Where did you want to go yesterday?

It's not that I like to pick on Microsoft. It's just that they keep doing things that make me shake my head in amazement.

Take; please take, for example, the revelation that Microsoft is working on a significant new feature for Windows Vista, known as Restart Manager.

Guess what it does? Yes, it's designed to update the operating system or applications without having to reboot the entire machine!

Jim Allchin, the co-president of Microsoft's platform products and services division and one of the few folks at Microsoft that I respect, thinks that this is a pretty big deal.

Well, he's right. It is.

It's just that, well, we've been able to do this in Linux/Unix land since... the 80s?

I really don't know. I've been using Unix machines since the early 80s and try as I might, I can't recall when I last used one that required me to reboot after installing most upgrades and patches.

I know there were some machines I had to do it on, but honestly, I can't recall one since the early 90s and I'm having real trouble even remembering what the last box was where I had to do it on for most patches.

Suffice it to say that by the time Microsoft rolled out its first semi-serious server operating system -- Windows NT 3.1 in 1993 -- Unix administrators were already used to making major changes on their servers without having to worry about telling all the users to get off the network.

And now, twelve years later, Microsoft considers it a big deal that it's finally getting around to adding true "availability" to their next-generation operating system! This might be out by 2006!!

Folks? With "advanced" technology like this, how can I not make fun of Microsoft!?

Perhaps they should change the slogan from "Where do you want to go today?" to "Where did you want to go yesterday?"


--Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

I guess Microsoft's new slogan should be Where do you want to restart today, hehehe
I've been using Linux for about 4 years now, the only restart I need after an update is when I update the kernel (or install a new kernel) well it's good that Microsoft could catch up with some of the 2oth century technology.