Microsoft Corp. will require hardware makers to test their device drivers on Windows 7 to receive certification for Windows Vista, according to documents posted (.pdf) on the company’s site.
“Beginning with the release of the first beta of the next operating system, all Windows Vista client and Windows Server 2008 submissions must include a complete [set of] test logs for the new beta OS,” the company said in the document.
Although the company has disclosed a few tidbits about the OS, including multi-touch functions similar to what Apple Inc. now offers on its iPhone, Microsoft has not publicly set a release date for Beta 1…
Drivers don’t necessarily have to pass those tests in the first beta of Windows 7, said Microsoft, but the results must be turned over to the company. And Microsoft reminded the hardware makers and system sellers that it will hold them to account when Windows 7 nears. “Issues with hardware, system BIOS or drivers must be investigated and resolved by partners prior to the launch of the logo program for the new OS,” Microsoft said.
There are sufficient reason$ for someone to want to design products for Windows. Right?
And Jeff said:
“never mind that Microsoft actually had a stable NT kernel (1st released in 1993 and usable by 1995).
Finally, if Apple has anyone to thank it is the BSD community who have actually saved them from oblivion.”
And Microsoft can thank Digital for VMS where much of their knowledge and team were poached for NT. They also ripped off a lot from OS/2 during their partnership with IBM. And so the great circle of life continues Simba.
If you go to Redmond you’ll find guys on the kernel team who’ve worked for Apple and Sun. Same in Cupertino and Santa Clara. The system software engineering world is a small world.
And as others have noted…
ALL this using the Win 2000 core.
Never mind… I forgot about A/UX. I now feel compelled to worship the almighty Apple.
A/UX truly sucked. It was also the underpinning for that whole pink/taligent/copeland mess. And that sucked even more…
Almost all Windows problems can be traced to drivers not written by Microsoft. On my Vista laptop, the bad boy was an Intel graphics and Ethernet driver, which dropped my Internet connecion sporadically. Two months later, Intel pushed another driver, and the problem disappeared.
OS X doesn’t get off free. My wife had text files deleted from her Mac when she installed a new version of OS X.
On buying Macs for businesses: will only happen when the price of Mac computers drops down to that of a regular PC, or when OS X can run on any PC.
#20 is right…. I work on both platforms and the tools and flexibility on Windows is much better. And I agree, the arrogance I get from Apple and their fan boiz just pisses me off.
My Macbook Pro won’t recover from sleep without a reboot. I took it to an Apple store. Their answer “I must be lying because it that never happens. MBPs always work perfectly.”
Still happens, every damn time. Yet Apple refuses to look at it since it must not happen in their little universe.
Grrrrr
I’ve also noticed that the video ripping and editing tools for Windows now exceeds what it available for the Mac…. and Apple claims to be the machine for media centric people. Yea, right.
#11 Remember, nothing stevereeno does is bad for mac fans, until he directs them to think otherwise.
#17 yeah yeah. And motorolas (specially powerPC’s) were better than intel until mac used intel, and nubus was better than pci until mac used it, and usb was better than firewire until mac started using it and there were no smartphones until mac made one, and…
outside the pc world, no one made portable audio players until mac did them, no one did a media extander/streamer until mac did, no one…
Sure, always in the “vanguard”
#20 at last, someone with real criteria. A word of advice, waste your time on macfans only if you want to mock them. Otherwise, you’re just wasting your time.
#25 then you haven’t truly used vista. True, 3rd party vendors have real sucky driver support, but the new driver models and a lot of things inside the OS suck.
I disliked vista before using it. I loathe it now
>>I disliked vista before using it.
>>I loathe it now
I was neutral on Vista before using it. I DESPISE it now.
My platform of choice: http://tinyurl.com/2jtkw6
#20, #26 – http://www.LANDesk.com
#27 – Just because you’ve been owned time and time again over your Mac hatred is no reason to get pissy.
This is a great thing!! This is what 3rd party hardware makers should be doing. We should not be waiting for the next OS to be on store shelves and at computer maker’s to start testing beta drivers for it! Work the bugs out before release. More power to Microsoft for doing something about mistakes made in Vista.
#30 Poor Jimmy, still thinking he and mac matter. You must love to be banned from a mac store since it would be your owner and destiny director’s (stevereeno) will.
Ron, zap your pram and change your screen saver. Yea, I know. Weird.
P.S. Before anyone say “see that’s why Mac’s suck” => I’ve had the same problems with Toshibas, Dells, ThinkPads, and everything else. However, the Alienware Area-51′s are looking nice…
#12 and others: Criticize Microsoft for Vista. I have no problem with this. Do NOT criticize them for this move, which is a good move. Criticize the blunders, not the fixes. If you criticize them for learning from mistakes, you are part of the problem, and part of the reason corporations never makes real moves to admit and fix past mistakes.
ALL I want is an OS, not a protective security system that KILLS everything
I think I’ll stick with XP at least until Win 7 SP2 appears (and has been thoroughly checked out).
MS is up to it’s old tricks, this is just a move to firm up the grip on the manufacturers. When hardware manufacturers stop making XP drivers, MS hopes to sell more OS’s. This is just the kind of business strategy that converted Windows into a de facto monopoly. The funny part is, here they’re using the same kind of strategy to do away their old product as they used to use on the competition. It’s sort of like a snake that starts eating it’s tail, let’s just hope it finishes itself off.
#38 and be left with what, “open” mac? you’ve gotta be kidding.