In this last of a series of articles on XP vs. Vista, we’re going to discuss the idea of new software features and who they’re really aimed at.

While much maligned, Vista does have some features that can be a benefit to many people and organizations. But knowing who’s being targeted by those features will help you decide if it’s really worth buying into the marketing hyperbole.

A quick look at the Microsoft Vista features website will provide you with a decent breakdown of the many features and technologies that are integrated into Vista. In fact, there are 3 pages of indexes, covering 58 features. And by my quick count, there are  about 5 of those that are duplicates, which brings us to 53. Of those, there are 39 that are available by default in Windows XP (an example of this is the wireless functionality described on this page – Windows XP has full wireless, including support for a wide range of security methods). Which leaves 14, and most of them are available for free from a third party add-on. In fact, the popularity of those third-party add-ons is part of the reason they were included in Vista to begin with.

All in all there ends up being about 5 features that are new to Vista that can’t be had elsewhere. 5 unique feature reasons to upgrade. So as a business owner you have to ask yourself whether it’s really worth it to spend the money on hardware, software, and labour to effect the migration to Vista. For many the answer to this is ‘No’ and that’s part of the reason that Vista adoption has been so low (article here).

So who are the new features aimed at? For the most part they tend to be aimed at the consumer, or the end user market. It’s about getting the attention of the people looking at the screen; after all, do you really think that the new Aero interface is going to make IT staffers everywhere go all a-twitter? I think not. On the other side of the coin there are some new items, such as the new BitLocker technology (which offers a way to help secure corporate data), that are largely ignored in mass media marketing, but are instead promoted to IT shops.

The message from all this? Vista appears to be trying hard to be all things to all people. And in the process it’s not providing many folks with a compelling reason to make the purchase.There are many features, some new and some not in Vista and business managers need to consult with their IT staffers to determine if it makes good business sense to make the switch.