There you have it. The most anticipated OS of the new century. You’ll need to spend big bucks now that your old graphics cards wont’t support the new sexy Aero interface…My advice ? Take it easy and only buy Vista after 1 year. By that time, MS will have sorted out the kinks and bugs.

As Windows Vista has been released to manufacturing (RTM) yesterday — a significant milestone for Microsoft and its partners — anticipation is building around that all-important question: How good is it really? Microsoft says Windows Vista is its most heavily tested operating system ever, with deep investments made to ensure greater security, reliability and usability. But after all the time, expense and effort to get it right, does Windows Vista meet the quality bar?

Microsoft unveils Microsoft Office Accounting Express 2007 and Microsoft Office Accounting Professional 2007, much to the delight of accounting fraternity. The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant is offering Accounting Express for free and promoting it via a slick new Web site, ideawins.com. I just wonder what the other accounting software vendors think about this.

For VARs, Microsoft has set up another Web site, oapipeline.com, to help them drive sales of Office Accounting products by promoting other Microsoft products that can be combined with the accounting software to form larger solutions.

Accounting Express is limited but is no toy. Microsoft combined both products into a single install, so users only need to add a key to activate the Professional trial version. Accounting Professional is priced at $149, and the full activation key will be available early in 2007. Upgrading from Microsoft Small Business Accounting 2006 is $99. Express users will be able to activate the full Professional version as well from their install without having to download new software.

According to office12watch, Microsoft has warned its Office 2007 beta users to be ready on a big flood of email coming their way. Microsoft in partnership with Waggener Edstrom will release a new weekly e-mail newsletter to keep users updated on its impending full release. Ho hum..Yes. We are eagerly awaiting Office 2007 and Vista to clean out our pockets. Please tell keep us informed as we are Microsoft Zombies.

Don’t hold your breath for a Microsoft Office in Linux flavour. They have not even come up with a bug free Vista yet….

As open source solutions gain additional ground and increasingly find their way in various aspects of life, Stuart Cohen, chief executive of the Open Source Development Lab (OSDL) has predicted that Microsoft and Linux will deepen their relation. In this context, he referred to the inevitability of a Microsoft Office version designed for Linux.

Microsoft Office in Linux flavour source