[Steve]

Interesting blog posted on ZDNet today. It was written by Jason Hiner, the Editor in Chief of Tech Republic:

http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=10303&tag=nl.e539

In a related poll, after 1350 votes, 73% of respondents said their companies would NOT be switching to Vista.

/steve

 

[Stuart Sweet]

Certainly I consider it a failure from a corporate perspective but it's harmless enough for home use.

 

[Sirshagg]

I'm perfectly happy with it on my personal laptop, but I don't forsee installing on my company workstations anytime in the near future. There is simply no reason.

 

[Nick]

...it's harmless enough for home use.

Harmless enough for the home user? Perhaps, if it worked -- or if all you had to do is fiddle with Vista and driver compatibility and other diaper-changing issues in order to make it work for you.

But what about the millions of home/SOHO users who don't have the skills, time or inclination to learn fixes, get patches and do work-arounds just to make the damn thing work?

Would you want to have to set timing, tighten the belts and change the plugs on your car every time you want to go for a six-pack? Why can't MS stop trying to be all things to all people? 50 million lines of code is ridiculous! With all its money, power and expertise, MS should be able to put out an OS that works!

Using a PC is supposed to increase productivity, not impede it.

 

[Hansen]

I don't think Vista failed from the standpoint of an OS. It's a great OS and light years ahead of XP. (I was skeptical of Vista and resisted it but realized I was mistaken once I tried it out and then realized that XP was way outdated as an OS).

What failed or did not work well was Microsoft's introduction of Vista into the marketplace too early, not working enough with 3rd party vendors to ensure the 3rd party vendors brought their products up to snuff to work properly (even though it was the 3rd party vendors fault for their programs not working, Vista took the blame), and Microsoft underestimating the effect of negative perception about Microsoft in general and Vista due to the rocky start.

 

[AirRocker]

Very well written article...

 

[Steve]

It's a great OS and light years ahead of XP.

Can you please elaborate on this? I consider myself a "bleeding edge" guy and I wrestle with the idea of upgrading from XP SP3 every now and then, but still can't find a compelling reason to do so. What can I do with Vista that I can't do with XP as quickly... if not faster? /steve

 

[tcusta00]

Certainly I consider it a failure from a corporate perspective but it's harmless enough for home use.

On most levels, yes. However, I found a shortcoming over the weekend that I didn't forsee. I use(d) the "Publish to the web" feature of XP quite a bit to get my photos on my personal website and found out that Microsoft decided to remove this feature from Vista. So now the new laptop I have that I bought to be my primary photo-editing and publishing machine is worthless on this front. I had to rearrange my entire website layout and publishing procedure over the weekend. There is a workaround that I found after a few hours of looking but it's clunky, involved editing the registry, and requires about 5 more mouseclicks per upload. It was a no go for me so I revamped it all. That wasn't fun.

Thanks Microsoft! Thanks for getting me hooked on a feature and then yanking it out. Brilliant way to destroy customer satisfaction. :nono2:

 

[Stuart Sweet]

Can you please elaborate on this? I consider myself a "bleeding edge" guy and I wrestle with the idea of upgrading from XP SP3 every now and then, but still can't find a compelling reason to do so. What can I do with Vista that I can't do with XP as quickly... if not faster? /steve

So far the big benefit is that when browsing a folder that contains mixed videos and photos, they are both viewable using the same viewer app... meaning you can just arrow to the next thing without worrying if it's a photo or a video.

I also find the wireless networking better for home use.

However, I am incredibly annoyed by whatever they call that Data Execution Prevention or whatever that stops and asks you every time you want to launch a system app or change a program.

 

[tcusta00]

However, I am incredibly annoyed by whatever they call that Data Execution Prevention or whatever that stops and asks you every time you want to launch a system app or change a program.

That's been one of my pet peeves, too... anyone figure out to how bypass it?

 

[Sirshagg]

It's a great OS and light years ahead of XP.

Could you please explain this comment. There are some cool things such as Aero, but I'm not seeing anything that's a must have.

 

[Sirshagg]

That's been one of my pet peeves, too... anyone figure out to how bypass it?

http://www.petri.co.il/disable_uac_in_windows_vista.htm

 

[Stuart Sweet]

Thanks, Sir Shagg! I will give that one a try!

 

[HIPAR]

.. I tried it out and then realized that XP was way outdated as an OS). ..

I sent Microsoft three dollars for the pre-release VISTA. I bought a new hard drive to test it; not risking my XP installation.

It didn't install on my 1.5 Ghz desktop until I went out to the local office supply store to buy more memory. When I finally got it working, my wireless mouse wouldn't work. My VISTA experience index was one out of ten. So I gave up on upgrading, put my XP hard drive back in and am still using XP today.

So, for my current usage, mostly Web Browsing and E-Mail it's really not miles ahead of (XP) or (Win2K) or (Win98).

Microsoft has the dumbest advertising. Take that 'Majave Experiment' nonsense for example. Those dumb computer illiterate people aren't who Microsoft has to convince. They're going to Best Buy when they think it's time for a new computer to buy one with VISTA installed and will be perfectly satisfied with it because the machine is configured at the factory to work.

Microsoft needs to convince those knowledgeable users who have untold time, effort and money invested in custom configured and smoothly operating XP systems/networks that spending hundreds of dollars per 'seat' (hate that term) for upgrades will return multiples of those expenditures in increased productivity.

When I build my next computer after the XP machine breaks, I'll certainly install VISTA or more probably Windows 7 but if Microsoft is arrogant enough to force me to subscribe or lock me out of support, I'll go Linux.

--- CHAS

 

[Stuart Sweet]

There's the thing. Right now I have 20 computers that work adequately and no overriding reason to fuss with them. If I have to go to Vista on new hardware I will but I certainly won't upgrade the old stuff.

 

[Jimmy 440]

I got Vista on my new PC.I kind of like it.It seems to run much smoother than the XP.So far so good for me.I guess it takes some use to get familar with.

 

[HIPAR]

That's been one of my pet peeves, too... anyone figure out to how bypass it?

That's one of the first things I needed to do to evaluate VISTA. Like adding annoying tasks to get your mission accomplished. Like your more secure if VISTA saves you from yourself. Like the 'Proverbial boy crying wolf.

How many 'Mojave' people will just live with this nonsense thinking that's the way it is?

--- CHAS

 

[kocuba]

I'm currently running Vista on my work/development PC. I needed to switch to Vista because our application is run on laptops out in the field(1400+) and our vendor was going exclusively to Vista for the OS and we need to make sure that it didn't "break" anything.

While I had a heck of a time getting my SW installed, VB6 SP3, .Net among others, and working, once User Account Control was turned off things have seemed alot easier. I've settled in and gotten used to the GUI and don't see any more or less problems then I had with XP. I'm quite happy with the performance I've got. But then again I can have 6-10 applications open at one time.

I agree with Hansen as to why this OS is failing. Not enough working with 3rd party vendors, rocky start, terrible PR is just killing this. While I don't know about "light years ahead of XP", it would be my OS of choice for my next home PC with out hesitation.

 

[Chris Blount]

Good article. I wouldn't call Vista a failure. It just didn't meet marketplace expectations.

I must admit that Vista was one of the reasons why I switched to Mac. I kept having to throw hardware at my Vista machine to keep it running at a decent speed.

It will be interested to see what Microsoft comes up with next. In the meantime my iMac and my Macbook are staying at least until Apple screws up.

 

[phat78boy]

One of the big benefits for my company was the inclusion of Bitlocker. Needless to say we no longer needed to purchase a 3rd party program for encrypting our laptops and thus saved a lot of money.

Personally, I found several reasons to upgrade and wouldn't go back to XP. I will say that all of my OS upgrades are also done with hardware updates at the same time. To me, it just seems like the way to go.