Intel waiting for key update before going Vista

Won't leap until SP1 arrives

By Tony Smith • Get more from this author

7th March 2007 12:29 GMT

If it's not good enough for Intel, is it good enough for you? We're talking Microsoft's Windows Vista, which the chip giant's CEO, Paul Otellini, this week indicated has not won the backing of his technology experts.

"I know of no organisation doing an upgrade before [Service Pack 1]," Paul Otellini told attendees of the Bank of America Technology Conference held in San Francisco this week, according to a ZDnet blog. "Intel isn't upgrading either."

Vista is "closer to the Mac than we've been on the Windows side for a long time", Otellini added. Otellini has praised the Apple operating system before, and is believed to have played a key role in persuading the Mac maker to adopt his company's processor technology.

A Microsoft's operating system's first Service Pack - what MS calls major updates - usually patches an array of glitches discovered in the initial version of the product.

While that approach may persuade big business to delay upgrading, consumers are more likely to be grabbed by the new OS' slick visuals. But even in this segment of the market, demand will take time to build up as folk buy new PCs with Vista pre-installed and get a chance to play with it, Otellini indicated.