Microsoft Corp rolled out Windows Vista at retailers in 70 countries on Tuesday, delivering a PC operating system that aims to better manage the explosion of digital media and protect users from the dangers of the Internet.
The world's biggest software maker marked the launch of its first all-new Windows operating system in five years with a marketing blitz including commercials featuring basketball star Lebron James and appearances by Bill Gates, Microsoft chairman and most recognisable face. "We have just begun to see what we can do," Gates said at an event at the British Library in London. "We will be taking entertainment to a whole new level ... even education we believe will be changed very dramatically."
Vista, which required a $6 billion investment from Microsoft, will be installed on more than 100 million PCs world-wide, according to research reports. Gates strayed from the technology of the product to proclaim that Vista's capabilities would be used to put online Leonardo da Vinci's famous Codex Arundel and Codex Leicester notebooks, making available the artist's drawings, mirror writing and theories to the public.
The Codex Arundel is held at the library, while Gates owns the Codex Leicester after he paid $30 million for the manuscript in 1994. Windows runs on more than 95 percent of the world's computers and the long-delayed new version is the first major release of a new Microsoft operating system since it introduced Windows XP in 2001.
Microsoft called Vista the most important release of its dominant operating system since Windows 95 more than a decade ago, when shoppers waited for hours to be among the first to run the new software.