
"The opportunity [for Windows Vista] will be tremendous. If you want to ride the wave we're creating with Windows Vista, the best way is to have your application ready by the time we ship! And that is very soon," Windows boss Jim Allchin wrote in an open letter on the company's Microsoft Developer Network website.
Microsoft's co-president of platforms and services in the letter reiterated the current launch schedule, which projects for general availability by January 2007 and availability for enterprises late this year.
The forthcoming operating system will bolster the market for third party applications, Allchin projected, because users who upgraded will look for "compelling and cool" software.
Windows Vista allows developers to take their applications to a new level through the .Net framework 3.0 as well as the existing Win32 application programming interfaces (APIs) to ensure compatibility for current generation applicatoins. Microsoft also plans to release a new version of its Visual Studio developer tool.