Microsoft Updates

The boys and girls from Redmond are keeping pretty busy these days. Here is a quick update of some of the things going on over on the other side of the Cascades.

Vista:
Microsoft is making a major public relations push to counter the perception by many in the industry that Windows Vista is floundering, 100 days after launch. According to them, the biggest problems people are having have to do with updating hardware drivers that will work with the new operating system, and they claim that problem is rapidly disappearing. However, given the number of complaints floating around on the Net, the problems may be more than that.

Still, Microsoft has yet to announce when they are going to launch Windows Vista Service Pack (SP) 1. The internal wisdom at Microsoft seems to be that by not talking about SP1, they will convince users to change their long-established planning ways and not wait for SP1 to hit before taking the upgrade plunge.

Microsoft to Buy Yahoo?
Two newspapers reported last week that Microsoft has stepped up its pursuit of a deal to buy Yahoo as the two companies reenter talks to strike a deal amid huge growth from rival Google. The two companies have held informal deal talks over the years. But the latest approach comes as Microsoft seeks to ink a deal in the wake of Google's expansion. The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, put the price tag at around $50 billion, although the Journal said it is more in line of a merger. Reports today indicate that the deal still has a long way to go.

Vista and Laptop Batteries
Many people, especially those in companies where there are many laptop users, are reporting that Vista is sucking up battery power much more than Windows XP. The main culprit appears to be the Aero Glass interface, a spiffy new user interface that makes Vista more pleasing to the eye with transparent windows and animated transitions when moving from one application to another. When Aero is turned off, battery life is equal to or better than Windows XP systems. But with it turned on, battery life suffers compared with Windows XP.

But, laptop users who spent extra money on powerful laptops to handle the graphics requirements of Vista and the Aero interface are forced to run the aesthetic equivalent of Vista Basic, the low-cost version of Vista, if they care about battery life. Reports that Vista was an energy hog started to surface during beta testing last year. At the time, Microsoft said many of the problems would be cleared up by the time the operating system launched. Uh huh!

Redesigned Hotmail
Some of you who use Hotmail know that Microsoft has been beta testing a new version of their venerable old e-mail program. But, users who are testing the new beta are not reporting great results. In fact, Microsoft is being told by most of the testers that they prefer things just the way they are. However, the Redmond folks want to stay up with Google's GMail and the new Yahoo Mail (see previous blogs).

The new version of Hotmail is now called Windows Live Hotmail, although it retains much of the classic design of the original Hotmail, much to Microsoft programmer's chagrin. Microsoft also is holding back from quickly forcing its users onto the new version. Although those who sign up for Hotmail will automatically be taken to Windows Live Hotmail, existing users will still have to opt in, though Microsoft does hope to move all users over in a period of months. In a couple of weeks, Microsoft plans to make available a new test version of its Outlook connector software that will enable anyone with a copy of Outlook 2003 or Outlook 2007 to use the software to access Windows Live Hotmail messages and contacts.