Vista at one year: Progress and painWindows upgrade fuels revenue and frustrations

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer ^ | 1-30-2008 | Todd Bishop

[XR7]

Microsoft released Windows Vista to the world one year ago with ads likening the new PC operating system to such awe-inspiring moments as the first American spaceflight and the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Charles Walling just wants it to work with his printer.

The retired Seattle warehouseman has spent hours on the Dell tech support line, installed all the drivers and, yes, double-checked all the cords and plugs. No luck. The cause of the problem isn't clear, but Walling knows one thing: The same printer worked with Windows Vista's predecessor, Windows XP.

"You can see the frustration," Walling said this week, sitting at his desk after Windows Vista displayed an error message in response to an attempt to print.

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates recently called Windows Vista the "best new product of the year." The company says more than 100 million copies of the operating system have been licensed since it became available. Outside experts say Windows Vista is a major advance in security, and some users say their experience has been smooth.

But a year after its glitzy retail launch, Windows Vista has developed a reputation as a source of frustration for others.

The effects of that reputation are apparent in the habits of PC buyers. At the computer store Quidnunc in West Seattle, for example, owner Bill Hibler estimates that 40 percent of people ordering computers through his shop still ask for Windows XP.

"I'm still stocking almost as much XP as...Vista," Hibler said. Based on his experience, the only other time people have been so reluctant to choose a new Microsoft operating system was when the company released the widely panned Windows ME.

One of Vista's challenges is the explosion of hardware, software, devices and networks that the operating system has to work with...

[ImphClinton]

But you got it to work.

Most older printers/other devices simply will not work with Vista. No matter how hard you try.

I can not share files between my XP machine and daughters Vista machine.

MS only sold 100 mllion copies because you can not buy a machine with XP on it at retail or from many on-line companies. If people had a choice this would be more like 20 million.

[ImphClinton]

Check your facts.

They are still buying XP not Vista.

In fact MS has special provisions for them to continue using XP not forcing them to use Vista in any way, at least for now.

They changed the licensing requirements for these PM’s a couple of years back. They rebelled like crazy and it still took over a year for MS to listen and fix the problem sort of.

[rom]

If they are a bunch of liberals then fine. Those liberals help this conservative get his job done faster and quicker.

Who was in Bill Gates’ farewell video at CES? It was Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and a bunch of Hollywood folk.

At least Jobs has publicly lashed out against the Teacher’s Unions. Something that Michael Dell refused to do when they shared the same stage.

At any rate, both companies are infested by liberals. I hope you don’t use Google either.

I will continue to use my Macs because they make me more productive and I can use my computer as the tool it was meant to be.

And one of the most influential conservatives of all time, El Rushbo uses a Mac.

[50sDad]

I am on my way to my third arcade machine right now...I found a place locally that will sell you a used case for $75 or so (more if you want to be fancy and restore it accurately, and less if you just want a box to gig up yourself.) It is loads of fun...with all the artwork on the Net, you can really custom craft them. My latest is a 4-player for our youth center...took an old Phoenix case, custom built a thrust-forward console, put in a subwoofer and sound package for the jukebox, and flipper buttons for a pinball machine simulator that plays hundreds of historic machines. This project will probably cost $450; I had a donated 600 mhz machine and monitor, but building the console and buying extra joyticks and buttons pushed up the price. Still, to play free four-player Gauntlet, it's worth it!

With a cheap case, and spare computer, a two player machine can be made for about $300 (whereas buying a working, pristine, one game arcade machine may go $1300 or more.) Can't beat it. Contact me if you ever try it. (And let me warn you about the mistakes ahead of time!)

[ImphClinton]

MS FUD. Or false rumor. 2011 at earliest.

[brityank]

Check your facts.

They are still buying XP not Vista.

In fact MS has special provisions for them to continue using XP not forcing them to use Vista in any way, at least for now.

They changed the licensing requirements for these PM’s a couple of years back. They rebelled like crazy and it still took over a year for MS to listen and fix the problem sort of.

I think you made my point.

[ChinaThreat]

Thats why you should use Dell hardware with Fedora or Red Hat my friend. Never quite figured the Rushbo thing out. I was shocked to see him behind a macintrash.

[Richard Kimball]

Mac doesn't compete in the bargain basement, which is where you're shopping. That's not a slam. I shop there too, sometimes. A $400 laptop has virtually no profit, so it generally comes with a lot of adware and other stuff the companies pay to get put on the hard drive.

There are often reliability problems with the cheap models, although I've been pretty fortunate with my $400 Compaq. The cheapest Mac is the Mac mini. For laptops it's the iBook. I think the reliability and non-profit factors are what keeps Apple out of the low end.

[stinkerpot65]

I’ve been using Vista Home for a year now at work, with no real problems and zero crashes or lock-ups. I program on it all day, every day.

The only glitch is that XP machines cannot see Vista over the network unless you type in the network name, but I see that as a bit of a plus.

I intended to upgrade to Vista Professional but haven’t seen the need.

[shorty_harris]

I recently ordered a Macbook Pro at work to replace my old Dell Latitude laptop (finally!). As long as my company is buying it, I'm willing to give it a try.

At home, I've always built my own desktop computers. I run either Linux or Windows 2000 Pro on them. Up until my last game purchase (Call of Duty 4), Win2K has done everything I needed. But now I've had to acquire a copy of XP for testing my new game (it won't work on Win2K). XP is ok, but I don't like the activation nonsense. I haven't decided if I'll keep it. Vista isn't even on my radar.

I really like the iMac. It'd be a perfect replacement for my PC in the living room (the one that sounds like a Learjet idling in the corner!). But I can't get past the price. Wish I could build something similar.

For on-the-go, I've been looking for something small, light, and (relatively) cheap, which is why I've never purchased myself a laptop, until last week. I just received my second ever self-purchased laptop (the first was an HP laptop I bought for my Son several years ago)...the Asus EeePC. It only weighs about 2lbs., and is less than half the size of my company-provided Dell laptop. It runs a customized version of Xandros Linux, uses a solid-state flash drive (can be expanded via an SD card slot on the side), and only set me back $399. So far, it's been lots of fun, and does everything I need...email, web surfing, document editing...I've even watched a movie on it (with an external USB DVD drive).

[rom]

I am not using Linux. Sorry, I’ve seen how long it takes to boot up, what passes for a display manager, configuration management, inconsistent application look and feel, lack of Time Machine, Spotlight, Target Disk Mode, etc...

It’s fine in a back room somewhere, but it’s not a desktop environment I can live with as of today.

I would miss being able to print to PDF from any application, best Postscript support in the industry, lagless sleep modes, etc... And my kids love their iMac. It is unobtrusive enough to live in the family room, with zero noise. We can also use it as a Media player (I have a NAS that serves up all of our media content) for the kids’ content in the family room. The Apple Remote allows us to use Front Row very elegantly without the keyboard or mouse.

I like Instruments for development, I like the fact that you can profile any application on the system. I like XCode. I like the myriad development tools that are free.

With Time Machine on an external drive, I no longer have to worry about my kids or wife screwing up the machine. I can boot off of a Time Machine backup. And even my wife can figure out how to selectively restore from Time Machine.

And if I need to use OpenSource Linux applications, most of them have already been ported. Worst case, is you have to use the X11 environment that Apple provides on the OS X disc.

You do yourself no service by using terms like Macintrash my friend. If you stopped doing business with every company that had liberals in it, you’d be amazed by what you’d have to give up.

The Mac works well, because you don’t have to do much work to use it. My time is worth far more than the extra $$$ I’d have saved by going Linux.

[muggs]

I bought a Vostro 1000. They had it on sale for 2 days for only $400.00.

[org.whodat]

Damn that’s a deal, may buy one my self. Have dell up looking at it now. Thanks

[Petronski]

Hard-a-gay! Wooooo!

[ShadowAce]

I would miss being able to print to PDF from any application, ...

Not under Linux you wouldn't. Printing to PDF is just as simple.

I use Linux everyday as my main computer. My wife and kids also use it as their everyday computers. Printing, networking, and gaming are no problems for any of them.

[ChinaThreat]

You are certainly free to use what you like. I guess its the pompous nature of Macintosh users that gets my crawl ;-)

[ChinaThreat]

You haven’t mentioned one thing that a Linux variant couldn’t do. You just like being a mac user. Thats fine w/me. Its your money.

[rom]

Really? My fault then. Last time I checked there was an Export to PDF under OpenOffice, but it wasn’t universal under all of the apps like it is under OS X.

Maybe that’s changed. That was probably a year or so ago.

[ShadowAce]

It’s not difficult to set up a printer to PDF. Make that a default printer, and it works no matter what app you’re using.

[ChinaThreat]

自负的，夸大的，华而不实的