Analyst warns of premature Vista launch

Microsoft's Vista business launch was premature and has instilled doubt that the company was ever truly ready for a 2006 launch, according to one industry analyst. PC World analyst Russ Cooper of Cybertrust observes that much of the software compatibility in Vista is broken, leaving many early business customers and even some home users stranded as essential productivity and security tools malfunction in the new environment. The lack of support requires updates that may be months away from completion, according to the analyst. "I say Microsoft never intended anybody to run Vista prior to January," Cooper added. "What works on Vista, beyond Office 2007?"

PC World also finds that Microsoft is creating inexplicable delays for important fixes. The publication cites a recent performance fix for Internet Explorer 7 as an example of the problem, pointing to a patch that was released for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 earlier this month but that will not appear for Vista until an unspecified amount of time after the public launch of Vista has already taken place. A Microsoft spokeswoman said such fixes were handled on a "case-by-case basis" but did not account for the delay, according to Electronista.

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