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Among Microsoft’s problems, the pair said, is Windows’ rapidly-expanding code base, which makes it virtually impossible to quickly craft a new version with meaningful changes. That was proved by Vista, they said, when Microsoft — frustrated by lack of progress during the five-year development effort on the new operating — hit the “reset” button and dropped back to the more stable code of Windows Server 2003 as the foundation of Vista.
Other analysts, including those at Gartner rival Forrester Research Inc., have highlighted the slow move toward Vista. Last month, Forrester said that by the end of 2007 only 6.3% of 50,000 enterprise computer users it surveyed were working with Vista. What gains Vista made during its first year, added Forrester, appeared to be at the expense of Windows 2000; Windows XP’s share hardly budged.
Even the scorned Vista Home Basic won’t fit on entry-level computers. They have to be sold with XP onboard.
Wait a second here. The largest complaint that people have had about vista has been that it does not support (insert old hardware here). So whats this persons suggestion?
Why lets break all backward compatibility, yeah, that’s a great idea.
legacy code is a problem. Apple doesn’t mind telling customers to junk old crap if they want the new OS. You’re damn if you do, damned if you don’t. Enterprise customers will yell because a ten year old group printer isn’t supported, and moan because the OS will not support tomorrows technology. Maybe NT was the correct path. Let companies have the legacy, and innovate on a home platform.
#1 – Read below. The largest complaint is that there’s no compelling reason to move from XP to Vista, as Vista requires more H/W with no compelling advantage over XP that JUSTIFIES that capital expenditure.
“Most users do not understand the benefits of Windows Vista or do not see Vista as being better enough than Windows XP to make incurring the cost and pain of migration worthwhile.”
“Last month, Forrester said that by the end of 2007 only 6.3% of 50,000 enterprise computer users it surveyed were working with Vista.”
What they should do is scrap most of their own code. Move to Intel hardware. Get a working operating system like BSD. Add a pretty GUI to it.
I thought of this myself.
I thought about this a few years ago.
They should fork the Linux Kernel and port all aspects of windows XP to it. DirectX etc… This would be a killer OS. I would drop Apple in a heart beat!
Dvorak, you’re a smart techy guy. WHy does Microsoft not employ virtualization to the problem?
That is, have them write a robust OS without all the backwards compatibility spaghetti code and simply encapsulate the spaghetti in a virtual environment?
In that way, they get a nice, pretty and scalable OS and ALSO have user backwards needs covered…
I agree about the not needing to support legacy applications in the new OS. Rather, why not just allow you to keep your old OS on your system? When you need to run old apps, the new OS moves aside and allows the old OS to take over. Another option might be to include a virtual machine that can run the old applications. Either way, the new OS would not be burded with the need to support the old applications.
Ballmer and Co have lost track of this. They have been so preoccupied with Google and search dollars, that have simply left Windows to stagnate into the shit heap that it now is. Its only their decades of market lock in that have kept them on top. Aren’t monopolies great.
#7 Great minds think alike (at least for tech). I hope Mr Dvorak responds.
When the revolution comes, the first thing we’ll do is kill that damned Registry!
The big thing here is will Microsoft just turn away people overall. With the fiasco of vista, Do you honestly think consumers are going to go with windows 7 ? Windows needs a resolve and fast.
Also to R Taylor. Please stop spewing the nonsense. If I remember correctly Apple has(had) a “classic” environment that would let you run OS 9 programs for actually a few of the versions of 10. And it ran seemlessly. You could even buy towers with 9 instead of 10 installed. Also don’t forget the plethora of six year old Apples with G4 processors which are running the latest OS and Creative suite such as mine.
#7, you’re dead on. I saw an early demo of Vista about 3-4 years ago and the first thing they did was demo some old DOS program written ~1987 running flawlessly on it.
Pretty sad…
Yes, virtualization and encapsulation could be the answer to all the hardware/software incompatibilities. You’d take a hit in performance, but with modern cpus that’s not a big deal unless you’re running an app that’s entirely cpu bound. Most users don’t run many/any such apps.
Man, there’s nothing wrong with Vista. It will run just dandy on whichever hardware available today (except, maybe those $499 Celeron based laptops…).
The problem with Vista is that it’s a Home Product. It’s clearly pimped up with Visual Candy to appeal to personal customers. That isn’t a problem per se, except that they changed the code base deep enough that broke Enterprise compatibility.
THAT’S THE PROBLEM.
XYZ,Inc. doesn’t need HD video DRM and HDCP compliance, they don’t need transparency, nor floating windows. So when they buy thousands of workstations routinely, they start getting Vista. And they start getting broken workflows and start thinking: “What’s wrong with XP, XP works.”
That’s why you get all those prorogations on the XP plug pulling.
Deleron=Celeron…
chubby fingers…
[Fixed. (Your typo, not your chubby fingers.) – ed.]
#14 “Man, there’s nothing wrong with Vista. It will run just dandy on whichever hardware available today”
Dream on. I got a new Fujitsu laptop, dual-core processor, 2 Gigs RAM and it is about 1/2 speed of my Dell running XP with less H/W. And yes, I removed all crapware, etc.
#1,
OLD hardware?? What, you going to dump that 2 year old Laser printer??
#2, crap is crap…lets START with windows..AND intel based Serial processed HARDWARE.
#3,
Benefits?? Most businesses can use a C64 to write up the letters, spreadsheets, ToDo lists, and almost anything ELSE, you could use ANYTHING in the last 20 years to do MOST of the work, and it wont cost 1/10 what Vista and NEW hardware will.
In the current market, the ONLY need for advancement is GRAPHICS and GAMES.
#4,
ADD to that…They NEED to learn HOW to program.. Vista isnt useing ALL the CORES yet.. I dont even think its useing BOTH.. Linux WILL USE Multi CPU, but hasnt been setup for MULTI CORE yet…
Is this an ERROR(multi core design)??
#5,
BUT, MS wants the WHOLE market…NOTHING that has anything to do with ANOTHEr company will RUN on an MS environment…they DONT WANT THAT.
6,7..
Good idea.. Compartmentalize the NEEDED parts, and uses.. FIND a decent programmer and you MIGHT be able to do it.. 50,000 monkeys writing code, and 1 TRYING to put it all together and MAKE it work.
8,
YEP, and forcing ANY new computer SOLD, to have VISTA…is the only way to SHOVE CRAp down our throats..
11,
CONSUMERS dont KNOW/CARE, they JUST want it to WORK.
14,
ALSO add, that for a HOME system all the security AGAINST the USER.. MS shouldnt MAKE the judgement on WHAT the USER wants on the system, it should ONLY be an OS.
OS/2 Warp 5 ftw!
#14 – Man, there’s nothing wrong with Vista.
There are many things wrong with Vista.
There are many things wrong with all operating systems.
Vista just isn’t as bad as people think it is. It isn’t ME II. But it is totally true to say that Vista offers nothing that suggests it should replace XP. There is simply no reason to upgrade aside from Microsoft just forcing the issue.
Fortunately, no matter how many PCs I build, I can keep loading them with XP
Am I the only one who thinks that the Aero interface is just plan ugly? I especially dislike how the Minimize/Maximize/Close buttons are all squished up into the top of the windows. I’d much rather have the circular buttons of OS X or the rounded square buttons of XP.
#16 – it is about 1/2 speed of my Dell running XP
Killing Aero made my new Toshiba purr like a kitten.
True, I’d rather run XP on it because I know it better, but so far there has been no downside to Vista on my laptop, aside from wrestling with Vista’s Jewish Mother of a security system.
If Microsoft can break the OS into highly decoupled components, they should be able to upgrade each component independently and evolve the OS over time. There should be no reason for a major rewrite of the OS. The problem then is, how do they charge for the incremental upgrades?
Microsoft has locked it’s customers to the platform so efficiently that they don’t really need to respond to the market very fast to keep their customer base.
#17
Clueless ramblings from someone who hasn’t ever run the O/S he so proudly fails at bashing. he fails on so many points its hard to list them but here goes …
ECA comment #1
Uh two year old laser printers work fine. Your comment is drama.
ECA comment #2
Pointless nonsense.
ECA comment #3
And where will these companies buy a C64? Yeah I thought so, again pointless drama.
ECA comment #4
Doesn’t use all the cores? Such a blanket statement screams of lack of actual experience. All the cores work fine for programs that are designed to use them. How is this Vista’s fault? It isn’t, it just more of your, shall I say -DRAMA.
ECA comment #5
What? Paranoid are ya? As an example Open Office works splendid on Vista. Once again more DRAMA from someone who speaks with no knowledge of Vista.
ECA comment #6,7
Bob Seger croons in the background ‘I’m a ramblin’ man …’
ECA comment #8
Plenty of new computers come with operating systems other than windows. Buy one if you please. Once again needless DRAMA.
ECA comment #11
Well you got that one right. Grats /golf clap.
ECA comment #14
How on earth would you make a product with out judging what people want out of it? I can’t and neither can you, more DRAMA, DRAMA, DRAMA.
Please change your name to eDRAMA.
#21
Turn the Jewish Mother off.
#25 – I did.
OMFG no!
#24 – What? You aren’t going to address my point in post #16?
#20, I agree, the whole thing has very little visual appeal to me. It also looks unfinished – for example, you can’t change the color of that dumb toolbar on Explorer to match the rest of the theme. As with some of the big functional issues – you’re left with the feeling they just ran out of time and had to ship something.
Actually I’m hoping Windows 7 rights the wrongs and gets MS back on track, because open-source Linux has its own world of problems.
M$’s plan for Windows 7 is going to be very similar to what Apple has done whenever they change the base hardware; Emulation.
Just as Rosetta will thunk PPC code to run on Intel chips, M$ will deliver a base operating system that is NOT backwards compatible at the API level. Then they will provide modules that perform emulation of old WIN32 code.
Depending on how well they pull this off, it could be a real turning point for M$. It will either work very well, and people will rejoice, or it will not work very well, and people will flock to another OS.
Only time will tell….
SKL