After more than a week's worth of testing, partners say Vista Release Candidate 1 is more solid than Beta 2 and predict the Windows client upgrade will be completed as planned in 2006.
RC1, one of the last test releases before market launch, was released in early September. Microsoft plans to make available Windows Vista Enterprise to Software Assurance customers in November and the other five editions to the general market in January.
"We have been very satisfied with the rollout of RC1," said Matt Scherocman, a director at PCMS IT Advisor, in Cincinnati. "The largest change that we see is the much better compatibility with other third party applications."
Gartner group and other analysts predicted in early August that Vista would be delayed until the spring. But Goldman Sachs top analyst Rick Sherlund, who also predicted the code would be delayed until next spring, has changed his mind.
"After Beta 2 we assumed another slip in shipment to March. Now with RC1 we are not so sure," Sherlund said in an e-mail response to CRN. "Feedback has been pretty positive. I think if there were to be a slip we would likely hear about it soon. [There may be] a month or so slip possibly, but I think it is beginning to look like it may be closer to on or close to schedule now."
Microsoft first made Windows Vista RC1 available to a small group of technical customers on Sept. 1, and released the code more broadly to partners, resellers, consultants and end users last week. The code was made available to new testers via its customer preview program last Thursday.
In spite of some remaining driver issues and bugs, more than 10 Microsoft solution providers in North Amercia and Europe who have tested the Vista RC1 code over the past week cite much progress over Beta 2, which was released in late May.
"Glad to see Microsoft is back to getting this delivered," said Ken Winell, CEO of ExpertCollab, a Florham Park, N.J.-based Microsoft partner. "I have tested Vista RC1 on a number of Dell Latitudes (D610, D620 and D800) and have seen good performance on the dual core, with somewhat slower performance on the Centrino machines."
"We've seen a marked improvement in Vista RC1 and are very happy with the progress. The driver support is significantly enhanced versus the late Beta 2 builds, stability and performance is much better and the overall experience is cleaner," said Neil Rosenberg, president and CEO of Quality Technology Solutions, Morris Plains, N.J. "We've had some bumps in the road, but nothing really beyond what we expected when we started the process of testing and deploying Vista with our clients."
