Windows Vista finished after 5 years

10 November 2006

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Posted by:Ferry

Microsoft has announced that it has finished the new version of its Windows computer operating system, Windows Vista. Microsoft confirmed the formal introduction date for large corporate users will be November 30, 2006, with a marketing event in New York. Windows Vista will be available for the home and small-business market, both installed on PCs and sold separately, on January 30, 2007.

Vista comes five years after the previous version, Windows XP, was introduced. Part of the reason development takes so long is that Windows, the dominant desktop operating system, is the keystone in a vast industry ecosystem of more than a hundred personal computer makers worldwide and thousands of hardware device manufacturers and software companies, whose technology must work well and secure with each new version of Windows.

This week, one of those companies, Nvidia, a leading maker of chips for computer graphics, introduced its GeForce 8800 GTX graphics card tailored to work with Windows Vista and interact with its DirectX 10.

Windows Vista is expected to stimulate PC sales next year, helping lift worldwide growth from 8% this year to 10% or 12% next year, analysts said. Consumers, who now account for 40% of PC sales, are expected to move more quickly toward Vista than corporate buyers.

That will help lift the industry, and add an extra $1.6 billion to Microsoft’s revenue in 2007, Richard Sherlund, an analyst at Goldman Sachs, estimated for the NYTimes.