This beta is coming just a bit later than the first half of the year target set by Microsoft. It does seem that there isn't much give in the Vista schedule. How much room is there for a couple of minor delays along the way while still making Vista widely available by next Christmas?
Oh, I don't know. You're asking for a prediction that I can't give you. I mean, one of the things that we did is, we've already been running Beta 2. So we were doing that concurrently with finishing Beta 1. So at one level I'm feeling confident that we were able to do that, which is something that in the past we haven't been able to do very well, but now because of the new processes we've put in place, we're able to run it in parallel. So I don't know. We are very focused to make next year. We're not going to skimp on quality, but we are very focused to make next year.
In the past, Microsoft executives had said there should be a way with Windows Vista to get a laptop that's both a Media Centre and a Tablet PC. Is there more you can say about what flavours Vista will come in?
No, no; not yet, not yet.
There's been a discussion of a concept called InfoCards that would store authentication details. Has Microsoft decided whether to include that as part of Vista, and what that might look like?
I don't think we've made anything public on that yet, so no comment on that.
Microsoft announced the official name for this release of Windows — Vista — sooner than it has for some past versions. Is that to try and sort of remove the concept of Longhorn, which had morphed quite a bit from its original inception?
No. No, the work was done on a name six months, maybe nine months, ago, and for once we were able to keep a secret. And so I actually consider this to be just great marketing in the sense that we typically pick the names way too late.
If you talk to naming consultant types and you ask them about operating system names, with Tiger and Panther, they would say, well, that conveys a sense of energy. What do you hope customers will sense with Vista?
That it brings clarity, that it's about making things clearer, and it's pretty simple. I mean, we think that name, it can bring clarity to the clutter that you've got today, and the overload of information, and can bring perhaps a little vision into the future.
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Talkback
As usual, think before you do and certainly before SP1 has been mass installed in plenty of operational environments worldwide. Or haven't you learned and experienced anything by know?
1 Aug 05 23:06 ReplyI like the question about the on/off state of the computer, I some some R&D in MS that allows a user to turn off the computer and all the windows, their positions, history, documents etc... remained as is so when loading up again it was as if I had never left (great if I need to cook my dinner for an hour or so). I would expect when leaving the computer still on but not functioning that the whole idea of a computer eHome server always-on theory comes into play, everyones heard about controlling and monotoring the home from a portable device remotely but this requires the PC to be on even when out, so this could go some one to that.
2 Aug 05 01:02 ReplySeem as though I will not be able to test the new OS anytime along its development cycle it would be nice to have an official forum on the MS site so users can ask questions and possibly request actions taken, but I guess in Vistas early stages that's not viable, but a forum all the same would be nice.
Samuel, UK
P.S. well done ZDnet for getting this interview
KDE for *nix has the 'restore session' functions (browser & apps open where you left them) that Samuel mentions - it's surprising MS have not caught up there. I believe the next IE will have tabbed browsing, another nice feature MS have been slow about implementing.
3 Aug 05 21:19 ReplyIt will be interesting to see if Vista has any completely original features not seen elsewhere before? (this is not meant in a sarcastic way)
The beta is pretty cool. It has some hefty bugs, but what does one expect at this stage? My favourite aspect is the ability to drag a slider up & down to control the size that icons are displayed in an explorer window. And if you choose Picture view, it shows an open folder with 'pages' containing your JPG files or whatever.
5 Aug 05 15:13 ReplyVery promising seeing as it's only a developer beta.
There were a lot of words missed out in this interview as large areas made no sense. unless ZDNET just took them out jim allchin has to have a poor grasp of english or a very racey thought process.
9 Aug 05 14:25 ReplyDid Jim Alchin REALLY say ....but also to allow major changes to be made by malicious sortware!!
9 Aug 05 17:14 ReplyIf so we may have worse virus problems than we have with XP