhorn Storage Server - Standard OEM SLP COA
Longhorn Storage Server - Enterprise OEM SLP COA
Longhorn Quattro
Longhorn SBS Standard
Longhorn SBS Premium
Longhorn SBS Prime
Longhorn Centro Standard
Longhorn Centro Premium
Longhorn Centro Edge
Longhorn Server WinSB

[TechZ]

Ward Ralston, the developer who wrote the code explains on the TechNet blog about this new feature and how it differs from a shortcut:

In Vista/Longhorn server, the file system (NTFS) will start supporting a new filesystem object (examples of existing filesystem objects are files, folders etc.). This new object is a symbolic link. Think of a symbolic link as a pointer to another file system object (it can be a file, folder, shortcut or another symbolic link). So then you ask how is that different from a short-cut (the .lnk file)? Well, a shortcut will only work when used from within the Windows shell, it is a construct of the shell, and other apps don't understand short-cuts. To other apps, short-cuts look just like a file. With symbolic links, this concept is taken and is implemented within the file system. Apps when they open a symbolic link will now open the target by default (i.e. what the link points to), unless they explicitly ask for the symbolic link itself to be opened. Note symbolic links are an NTFS feature.

[TechZ]

With speculation of a ship date for Windows Vista ranging in the second part of 2006, word has surprisingly surfaced that it can be expected much earlier. BusinessWeek has received a copy of the internal blog of Chris Jones, who is a top Windows executive. The blog states that the code for Windows Vista will be completed by August 31, giving Microsoft the opportunity to place Vista on PCs for the 2006 Christmas season.

If Microsoft is able to release Vista around October 2006, the company could benefit from a major spike in sales for December '06. Five years ago when Windows XP was released, Microsoft was rewarded with record revenues of US$7.74 billion, which was an 18 percent increase over the previous year. Will Microsoft set records again in 2006 with the release of Windows Vista?

Full story: ArsTechnica

[confus-ed]

This time Jones states that consumers will not be faced with any more delays:

"If you want my personal accountability, I will not take a bonus if we don't ship Vista with high quality and the soul intact by August 32st 2006"

So would this be the soul it started with ?, or the cut down soul we got with beta 1 or the even more cut down soul, that the beta 2 specs are offering ? they pulled WinFS ages ago from the specs despite promises to the contrary & confusingly they keep adding bits into xp to test 'em, what they like to call 'back-ported' - this just sounds like previous releases of operating systems, they promise all sorts of stuff, realise that they haven't got sufficient engineering resources to test everything out & get the code tight, & release something that's not really that much better - but it seems much 'flasher', than the last thing they released a bit too early & only just finnished fixing..

[slgrieb]

Gee, -ed! Sounds like you have some reservations about Microsoft's Next Great Thing. I think we can all relax a little, because in general Redmond's new operating systems never live up to the hype, but are never as bad as we fear.

Forget all the improvements that have been pared off Vista; my big concern is that in their rush to climb into bed with the RIAA, et al on digital rights management and the push to run only digitally signed (like that makes it "Trustworthy") software and content, Microsoft may deliver an operating system that unfairly restricts the programs and content we can use.