Technology Review: Uninspiring Vista — I have a lot of problems with this review. First of all it’s a belated review of RC1 — not Vista. Second she claims to be a Windows user who hates the Mac. But she mentions the “blue screen of death.” I haven’t seen a blue screen of death in 6 years — since W2K and XP were released. Now it’s possible that she is a genuine Windows maven who hates the Mac and thus hates Vista since — for some unknown reason — a slew of Mac mavens love Vista. This oddity has cropped up in a number of TWIT conversations. Needless to say I am quite dubious about this review, to say the least. It’s ridiculous.
For most of the last two decades, I have been a Microsoft apologist. I mean, not merely a contented user of the company’s operating systems and software, not just a fan, but a champion. I have insisted that MS-DOS wasn’t hard to use (once you got used to it), that Windows 3.1 was the greatest innovation in desktop operating systems, that Word was in fact superior to WordPerfect, and that Windows XP was, quite simply, “it.”
When I was forced to use Apple’s Mac OS (versions 7.6 through 9.2) for a series of jobs, I grumbled, griped, and insisted that Windows was better. Even as I slowly acclimated at work, I bought only Windows PCs for myself and avoided my roommate’s recherché new iBook as if it were fugu. I admitted it was pretty, but I just knew that you got more computing power for your buck from an Intel-based Windows machine, and of course there was far more software available for PCs. Yet my adoration wasn’t entirely logical; I knew from experience, for example, that Mac crashes were easier to recover from than the infamous Blue Screen of Death. At the heart of it all, I was simply more used to Windows. Even when I finally bought a Mac three years ago, it was solely to meet the computing requirements of some of the publications I worked with. I turned it on only when I had to, sticking to my Windows computer for everyday tasks.
So you might think I would be predisposed to love Vista, Microsoft’s newest …
found by John “Mac” Markoff
Maybe the next project will be a mixed bag of operating systems, but not for a while. XP is working well, all the applications are playing well together (for now) and I really need to extract value in use for a few months before I start tearing things down again.
I do kinda sorta miss ME, it was easier to place background images in file folders compared to XP, it ran on less memory and the BSOD only happened when I was doing something exotic to my system. But Dreamweaver and GTP3 wouldn’t run on it, so I had to move on, discovering thereby that the new O/S and apps needed a bigger sand box to play in hence the MOBO, CPU and RAM upgrade.
#26 wrote: “Look at that guy David Pogue, he is your typical tabloid-whore. He posts videos of himself bashing Vista on Youtube, then a few weeks later shows up again telling us all how the Iphone is amazing… I mean, the darn thing isn´t even finished. Biased and shamefull.”
Well, “that guy David Pogue” is me. You got that part right.
But the rest of your post–not so much.
The script of my video about Windows Vista begins like this: “It’s got a lot of very nice features. It’s very attractive, and it’s much more secure than previous versions of windows.”
That’s your definition of “bashing”?
The rest of the video teases Microsoft for claiming “innovation” when much of its inspiration came from Mac OS X, but that’s still not bashing Vista, which I like a lot. In fact, I said in my review that Vista is actually much BETTER for having so many Mac-like features.
Ditto on the iPhone. I’ve been quite explicit about its failings and drawbacks: Cingular only. No 3G. Text input is slow and tedious. Non-user-replaceable battery. Very expensive. Can’t install new apps. Etc.
I DID use the word “amazing.” And so would you, if you had tried it. But you haven’t, so you’re not really in a position to judge.
Relax David, this is a guy who says he LIKED Windows ME!!!!!
Omar, seriously?
33. Ooops, sorry David wrong guy. But seriously Omar, ME?
I work in an environment that if someone suggested switching to OSX in a meeting, it would be tantamount to tendering your resignation. Windows has worked out very well for us.
The problem with windows is, it is not sexy. It just works, and if you are not doing development and bleeding edge stuff it works flawlessly for years on end. I am very much a fan of this quality of windows.
Windows has worked that way for more than a decade, since NT 4.0. Which, back in the day, if you ran a windows nt machine on hardware on the windows NT HCL, was very stable, and didn’t crash. Windows has been stable since it looked like Apple was going out of business.
I get a little exasperated at OS X fans, because OS X is ‘jhonny come lately’ to the stable operating system party. OS X has only really been usable and stable since 10.2, which was maybe 4 years ago?
Windows Vista is a no brain-er. OS X fans don’t like Vista, because Apple has made very little headway against modern versions of windows. Vista means, OS X never will make headway in market share. If I had tethered my fortunes to a dead end OS like OS X I would be upset as well. It doesn’t matter that OS X might appear to have a superior kernel, and the graphics advantage was transitory.
For example, In business, the only mid cap accounting software I can find for OS X is a package called MYOB accounting. It is less than a year old… If you have ever worked in accounting, you know exactly where I am going here…
Then you look at some things that OS X should be the de facto king, enterprise compliance labeling for example. Apple never even showed up to the game.
Apple Inc, are you listening? I need the nicest SMB accounting package, with integrated compliance labeling. Then open it up, so I have my choice of about 1000 different CRM’s, so I can use a CRM package that works for my customers, we need a 1000 options, because every business is different. Next this whole thing needs to work over 5 different locations, and I need to be able to customize any aspect of this system at any time. Finally, my list of requirements can change at any time, without any notice, so I need to be able to find a programmers, who can throw together a demo in 2 weeks time.
Wait, On something like OS X you might throw something like Rosetta at me, and I have to wait 2-3 years for native versions of my app, at basically any time? All because the CEO of the company has a prediliction for being ‘unique’???
As a business user (more than 50% of the market) what I like most about windows is that it is stable and basically unchanging for more than a decade now. Apple hasn’t even stabilized their hardware yet. Most of the major (CS3) software isnt even available for the new intel chips.
Pretty graphics is very low on my my list of needs from a computer. Vista looks very similar to what I have come to expect from windows. I suspect it will be fantastically successful. I hope Microsoft doesn’t upgrade it again for another 5-6 years. Microsoft, you are doing great job! Keep up the excellent work!
So excuse me for calling Apple fanbois what they are. Idiots. You guys don’t even understand what the majority of people use their computers for. Mmmmmm, mmm, but the marketing sure does taste good!
38. Antivistas.
38. Asta LaVistas?
pedro,
I use XP on my computer because I get a new $400 dollar computer every year. Next year it will be Vista. I will get to try out Vista for the first time in August. Woo hoo!! It is right around the corner.
Otherwise, unless there is some pressing reason to upgrade a computer, I tend to leave ’em how they are.
The 4 power ship pro workstations that we use at our main fulfillment facility are all still running NT 4.0. They work great, why would we change them? They don’t have a problem seeing the shipping data on a SQL server that is prolly 5-6 years newer then them. Leave them be.
I have a soft spot for 2000. But for Vista, it is the most stable workstation OS that MS ever released. This year I canned our internal support for email, that was on a 2000 workstation. At one point that server had more than 2 years uptime. The last two years, it has needed a lot of babysitting. I was rebooting it once every three months.
However 2000 is getting very dated now. I expect this time next year, you will start having trouble finding driver support for it, if not already. Although, I doubt it will matter much. All the devices seem to be moving in an embedded server direction, and I suspect more and more, the API will be Flash applications.
Since you already have the 2000 license, probably a better approach would be linux + WINE + your 2k *.dll files. That way you get to do the new vector gui stuff as well. Ohhh ahhhh, coverflow, droolllll. jk 😉 I suspect that will be 99.99% compatable with a naked 2000 install.
I guess what I am trying to say is, 2k is one of my favorite OS releases of all time. Very near OS perfection. That sort of segwayed into the managed internet application, and XP was never a needed upgrade. The ME version of 2000 if you ask me.
However the firewall is a needed feature on 2k. Shame too, because 2000 has everything in place to have a perfectly acceptable firewall. It really only needs a wizard, for stupid users. A window pop up that say, “You really want me to open port 80?”. That would be better than digging down in network settings and doing it yourself every time. MS appears very M$ on that detail…
Also… Sooner or later MS is going to stop back porting .NET infrastructure. Dot NET style frameworks will be the standard in the enterprise space. They almost are right now. Just look at Paint.NET, hobiests made a program almost as good as photoshop.
Also, ie7 plus google bar, is web browsing nirvana.
If 2000 works for you, keep using it.
But apple computers in the enterprise space? Pulease. You can’t even get modern Fed Ex software for them… If the computer isn’t being used to ship product, and make money, what is it for?