Vista is rock solid, says MS

Microsoft's new-generation Windows Vista, 2007 Office System and Exchange Server 2007 will be released to manufacturing "soon" and available to local business customers by the end of the month. However, consumers will have to wait until the end of January 2007.

"We have been feeling the pain of delays because we are building software to very exacting standards, but we are very confident Vista is rock solid and will be as bug-free as it can be by the time it is released to market," says Jonathan Hatchuel, Windows client business group manager at Microsoft SA.

Hatchuel concedes that although Microsoft can guarantee quality up to a certain level, it is impossible to guarantee there will be absolutely no bugs in the new software. "As long as humans build software, there will be bugs - that's a fact of life," he says.

Consequently, Hatchuel says Microsoft has all the processes and tools in place to ensure that if there are any post-release problems for any of the new products, they can be patched quickly and effectively.

"We have put a lot of effort and money into changing our engineering processes in the past five years to cater for the rapidly growing security threats," he says.

At a media briefing at Vodaworld, in Midrand, yesterday, Cyril Belikoff, information worker business group executive, Microsoft SA, said the new generation of software was not only about technology, but also about using technology to support the way people work.

"In developing these new products, we spend a lot of time with customers to understand how they work, especially in terms of cross-company collaboration," he said.

Belikoff said in the past 10 years the Office suite of products had focused on individual productivity, but the 2007 Office System was designed to take productivity to the next level by enabling organisations to use it to drive their business.

"Feedback from local customers taking part in the technology adoption programmes across all three new products has been positive, indicating we are on the right track," he said.