So there, 5 more years of support for Windows Vista

Apparently Microsoft has reconsidered their support policy for consumers so they added another 5 years... This is a fact, as confirmed by what a Microsoft spokesperson told tech blogger Ed Bott: "customers who remain on the most current supported service pack will be eligible to receive both Mainstream and Extended Support, for a total of 10 years." Among the ramifications of that decision is that the lifetime of this blog will be extended as well.

Approaching the end of mainstream support

I ran a search about the future of Windows Vista and came across this page about Microsoft products lifecycle. Basically, Windows Vista's mainstream support end date is getting closer: 10 April 2012, and the suggestion included in that page is basically "Buy Windows 7 now!".  "Support ends 24 months after the next service pack releases or at the end of the product's support lifecycle, whichever comes first." Not to worry, the solution center will continue to be there, I presume, for a long while. I would also say that, in general, a number of solutions and tips apply across the board for Windows Vista, Windows 7 and most likely the forthcoming Windows 8, to be launched at the Mobile World Congress on 29 February 2012.

Windows Vista usage itself surpasses Mac OS usage

Windows Vista, the most vilified and misunderstood operating system in the history of the PC, mostly because of misinformation and misperceptions spread mostly by non-users, based on anecdotal situations, has an usage share of about 65% compared to the number of users of Mac OS X. This, according to Gartner, an information technology research firm, and to a Wikipedia usage share of operating systems article, which reproduces the findings. The combined Windows operating system usage (XP, Vista and Windows 7) amounts to 77.69% against a 7.31% for Mac OS and a 1.11% for Linux. These figures are estimates as at August 2011.

I will continue to publish this blog for another year

Dear Readers,

While waiting, as anybody else, somehow anxiously, for hurricane Irene to pass by New York this weekend, I have renewed this domain name for another year and I will continue to cover, though more frequently, about Windows Vista. I have noticed that  there is a considerable number of users everywhere of this undeservedly underestimated PC operating system. Everybody, everywhere, have a safe weekend!

That's all folks!

It's been a pleasure to share my "advocacy" for a great operating system such as Vista with all of you in cyberspace. This blog will cease to exist this summer and, since I'm busy with other endeavors, this may be my last post. I really enjoyed the ride. I will continue to blog about Windows 7, though. THANKS SO MUCH!

Service Pack 2 and that is it for Vista?

Yes, believe or not, Windows Vista will be around for many years to come and it will receive mainstream support until April 10, 2012, and extended support until April 12, 2017, the latter only for commercial customers. Notice also that support for Windows Vista SP1 was already retired on July 12, 2011. To receive mainstream and extended support you need the new Service Pack 2 (SP2), which includes compatibility fixes for new types of hardware and emerging hardware standards and, as usual, it will include  all of the updates that have been released since the previous service pack (SP1).

WPF and extreme user interfaces like StreetSmart edge™

Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), introduced with Windows Vista, is an state-of-the-art presentation system for building Windows client and web-hosted applications with visually stunning user experiences. Curiously enough, the encyclopedic books about Vista and Windows 7, like the traditional Resource Kits, mention this technology in passing, mainly because it is part of the .Net Framework and intended mostly for developers, as its cousin Silverlight. One of these developers, Projekt202, an Austin, Texas, company, which without a doubt knows a great deal of usability and UI design, used WPF controls in the design of Charles Schwab's StreetSmart edge™, a very intuitive online trading application that has received good reviews since its release at the end of 2010. It runs in Windows 2000 and up and also in Mac 10.3 or higher.