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Windows Vista RC1 Complete; Not Quite Prime Time, Say Partners

Microsoft has made available its first Vista release candidate, according to an announcement by Platforms and Services Co-President Jim Allchin on the TechBeta/TAP site. Solution providers who have seen it say it's not yet ready for prime time. A week after handing out Vista release candidate 1 to a select number of technical testers, Microsoft had announced it would distribute RC1 to current Customer Preview Program testers and post it to Microsoft's MSDN and TechNet sites for download.

A number of partners and analysts who have downloaded Vista RC1 say the code is solid but they are not convinced it will be ready for release this fall. "I tried to install Vista RC1 onto a MacBook with Bootcamp and do the upgrade. It all worked except for a couple of Apple drivers ... that was impressive," said Ken Winell, principal of ExpertCollab, a Microsoft solution provider in Florham Park, N.J. "On a Dual Core Centrino machine, Vista RC1 seems to have improved performance wise, however, it still seems slower than WinXP."

One Microsoft analyst suggested the code is in good shape but he is not convinced that Vista Enterprise will be ready for volume-licensed customers in November. "RC1 is in the best shape of anything they have shipped for Vista, but in the old nomenclature I would call this at best a Beta Three and not a Release Candidate One," said Mike Cherry, lead Windows analyst at Directions on Microsoft, a newsletter in Kirkland, Wash. "I am always skeptical of a plan that is so good that you know that you are only going to have a single release candidate and then get to golden or release quality code. Instead I think they will do a second release candidate at a minimum and finish up or release to manufacturing sometime in December."

Another partner said, "There are still major concerns about hardware and software interoperability, including the inability to get the tablet functionality working correctly," said the Microsoft solution provider, which is based in the Midwest. "Pricing looks high to me, especially the Ultimate package for USD 400. That is the cost of a low-end computer."

In his conclusion on the Vista RC1 preview, Infoworld columnist Oliver Rist says that if there’s one immediate use wfor Vista RC1, it’s setting up learning machines for the power users in your organization so you can begin the training process now. "Overall, we did find it to be far more polished and reliable than even the latest beta build", he concludes.


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