Not far away now, Windows Vista taking advantage of the 64bit processor
Microsoft Windows Vista has now been 5 years in development. You can expect it to be available in January 2007.
Last week a very close to final version was released to BETA testers, intended for developers. The general consensus is that although there are concerns around its compatibility with all the software out there, it is a great leap forward and you can expect a lot more inbuilt protection against malware and hackers.
Most improvements that you will notice are clarity in how to do things, an increase in your confidence using windows, and a closer link to your education and multimedia experience easily.
Aesthetically it looks far superior with many more rich tools, e.g. live previews including video instead of the standard alt tab. Much better graphic capabilities. Windows Side bar, keeping update information at your finger tips without cluttering the desktop. More tools to find information when it is important to you more easily.
The only real big concern that we have at the moment is that Microsoft have implemented a technology called PatchGuard which protects the Kernel of the Operating System (OS) against known malicious software which can take control of the OS. However PatchGuard will make it harder for third parties like McAfee and Symantec to function in Vista. They have effectively forced security vendors to bring a knife to a gun fight, even though it has been noticed that some of the bad guys have already found a back door to this protection.
It seems to me like Microsoft can not win, if they don’t create protection against hackers then they are said to write bad software, and when they do provide protection, they are accused of not allowing fair business competition stopping others from being able to write software for their OS.
If you would like install the beta version of Vista, please make sure you do not install it on a machine that is mission critical, and understand that it is an evaluation version, so it will contain bugs and should not be relied upon. It can be downloaded from click here and is available in 32 and 64 bit versions.