The New Year will see the mainstream launch of the new Microsoft Windows operating system called Vista.

The last major upgrade to the desktop operating system was at the end of 2001, with the launch of Windows XP. At that time, most small and medium-sized organisations were still running Windows 98 (having never adopted the ‘business platform’ of NT/2000), so an upgrade to Windows XP with its security-based user accounts, better file system and more robust networking was a virtual necessity, despite the costs involved.

Whether upgrading to Vista can be justified in the same way is currently a matter of some debate. To help answer that question, let’s have a look at what the new system offers.

In Vista the whole Windows user interface has been redesigned and replaced by Windows Aero, a new interface that is intended to be cleaner and more aesthetically pleasing than previous Windows.

The new Windows shell is significantly different from Windows XP, offering a new range of organisation and navigation capabilities. To help us all manage our rapidly proliferating collections of data, Vista offers significantly faster and more thorough search capabilities.

A new Windows sidebar in Vista provides a transparent panel anchored to the side of the screen where a user can place desktop gadgets, small applets designed for a specialized purpose, such as displaying the weather or sports scores.

Utility-wise, Vista includes better backup and restore software, built-in speech recognition, better utility programs for disk management, monitoring system performance and scheduling tasks.

Vista also sports new versions of built-in software such as Internet Explorer 7, Media Player 11, Meeting Space (replacing Net Meeting), and Windows Mail (replacing Outlook Express). New applications for making DVD videos and managing image collections are also included.

Upgrading to Vista

Users can upgrade to Vista from January 2007, at which point the software will also start shipping on new computers. Consumers and businesses purchasing new hardware in the weeks prior to the Vista launch will receive upgrade coupons.

Current Windows XP users can go to the Microsoft Vista web page (www.microsoft.com/windowsvista) to download an application that will check if their system is Vista-capable. Running with all the new capabilities requires at least 1GHz in processing power, 1GB RAM, 40GB of free hard disk space, and a powerful graphics card. It’s not worth even checking anything older than a PC that originally shipped with Windows XP.

Criticism of Vista

Critics of the new system argue that many of the most essential ‘updates’ and software applications, including the long awaited Internet Explorer 7 browser, can already be downloaded free of charge from the Microsoft website. Apart from these, moving from XP to Vista involves a few bells and whistles, making the £250 price tag (for the Business Edition) very expensive. And given that a number of Vista’s features are only available on higher end equipment, the cost of upgrading hardware must also be factored in.

Not-for-profit organisations will of course be able to avail of reduced academic pricing, but the cost and time involved in upgrading an entire Windows XP network is still substantial and probably difficult to justify in terms of the benefits gained.

Are there any alternatives?

Microsoft may have a stranglehold on the desktop operating system market, but Apple diehards argue that anything that is good about Vista is already on the Mac and that Aero is just an expensive knock-off of their beloved ‘Aqua’ interface. With Macs easier than ever to integrate into an existing Windows network, it’s not impossible to imagine a shift in the Apple direction.

For most network users, though, it’s important to keep in mind that Microsoft still offers a perfectly good alternative to Vista called Windows XP. Vista and XP will interoperate very well, so older PCs can be retained while newer ones are purchased with Vista preinstalled.

So, for now, the bottom line is: Vista offers an attractive interface and some nifty features, but it’s probably not worth the effort of upgrading existing PCs.

Geoffrey Ready is managing consultant with Avec Solutions, a social economy company providing IT consultancy and support primarily to the not-for-profit sector. Avec’s range of services includes ICT consultancy, specification and supply of hardware and software, computer network installation and support, website development, ADSL broadband and internet hosting.