Quote:

“Currently, Microsoft has a tiered pricing system for Windows. For OEM copies sold with a new PC (and remember, that’s how 9 out of 10 copies are sold), that price is buried in the cost of the system and isn’t broken out. But for the sake of argument, here are my best estimates of how much each Windows Vista edition adds to the cost of a new PC:

• Home Basic $20
• Home Premium $60
• Business $130
• Ultimate $190

Microsoft brings in a steady stream of revenue from this current mix, revenue that is the biggest part of its bottom line. If you were to replace those four editions with a single edition for a single price, my back-of-the-envelope calculation says the new price would have to be in the neighborhood of $90. That would add $70 to the cost of entry-level PCs, many of which are currently being sold to budget -conscious businesses with Vista Home Basic. For a $400 bare-bones PC, that’s a 17.5% price increase. Yikes!”

Read the entire article here

There was never a problem when there was just two SKUs (XP), now it is? In fact it worked so well, Microsoft is having hard time getting rid of XP, with the two stand out SKU’s still number one on desktops – XP Home and Professional. A lot of what Ed Bott says seems to be defending Microsoft's huge bottom line, not consumers sanity or small businesses focus on delivering value. I have had my frustrations with this new matrix, I realize Microsoft wants to make it easy for end users to obtain the OS they want with the features they really need. But when you have a features like 'Complete PC Backup' that is not standard across all SKU's, it shows Microsoft is only doing this SKU thing for up sell 'Anytime Upgrade' anyone?

Still waiting for that Exclusive Experience

Lets not forget Vista Ultimate and its Ultimate Extras. You might say anyone investing in Ultimate just for Extras deserve what they got. But I remember this feature being touted as exclusive only to 'licensed' Ultimate customers. The premise was to deliver value beyond box. Cutting-edge programs, innovative services, unique publications. I don't consider a bunch of animated wallpapers, a few games and encryption utility to be real value beyond the box. You can read my suggested solution to this issue here

Maximized window with Aero Glass Transparent – Windows Vista

Maximized Aero Glass (default blue tint) with Transparency – Windows 7

Now the immediate difference you will see in Windows 7, you can see contents on the desktop or the inactive window in the background. This I believe strays away from the original premise of Aero to make contents of the window be the main focus. Its nice to see the Windows Team continue to enhance the Aero user experience, but at the same time I hope new issues do not creep in that will cost users productivity. The theme itself has gotten a bad wrap as just being unnecessary glam that uses up too much system resources.

Its still early and I am just speculating on what is still not even Alpha yet. So, take what I say here with just a grain of salt.

Quote:

“The new account setup only allows users with Administrative privileges or a limited account to all operate as a Standard user with a set of specific requirements and a deeper awareness of the actions a user takes while performing task throughout the operating system, Microsoft recommends this account for daily use “finally”! You might wonder what the deeper awareness is; well it’s a new improvement to the security model in Windows known as User Access Control, borrowing from other operating systems such as UNIX, Mac OS X and Linux, the aim is to essentially provide a secured environment from top to bottom. A bit intrusive, the essential purpose of UAC from the get-go is to enable a lock on certain administrative privileges throughout the OS, making it more difficult for users to expose areas of the operating system that are most vulnerable to attack or user accidents. So far, the status from the public on UAC is, it seems like a highly annoying feature, trust me, it is at times, no matter how much the Windows Team say they have improved the experience. A shield attached to an icon or beside a link can easily identify components within the OS that require UAC permission. When such a link or icon is clicked a dialog will pop up freezing the current user session asking for permission before continuing or executing the action.”

So, from early on, UAC was set out to cause some upset among users. Even a Microsoft Exec pointed out that UAC was designed to annoy users, so was actually doing its job. Based on the leaked previews of Windows 7, build 6780, we can see small improvements like:

Quote:

“User Account Control has been aerozied and seems to not black out the screen to get the users attention, as can be seen on the THINKNEXT website, since you cannot take a ALT-PRT Screen of it today in Vista. Nice, but something like that should be provided as improved functionality through a service pack.” Windows 7 Preview Teching It Easy

I believe UAC in Windows 7 will continue to be over protective. It still does not protect the areas of the OS that should be protected the most. For instance, a friend of mine running Vista Home Premium '64-Bit' had UAC disabled through an attack and also disabled all Administrative Privileges: Command Prompt, MSCONFIG, Task Manager and Shutdown options were all killed. Why wasn't UAC instrumental in protecting all these critical areas of the system? Not even traditional areas like System Properties could be accessed or certain Control Panel items. So there is indeed some work that needs to be done, it needs to be effective that users are seeing results. I personally want an option to check off areas of the system I deem to be safe so I don't see the prompt anymore. Of course, I do consider myself to be a power user. I personally have not encountered any malicious attacks on my system running Vista since RTM, but I have seen friends who have and never disabled UAC. What I had to do to save that system from a format was to boot into Safe Mode and run System Restore to an earlier point before the attack had occurred.

Mary Jo points out that persons reception to UAC in Vista is one thats distasteful, and the Google results are there to prove it:

Quote:

“UAC seems to be one of the most hated features of Vista. (Just do a Web search for “how can I disable UAC” for unofficial proof of that contention.)”

Resources:

No surprise: Microsoft to fine-tune UAC in Windows 7

Windows 7 Preview Teching It Easy

http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/2008/10/08/user-account-control.aspx

Notice the difference with the padding around the start button.

Check out the entire galleries here

Windows 7 Preview Teching It Easy

More Windows 7 screenshots

Personally I was hoping it would Windows Live Server, since the Company would like to expose the platform more to developers and give it a serious background. The focus of a Windows Cloud would be to bring more of Microsoft’s traditional desktop solutions to the Internet, especially for developer tools like Visual Studio and Microsoft Office. The Company still wants to make desktop software relevant by wrapping together Services plus Software to create a solution that both consumers and businesses can be more comfortable and willing to make their data move to remote servers.

I see the strategy, but the scattered technologies that are Windows Live will need to work in more synergistic fashion. The storage part of it needs to be more centralized and accessible for the web based applications in addition to services like Windows Mail, Spaces and Live Mesh in addition to the Windows Desktop. My understanding based on a post I read at LiveSide.net is that SkyDrive will be used as repository for storing the content created from all these services.

Resources

http://geekswithblogs.net/kit/archive/2008/10/08/125702.aspx

Quote:

“Now, ideally I’d like to see Microsoft return to a situation where there’s one consumer and one professional flavor of Windows. In fact, why not take it a step further and adopt the Mac approach and go with a single version. From a marketing/sales POV that’s not likely to happen, but if the OS is designed to be modular, there’s no reason why it couldn’t work.

Another reason why a return to a simpler time is unlikely is because Microsoft seems to have embraced the idea of numerous flavors not only with Windows but also with Office, which now ships in no less than five different flavors. Office 2007 was developed under the leadership of Steven Sinofsky. Sinofsky now leads the Windows team.”

Read the entire article here

I personally have made some suggestions toward this, one which I left in wish list I made in the Channel9 Coffeehouse.

Vista has been the most controversial to date. Microsoft, you gotta make this easy, you gotta make people be enthused and not confused or heartbroken. I have seen stupidity happen over this very same SKU fiasco in my lab and I am sick of defending it!

“I got Ultimate and you don’t and you are running Home Basic which is like the worst edition” even between premium SKU’s I have witnessed arguments.

Kara: “I’m running Vista Ultimate 32-bit and its way better and have all the features”.

Wolli: Actually, I am running the better edition of Vista, Home Premium 64-bit, because it’s more secure and is not susceptible viruses like the 32-bit one and it can use more memory.

Stop! Ok, one more.

Cian: “I am running Vista Home Basic and I feel left out”.

How can we solve this? The SKU strategy needs to be redesigned, here’s a tip:
Cut out Windows Vista Ultimate, it does not make sense – I have witnessed over 30 notebooks running Vista where I study and only 3 I see are running Ultimate, the majority is Home Basic or Home Premium. Rare cases will you see even a Business Vista based computer.

The SKU strategy for Windows 7 must be like this:

• Windows 7 Home – same strategy as Vista Home basic, supports upgrading from XP Home Edition and Vista Home Basic. Decent looking theme (AERO Glass). I am sure by 2010; most computers will have a powerful enough card to at least run this theme.
• Windows 7 Business (Eliminate Enterprise, let whatever unique functionality it offers be add on under software assurance). This would in fact I believe spur more Company’s to actually sign up, and push the initiative of software as a service in the Enterprise and revamp some of Microsoft’s businesses like SA and EA.
• Windows 7 Premium – Includes Media Center and all multimedia features and the successor to Ultimate. Persons who upgrade from Vista Ultimate to 7 Premium must get access to all the same and improved functionality. So, things like Domain Join for instance that is in Ultimate, but is not a default feature of 7 Premium, must be carried over, just write it off as an add on purchased by the user, similar to what I described earlier. I can give an example of this. Remember when the first version of XP MCE was released? It included Domain Join, but subsequent versions after that were done through clean installs did not include Domain Join, but if you upgraded from say MCE v1 to MCE 2004 or 2005, the Domain Join functionality is retained, yeah, it’s something like that.

Pricing:

- Windows 7 Home - $100 (no upgrade pricing, just let there be a $100 dollar edition of Windows like there use to be). $160 family pack, supports up to 5 computers in the home and stick to it too, don’t back out 7 months into the program.

- Windows 7 Business - $200 ($140 upgrade), don’t make this SKU a hard bargain, make persons who actually want business features and business features only actually want to buy this SKU. Again, it should also replace Vista Enterprise. When I plug in a UTP cable, it should automatically be able to detect a Domain, type of Network and guide the user to successfully join and access resources just by providing username, password and domain name. Diagnosis should be informative, explanation of how to join a domain, what the Administrator might not have provided to the end user to make you join the network, what the administrator might be doing wrong on his/her end. Make it easy for users to bring home work and continue accessing resources remotely.

- Windows 7 Premium - $200 ($140 upgrade), Multimedia based version of Windows 7 that includes all the features of Home Basic and all the latest rich consumer experiences on the PC, from Parental controls, to a premium experience with Windows Live, Media Center and so on, I am sure you can bundle some goodies to make it a key differentiator. $350 family pack for 3 computers, make people want to see value in it enough to spend that kind of money on an OS.

- And stick to this strategy for all eternity.

There you have it, three SKU’s that can be easily adopted by mainstream markets. If I had my way, I would personally eliminate even the basic Home SKU and just have Windows 7 Business and Premium. Yes, there are compromises, but at the same time I believe this strategy shuts up the point about bloat in Windows. It gives consumers, SMBs and Enterprises choice and an easy way to get Windows 7 with the features they do need.

Check out my other wishes, (some of which I have discovered can be resolved already in Vista) here

Resources:

Windows 7 Preview Teching It Easy

More Windows 7 screenshots

Will Windows 7 Get a Final Moniker? Ed Bott ask

Quote:

“Here were some of their key findings:

* 48 percent of respondents indicate that their organization is evaluating, testing, or implementing Vista. That doesn't sound dead to me.
* 30 percent of respondents have organizations that are currently implementing or have already implemented Vista.
*50 percent of the respondents said Vista is performing "above expectation" on key features.”

I have been rolling out some new Dell Optiplex 755 systems for the past 4 weeks at a Government Agency and the procurement includes both Windows Vista Business and XP Professional media. The systems are preloaded with XP because they are just not ready for Vista, some of the custom applications need to be updated. But Vista is definitely on their agenda, but it will take some time before they start rolling it out and it will most likely be incremental.

Quote:

“…there are enhancements to Group Policy settings (over 800 new settings in Vista) that allow for a greater level of administrative control over such items as power use. These days, we are all about going green, and here Vista is an OS that can help us thanks to the added ability to adjust the amount of power your system uses. Other enhancements allow for greater security control within the enterprise, preventing users from plugging in USB devices and other removable media, User Account Control, and more.

Vista also introduces BitLocker protection which is great for encrypting your entire system. Hundreds of thousands of laptops with confidential company data on them are lost or stolen each year. Without encryption of the drive, it is just a matter of time before a thief can access the contents. With BitLocker, that worry is removed. As a business person -- perhaps one who has had their laptop stolen -- would you mock that level of protection? Most likely not.”

Waiting on Windows 7 to skip Vista does not make sense especially for businesses, since the same kernel will be used which means, any incompatibilities today moving from XP to Vista will also be there when trying to move from XP to 7. The strategy for most enterprise roll outs is to use a proven and tested product, which Vista will further be by 2010, by then the second Service Pack should also be out. I don't see a mass deployment of Windows 7, its the same case for most versions of Windows in the past.

We need to also understand how businesses procure licenses and software from Microsoft. That's through Software Assurance and Enterprise Agreement. Which means Vista is on their schedule, not Microsoft. We are talking about an OS that Microsoft plans to support until 2016.

I don't know what users find so drastically different about Aero that they use it as a deterrent to not move to Vista. Yes, the interface has made improved changes. For instance the unwieldy cascading All Programs menu has been tamed by the new searchable interface and a more friendly hierarchical structure. Yes, shutting down your computer is different because of the single menu, but Microsoft is recommending users hibernate their computers instead of shutting them down. So, that's the only hurdle I see to overcome. Users moving from 2000 can still enable the Windows Classic theme if they need the time to get acquainted with the changes to Explorer.

Then again, I am not forcing anyone to move to Vista based on XP's ability to stay secure in the foreseeable future. Since Microsoft obviously must believe that XP is secure enough to be around even in 2010 on netbooks.

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