WinInfo Daily Update, October 2, 2006: EU Expands Its Probe of Vista

NETWORK TESTING LABS COMPARES ARGENT TO MOM 2005
http://www.argent.com/w/whitepapers_mom.html?Source=WNT

Visit our sponsor, who brings you WinInfo Daily Update:

==== SPONSOR: Argent Software

NETWORK TESTING LABS COMPARES ARGENT TO MOM 2005
Network Testing Labs, one of the world's leading independent research companies, concluded that "Argent's suite had a smaller footprint, was more scalable, supported more platforms, had a more responsive and intuitive user interface and gave us more useful reports," the report says. "Argent's suite of monitoring products emerged from our testing with flying colors."

Download this FREE Comparison Paper now:
http://www.argent.com/w/whitepapers_mom.html?Source=WNT

==== IN THE NEWS

- EU Expands Its Probe of Vista
- Microsoft: Businesses to Embrace Vista in Record Numbers

by Paul Thurrott, [email protected]

EU Expands Its Probe of Vista

According to a report in "The Financial Times," European Union (EU) antitrust officials in the European Commission (EC) have expanded their investigation of Microsoft's upcoming OS, Windows Vista. The EC is now investigating whether the inclusion of encryption and handwriting-recognition features in Vista will undermine Microsoft's competition.

Microsoft was allegedly warned of these concerns in a letter in July, said "The Financial Times." So far, it's unclear whether the software giant has responded.

However, Microsoft has been quite busy responding to other EU complaints lately. The EU is also investigating whether Vista security and page-publishing features are anticompetitive. Coincidentally, security firm McAfee paid for a full-page ad in the print version of today's "The Financial Times," stating that Microsoft is using "flawed logic" to deny access to the Vista kernel. In previous Windows versions, both hackers and security firms were able to alter the kernel at runtime, but Microsoft doesn't offer this capability in Vista, for legitimate reasons or otherwise.

Microsoft: Businesses to Embrace Vista in Record Numbers

Less than a month before Microsoft is set to complete development of Windows Vista, the company is predicting that businesses will adopt the new OS twice as quickly as they did Vista's predecessor, Windows XP. This prediction stands in sharp contrast to the opinions of most IT analysts, who warn that businesses will move quite slowly to Vista.

"Our goal is to have twice as fast deployment of Vista than for any other operating system," said Microsoft General Manager Brad Goldberg. "Vista is built for businesses."

To meet Microsoft's publicly stated goals, Vista will have to be deployed on 20 percent of business desktops by November 2007. (XP reached about 10 percent of business desktops after one year on the market.) The 20 percent goal seems lofty, given the relatively staid pace at which corporations typically upgrade. But the migration to XP went much more slowly than expected because Microsoft released XP so quickly after Windows 2000. Businesses have now been waiting an unprecedented five years for a major Windows release. The demand, according to Microsoft, is there.

Analysts disagree. Both IDC and Gartner expect Vista adoption by businesses to be in the 10 to 11 percent range in the first year, basically identical to XP's adoption. The reason? Corporations upgrade on their own schedules and aren't beholden to Microsoft's schedule. There are also fears that compatibility problems and training costs will balance out any security and deployment benefits that Vista brings.

Regardless of corporate adoption, however, Vista's sales outlook appears healthy. The OS will be installed on more than 100 million new PCs next year alone, and one might expect similar sales each year after that. Jim Allchin, co-president of Microsoft's Platforms and Services Division, recently wrote an open letter to developers in which he noted that "some 200 million people will be using Windows Vista within the first 24 months of launch."

==== EVENTS AND RESOURCES

Uncover Essential Windows Knowledge Through Excavator
Try out the ultimate vertical search tool--Windows Excavator. Windows Excavator gives you fast, thorough third-party information while filtering out unwanted content. Visit http://www.winexcavator.com today!

==== FEATURED WHITE PAPER

Examine the threats of allowing unwanted or offensive content into your network and learn about technologies and methodologies for defending against inappropriate content, spyware, IM, and P2P.

http://www.windowsitpro.com/whitepapers/stbernard/internetaccess/index.cfm?code=1004featwp

==== ANNOUNCEMENT

Monthly Online Pass--only $5.95 per month!
Includes instant online access to every article ever written in Windows IT Pro, as well as the latest digital issue. Sign up now:

https://store.pentontech.com/index.cfm?s=1&promocode=eu206Aum

==== CONTACT US

About the newsletter -- [email protected]
About technical questions -- http://www.windowsitpro.com/forums
About product news -- [email protected]
About your subscription -- [email protected]
About sponsoring an UPDATE -- [email protected]

==== BY THE WAY

Be sure to add [email protected] to your list of allowed senders and contacts.

Take a look at all of our technology newsletters:

http://www.windowsitpro.com/email/

This email newsletter is by the same people who create Windows IT Pro Magazine every month. Check it out!

http://www.winnetmag.com/rd.cfm?code=00ep204xeb

http://www.windowsitpro.com/