Windows Vista is Coming

The official launch of the consumer versions of Windows Vista is only seven days away.  I thought it would be a good time to start watching my Blog stats to see how quickly my readers are seduced into installing Vista.  As of today, it looks like  1.3% of my readers have already installed Vista.

I haven’t really talked much about Vista.  At this time, I’m afraid I might come across as some kind of Microsoft basher.  Truth is I’m a big MS supporter and even spent a winter in Bldg 24 on the Redmond campus working on a secret project. I have a lot of respect for the folks at Microsoft so I don’t necessarily want to be quoted for comparing Vista to the quality of Windows ME.

Mostly, I’m disappointed.  I had hoped that Vista would be a huge step forward for Windows and that everyone would be more excited.  Judging from the buzz online, everyone is supportive, but nobody is lining up outside computer stores waiting to be the first to purchase Vista.

According to Mary Jo Foley last month…

“First-year Windows Vista sales will stall.”
“Many PC makers and resellers still aren't promoting Vista. Many can't answer even basic questions about which machines will and won't run the various Vista SKUs. Granted, Microsoft moves the bulk of Windows copies via OEM preloads, not retail sales -- but I'm still doubtful.”

My experience is that many consumers “have to” have what ever is the latest and greatest so people will be upgrading to Vista even quicker than they upgraded to XP.  ( XP adoption was actually very slow.)  I’ll be watching the stats and will let you all know what I see both here in Bits from Bill and other web sites. Analysis have recently been predicting 15% will be using Vista by this time next year.

I’ll also be watching the number of Mac users which currently averages about 2%.  My biggest surprise is that at least one of my readers out there is still using OS/2.