Windows' Vista: Hey, where's the buzz?

By Brian Bergstein

updated 1:14 a.m. ET Jan. 21, 2007

Here comes a new Windows operating system from Microsoft Corp. Long delayed, it's the first in several years, so the company plans an enormous marketing campaign to tout the software as a way to get more out of computers.

(MSNBC.com is a joint Microsoft - NBC Universal venture.)

But Microsoft's legion of detractors roll their eyes, calling the new Windows a weak imitator of other operating systems. Meanwhile, technology analysts wonder whether Microsoft's dominance is nearing an end, since programs coming over the Internet are emerging as a more powerful force in computing than software tied to individual desktops.

Ah, those were the days. Who can forget the release of Windows 95?

That's right: While the description above applies to the new Windows Vista operating system hitting stores Jan. 30, it also was the landscape 11 1/2 years ago, when Microsoft came out with Windows 95 and ended up cementing its position in the PC industry.

However, there's one key difference this time: Back in August 1995, people actually lined up outside computer stores to buy the new edition of Windows the moment it went on sale at midnight.

Don't expect that to happen for Vista.

That doesn't mean Vista will be a dud. It can't be, not when just about every new PC sold will have Vista included.

VISTA: DOING THE NUMBERS How does Vista stack up against Windows 95? Check out the numbers: — Common retail price for Windows 95: $89.95 — For Vista: Depends on user configuration. Upgrading a PC from Windows XP would cost as little as $99 for Vista Home Basic edition, up to $259 for Vista Ultimate. Suggested retail prices for those versions range from $199 to $399. — Lines of code in Windows 95: 11.2 million — In Vista: 50 million is a commonly cited figure, but Microsoft refuses to confirm that officially. — Approximate number of Windows 95 programmers: 200 — For Vista: More than 2,000, according to one Microsoft developer's blog, but Microsoft also won't confirm that. MSNBC

Still, there's no ignoring the fact that Vista lacks a camping-outside-stores level of excitement — even if the company's marketing campaign does incorporate heavy use of the word "wow." That's what Microsoft contends people say when they see Vista for the first time.

While that may be the case, analysts expect Vista — which already has been available for business users since Nov. 30 — to gradually replace its most recent predecessor, Windows XP, over the next few years.

This is partly because Windows XP is good enough for many computer owners. In contrast, Windows 3.1, which Windows 95 ushered out to the tune of the Rolling Stones' "Start Me Up," was relatively primitive (remember DOS?). More graphical, more polished and easier to use, the $90 Windows 95 introduced many people to PCs for the first time, just as the Web was about to take off.

Invisible tweaks
A lot of the improvements in Vista — which will retail for $100 to $400, depending on the version and whether the user is upgrading from Windows XP — are redesign touches, or invisible tweaks toward better stability and security. Those are important things, to be sure, but not the stuff that makes fans scream like they're seeing the Beatles in 1964.

"Each time Microsoft puts out a piece of software, they're competing with their own previous software," said Matt Rosoff, an analyst with the independent Directions on Microsoft research firm. "Now there's not that much extra stuff in the plumbing that they can do. There's not going to be the big obvious leap."

Vista's non-buzz might also come from something that was faintly glowing on the horizon in 1995 and now illuminates all of computing: The desktop seems farther from the center of the action. Storage, bandwidth and content are insanely vast online, and the resulting interactivity is what people think of — whether they're viewing a video, playing a "massively multiplayer" online game or shopping for Tickle Me Elmo dolls — when they think of using their computers.

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