Microsoft?s long-awaited new operating system Vista was launched in the US yesterday and it should be available in Island retail stores by as soon as next Monday.

The product, the first new Windows operating system to be created by the world?s biggest software maker in five years, was launched in 70 countries in a marketing blitz.

The product has been available to business clients since last November.

One of the first companies on the Island to have had access to Vista was Hamilton-based Systems Business Integration (Sbi), which was Bermuda?s first Microsoft ?Gold certified partner?.

Sbi?s acting general manager Colin Searle said: ?Our company deals with commercial clients, but from a retail perspective, people will be able to purchase it at most computer stores around the Island on Monday.?

Sbi has been offering Vista to business clients and several companies have experimented with it.

?There has not been a lot of demand for it yet, but at this stage people are just playing with it,? Mr. Searle said. ?In a business environment, you have to be sure that the applications you have will run with a new system. The larger the organisation, the more complex is the change.?

Such barriers to change meant that some companies were still using operating systems that were released as long as 20 years ago.

?But I would expect to see many businesses turning to Vista from about April and many more in 2008,? Mr. Searle said.

?Vista brings a lot of new features to the table and when you talk with technical people, they get very excited about the things it can do.?

Mr. Searle said the members of the public installing Vista would be best advised to burn important data onto a CD or DVD and then to wipe their computer clean of software before installing Vista.

?From my personal experience of testing it, the average person is likely to have a better experience uploading it that way than by trying to upgrade,? Mr. Searle added.

Sbi is a Gold certified partner with Microsoft and has been issued by the software giant with competencies in advanced infrastructure, networking and licensing. This month Sbi added information worker competency, which signifies proven skills and experience in building solutions on the Microsoft Office system.