Real killer features for Vista?

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Thursday, 01 February 2007 16:33

Your IT - Entertainment

Bluetooth support would also be there, as would support for the fingerprint reader. But beyond this, everything else in Vista works, and these driver issues will be sorted eventually. Of course I think it’s terrible they are not available right now, as they are long standing pieces of technology which no-one should have to lose access to. But at least support is coming – after all, if it isn’t, consumers will be outraged, and rightly so.

It can currently only be forgiven because we are dealing with a new operating system, and one that is set to make most driver issues a thing of the past thanks to promises that Windows Update will continually be updated with new drivers as they become available, becoming the ultimate driver resource so you’ll never have to look online for drivers again.

But that’s in the future, and now that Vista is finally and officially out, Microsoft is no doubt pressuring companies to get their Vista drivers out as soon as humanly possible. After all, with Vista’s release, ongoing excuses will start to wear thin. All companies supporting Windows are on notice from the public: get those drivers and any necessary software compatibility updates out, and get them out fast!

But let’s get back to being a smarter operating system. Windows has to, after all, support the widest range of hardware and software. Linux has to do this too, and while it has made enormous strides in compatibility and usability, Windows still trumps Linux in this regard. Apple’s OS X has had a much easier time of things, thanks to a much smaller range of hardware platforms, and has strong support although still not as broad as Windows itself.

Microsoft has to support virtually every hardware and software configuration imaginable. Dell claimed, on their blog, to have tested over 500,000 different combinations of their system models and a wide range of hardware in preparation for Vista upgrades to existing equipment and new Vista pre-loaded models.

Microsoft has also had to battle with what could be included in an operating system. In the past, when Microsoft has tried to add features that were a basic replication of more advanced third party software on the market, it has been accused of including software that ‘shouldn’t be a standard part of an operating system’ or have been included to wipe out a competitor.

What’s also been true in the past is that the software that Microsoft has built into the operating system has often been very basic and in dire need replacement, either with another Microsoft product or any number of third party solutions.

Wordpad gets replaced by Word or a competing suite, Paint is replaced by Photoshop or another application. System utility suites replace Scandisk and Defrag, and there are any number of email, photo sorting, DVD creating and other programs out there.

So it comes as a bit of a surprise that Microsoft has managed to include a large number of new features in Windows Vista that compete with third party applications, which for the most part, are of much better quality and standard than any previous ‘free’ software Microsoft has included in Windows.

What's the most important thing they didn't include, and what is/are Vista's killer features? Read onto page 3 for more...