Along with his celebrity pals
Microsoft's long-awaited Vista operating system finally got its consumer launch in London this week. The company's chairman Bill Gates (above) was at hand for the unveiling, in an event at the British Library.
Gates said: "This is a special occasion, we've worked hard to build a new software platform and we are so excited to see what people will do with it."
Photo credit: Steve Ranger
Pop band The Feeling added a bit of glamour to the launch, playing to the journalists and Microsoft partners inside the British Library, and then an outdoor gig under the "Wow" banner that Microsoft is using to promote Vista.
Photo credit: Steve Ranger
The day also included a small business session where small businesses talked through their experiences of being Vista beta customers, hosted by Doug Richard (in red), known for his role in BBC 2 show Dragon's Den about wannabe entrepreneurs.
According to research commissioned by the British Chambers of Commerce and Microsoft, small businesses are getting bogged down by looking for files and records, dealing with government red-tape and fixing IT problems associated with IT security and data storage.
Photo credit: Steve Ranger
David Frost, director general, British Chambers of Commerce (above) said "small businesses are spending too much time on tasks that they consider low priority - they want to spend time on customers, winning business and gaining revenue".
According to the research, four out of five small businesses have websites, even though less than a third are using them for trading.
Frost said: "We are clearly now a nation of web keepers - small businesses are embracing the internet and 82 per cent have an online presence and it's this section that can most benefit from current developments in technology."
Photo credit: Steve Ranger
The launch also saw Microsoft showing off the businesses that will be using Vista's desktop 'Gadget' mini-application technology.
Betfair's Advanced Technology Group is building a Gadget and a WPF/XAML application that interacts in real time with the betting exchange. This will allow users to place and monitor bets on the site.
Image: Betfair
IMG Media and Arsenal Football Club unveiled their Vista-enabled Arsenal Football Club Gadget. It will give Arsenal fans a permanent Arsenal presence on their desktop to access news, video and audio.
Image: IMG