In case you have managed to dodge the Microsoft Marketing Machine, the latest version of Windows, known as Vista, has been released. For those of you who only need the highlights:

Do NOT upgrade to Vista. The software you use to run your business will most likely NOT run on Vista.

Details on this for Sage MAS 90, MAS 200 and BusinessWorks either have been posted here or soon will be.

Why is Vista not your friend? Let me count the ways:

(1) It just came out. Let someone else find the bugs. (This applies to any software.) If you must buy a new computer now, be sure to specify you want XP Pro installed on it, not Vista.

(2) The same hardware will run slower with Vista than with XP. Vista’s hardware requirements are significantly higher than Windows XP, especially in the areas of memory (now 1 GB as a minimum for efficient operation) and video cards – built-in motherboard video will not work and video cards need to have a minimum of 256MB of RAM in order to run “Aero”. Aero is Microsoft’s latest ripoff of Apple’s user interface (which Apple had running years ago on computers with 256MB of RAM for the whole system.)

(3) The Vista licensing agreement is even more unconscionably one-sided than previous Windows licenses. Basically, Microsoft reserves the right to make you reactivate Vista at any time, and can refuse to reactivate your legitimately purchased software if an when it suits them.
See http://www.michaelgeist.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1641&Itemid=135
for more details. Especially note the information about Windows Defender automatically removing any software it, not you, deems to be unwanted. Spyware prevention as spyware itself.

(4) Besides the processing power needed for Aero, Vista is also both slowed down and made more expensive by built-in DRM (Digital Rights Management), which will only play back your legitimately purchased media on “approved” and “licensed” hardware. Oh, and the DRM has already been hacked ( http://www.alex-ionescu.com/?p=24) so the pirates will not be slowed down at all, just the paying customers. All this comes at a time when even the record companies are seeing that DRM is costing them sales and are ready to start selling music downloads without DRM. If even the RIAA has figured out that treating its customers like criminals is poor policy, why has Bill Gates not picked up on that? Has he been fishing with Sonny?

Let Microsoft know you’re not sold on Vista, and let them know why. Demand Friendly software!