It's no shock that Windows Vista isn't, shall we say, universally loved, and it's also unsurprising that a plethora of businesses have voiced their preference to keep on runnin' their operations on Windows XP. Presumably in response, Microsoft is "quietly allowing PC makers to offer a downgrade option to buyers that get machines with the new operating system but want to switch to Windows XP," but the program only applies to Vista Business and Ultimate editions. The likes of Fujitsu, HP, Lenovo and Dell all have processes in place to ensure that customers have the ability to downgrade if they so choose, and while some firms are still selling their PCs with XP pre-installed, debates are already swirling around how long that tactic can remain in place.  

ATI GPU's
Desktop:

ATI Radeon® X1950 Series
ATI Radeon® X1900 Series
ATI Radeon® X1800 Series
ATI Radeon® X1600 Series
ATI Radeon® X1300 Series
ATI Radeon® X850 Series
ATI Radeon® X800 Series
ATI Radeon® X700 Series
ATI Radeon® X600 Series
ATI Radeon® X550 Series
ATI Radeon® X300 Series
ATI Radeon® 9800 Series
ATI Radeon® 9700 Series
ATI Radeon® 9600 Series
ATI Radeon® 9550 Series
ATI Radeon® 9500 Series
Multimedia:
ATI All-in-Wonder® X1900 Series
ATI All-in-Wonder® X1800 Series
ATI All-in-Wonder® 2006 Edition
ATI All-in-Wonder® X800 Series
ATI All-in-Wonder® X600 Series
ATI Theater 550 PRO
ATI TV Wonder Elite
ATI All-in-Wonder® 9800 Series
ATI All-in-Wonder® 9600 Series

Mobile:

ATI Mobility Radeon® HD 2600 Series (Support DirectX 10)
ATI Mobility Radeon® HD 2400 XT Series (Support DirectX 10)
ATI Mobility Radeon® HD 2400 Series (Support DirectX 10)
ATI Mobility Radeon® HD 2300 Series
ATI Radeon® Xpress 200M
ATI Mobility Radeon® X1800 Series
ATI Mobility Radeon® X1600 Series
ATI Mobility Radeon® X1400 Series
ATI Mobility Radeon® X1300 Series
ATI Mobility Radeon® X800 Series
ATI Mobility Radeon® X700 Series
ATI Mobility Radeon® X600 Series
ATI Mobility Radeon® X300 Series
ATI Mobility Radeon® 9800 Series
ATI Mobility Radeon® 9700 Series
ATI Mobility Radeon® 9600 Series
ATI Mobility Radeon® 9500 Series
ATI Mobility FireGL V5200
ATI Mobility FireGL V5000
ATI Mobility FireGL V3200
ATI Mobility FireGL V3100

Workstation:
ATI FireMV 2200 PCIE
ATI FireMV 2400 PCIE
ATI FireGL V7350
ATI FireGL V7300
ATI FireGL V7100
ATI FireGL V5100
ATI FireGL V5000
ATI FireGL V3200
ATI FireGL V3100E
ATI FireMV 2200 PCIE
ATI FireMV 2400 PCIE
--------------------------------------------------------

NVIDIA GPU's
Desktop:

GeForce 8500 GPUs (Support DirectX 10)
GeForce 7900 GPUs
GeForce 7800 GPUs
GeForce 7600 GPUs
GeForce 7300 GPUs
GeForce 6800 GPUs
GeForce 6600 GPUs
GeForce 6500 GPUs
GeForce 6200 GPUs
GeForce 6100/6150 GPUs
GeForce FX 5900 GPUs
GeForce FX 5700 GPUs
GeForce FX 5600 GPUs
GeForce FX 5500 GPUs
GeForce FX 5200 GPUs
GeForce PCX GPUs
Quadro NVS 440 GPUs (Support DirectX 10)
Quadro NVS 285 GPUs (Support DirectX 10)
Quadro NVS 280 GPUs

Mobile:
GeForce Go 7900 GPUs
GeForce Go 7800 GPUs
GeForce Go 7600 GPUs
GeForce Go 7400 GPUs
GeForce Go 7300 GPUs
GeForce Go 7200 GPUs
GeForce Go 6800 GPUs
GeForce Go 6600 GPUs
GeForce Go 6400 GPUs
GeForce Go 6200 GPUs
GeForce Go 6100/6150 GPUs
GeForce FX Go5700 GPUs
GeForce FX Go5650 GPUs
GeForce FX Go5600 GPUs
GeForce FX Go5200 GPUs
GeForce FX Go5100 GPUs
Quadro NVS 300M GPUs (Support DirectX 10)
Quadro NVS 120M GPUs (Support DirectX 10)
Quadro NVS 110M GPUs

Workstation:
Quadro FX 5500 GPUs
Quadro FX 4500 GPUs
Quadro FX 4400 GPUs
Quadro FX 4500 SDI GPUs
Quadro FX 4000 SDI GPUs
Quadro FX 4000 GPUs
Quadro FX 3500 GPUs
Quadro FX 3450 GPUs
Quadro FX 3400 GPUs
Quadro FX 3000G GPUs
Quadro FX 3000 GPUs
Quadro FX 2000 GPUs
Quadro FX 1500 GPUs
Quadro FX 1400 GPUs
Quadro FX 1300 GPUs
Quadro FX 1100 GPUs
Quadro FX 1000 GPUs
Quadro FX 600/700 GPUs
Quadro FX 540 GPUs
Quadro FX 500/540/550/560 GPUs
Quadro FX 330/350 GPUs
Quadro FX 2500M GPUs
Quadro FX 1500M GPUs
Quadro FX 350M GPUs
--------------------------------------------------------

Intel IGP's
Desktop:
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950
Intel 945G Express Chipset
--------------------------------------------------------

S3 Graphics IGP's
Desktop:
S3 Graphics Chrome S27
S3 Graphics Chrome S25
S3 Graphics GammaChrome
--------------------------------------------------------

VIA IGP's
Desktop:
VIA K8M890

Mobile:
VIA K8N890

 

 

A product manager from MS have just confirmed there has been cases where hackers were able to break the Vista's user security activation by making the machine an OEM. The vulnerability of Vista began to show when Vista Loader 2.0 was introduced last week, as an enhanced version of Vista Loader 1.0 which was devised by chinese hackers. (from cnet.)

below from Windows Geniuine Advantage blog. by alexkoc

Reported OEM BIOS Hacks

I know many of you are aware of reports of hacks that attempt to exploit our OEM BIOS based activation. We're aware of this type of hack and I wanted to take a minute to describe how these work and how we plan to respond.

First, what is OEM BIOS based activation?

Here's a little more information on how OEM BIOS based activation works. This form of product activation is also known as OEM Activation or just OA... Back at the launch of Windows XP when Microsoft introduced Windows Product Activation, we recognized that as easy as end-user activation is, it still represented an extra step. In an effort to reduce the impact of even that extra step but maintain the overall effectiveness of product activation, Microsoft worked with OEMs to develop an implementation that would work best for them and their customers while keeping the goals of product activation clearly in focus. As we looked to develop a solution, it was important to ensure that product activation technology could still deliver an acceptable degree of protection, while at the same time, reduce the need for an extra step by the end user. A couple of key factors stand out as enabling the OA 1.0 solution that was delivered in Windows XP.

Large OEMs tend to ship large numbers of PCs with Windows preinstalled. They also have the ability during their manufacturing processes to identify systems that will ship with Windows pre-installed.

Also, because of the direct relationship Microsoft has with those OEMS, the company has a higher degree of confidence that a genuine COA will be attached to each PC and that there will be accurate reporting of the number of units shipped preinstalled with Microsoft Windows.

These factors lead Microsoft and the major OEMs to place a marker in the BIOS of the OEM's motherboard to identify OEM systems that were to be pre-installed with licensed copies of Windows XP. This marker, which is added to a specific location in the BIOS of the motherboard, enables a copy of Windows XP to look for that known value in the BIOS of the motherboard and, when found, confirm it was booting on a PC that was sold by a specific OEM and licensed to boot Windows.

Not the first time

Over the years we've seen examples of BIOS editors that, with some work, allowed people to make an edited BIOS appear to be an OEM BIOS. In Windows XP this kind of BIOS editing wasn't as difficult as it is in Windows Vista and frankly, because there were easier ways to pirate Windows XP, I don't think much attention was ever paid to it. However, because Windows Vista can't be pirated as easily as Windows XP, it's possible that the increased pressure will result in more interest in efforts to hack the OEM Activation 2.0 implementation.

Windows Vistas OEM Hacks

There appear to be two primary variants of OA 2.0 hacks circulating. One is similar to the XP approach I described above where actual editing of the BIOS on the motherboard is done to make the motherboard appear to be from an OEM. It is a pretty labor-intensive process and quite risky. If you mess up editing the BIOS of any motherboard, you can quite easily render it permanently useless. So while this method works today, it's potentially hazardous and really doesn't scale well to large numbers of systems, which makes it less of a threat.

The second variant does not change anything in the BIOS itself, but uses a software-based approach to fool the OS into thinking it's running on OA 2.0-enabled hardware. And while this method is easier to implement for the end user, it's also easier to detect and respond to than a method that involves directly modifying the BIOS of the motherboard.

I do want to say something here about how we plan our responses. As I've said in the past, we focus on hacks that pose threats to our customers, partners and products. It's worth noting we also prioritize our responses, because not every attempt deserves the same level of response. Our goal isn't to stop every "mad scientist" that's on a mission to hack Windows. Our first goal is to disrupt the business model of organized counterfeiters and protect users from becoming unknowing victims. This means focusing on responding to hacks that are scalable and can easily be commercialized, thereby making victims out of well-intentioned customers.

Along with Windows Vista, Office 2007 is also available now!!! I wish I could get my hand on one of the copies but no... Soon we'll see the performance of the new HD support, directx 10 and so much more. So far, only NVDIA has lauched a new graphic support for DirectX 10, I can't wait to see some of the new games come out with all the crazy graphics.

 

I could only hope that Microsoft will be able to fix many of the existing problems, such as virus and security holes. The new vista will have the latest windows defender, though I doubt that will be any help.

 

For chinese customers, Vista has added several features exclusively. The most intriguing one is the TTS (from text to sound). This is a start of new era in info. tech. Long Live Vista!!!

 

 

CNET editors' review

Windows Vista is Microsoft's first new operating system in more than five years and the successor to Windows XP. However, it is not worth rushing out to purchase. If you desperately need to buy a new PC (if your old one died or you've been waiting and waiting for Vista to be released), then by all means do so; there's nothing wrong with Windows Vista. But there's no one compelling feature within Windows Vista that cries out to switch over, neither the enhanced graphic capabilities (Aero) nor the improved system performance features (truthfully, our Windows XP doesn't crash). As for security, most of Microsoft's improvements in Windows Vista are within the Enterprise or 64-bit editions, editions most home users will not be running. Windows Vista is not the Apple Mac OS X 10.4 killer one hoped for (or feared). Nor are there specific big-name software packages written exclusively for Windows Vista--most software available today is compatible with both Windows XP and Windows Vista. But the extensive tie-ins to Microsoft.com and Live.com, and the many, many interdependences upon Internet Explorer 7 left us desperately wanting more (and often best-of-breed) alternatives. Hard core Microsofties who live and breathe within the MSN, Live.com, and Microsoft desktop software ecosystem will rejoice with the release of Windows Vista, but for the rest of us who are product agnostic, who use Firefox, Google Desktop, ZoneAlarm, GMail, and Corel WordPerfect, Windows XP SP2 will suffice nicely until some killer program necessitates that we all upgrade to Windows Vista.

There are six major editions of Windows Vista; we're reviewing four. We chose not to review Windows Vista Enterprise (available only to volume license customers) and Windows Vista Starter (available only outside the United States). Windows Vista Ultimate includes everything, and this is the edition getting the most promotion from Microsoft. It is not the edition most people will find packaged on their shiny new PCs or will end up with after an upgrade of existing hardware. See our feature comparison chart to know which edition is right for your specific needs, and check the following individual reviews for more details:

Windows Vista Business
Windows Vista Home Premium
Windows Vista Home Basic

Setup and installation
The Windows Vista DVD disc includes a Windows Imaging (WIM) format of the entire code, so whether you buy the Home Basic edition or the Ultimate edition, the code remains the same; only the product key unlocks your specific set of features. This means users who opt for the lesser editions can always upgrade (assuming they have the proper hardware) by securing a new product key online. However, all features--even if you paid for them--are dependent on specific hardware configurations being present; if you don't have the proper graphics hardware, for example, you'll simply never see the Aero graphic effects on that old Dell computer in your basement.

Hardware requirements for Windows Vista should not be taken lightly. In a controversial move to garner positive reviews, Microsoft sent hundreds of bloggers (not including CNET) free copies of Windows Vista Ultimate; Microsoft did not send boxed copies, rather the software giant sent top-of-the-line Acer Ferrari laptops with the operating system preinstalled. So even Microsoft seems to admit that the best performance is only available on top-of-the-line machines manufactured within the last year or so.

That said, many people will still want to upgrade their current Windows XP SP2. This will keep all your current data and applications, importing them directly into the new operating system. To see which edition(s) of Windows Vista your current computer can handle, visit the CNET Vista Readiness Advisor to find specific hardware recommendations so you don't buy the wrong edition. Most people will find either Windows Vista Home Basic or Windows Vista Home Premium to be their best choice. While Windows Vista does make a backup of your previous operating system before installing, it is always recommended that you backup your current Windows XP system yourself, just in case.

Rather than upgrade, we recommend you perform a clean installation. With a clean installation, you keep all your current on the Windows XP drive and install only the data and applications you want to run on Windows Vista. A clean install can be accomplished by buying a new PC with Windows Vista already installed, partitioning an existing Windows XP machine to dual-boot into Windows Vista, or adding a new hard drive to an existing Windows XP machine.

Our clean installations took anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour, depending on the hardware in the system. It's pretty much an automated process, with the installer first copying the WIM image onto the new hard drive or partition then expanding that image. Once again, we experienced an uncomfortably long plateau at "Expanding: 27 percent"; as with previous builds, we waited between two and five minutes before the expansion continued. About halfway through, the installer reboots and continues the installation in Windows Vista.

During the installation, Windows Vista will load the drivers included within the installation image, but it will also download additional drivers from a much larger database at Microsoft. This assumes, however, that one has an always-on Internet connection; dial-up users may find that upon completion of the installation process some drivers are missing.

Once fully installed, Windows Vista first asks for your country or region, then time and currency, and, finally, the desired keyboard layout. Next, you'll choose a username, a user icon, and a password. Then select your desktop wallpaper and security settings: Automatic, Install Important Updates Only, or Ask Me Later. After reviewing the computer's time and date settings, there's one more message: "Please wait while Windows checks your computer's performance." Here, Microsoft grades your computer on a five-point scale, with the overall rating based on your system's lowest score (in our case, that was for the video card).

Windows Vista includes new musical tones written by veteran musican Robert Fripp. Compared to the familiar start-up tones of Windows XP, Windows Vista's are lighter, almost spritely. The sounds for User Account Control and Log Off are also perkier than those found in similar security warnings within Windows XP.

New on the Windows Vista desktop is a Welcome Center which contains links to frequently asked questions such as, "How do you configure your printer?" and "How do you connect to your Internet service?" There is also room for some sales opportunities, either with manufacturer specials or online offers from Microsoft, such as the Windows Live OneCare service. Frankly, we think it is better for you to look beyond the Windows ecosystem for e-mail, Internet browsers, and security applications.

After closing the Welcome Center, you'll notice to the far right there is a shaded sidebar populated with three example Gadgets ("widgets" to everyone else), tiny desktop applets that display content, such as RSS feeds. In one Gadget, a slide show of images from the sample photo library display; in the next, the current time; finally, there's a Gadget for subscribed RSS feeds. We downloaded and installed Firefox 2, made Firefox our default browser, and quickly set up a few RSS feed subscriptions. Guess what? The Windows Vista Gadget was unresponsive to our efforts, displaying only the default MSN feeds from Microsoft. You have to use Internet Explorer 7 or choose a Firefox-friendly Gadget instead. By clicking the + symbol atop the sidebar, you'll see a panel of available Gadgets, with a link out to the Web to find even more. The Gadgets are not fixed to the sidebar; they can be dragged across the desktop. And even the sidebar itself can be disabled to allow for a full desktop view. An icon located within the taskbar will restore the sidebar at any time.

The familiar Start menu features some cosmetic changes for Windows Vista. Aside from the distinctive rounded icon, the Start menu now includes a built-in Search function. We would have preferred to have access to Search directly from the desktop rather than digging down a level or two. The All Programs list now displays as an expandable/collapsible directory tree, something Windows should have offered years ago. The new Start menu is divided in half, with access to documents, pictures, music, games, recent items, My Computer, network, Control Panel, default programs, and Help along the right-hand side.

Also new within Start is an Instant Off button. This button caches all your open files and processes, allowing you to turn off your laptop or desktop quickly without all the "cleaning up files" messages you see in previous versions. We like the feature, but on our Acer Travelmate 8200, Instant Off and closing the lid to hibernate sometimes produced limbo states where the laptop simply wouldn't wake up again, forcing us to reboot.

In Windows Vista, files become unmoored from the traditional directory tree structure--kind of. The more ambitious plan of including a whole new file system was scrapped early on; instead, Windows Vista relies on metatags, which are keywords linked to files to make them searchable. With metatags, you can create virtual file folders based on a variety of search terms. Say you're doing a report on mountains, any file that is keyword-enabled to include "mountains" will be grouped into a virtual folder without physically dragging that file to a new location. The downside is that older files (say you upgraded your system from Windows XP or imported data from an earlier version of Windows) will have to be retroactively metataged in order to be searched. Also different is the file path displayed within Windows Explorer. Gone are the backslashes, replaced with arrows that offer drop-down menus of alternative folders. We liked this efficient feature.

Finally, there's a compatibility wizard buried deep within Windows Vista. Most Windows XP applications we loaded performed just fine. Operating under the hood, Windows Vista convinces native Windows XP applications that they're running on Windows XP. Should you need to run an older application, say from Windows 95, the compatibility wizard allows you to tweak the display resolution and emulate Windows 95 for that program. For example, we were able to run a Windows 95-optimized game demo on our Windows Vista test system.

Features
There are too many individual features within Windows Vista Ultimate Edition to call out--seriously. However, our gut feeling is that most of the significant bells and whistles are designed for the Enterprise-level customers, not the home user. Having a large number of features should not be confused with actually providing significant value to all users across the board. We would have preferred fewer features executed extremely well rather than an uneven mix of this and that, a one-size-fits-all operating system. And we disagree with Microsoft's seemingly arbitrary division of features within individual editions.

Common to all editions of Windows Vista are ad hoc backup and recovery, instant Search, Internet Explorer 7 browser, Windows Media Player 11, Windows Mail e-mail client, Windows Calendar, Windows Photo Gallery, performance tuning and self-diagnostics, Internet protocol IPv6 and IPv4 support, Windows ReadyDrive, a maximum of 4GB RAM support on 32-bit editions (up to 128GB RAM on some 64-bit editions), Windows Sync Center for mobile devices, Windows Mobility Center for presentations on the road, User Account Control security protection, Windows Security Center, Windows Defender antispyware, Windows Firewall, Windows Meeting Space for ad hoc wireless meetings, Remote Desktop for working from home, XPS document support for PDF-like files, improved peer-to-peer networking, improved VPN support, and improved power management. Included within certain editions (and thus also included within the Ultimate edition) are Windows Media Center, Windows Tablet PC, Windows Movie Maker, Windows DVD Maker, Parental Controls, Windows SideShow for remote gadgets, domain join for Windows Small Business Server, Group Policy support, Client-side file caching, Roaming User Profiles for remote server access, Windows Fax and Scan, Windows ShadowCopy to create file backups, Windows Rights Management Services to protect documents, Windows BitLocker hard drive encryption, integrated smart card management, and various Windows Ultimate Extras to be named later. Despite many feature changes within Windows Vista, Microsoft has held onto its original marketing promise of providing users with Clear, Confident, and Connected solutions.

For Clear, Microsoft cites its new Aero graphics. Aero is part of the Windows Presentation Foundation, a subgroup of the .Net Foundation Framework, an underlying foundation for developers to build new applications. One applet is the New York Times Times Reader, the first of many products written exclusively for Windows Vista but hardly a compelling reason by itself to upgrade. Though video playback and, yes, even the tiny icons on Windows Vista are now crisp and colorful with Aero, unless you watch YouTube videos all day, you won't really need Aero, nor will you miss the tiny preview windows enabled on your desktop display. Aero is necessary to create Microsoft's new, Adobe PDF-like file format called XPS (Extensible Page System); however, any Windows XP SP2 machine can view XPS-created pages with downloads of the .Net 3 Framework Foundation and the Internet Explorer 7 browser.

For Confident, Microsoft touts new security enhancements within Windows Vista. You shouldn't encounter User Account Control (UAC) except when changing system configurations or installing new software, and even then, wouldn't you--in this age of downloadable spyware--prefer to know when an executable file is about to run? While UAC notifies you of pending system changes, it doesn't require a password. The Mac operating system does something similar but requires a password--that's security. Microsoft's more controversial method to lock down the system kernel is only available in the 64-bit editions of Windows Vista; most home users will not run these editions. Another celebrated security feature works only within Windows Mail, which most people are unlikely to use. And finally, the jury is still out on whether Internet Explorer 7 is more secure than, say, Firefox 2. Windows Vista also includes a built-in but limited two-way firewall and free Windows Defender antispyware, which ranked poor in competitive testing done by Download.com.

For Connected, Microsoft points to the new peer-to-peer possibilities, some of which are the result of its acquisition of Groove several years ago. From within Windows Explorer (which displays different toolbar options for exploring documents, photos, or music) you can move any file into a Public Folder and then mark the file or folder for sharing on a network. Within the Business and Ultimate editions you can further mark individual files for remote access.

Performance
Upon installation, Windows Vista rates each system's overall hardware performance, with the final score reflecting your system's lowest individual score. This is handy. For example, if you suspect that everything's running a little slow, you might find that your hard drive is returning the lowest score. Windows Vista will then recommend a faster hard drive or a drive with larger compatibility. Mostly, though, the video card will be the sore spot for most users. There's also an event log viewer to show, for example, after a specific software install your system performance started to degrade, and that uninstalling the software may restore your overall performance.

Under the hood, Microsoft has moved device drivers for DVD burners and printers out of the system kernel; Microsoft says that a majority of system crashes can be traced to improperly installed third-party device drivers. Thus Windows Vista hopes to vanquish the dreaded Blue Screen of Death common to earlier releases of Windows. Indeed, after testing several early builds, we found Windows Vista to be remarkably stable and robust.

Support
Along with the performance monitors, Microsoft has improved the Help section considerably. There is a static FAQ, but it also links to Microsoft online and allows outreach to other users for help, either via a forum or direct PC-to-PC help. Of these, we really like a feature available on some, not all, FAQs that allows you to automate the solution by executing a script. This method doesn't teach you how to do it in the future, but it will accomplish the task at hand. For example, if you choose to update a device driver, Windows Vista will darken the desktop; highlight and open the Start menu, the Control Panel, and the Device Manager; then pause to ask you what device you want to update. It's like having a technician at your desktop, walking you though the process. There's an increasing reliance on user-generated support forums, which leads us to believe that Microsoft is shying away from its own live technical support. At press time, Microsoft's final support policy was unavailable.

Conclusion
Perhaps we're spoiled, but after more than five years of development, there's a definite "Is that all?" feeling about Windows Vista. Like cramming an info-dump into a book report the night before it's due, there certainly are a lot of individual features within the operating system, but the real value lies in their execution--how the user experiences (or doesn't experience) these--and like the info-dump, we came away shaking our heads, disappointed. Compared with Mac OS X 10.4, Windows Vista feels clunky and not very intuitive, almost as though it's still based on DOS (or at least the internal logic that made up DOS). Despite the addition of a system-wide, built-in Search, and various efforts to break away from staidly old directory trees, you still need to drill down one level to even access Search. And there are far too many dependencies on Microsoft products; this is not a very objective operating system, as preference is always given to Microsoft products (of which there are many), from MSN Search to RSS feeds only from Internet Explorer. But is Windows Vista a bad operating system? No. It's just a disappointment for PC users who hoped that Microsoft would deliver something truly exciting to finally leapfrog ahead of Apple. They failed. But stick around; this is just Windows Vista 1.0. Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is due out sometime before the end of the year. Windows Vista SP1 promises to fix what's known to be wrong within Windows Vista and should offer a few concrete reasons to switch.

Windows Vista's new file system

By Robert Vamosi (November 22, 2006)

Windows Vista stands to challenge how we think about files and file storage, allowing users to tag, organize, and search content in new ways.With typical storage capacity approaching 200GB on most new PCs sold today and with the choice of large media files (digital images, audio or video videos) streamed quickly via the Internet increasing daily, Microsoft could not continue the same old file storage structure within Windows XP in its successor operating system.

Indeed, Windows Vista is more of a hard drive file browser than an operating system, even going so far as to adopt within its Windows Explorer the look and feel of Internet Explorer. But falling well short of Microsoft's more ambitious plans for a whole new File System (the new Win FS file system is expected to be a feature of the new Longhorn server release due by early 2008), Windows Vista performs best as a transitional operating system, weaning its users away from file hierarchies and toward metatag-driven search. Nonetheless, Windows Vista will require a large paradigm shift on the part of users.

With Windows Vista, large volumes of documents, images, and media files become unmoored from the hierarchical file structures of earlier Windows versions by indexing filenames, metatags, and even file content. When viewed this way, Windows Vista allows users to create virtual groups on the fly based on a variety of criteria without dragging and dropping the individual files into various folders. Indeed, like the Internet itself, physical location ceases to be an issue within Windows Vista. This sea change affects many aspects overall of the new operating system.Gone from Windows Vista is the traditional file path of folders and files separated by slashes. And instead of remembering within which folder a particular document, image, or media files was saved, something called Windows Vista Instant Search will point to the correct document or program. And, unlike many desktop search applets from Google and others, Windows Vista indexes your hard drive without much of a performance hit.

I strongly doubt the efficiency of these new features. I wonder how the indexing of the users' files are done "without much of a performance hit". Much are left in mystery before Vista will be fully avaliable later January.

Windows Vista includes a major update to the Direct3D API. Originally called WGF 2.0 (Windows Graphics Foundation 2.0), DirectX 10 and DirectX Next, it features an updated shader model — the shaders still consist of fixed stages like on previous APIs, but all stages sport a nearly unified interface, as well as a unified access to resources. The language itself has been extended to be more expressive (integer operations, nearly unlimited instructions count). In addition to the previously available vertex and pixel shader stages, the API includes a geometry shader stage that breaks the old model of one vertex in/one vertex out, to allow for more complex effects in real time. Direct3D 10 no longer uses "capability bits" to indicate which features are active on the current hardware. Instead, it defines a minimum standard of hardware capabilities which must be supported for a display system to be "Direct3D 10 compatible". Therefore, contrary to the previous revisions of Direct3D, it requires new graphics hardware to run at all, whereas prior versions allow the old hardware capabilities to be addressed within the new interface. This is one of the major departure of this new API, and it is justified by Microsoft as the only way to achieve the CPU efficiency gains needed for the newest pieces of hardware without the clutter of legacy code.

Many of the advanced features and performance improvements of Direct3D 10 mandate the use of WDDM-compliant drivers. WDDM drivers are also required by Direct3D9Ex, an extended version of DirectX 9.0c, used in Windows Vista. D3D9Ex was previously known as WGF 1.0 and D3D9.0L. However, D3D9Ex needs WGF 1.0 drivers (previously, basic profile), and D3D10 needs WDDM 2.x drivers (previously, Advanced profile) which supports the extended graphics pipeline. D3D9Ex features similar improvements like better gamma control, support for virtualization of resources and safe device removal, other improvements make D3D10 incompatible with previous versions.

Because Direct3D 10 hardware will be comparatively rare for a period of time after the release of Windows Vista, and because the Vista Premium logo program does not require Direct3D 10 to be supported, the first D3D10-compatible games will most likely still provide a D3D9/D3D9Ex render path.

-------------------------

Windows Vista and DirectX 10 from CNET News.

It's been called DirectX 10, Windows Graphics Foundation 2.0, and most recently, Direct3D10. The naming situation will clear up as we get closer to the official Windows Vista release, but all you have to know is that DirectX 10 and Direct3D10 in particular will introduce a new era in PC gaming.

Microsoft's DirectX APIs are a collection of interfaces that standardize how game developers talk to PC system hardware. It's a lot easier for programmers to write for a single DirectSound or Direct3D API, instead of writing for every single video card and sound card in existence. Microsoft rebuilt its Direct3D API from scratch for Windows Vista, and Direct3D10 will serve as the base for all future Direct3D innovations throughout the life span of the Windows Vista operating system.

Because the Direct3D10 foundation has to serve game developers through the next decade, Windows Vista will streamline and open up Direct3D with several forward-looking features that will help programmers create better games and get more performance out of PC hardware.

All hail the graphics processing unit
Direct3D10 finally completes the break from the legacy fixed-function pipeline. Developers will use the programmable pipeline to emulate the older, fixed-function steps. Additionally, Microsoft had to rethink its display driver model now that the entire desktop is going 3D. The video card isn't just for games anymore. When you have a 3D desktop and give each application its own 3D window, the display driver has to be flexible and stable enough to handle the video card's increased role in the system. Microsoft split up the display driver to increase stability, to ensure that the 3D desktop stays up in the event that a game or another application crashes due to a graphics error. This change also means that Microsoft will not release DirectX 10 for Windows XP, because many of the Direct3D10 improvements will need the new Windows Vista Display Driver Model.

Opening up the video card to more applications will require Vista to give the GPU more system resources and allow applications to share the hardware. The biggest change for game developers will be virtualized memory for the GPU. The video card will now have its own space in system RAM to store information that can't fit on local video card memory. High-end video cards ship with 256MB or 512MB of memory, but games can still use the extra space in system memory to store large chunks of information, like textures.

Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney explains, "Virtual texturing eliminates the video memory bottleneck on texture size; whereas in DirectX 9 the size of textures we can use with full performance is limited by the amount of video memory, in DirectX 10 it is only limited by total system memory." Furthermore, Tim predicts that virtual memory will enable a "2X-4X increase in texture usage in games, which will be great for Unreal Engine 3 games, where textures are often authored at very high resolutions like 2048x2048, and then scaled down on lower-end systems to improve performance."

Setting standards and improving performance
Video cards will now have strict feature-set requirements for Direct3D10. A video card must have the full feature set to be DirectX 10 approved. This isn't a whole lot different from the existing model, in which a card has to have certain features to be DirectX 9.0c or Shader Model 2.0 compliant, but Microsoft has made the specification much more detailed to remove any chance of hardware variation. Differences in how Nvidia and ATI cards handled floating-point precision created extra work for developers in the past, but tighter Direct3D10 specifications will help remove ambiguous areas in hardware design. Having consistent hardware means programmers can avoid spending development time on customizing games for cards that don't have all the necessary features or have odd implementations.

Microsoft plans to accelerate its Direct3D release schedule to keep up as the graphics manufacturers release new GPUs with advanced features. If everything goes as planned, the game developer will have to learn only Direct3D11, instead of figuring out the quirks for two different GPUs when Nvidia and ATI release a new technology round. However, this change might not mean the end of writing code for specific GPUs. While developers can count on DX10 to define card features sets, the Microsoft DirectX team admits that "we may see [hardware vendors] putting in additional differentiating features, which developers may want to natively support."

DirectX 10 will increase game performance by as much as six to eight times. Much of that will be accomplished with smarter resource management, improving API and driver efficiencies, and moving more work from the CPU to the GPU. "The entire API and pipeline have been redesigned from the ground up to maximize performance and minimize CPU and bandwidth overhead," according to Microsoft. Furthermore, "the idea behind D3D10 is to maximize what the GPU can do without CPU interaction, and when the CPU is needed it's a fast, streamlined, pipeline-able operation." Giving the GPU more efficient ways to write and access data will reduce CPU overhead costs by keeping more of the work on the video card.

Here's a list of several new Direct3D 10 performance improvements GameSpot was able to wrestle out of the DirectX 10 team:

• New constant buffers maximize efficiency of sending shader constant data (light positions, material information, etc.) to the GPU by eliminating redundancy and massively reducing the number of calls to the runtime and driver.

• New state objects significantly reduce the amount of API calls and bandwidth, tracking, mapping, and validation overhead needed in the runtime and driver to change GPU device state.

• Texture arrays enable the GPU to swap materials on-the-fly without having to swap those textures from the CPU.

• Resource views enable super-fast binding of resources to the pipeline by informing the system early-on about its intended use. This also vastly reduces the cost of hazard-tracking and validation.

• Predicated rendering allows draw calls to be automatically deactivated based on the results of previous rendering--without any CPU interaction. This enables rapid occlusion culling to avoid rendering objects that aren't visible. Shader Model 4.0 provides a more robust instruction set with capabilities like integer and bitwise instructions, enabling more work to be transferred to the GPU.

• The D3D runtime itself has been completely refactored to maximize performance and configurability by the application.

It remains to be seen just how well actual DX10 graphics hardware will be able to handle the additional work, but we've seen in the past that ATI and Nvidia have been able to deliver whenever games have shifted work from the CPU to the GPU.

-------------------------------

Now a comparison between Direct3D tt's Competitior OpenGL

In general, Direct3D is designed to be a 3D hardware interface. The feature set of D3D is derived from the feature set of what hardware provides. OpenGL, on the other hand, is designed to be a 3D rendering system that may be hardware accelerated. These two API's are fundamentally designed under two separate modes of thought. The fact that the two APIs have become so similar in functionality shows how well hardware is converging into user functionality.

Even so, there are functional differences in how the two APIs work. Direct3D expects the application to manage hardware resources; OpenGL makes the implementation do it. This makes it much easier for the user in terms of writing a valid application, but it leaves the user more susceptible to implementation bugs that the user may be unable to fix. At the same time, because OpenGL hides hardware details (including whether hardware is even being used), the user is unable to query the status of various hardware resources. So the user must trust that the implementation is using hardware resources "Optimally".

Professional graphics

OpenGL has always seen more use in the professional graphics market than DirectX (Microsoft even acknowledges OpenGL's advantage in this field^{[citation needed]}), while DirectX is used mostly for computer games. (The term professional is used here to refer to the professional production of graphics, such as in computer animated films, as opposed to games where the graphics produced by the game are for the user's personal, rather than professional, use.)

At one point many professional graphics cards only supported OpenGL, however, nowadays all the major professional card manufacturers (Nvidia, ATI Technologies and Matrox) support both OpenGL and Direct3D.

Gaming

The principal reason for Direct3D's dominance in the gaming industry is historical. In the earliest days of hardware-accelerated 3D graphics, 3dfx was the dominant force, and their Glide API was used by far more games than D3D or OpenGL. Glide was much lower-level than D3D or OpenGL, and thus its performance was greater than either. Performance is the most important facet for game developers, so the less easy to use Glide API was preferred over the other two. This helped catapult 3DFx into the forefront of 3D hardware in those days.

As hardware got faster, however, the performance advantages of Glide began to be outweighted by the ease of use. Also, because Glide was restricted to 3dfx hardware, and 3dfx was not being as smart about hardware design as its main competitor nVidia, a hardware neutral API was needed. The very earliest versions of Direct3D (part of DirectX version 3) was not the simplest API to use. The next Direct3D version (in DirectX 5) was much more lucid. As interest in making Glide only games or games with multiple renderers dropped, there was a choice to make: OpenGL or Direct3D 5.

Making games that use OpenGL while using the non-Direct3D portion of the DirectX API is no more difficult than making a game using all of the DirectX API. The decision to use Direct3D over OpenGL was made from simple pragmatism: in those days, OpenGL implementations were difficult to work with. Writing an OpenGL implementation requires implementing every feature of OpenGL, even if the hardware doesn't support it. If the hardware can't do it, you have to write a software rasterizer that can handle that feature.

Different GL implementations would, when activating some feature, spontaneously go into a slow software renderer. Because OpenGL has no mechanism for telling the user whether or not a feature, or combination of features, will kick the renderer into software mode, users of OpenGL had to carefully test everything that they did on every piece of hardware that they were going to support.

Adding to that is the fact that an OpenGL implementation is a complex piece of code. It is much more than a simple graphics driver that is just a low-level interface to hardware registers. It needs to keep track of a great deal of state information, and that requires a lot of code. In the early days of OpenGL implementations, the implementations themselves were quite buggy. Indeed, a perfectly functioning game could break when downloading a new graphics driver; this is a complication that many game developers didn't want to have to deal with. This feature is very useful if performance is not a primary goal, such as in professional graphics applications or off-line renderers; it guarantees the existence of functionality. However, in a game situation, where a loss of performance can destroy the feeling of the game, it is more desirable to know that the functionality doesn't exist and to simply avoid using it.

Direct3D didn't have these problems. A Direct3D driver is (or, was in those days) just a low-level interface to hardware registers. Though this led to a performance issue as noted above, it also allows D3D drivers to be clean, simple and stable, compared to their OpenGL counterparts. And D3D has a query mechanism that tells the application whether or not a particular feature is available in hardware. So game developers chose to use it because it did what they needed.

While IHVs did resolve the OpenGL bug issue to a significant degree, the issue of hardware specificity was never addressed. Even so, the need for it has decreased as more and more OpenGL specified functionality becomes implemented in hardware. Later versions of OpenGL would rarely add functionality that wasn't actually widely available in hardware. As such, the issue has, for the most part, become a non-issue.

At this point, the Windows Vista issue aside, the reason for using one over the other is typically inertia. It is what they have used in the past, so it is what they use now.

--------------------------

千呼万唤始出来的Windows Vista企业版上周四终于在全球多个城市同步发布。 南洋商报

同时发布的还有Office 2007系统和ExchangeServer 2007，而面向个人用户的Windows Vista仍将于明年1月才能上市。

微软11月30日在纽约纳斯达克时代广场总部举行了新品发布会，该公司总执行长史蒂夫·鲍尔默表示，这毫无疑问是微软历史上一次最伟大的发布。到了2007年底，预计全球超过两亿用户使用至少其中一种产品。

鲍尔默承认，Windows Vista早就应该上市了。他说，虽然微软过了五年才推出新版操作系统，但实际上Windows Vista真正的研发时间仅仅花费了两年左右。

构建Vista仅用两年

他说，在最初的两年来使用多种新技术研发构建Vista，接着便一直为整合各项技术而忙碌。接下来的第三年，研发人员将注意力集中于Windows XP SP2，并将其中的多项技术应用到Vista里。如今呈现在大家面前的Vista中的大部分是微软在最后两年到两年半时间整合而成的。

企业用户可购买安装Vista操作系统的捆绑销售个人电脑，或用升级光碟在现有电脑安装Vista，个人用户版本将在明年1月30日推出。

90％采用Vista家庭版

市调公司IDC预测，Vista操作系统在2007年的全球出货量可达9千万套，家庭用户购买新的PC中，将有90％采用Vista家庭版，而企业相对只有35％在新PC中使用Vista操作系统。

IDC系统软件部副总裁阿尔·吉伦表示，经过长期的等待，Vista将在消费者中迅速普及，企业用户则可能持有相对保守的态度。

除在纽约举行发布仪式外，微软还在北京、东京、伦敦、巴黎、慕尼黑、多伦多等Vista。由于时差原因，北京成为“抢先”发布新品的城市。

新视窗节能成卖点

节能似乎已成为IT界的热点和风潮，无论是英特尔、超微、电脑制造商等，都大肆将节能作为产品的卖点，就连视窗Vista也如此。

据微软透露，用户从Windows XP升级到Vista后，每年每台电脑可以节省50到75美元（277令吉）的能源消耗，原因是Vista操作系统从三个方面对XP的电源管理进行了改进。

首先，Windows XP为了保证系统的流畅运行，桌面电脑不得不运行在“高性能”模式下，即使是在系统不忙的时候，默认的电源管理方案也在保证最高性能的前提下实施。

其二，相对XP“睡眠”模式的改进。Windows XP的睡眠模式，解决了用户面对重启需要花费很长的时间。不过它的缺点就是，如果有程序需要在后台运行，那么电脑将不会进入睡眠模式。

第三，就是XP系统不利于企业用户对电脑进行统一的电源管理。由于目前是每个员工自行选择电源管理方案，因此会有成百上千的电脑和显示器，经常处于24小时开机的状态，甚至一周不停开着，并且还没激活节能功能。

最近在Foreign Policy的博客上发表的文章指出，新一代视窗所提供的电源管理将从上述三方面进行改进和加强。它的节电功能每年可为全球轻易地节约50亿美元（185亿令吉）的能源消耗，并且减少超过4千5百万吨的二氧化碳排放。

据相关机构统计，使用Windows XP系统的电脑每年会造成250亿美元（925亿令吉）的能源浪费，并产生2亿多吨的二氧化碳消耗。

Vista防毒软件上市日期未定？

根据过去惯例，安全软件商都会选择在年杪前发布新一年的防毒软件，今年也毫不例外。不过，你会发现这些待售中的2007年度防毒软件，少了支持Windows Vista这个“未来”平台的字眼。

由于微软Windows Vista与防毒厂商的程式问题未解决，各家业者支援下一代视窗的防毒产品上市时程还未敲定。

据了解，微软上月初宣布最新版操作系统Windows Vista进入量产，不过赛门铁克、趋势科技、CA及McAfee等桌面防毒软件业者还未拿到“足够的”Vista应用程式界面（API）程式码，也使得他们迟迟无法给与Vista版本防毒产品明确的上市日期。

赛门铁克最新版2007年诺顿保安系列产品（视窗XP版）已在两个月前在国内开始出售。上周更发布了面向Windows Vista的Norton Internet Security 2007 和Norton AntiVirus 2007 的公开测试版。

诺顿防毒XP版可免费升级

至于2007诺顿防毒系列的最终出售版，该公司向《资讯网》表示将在明年随着Windows Vista推出开始发售，但没有提供确定日期。不过，购买诺顿2007年保安系列产品XP版本的用户，可以免费升级到Vista版本。

趋势科技受询时向本报表示，运行Windows Vista平台的测试版OfficeScan 7.8 Beta，已在上个月开始提供下载试用。同时，最终版本8.0将计划在明年初推出市场。

新版PC－cillin国内未发售

此外，该公司发言人指出，其旗舰产品PC－cillin 2007保安配套，已在上个月初推出市场。不过，该产品还未在我国和部分亚洲国家出售。

该公司声称新版PC－cillin可支持视窗Vista，惟其官方网站并没有清楚列明这项“特点”。

该公司宣称，以上产品皆遵照趋势科技产品路线图开发与提供给最终用户。不过同样没有给予确定上市日期。

上述问题源于微软延迟交付与防毒软件相关的Vista应用程式界面有关。微软今年正式踏入桌面安全市场，而旗舰级操作系统Vista也预计包含防毒、防间谍软件等功能，与许多原本防毒合作伙伴利益冲突浮上水面。

Vista中名为Windows Security Center的软件企图成为各种防毒软件的中央管理介面，并不再开放与防毒软件互通的API，遭防毒业者抱怨在病毒入侵PC时无法辨识并立即作用。

视窗里程碑

1985年：Windows 1.0

1987年：Windows 2.0

1990年5月22日：Windows 3.0

1995年8月24日：Windows 95

1998年6月25日：Windows 98

2000年2月17日：Windows 2000

2001年10月25日：Windows XP

2003年5月22日：Windows2003

2006年11月30日：Windows Vista

-----------------------

• 赛门铁克 = Symantech..... 汗
• Vista series will include SIX versions, Starter, home, home premium, business, enterprise, and ultimate
• It's latest Security system will: Check IP and serial number, time, customer to see if you have a retail copy, then if it's piratical, it will first warn you, then shut down every 6 hours, then disable internet...till only allow one to use one hour each month, for the purpose of register and pay the debt, that is....
• Vista don't support .Net 2.0.....
• Vista is said to be the last operation system ms will produce

Back in 1998, the federal government declared that its landmark antitrust suit against the Microsoft Coorporation was not merely a matter of law enforcement, but a defense of innovation. The concern was that the company was wielding its market power and its strategy of bundling more and more features into its dominant Windows desktop operating system to thwart competition and stifle innovation.

Eight years later, long after Microsoft lost and then settled the antitrust case, it turns out that Windows is indeed stifling innovation — at Microsoft.

The company's marathon effort to come up with the a new version of its desktop operating system, called Windows Vista, has repeatedly stalled. Last week, in the latest setback, Microsoft conceded that Vista would not be ready for consumers until January, missing the holiday sales season, to the chagrin of personal computer makers and electronics retailers — and those computer users eager to move up from Windows XP, a five-year-old product.

In those five years, Apple Computer has turned out four new versions of its Macintosh operating system, beating Microsoft to market with features that will be in Vista, like desktop search, advanced 3-D graphics and "widgets," an array of small, single-purpose programs like news tickers, traffic reports and weather maps.

So what's wrong with Microsoft? There is, after all, no shortage of smart software engineers working at the corporate campus in Redmond, Wash. The problem, it seems, is largely that Microsoft's past success and its bundling strategy have become a weakness.

Windows runs on 330 million personal computers worldwide. Three hundred PC manufacturers around the world install Windows on their machines; thousands of devices like printers, scanners and music players plug into Windows computers; and tens of thousands of third-party software applications run on Windows. And a crucial reason Microsoft holds more than 90 percent of the PC operating system market is that the company strains to make sure software and hardware that ran on previous versions of Windows will also work on the new one — compatibility, in computing terms.

As a result, each new version of Windows carries the baggage of its past. As Windows has grown, the technical challenge has become increasingly daunting. Several thousand engineers have labored to build and test Windows Vista, a sprawling, complex software construction project with 50 million lines of code, or more than 40 percent larger than Windows XP.

"Windows is now so big and onerous because of the size of its code base, the size of its ecosystem and its insistence on compatibility with the legacy hardware and software, that it just slows everything down," observed David B. Yoffie, a professor at the Harvard Business School. "That's why a company like Apple has such an easier time of innovation."

Microsoft certainly understands the problem, the need to change and the potential long-term threat to its business from rivals like Apple, the free Linux operating system, and from companies like Google that distribute software as a service over the Internet.

Like other Microsoft executives, Mr. Goldberg bristles at the notion that little innovative work has come out of the Windows group since XP. In the last five years, he said, Microsoft has released two versions of the Windows Tablet PC software intended for pen-based notebook computers, and four versions of Windows Media Center. To combat viruses plaguing Windows, much of the engineering team focused for 18 months on fixing security flaws for a downloadable "service pack" in 2004.

But last Thursday, Microsoft reorganized the management of its Windows division. Steven Sinofsky, 40, a senior vice president, was placed in charge of product planning and engineering for Windows and Windows Live, a new Web service that lets consumers manage their e-mail accounts, instant messaging, blogs, photos and podcasts in one site.

Mr. Sinofsky, a former technical assistant to Bill Gates, the Microsoft chairman, was one of the early people in the company to recognize the importance of the Internet in the 1990's. He comes to the Windows job from heading Microsoft's big Office division, where he was known for bringing out new versions of the Office suite — Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and other offerings — on schedule every two or three years.

The Vista delay, Microsoft executives said, was only a matter of a few more weeks to improve quality further, not attributable to any single flaw and done to make sure all its industry partners were ready when the product was introduced. Vista will be ready for large corporate customers in November, while the consumer rollout is being pushed back to January 2007.

Vista was also held up because the project was restarted in the summer of 2004. By then, it became clear to Mr. Allchin and others inside Microsoft that the way they were trying to build the new version of Windows, then called Longhorn, would not work. Two years' worth of work was scrapped, and some planned features were dropped, like an intelligent data storage system called WinFS.

The new work, Microsoft decided, would take a new approach. Vista was built more in small modules that then fit together like Lego blocks, making development and testing easier to manage.

"They did the right thing in deciding that the Longhorn code was a tangled, hopeless mess, and starting over," said Mr. Cusumano of M.I.T. "But Vista is still an enormous, complex structure.

Skeptics like Mr. Cusumano say that fixing the Windows problem will take a more radical approach, a willingness to walk away from its legacy. One instructive example, they say, is what happened at Apple.

Remember that Steven P. Jobs came back to Apple because the company's effort to develop an ambitious new operating system, codenamed Copland, had failed. Mr. Jobs convinced Apple to buy his company Next Inc. for $400 million in December 1996 for its operating system.

It took Mr. Jobs and his tam years to retool and tailor the Next operating system into what became Macintosh OS X. When it arrived in 2001, the new system essentially walked away from Apple's previous operating system, OS 9. Software applications written for OS 9 would run on an OS X machine, but only by firing up the old operating system separately

"Microsoft feels it can't get away with breaking compatibility," said Mendel Rosenblum, a Stanford University computer scientist. "All of their applications must continue to run, and from an architectural point of view that's a very painful thing."

And Apple had the advantage of building on software from university laboratories, an experimental version of the Unix operating system developed at Carnegie Mellon University and a free variant of Unix from the University of California, Berkeley. That helps explain why a small team at Apple has been able to build an operating system rich in features with nearly as many lines of code as Microsoft's Windows.

And Apple, which makes operating systems that run only on its own computers, does not have to work with the massive business ecosystem of Microsoft, with its hundreds of PC makers and thousands of third-party software companies.

That ballast is also Microsoft's great strength, and a reason industry partners and computer users stick with Windows, even if its size and strategy slow innovation. Unless Microsoft can pick up the pace, "consumers may simply end up with a more and more inferior operating system over time, which is sad," said Mr. Yoffie of the Harvard Business School.