A few months after its launch, how is Vista shaping up in the real world?
Microsoft launched Vista to the general public in January, following its
business launch in December. The idea was that Microsoft was clamping
down on security issues that have plagued successive incarnations of its
operating system by introducing a slew of improvements.
These were generally heralded as a good thing by the security industry
at large, with the usual minor disagreements as to their overall
effectiveness, etc.
A few months down the line, and the cracks in the security facade are
beginning to show. Aside from the voice recognition feature in Vista,
which in theory could allow an attacker to play mp3 recordings of voice
commands to a PC, thus gaining control of it, a few more flaws have
crept out into the limelight.
According to anti-virus competitor Symantec, Vista's firewall can be
compromised to perform prohibited functions. It claims that the
user-activated 'unblock' button can be accessed by someone with the same
privilege level as a standard user.
Reviewers have criticised the resource-hungry nature and high retail
price of the OS, while experts point to the almost immediate release of
patches as evidence that Vista is not yet fully developed.
However, in spite of these setbacks, sales of Vista have outstripped the
first month's tally for Windows 2000, according to a report from NPD
Group. "A lot of our clients that are using 2000 are thinking of jumping
straight to Vista, missing out XP", said Stuart Okin, partner at
Accenture.
And there's the rub - no matter how much Vista is slated by experts and
competitors, its pre-installed on every new PC people buy on the high
street, so sales and penetration will inevitably rise.
That said, the installed security market isn't shaping up too well for
the Redmond giant. Windows Live OneCare has come under fire recently for
deleting users' Outlook email files when an infection is detected, while
an independent AV trial rated it last out of 17 anti-virus programs
tested.