Translated material
Protects better than it sells
Results of the first six months of Windows Vista's life
The new operating system, called by Microsoft “one of the most important software products in the history of the corporation,” unlike its legendary predecessor Windows 95, is not in great demand. Which, however, does not mean Vista's defeat. On the contrary, we are all threatened by its inevitable, although not lightning-fast, success.People haven't been lining up for Windows Vista since the evening before the start of sales, but in absolute terms of installations this system is ahead of the record-breaking schedules of Windows 95 and XP. According to Microsoft, by the beginning of May, i.e. in just four months, Vista sold 40 million copies. “Ninety-five” needed almost a whole year to achieve the same result. Windows XP was installed on 67 million computers during the first year. For lovers of ancient history, we will also inform you that the Windows 3.0 operating system, released in 1990, generated 5 million sales in its first year.
We are, of course, talking about legal sales. No one takes into account pirated copies of Microsoft operating systems down to the last detail, however, there is approximate data on individual markets. It is known, for example, that in Russia the level of piracy (estimated precisely by the number of illegal installations of Windows and MS Office) during Windows XP did not fall below 70% even according to the most optimistic estimates. It should be noted that Vista is doing much "worse" on the black market. Partly because it is better protected from illegal copying, and partly because the average person buying from pirates generally prefers XP.
The success of legal sales of Vista cannot be assessed in comparison with the absolute sales figures of its predecessor systems, since Vista's superiority in this indicator is due to the growth of the personal computer fleet. Associated Press in this regard notes that most of the 40 million installations of Vista were carried out not by the users themselves, but by computer manufacturers in factories, and 15 million of the named forty were generally coupons for the right to install Vista, issued to XP buyers during a promotion . According to research company Forrester Research, Vista will be installed on more than 12 million PCs in the United States by the end of this year. Not a lot of penetration, considering that there are 235 million Vista-capable computers in the country.
The consumer has several good reasons to be wary of a new operating system. The most obvious, although not the most important, is a completely new system of so-called user control. No program will run under Vista with administrator rights unless the user explicitly allows it, at the request of the operating system. This is an effective way to resist viruses and at the same time a potential source of severe irritation for a person who needs to work and not maintain his computer. Disabling user controls turns Vista into a more dangerous system than XP.
The second and main problem is that in Vista, many programs designed for previous versions of Windows do not work correctly or do not work at all. This is again due to new and truly effective technologies for protecting the operating system, but this does not make it any easier for the user. Software developers are rewriting them to be compatible with Vista, but this process will take years. By comparison, it took Windows XP five years to achieve its current 84% share of the PC operating system market.
In Russia, Vista went on sale a month later than in Europe and the USA. Our market reacts to innovation in the same way as the rest of the world. “Before installing Vista on my computer, I will wait for the release of Service Pack 1 (update package - Ed. ),” says Elcomsoft President Alexander Katalov. This is despite the fact that Elcomsoft supplies certified software for working with Vista, for example, a Vista password recovery program for accessing a computer. Mikhail Donskoy, general director of the DISCo company (also produces software products), is even stricter about Vista. He won't install it until Service Pack 2 arrives: “Both my users and I are accustomed to the caution of Windows XP. Before the second Service Pack, this operating system did not have acceptable reliability. As for software products for Vista, we do not produce them for the only reason - the market does not yet demand it. Which, generally speaking, is strange, since our company specializes in system-wide software, such as file managers, for example. Apparently, the users of our software products are not Vista users."
However, the final victory of Vista is a matter of time. The system, although unusual, is very good. Firstly, the user does not have any problems with local data search: when working with Vista, you can forget about products like Yandex Personal Search or Google Desktop. Secondly, Vista is perfectly suited for working with digital video and audio - no worse than Apple computers (by the way, Vista can be installed on them too). Thirdly, Vista has a number of new very attractive technologies, such as a system for expanding RAM through external USB 2.0 flash drives or the Aero user interface. When software vendors offer enough software for Vista, we will simply have no choice.