Vista, Microsoft and Fanboys! ARGH!
Ok, unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that Microsoft released Vista for non-business users at the end of January (about damn time!) Great, right? WRONG! Unless you’re a fan boy, a Microsoft exec, or some complete newbie, there’s ZERO reason to run out and upgrade.
“But, what about all the great new features?” you say… Let’s see…
Increased security model - Hmm… Ok, except part of that increased security means I have to get the heck bugged out of me every time I do something the OS doesn’t think is safe. I have a clue, I don’t need to be hand held 100% of the time. The first thing most people are going to do is turn that crap off, so what good is it then?
And to go along with that, MS has been VERY closed lipped to the security tool makers, not giving them the information they need to make upgraded versions of McAfee or Norton, etc. for Vista. MS claims “It won’t be needed…” Yeah, and I have ocean front property in Kansas I’d like to sell you! I’m stating right now, I’ll be surprised as heck if there isn’t a major Vista virus out and running in the wild by April 1st. Oh, but we don’t need Virus Protection Software, right Bill?
The UI improvements? Frankly I have seen NOTHING compelling in the Windows UI since Windows 98/2000. One of the first things I do to every machine I get my hands on is switch back to the 2000 Classic Look and Feel. It runs faster, uses a LOT less resources, and doesn’t have that cute “kindergarten”/Crayola feel to it. And frankly, the stuff they’ve added to Vista has been in other OS’s for YEARS (being able to see thumbnails of your documents and images and videos - that was done back on BeOS 10+ years ago!)
IE7 - Available on XP. Try again.
DirectX-10 - Ok, yeah… Where are the DX-10 ONLY games? Guess what, there won’t be any that REQUIRE DX-10 until late 2007 if not 2008. And all those users who ran out and bought their shiny (and EXPENSIVE) NVidia 8800 cards to be “Vista Ready”, well, they’re seeing what that got them - NVidia STILL doesn’t have a fully working Vista driver!
We won’t even get into the DRM infestation, except to say, when the heck did it become ok for some other company to control what I do with MY computer that *I* paid for, and *I* put together? I thought this was a “General Purpose” computer?
What about all the great features we were told we going to be put into the OS right after XP was released? Things like the SQL-Server based file system (winfs)? The super cool scripting shell? The P2P sync capability? GONE GONE GONE. All of the REAL and USEFUL features that would have seriously improved the OS got dropped as Vista fell farther and farther behind it’s project schedule. The Vista we ended up with is a pale shadow of what was promised back in 2001. Basically, we got a face lift, some new crummy apps lumped on, and some annoying security features that wouldn’t be needed if Microsoft would just release an OS that wasn’t so insecure in design to begin with!
The truth of the matter is, 99% of you out there don’t NEED Vista. Unfortunately MS is going to shove it down all our throats, since they’re pretty much pulling XP off the shelves, and forcing PC makers to sell new machines with Vista as the only option (don’t you LOVE a monopoly???)
And if Vista is so great, why the HECK have they already announced that there will be SP1 out this fall? No thanks, I don’t like being a beta tester for the main piece of software controlling my entire system!
My advice? Stick with XP until late this year at least. There’s nothing that is available for Vista that you can’t get for XP (except DX-10 and as we said above, until there’s DX-10 only games, why bother?) If you have to buy a new machine and have to get it with Vista, ok, just be prepared for driver issues, frustration from the security system and the total lack of “Vista-ready” software.
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it…. ” This applies to your operating system too! Better the evil you know (and can patch) than the evil you don’t know!
And just so you all don’t give me too much grief, I DO run Windows on my machines… I just don’t run out to upgrade because MS says I should. I wait, I watch, and I let them get all the problems worked out. My time is important to me and I have better things to do than go insane trying to work around problems in Windows. In a lot of ways, I still feel Windows 2000 is the best version Microsoft ever released, and I’d be using it today if games and other software didn’t start refusing to install on it (even though there’s really no reason why they shouldn’t work on 2000 if they work on XP.)
No, I seriously believe Vista will either make or break Microsoft’s long term hold on the industry. Either the DRM frustrations will piss everyone off and we’ll see a mass exodus to Apple or Linux, or MS will rush to put out something better. The Windows line needs to end and MS seriously needs to look at the concept of an operating system in a new way and take an all new tact with their next offering.
I distinctly remember sitting next to Mr. Jim Allchin (VP in charge of Vista Development) at a Georgia Tech College of Computing Advisory Council meeting back in the early 90’s. During the lunch we were talking and I got him in a huff when I told him how I thought OS/2 4.0 was so much better in various ways than Windows NT 3.5… Here we are 12 years later and old operating systems such as OS/2, BeOS, Unix, AmigaDos (and numerous others) STILL do many things much better than even Vista does today.
Oh well, maybe Bill and gang will learn and fix their ways in the Post-Vista Era….
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Right on, Mad Mike. I’m with you. I’m not upgrading at all. If M$ stops producing security patches for XP (and they will), and if Vista hasn’t lost the DRM stuff by then, then I’ll be moving to Linux.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not into piracy. I don’t download or copy music/movies, but I’ll be damned if I can’t copy *my own* music as many times, in as many ways, and to as many devices as I want.
Mike…
Just a few short years ago we all imagined Microsoft was the unstoppable juggernaut that would ALWAYS have the lock on 95% or more of the world’s computers. I recall a comment from an interview with Bill Gates one time though where he said something to the effect that Microsoft was one upgrade cycle away from being out of business, meaning that software lifecycles are so short that within 2 years, if everyone wanted to, the whole world could be on Linux. Then he went on with some crap about the need to innovate and such, but that point about one upgrade cycle is very true, and I think MS is about to find that many people do have a choice when they upgrade. And given that the horror stories about Vista, in my opinion, are only just beginning, I think a lot of people are going to say to themselves, I’ll stick with XP for another year, or I’ll try Linux, or I’ll try Mac.
Vista is going to be Gates’s Waterloo.
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