It’s Official. Vista’s Coming in 2007. Will You Buy?

Vista is coming. Again. Microsoft plans to launch Windows Vista January 30th, 2007. And November 30th, 2006.

Will you buy a copy of Vista? Will you run it on your new Intel Mac, or stick with Windows XP?

Unless you’re just curious to see how Windows will stack up side-by-side with Mac OS X on a Mac, what’s your reason for going with Windows?

Mine is business, so I’m glad to hear that Microsoft finally has a solid delivery date on Windows Vista.

The first date is November 30th when Microsoft releases Vista and Office 2007 to Microsoft’s business customers.

The second date is January 30th, 2007 for the official launch of Vista to the retail buying public at large, according to David Flynn in APC.

As a Mac user, what’s the interest in Windows for you?

For me, it’s a few applications for business that are, unfortunately, still Windows Only™.

I suspect that’s the same reason that many owners of shiny new Macs with Intel Inside will also pony up for Vista.

That, and a healthy dose of curiosity to see what all Microsoft’s hoopla is about, right?

Those date’s are important. It’s possible that some Windows PCs may see Vista installed and running by the end of the year.

Office 2007 is also scheduled to ship at the same time, and that carries significance for Mac users.

Microsoft’s Mac Business Unit, the developers of Office 2004 for Mac, say their version will show up about six months later.

That means we may see a Universal Binary version of Microsoft Office 2007 for Mac PPC’s and Intels by late spring 2007.

Assume that you’re the owner of a new Mac with an Intel CPU inside and you want to run Windows Vista. What’ll it cost?

It’s not cheap, especially when compared to the typical $89 to $129 price tag for OS X upgrades. How much?

Mac nemesis Paul Thurrott gives a good run down of the twenty eleven versions of Vista in WinSuperSite. I know what you’re thinking. ”How much, Bambi?”

According to Microsoft, Vista Home Basic will be $199 retail, $99 for the upgrade from XP. Vista Home Premium will be $239 retail, $159 upgrade from XP.

Windows Vista Ultimate carries the ultimate price tag. $399 retail, and $259 upgrade from XP.

What do you get for your hard earned money? The privilege of running Vista on your Mac.

Now that Macs do Windows what will you do with your Windows on a Mac?

Microsoft says the first thing is Ease Of Use, and right away, ”you will recognize familiar elements.”

I believe that. If you’ve seen Vista, well, it looks a lot like Mac OS X Tiger.

A lot like Tiger. Only different, in a loose fitting, disconnected sort of way.

Vista has a clever way of displaying files in the new Document Explorer with the Live Icon feature. I like that. Will we see something similar in Mac OS X Leopard?

Shiny, glassy, transparency is everywhere in Vista.

If you thought Aqua looked cool in OS X oh so many years ago, get your Windex and cloth ready-- Vista has bright and shiny written all over the screen.

Back to here and now. Will you dare to run Microsoft Windows Vista or XP on a new Mac with Intel Inside?

Will you go for Vista’s sparkly aeroglass shine, or stick with drab but tried and true Windows XP?

More importantly, assuming you have or will get a Mac that will run Windows, why will you buy and install Windows? What’s the need?

Are you just curious or is there a requirement for business or a specific application without a Mac counterpart?

Share with others why you would or would not install Windows on a new Mac.

Oh, one more thing-- assume you would install and run Windows-- how? Boot Camp to dual boot? Parallels to run Windows inside Mac OS X?

Off Topic Note: Here’s a few questions for Mac users: (1) What’s the world’s fastest browser? (2) What’s the best notebook for Mac users? (3) What’s a good back up strategy for your Mac?