CompuWorld

“Now that businesses have access to Windows Vista and 2007 Office System, we've only just begun. I've said it before and I'll say it again: when it comes to the consumer market launch of these two products, stay on your toes, as we've got some amazing things in store for you between now and the end of January,” said Nick White, a Product Manager at Microsoft working on the Windows Vista launch team.

“Time is sort of a funny thing,” stated Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. “You need to give new technologies time to incubate before you try to bring them together. Let each technology come to market individually and then do the integration.”

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Our first goal is to be heard. We would love to evoke thought and will try to stimulate debates in our personal way. We have no problem with different opinions. We feel very strongly about support political discussions. Our dream, getting Bill and Melinda in the White House, might not be too realistic in the short run. But don’t worry: we’ll be here along the way, even if it takes a decade. Enjoy reading our website!

The French government plans to install the Linux operating system on 1,154 desktop computer workstations in its Parliament. Citing "substantial savings despite the migration and training costs," and a desire to avoid too much dependence on a single vendor, the French National Assembly's decision is based largely on the results of a recent study conducted by tech consulting company Atos Origin.

Unfortunately, not every Linux migration has a happy ending. The Birmingham City Council in the UK recently terminated its own Linux migration program after deploying the operating system on only 200 of the 1,500 desktop computers initially planned. According to participants in the Birmingham project, the migration failed because the government didn't have enough expertise to establish an effective Linux deployment program. Calling the Birmingham migration "an unbelievable cock-up," NetProject consultant Eddie Bleasdale, who was involved with the project in its early stages, says that the Birmingham government "decided to do it all themselves, without expertise in the area."

Looking into the future, we will ship Longhorn (the next version of Windows Server) in the second half of next year, and we will ship a 32-bit and a 64-bit version. That will be the last time we ship a 32-bit version. From that point, the next release, which will be roughly two years later, that product will only be available as 64-bit.

The real barrier to wider adoption of 64-bit technology isn't hardware or the OS. It's the lack of compelling software. On the server side, there are great reasons to move to 64-bit technology for scaling databases and handling massive numbers of transactions. But where are the equivalent challenges for desktop users? With the exception of people running workstation-class video editing systems, who needs a 64-bit system?

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