The Next Version of Windows

The next version of Windows was announced a few months ago. It is going to be called “Windows Vista.”

This name, Vista, brings pain to me, because the manufacturing software I’ve spent the last three weeks upgrading and digging into is also called vista. But, that is neither here nor there…just an odd coincidence.

Anyway, this version of Windows was code-named “LongHorn” for a good while, and I thought that name, as well as their little symbol for it, was pretty cool. The old code-name for XP was whistler I believe.

This version of Windows is going to be bigger (installed from a DVD), prettier (“MAC OS X eat my poop” kind of pretty), and waaayyyy more intense on your video card just to run your OS. I’m talking to get gold level support for this software you are going to need either the newest video cards out (high end ones at that) or possiblely even the next generation of card that is not out yet.

So, this poses a problem for my company. My company sells industrial hardware which runs on older, more stable, and more highly tested hardware than the current consumer / retail level of product. Our most popular chipset right now is the intel 865 with integrated graphics, and the upcoming chipset (products that are just coming out or will come out in the next year) are based on the 915 chipset. These chipsets are two and one generation old respectively, when compared to current hardware.

Well, some events consipred to get me thinking that it might be useful to have the latest and greatest version of this new Windows Vista (in beta…it won’t be released until late 2006). Plus, we have recently attracted the attention of a Microsoft sales rep, because we did some big numbers from one of their major distributors.

So, a couple of emails and a few days later, and I’m running this beta of windows vista on one of our lab machines. It is an older beta, build 5112 to be exact, but in general there are some interesting improvements. I’m hoping to get updated to the latest beta soon, so I can see the neat glass-looking stuff they added, but in general it is interesting to be running legitimate beta software.

Well, anyway, that was kind of lame, but if you have any questions about whether upgrading will be worth it or not let me know. And I will post again when I get updated to the latest versions…maybe even some screenshots. I heard beta2 is coming out in Dec. or Jan., so look for an actual review then.