Microsoft Windows Vista software compatibility

Microsoft has released a list of 800 applications that should run properly on its new Windows Vista operating system.

As expected, virtually all of Microsoft's own offerings are on the list -- including the latest Office 2007 products. Also included are a host of business and security applications from vendors ranging from Intuit to Trend Micro. And desktop applications from Google, which ramped up its rivalry with Microsoft earlier this week with the introduction of online business applications, made the cut.

However, noticeable by their absence are applications from a number of the world's biggest software companies, including Adobe Systems, IBM, and Symantec. "Some of that may be by design," says tech industry analyst Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group.

Enderle notes that IBM and Adobe are becoming increasingly competitive with Microsoft in the desktop applications market. IBM earlier this month released a suite of office software called the Open Client Solution. Meanwhile, Microsoft's new XPS document portability format is seen as a competitor to Adobe's PDF format.

Also absent from the list, published earlier this week by Microsoft, is any software from Apple. Enderle thinks Apple has purposely chosen not to make some of its more popular applications, such as its iTunes music player, Vista-compatible. "Apple wants to see Vista crippled," he says. Apple is running a series of TV ads depicting its operating system as a tech-savvy hipster and Vista as a socially inept middle-manager type.

On its Web site, Microsoft says the number of applications certified for use with Windows Vista is constantly growing and that its list "will be update weekly."