Vista: Microsoft's Last 'Big Bang' OS? Don't Count On It..

By Number Six

Sunday, December 03, 2006 at 01:23 PM

And in keeping with financial news, here's one about Microsoft's perpetual struggle to perpetually drive computer owners perpetually insane...

Of course, we're talking about yet another "Golly Gosh!" product from Microsoft, the new and as yet not tested Vista OS.

"Vista is the last of the Big Bang operating system releases from Microsoft," Credit Suisse research analyst Jason Maynard wrote in a report last month, the same day he forecast that the company's share price would rise 20%, from $29 to $35, within a year. That's partly on account of Vista. Microsoft is introducing higher-priced, feature-laden editions, which could help revenue from desktop Windows grow 9% to 10% during the fiscal year.

Um, not so fast, guys. I seem to recall pretty much the same was said of leaving 3-3.1-3.11 for 95 was a "huge leap forward"...and wasn't. Oh, 98 was even better....which it wasn't.

XP!...if you like tying up your DSL for 2 hours to upgrade to SP2....

A running gag among computer folks goes like this: "Intel speeds it up, Microsoft slows it down." Is this possibly true?

The truth? And this from someone who deals with this all the time: The chip makers make systems that, sadly, the old software doesn't deal well with. Owners and programmers alike want bigger, better, faster, ballsier. So, what's required? Frequent changes in the OS, that's what.

But with each new OS, comes another set of headaches, gripes, bugs, and endless "fixes" to be downloaded. 95 stank, so it had to be updated with 98, which also stank, which had to be updated by....you getting the idea here?

Meaning, each "new" OS will be as big a royal pain to deal with as the last. Big Bang? Expect even Vista to become obsolete by 2008-9. And what then will Microsoft offer?

Another Big Bang OS, of course.

Arthur C Clarke, writer, genius and scientist once said of his fictional HAL9000, as to what it might say on powerup:

"Good morning all. I've taken the liberty of removing Windows from my OS, thank you."

That would be a Big Bang, indeed!

I can't wait!