Is Microsoft squeezing out Vista?

Nobody wants to be the middle child – overshadowed by your popular big brother and with all the attention on the young and freshest member of the family; but this is the role that Vista has found itself in.

Windows XP has been given a whole new lease of life by the low-cost market which is growing hugely in a global economy trembling at the credit crunch. A couple of months ago Microsoft bit the bullet and confirmed that it would support XP beyond its original ‘death’ date – the moment an OS becomes unsupported by the manufacturer.

And now that offer has been rolled out to ‘nettops’ the rather revolting name for the growing market in low cost desktop PCs that are used primarily for surfing and Instant Messenger.

Sensible

In another era this would have been a mere blip for new OS – it makes sense for Microsoft to extend the life of a popular product that suits a whole new niche market – and the higher end computers are still going to be Vista focused.

But, the problem is that the shelf life of Vista is already running out.

Microsoft would never say that it has lost faith in its flagship product, but its decision to showcase its successor Windows 7 and begin to talk about ‘learning the lessons’ from the Vista launch smacks of a company that is biding its time until it has a better product for the market.

Problems

Let’s face it, Vista’s problems have been there for all to see.

Primarily, Vista just didn’t feel like a big enough step for Windows – whereas even XP had a wow factor that made people feel like they should update to really get the best out of their computers, Vista seemed like a minor evolution.

It may be the most secure OS of all time, but for the vast majority of the public this extra security is not something that they see helping their everyday tasks.

Computer security is a bit like health insurance – everyone knows that they should have it, but it doesn’t mean they especially want to think about it or put it high on the list of things that they desire from their computer.

Indeed the more invasive bits of the security –- the popups asking ‘are you sure?’ for instance – annoy people rather than reassure them.

Aero graphics, DirectX 10, all the bells and whistles seemed somehow less than the sum of their parts – and then there were the problems.

Any new OS has teething trouble, but the lack of driver support and the perceived lack of a speedy reaction to this hamstrung Vista has left people holding off on updating.

And that lag was enough for further doubts to creep in and start the questions about whether it was really worth it after all.

That’s not to say that Vista is an abject failure – it’s sold a lot of copies after all and it does offer some major improvements over its predecessor – but it certainly hasn’t been a roaring success.

On borrowed time

And now the OS is on borrowed time before it is replaced. It’s being squeezed by the resurgence of XP and squashed by the hype of its successor.

Microsoft’s insistence that those people holding out for Windows 7 should update to Vista anyway remind me of a board’s vote of confidence for a beleaguered football manager. The words say one thing, but the fact they had to be said at all make it pretty clear what people actually think.

Which leads me to the following conclusion: For Vista, the light at the end of the XP tunnel is actually the oncoming juggernaught of Windows 7.