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They Criticized Vista. And They Should Know
The New York Times ^ | March 9, 2008 | Randall Stross

Posted on 03/09/2008 5:23:13 PM PDT by Obi-Wandreas

"They Criticized Vista. And They Should Know.

By RANDALL STROSS ONE year after the birth of Windows Vista, why do so many Windows XP users still decline to “upgrade”?

Microsoft says high prices have been the deterrent. Last month, the company trimmed prices on retail packages of Vista, trying to entice consumers to overcome their reluctance. In the United States, an XP user can now buy Vista Home Premium for $129.95, instead of $159.95.

An alternative theory, however, is that Vista’s reputation precedes it. XP users have heard too many chilling stories from relatives and friends about Vista upgrades that have gone badly. The graphics chip that couldn’t handle Vista’s whizzy special effects. The long delays as it loaded. The applications that ran at slower speeds. The printers, scanners and other hardware peripherals, which work dandily with XP, that lacked the necessary software, the drivers, to work well with Vista.

Can someone tell me again, why is switching XP for Vista an “upgrade”?"

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: operatingsystems; vista; window; xp
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To: bpjam

Can I have your Mac?????
;D


21 posted on 03/09/2008 5:43:09 PM PDT by DeLaine (I can withstand everything except temptation........Oscar Wilde)
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To: Obi-Wandreas
I have a ...
AMD 4600+ x64 dule core
4GB Patriot DDR2 800 memory
500 GB of disk space on RAID 1
A NVIDIA 8800 GTX (768MB Memory) Video card

And run Vista 64 Ultimate

The OS runs just fine. It starts fast and runs without a hitch. I do have a few programs that are not compatible. To solve this problem I run XP on a virtual machine.

I think most people who cry about this OS just don't have the computer to handle it, or do not have the technical know how to “make things work” when they have to.

It's a new OS, in a year or so most of the compatibility issues will be a thing of the past.

22 posted on 03/09/2008 5:43:33 PM PDT by chaos_5 (Vote for change - ObamaNation 2008!)
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To: Eric Blair 2084
Gates is a High School drop out who bought MS DOS from a brilliant programmer in his garage who was too stupid to know what he had for a couple of grand.

Gates dropped out of Harvard. High school dropouts don't go there.

23 posted on 03/09/2008 5:43:37 PM PDT by jude24 (Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?)
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To: rovenstinez
It is easier to crack the code to get into the computers at the PENTAGON than to be able to speak in ENGLISH to someone at Dell.

Try early in the morning. The Indian reps take over in the early afternoon (PST). Problem is, (most of) Dell's American reps are less than competent, so one is often better off taking to India.

I got a Dell with Vista about six months ago. Big mistake. The daily upgrades screw things up on a regular basis, and it's snail slow. ...even with my 2 GB RAM. One of the Indians suggested I upgrade to 4 GB RAM (for $100), which is the computer's limit. Not sure what I'll do.

24 posted on 03/09/2008 5:44:37 PM PDT by Mr. Mojo
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To: Obi-Wandreas
I have a small network of 10 computers. I have traditionally replaced two each year, so that none are older than 5 years. This year I am in the process of replacing every one of them so that I can continue to operate using only Windows XP Pro for a few more years.

Hopefully, I will be able to skip Vista entirely (just as I was able to skip Windows ME). I am convinced that MS will throw a few service packs at Vista and then replace it entirely with something that works.

25 posted on 03/09/2008 5:44:44 PM PDT by Bubba_Leroy ("I believe in Santa Claus. I believe in the tooth fairy." - John Edwards)
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To: Obi-Wandreas

A few months ago I built a new machine to manage all my video, tv, music, HDTV, etc. Core 2 Quad, 4 gig, NVidea EVGA, etc. etc. Vista Home Premium was on sale for $80. Vista indeed was horrendous the first few months after I had it. It ran fine after I first installed it, but just bogged down every time I tried to install stuff, but it “learns” and speeds up after a while. My games scream on the new machine. Streaming HDTV from the internet is flawless. The only real problem I had was with old hardware. My 1-year-old router didn’t work on the new machine and I had to buy a new one. I will withhold any further opinion on Vista until after Service Pack 1 is installed which is due any day now.


26 posted on 03/09/2008 5:47:05 PM PDT by LiberConservative
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To: bpjam
"That being said, I’ve got both MAC and Dell laptops and I still use the Dell more for business. Maybe I’m just not hip enough to really like MAC or I haven’t made enough effort to have it ‘grow’ on me."

A lot of it seems to boil down to comfort level. I started out as a kid in the early 80s doing a bit of programming on an Apple ][. Some of the programs were my own, others came out of PBS Electric Company magazine, which used to publish the code for you to write your own games. Anyone remember that?

I've been using Macs for as long as I can remember. I'm no longer a MacMac and don't begrudge anyone their decision to use Windows. As long as I don't have to use it myself.

27 posted on 03/09/2008 5:48:34 PM PDT by Obi-Wandreas (We gotta go to the crappy town where I'm a hero)
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To: Obi-Wandreas
The complaints seem to be with the upgrades.

I recently bought 2 different PC's with vista premium.
My only complaint is slow reboots

28 posted on 03/09/2008 5:49:31 PM PDT by stylin19a
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To: jude24

Gates dropped out of Harvard? How’s the guy going to earn a living without a college degree?


29 posted on 03/09/2008 5:50:14 PM PDT by Eric Blair 2084 (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms shouldn't be a federal agency...it should be a convenience store.)
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To: Czar

I remain happy with my W2k and see no reason to “up”grade.


30 posted on 03/09/2008 5:50:18 PM PDT by arthurus
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To: chaos_5

“dule core”??? That must be incredibly advanced. I’ve never even heard of it.


31 posted on 03/09/2008 5:50:30 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
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Comment #32 Removed by Moderator

To: Obi-Wandreas

I could really use some help, Please!! I know absolutely NOTHING about this program

My son was given a new computer fro graduation last year with Vista.

He is n “A” school right now and his Word program trial has expired so he has no word processing. Is this normal? Does he have to buy an upgrade or is there a way he can work with this Vista crap?


33 posted on 03/09/2008 5:53:18 PM PDT by submarinerswife ("If I win I can't 't be stopped! If I lose I shall be dead." - George S. Patton)
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To: Obi-Wandreas
A realtive of mine just bought a Vista-laden machine that runes very well. Of course, it has four gigs of RAM, a dual quad core CPU, and is pretty much enough for anything.

The issues I have seen is when Best Buy, etc. were selling marginal laptops and their McDonald's Employees were stuffing Vista into them. Of course they all came back. I actually saw one that was sold to a neighbor that had 512 Meg of Ram installed; It was so slow it was not usable.

I noticed on my relative's new monster machine that 750 megs (3.25 Gigs free) of Ram were in use, with only a browser open...So no wonder my nieghbor's machine was paralyzed. Well, it DID have a Vista sticker on it.

As I upgrade my machines here, I put stickers on them, too. They have a Penguin on them.

34 posted on 03/09/2008 5:53:54 PM PDT by Gorzaloon
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To: WorkerbeeCitizen
Right... Vista is a pig....

VISTA was just another reason to buy another iMAC....

35 posted on 03/09/2008 5:53:59 PM PDT by pointsal
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To: chaos_5
I think most people who cry about this OS just don't have the computer to handle it,

And that is the problem. People think that Vista Capable means their machine CAN handle it. A reasonable assumption.

Kind of like buying a 100 HP car with a sticker on it that says "10 second 1/4 mile capable." Sure, just buy the 400 HP model.

36 posted on 03/09/2008 5:56:03 PM PDT by Right Wing Assault ("..this administration is planning a 'Right Wing Assault' on values and ideals.." - John Kerry)
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To: Eric Blair 2084
Gates dropped out of Harvard? How’s the guy going to earn a living without a college degree?

When you have the connections Gates got, and were in the right business at the right time, then yes.

But for those of us who don't have the idea for a killer product, employment is the only answer - and employers these days want to see a degree for jobs that don't involve French Fries.

37 posted on 03/09/2008 5:56:04 PM PDT by jude24 (Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?)
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To: Eric Blair 2084

I believe it was originally Q Dos, but no matter. Vista continually crashed my ‘old’ Latitude C640 which had 2 gig RAM. I just got a Latitude D630, dual core Centrino, 4 gig RAM and an nVidia video card. It seems to handle Vista Business 64-bit just fine, and I haven’t run into any driver problems yet. I’m still learning Vista but have to agree - it’s a RAM hog. XP Pro is still just fine and other than a few whiz-bang gadgets, I see nothing with Vista worth the $$ at this time.


38 posted on 03/09/2008 5:57:28 PM PDT by tgusa (Gun control: deep breath, sight alignment, squeeze the trigger .....)
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To: Obi-Wandreas

I just spent 9 hours helping install XP on my mother’s new laptop that could only ship with Vista. What made it hard to do was the fact that Dell is complicit with MS in making it very difficult to get the XP drivers (which DO exist).

I had to do some clever sleuthing to get it done, but the damn thing works MUCH better now.


39 posted on 03/09/2008 5:58:57 PM PDT by krb (If you're not outraged, people probably like having you around.)
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To: Bubba_Leroy
I've posed this question on a few threads, but can anyone at MS write code anymore? Vista was a five year multi-billion dollar boondoggle. The last successful MS core operating system was written in the nineties.

That being said, I think there are definitely people at MS that can write code, I just don't know if the management will let them.

40 posted on 03/09/2008 5:59:45 PM PDT by Richard Kimball (Sure, they'd love to kill me, as long as they can do it without admitting I exist)
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