The blog & portfolio of Matthew J. Rogers

Vista: Windows ME all over again?

November 14, 2007

Vista comic

John C. Dvorak, everyone’s favorite cranky tech geek columnist, has written a quick piece that attempts to get at the root of why Windows Vista sucks so very, very hard. Although Microsoft claims that Vista is selling well (what else would they say?), the numbers indicate that a large number of users are sticking with XP or defecting to another platform entirely, notably Apple’s Mac. While Vista has been struggling, Macs have experienced their greatest growth ever in the past year or so. Dvorak, a die hard Windows user, indicates he is starting to feel the inclination to abandon the maligned operating system. It’s too expensive, there’s too many different versions (see above), it delivers almost none of the things that were initially promised, the interface is just short of awful, and the new “security” system is really, really damn annoying. In short, it’s a half-baked, lame attempt to put out something just for the sake of having something “new” (Windows Millennium Edition, anyone?), and what they wound up with was a Hindenburg-level disaster.

The article basically says that the product strategists at Microsoft are idiots (most of Dvorak’s articles revolve around calling someone “idiot”). As usual, his analysis of the situation and the options Microsoft is now faced with is mostly accurate, if a bit over-the-top in some cases (one of his options for the company: “Microsoft can scuttle the entire product.” And then we’ll go dance on the moon without spacesuits). There’s pretty much no denying the fact that Vista has been a half-decade’s waste of work and billions of dollars more or less down the toilet for the world’s biggest software maker. Since it took them so long to build the pile of crap that is Vista, how long is it going to take them to build something that people want to buy?

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Posted in Tech & Science

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2 comments

  • Jason November 22nd, 2007 at 1:57 pm

    I stumbled across this site when it was sent to me from a friend regarding this Vista = ME all over again post! I remember when ME first came out. What a clear cut, plain and simple, dissapointment! I stuck with my 98SE forever till XP hit the market. I could finally make the jump to a newer OS and be up to speed with the latest and greatest. After running it for 6 or 7 years now i’ve had some problems with XP as we all have at some point in time with any microsoft product. Never the less it was ok. (After a million patches and hotfixes) Then i decided to try Vista (Ultimate RC2 beta) before the final release was out and even though it was pretty with alot of so called amazing features i still found it to be extremely buggy and wasn’t compatible with anything i owned or the programs i was running at the time. All and all it was visually pleasing, but bloated with a lot of stuff that wasn’t nessesary and or even funtional. Since then, being in the IT field daily i’ve heard this question over and over again. ” How do I shut off the User Account Control (UAC) so it doesn’t prompt me to cancel or allow.” Obviously i don’t recommend doing such a thing due to the fact you won’t be prompted at all when it comes to security for your PC. Microsoft once again has given birth to another “dissapointment” and i ponder the idea of how they will smooth it over with the comsumer and sell the idea that there OS is truely the best you can buy. I believe people are smarter and becoming more computer savy in this technical age. It’s going to be extremely hard to “pull the wool over their eyes” so to speak, in order to make vista a sub-par success and sell their next OS to the people.

  • Fredo G November 29th, 2007 at 12:23 am

    Next time spell check turbo nerd gosh!

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