Vista: The geek-factor and beyond

In pursuing the Vista feature-set, I was struck be two things. The first was that from a technical (read geek) perspective, I’m really excited about this release. I’m pumped about the WIM imaging format and how it’s going to dramatically simplify our current internal image revision library. I’m always looking for improved security features - service hardening, limited application permissions etc... , the concept of virtual folders has potential (think KDE digiKam, or scripting the creation of symbolic links), and of course the new UI . Other neat technical features include… quicker startup, self-tuning, and auto diagnostics & correction, and much more.

All of these things are great from a technical perspective.

Now what’s the business justification? Because after I get done with the chrome, and the wow-factor, and the Linux, OSX, etc. comparisons, I'm going to be looking at how this adds-value from a business perspective. I need to be able to answer questions like, "How do I justify this to our enterprise customers?" And probably a more difficult question, "How do I justify this to the SMB market that we serve?"

Exepect follow-up posts covering these questions and more.