Comments on: Don't Fear The Vista From Your Windows

Larry Magid Reviews Window's New Operating System As XP Goes The Way Of The Dodo

[aggiekat2004]

Leopard is not "buggy as hell." We''re running it on a total of 6 home computers in my family, and there was only one small quirk that was easily fixed. I''ve had no problems.

This article totally downplays the problems with Vista. My boyfriend, an ex-Dell programmer, has sworn off Microsoft after this fiasco. His next computer, as well as his kids'', will be Macs.

He never understood the differences until he got a chance to play with my computer. Now he can''t understand how the wool was pulled over his eyes for so long...PC people who have not tried playing with a Mac in the past few years are really missing out.

Vista was also delayed because they were playing "catchup" with Apple. Apple would introduce a new feature, like "widgets," then MS would have to put people on copying it for Vista. What do they call them?? Gadgets? C''mon M$, get a life.

Q: What do you call microsoft''s R&D department?
A: APPLE.

[xanus_krae]

This moron obviously needs a career change.What did he do? Look at a few web pages and check his email? Because that''s about all Vista is good for.Try running a program like Maya. My last computer, an XP, had no problem with it with less ram and a slower processor. I can''t even put it on my computer that I have now, because of Vista. Thanks microsoft.My next PC will be a MAC! Hey Larry try tossing a bunch of files into the recycling bin. If you do more than one of the same file type you can only retrieve the last one that you put in there.And what''s with Nvidia. If you use a burner, sooner or later you''re going to have a conflict.Hey Larry what kind of new toys did MS give you to do this article?

[truth_police]

This article is nothing more than an agitprop ruse that falsifies the facts, while either trivializing or turning a blind eye to the abundance of certified serious problems in the Vista platform. Wouldn"t surprise me at all if this groveling author was paid handsomely to blow this flim-flam smoke in our faces. Fact is there are legions of Vista users complaining about the fundamental defects in Vista (hardware AND software incompatibility, intractible Internet interface defects - basic functionality defects). Contrary to Magids counterfeit claims, software and hardware must be specifically and separately written for Vista and there have been ongoing insurmountable problems in vender-Microsoft communications links that have repeatedly thwarted vender efforts to write programs for Vista. PC users will lose 1000s of dollars worth of perfectly good, effective, useful, and powerful XP software by switching to Vista, which actually has NO, I repeat, "NO" significant cutting edge advantage over XP, and which suffers from many inferior characteristics. There"s simply nothing to show for the enormous expense and the gargantuan disadvantages entailed in a switch to Vista. Monumentally expensive, humongous memory hog and hard drive hog ... yet slower and far more problematic in a torrent of fundamental functional areas. How can this Vista even be called an "upgrade?" As for this article"s blowhard author (Larry Magid), we need a clarification. Is it "Magid" or "Maggot?"

"It is true that Vista requires a bit more horsepower than Windows XP"

So folks, go out and buy that nitrous oxide kit! Using the same marchitecture, 2.4 ghz....slug, 3.6 ghz....tolerable. It''s all the eye candy and phoning home that kills this OS. Try installing SP1 for Vista, you have to re-authorize your OS, and all you did was use THEIR software. Then soon after, you realize that the few programs that actually worked with Vista are now wasted hard drive space, since Vista "does not play well with others".

[truth_police]

This article is nothing more than an agitprop ruse that falsifies the facts, while either trivializing or turning a blind eye to the abundance of certified serious problems in the Vista platform. Wouldn"t surprise me at all if this groveling author was paid handsomely to blow this flim-flam smoke in our faces. Fact is there are legions of Vista users complaining about the fundamental defects in Vista (hardware AND software incompatibility, intractible Internet interface defects - basic functionality defects). Contrary to Magids counterfeit claims, software and hardware must be specifically and separately written for Vista and there have been ongoing insurmountable problems in vender-Microsoft communications links that have repeatedly thwarted vender efforts to write programs for Vista. PC users will lose 1000s of dollars worth of perfectly good, effective, useful, and powerful XP software byswitching to Vista, which actually has NO, I repeat, "NO" significant cutting edge advantage over Vista, and which suffers from many inferior characteristics. There"s simply nothing to show for the enormous expense and the gargantuan disadvantages entailed in a switch to Vista. Monumentally expensive, humongous memory hog and hard drive hog ... yet slower and far more problematic in a torrent of fundamental functional areas. How can this Vista even be called an "upgrade?" As for this article"s blowhard author (Larry Magid), we need a clarification. Is it "Magid" or "Maggot?"

[hypnotoad72]

Vista 64-bit creams XP 64-bit... Vista is stable, as with ANY new operating system some apps won''t work, do people try ''compatibility mode'', and my only gripe is that it''s a memory hog. But using 64-bit architecture, that gripe is effectively a thing of the past.

[raskal_2]

...There are some real issues with vista. 1. If you have the lower versions of vista you are operating in a 32 bit format. What that means is that with a dual core machine you can only use 1/4 of the available power of the new machine and your performance is no better than vista on a Celeron class computer. 2. The Germans have discovered a 9 giga bite sector of drive space that cannot be accessed from the os. Our suspicion is that this is a "Big brother" portal. What ever that means we do not know, but we feel that it cannot be good.
3. Security on the modern internet using microsoft os is an eternal "build the better mousetrap" circle of unrealized expectation. There will always be updates and service pack issues with microsoft and internet security wil always be a $40.00/yr.subscription for unwanted ware and a $40.00 per pop register cleaning that is needed to keep what speed that is not clamped available. There are other os''s avail on the professional level that have none of these issues but one must become more savy to utilize them. Conclusion: Take the time to learn something usefull or take the ride that microsoft offers.

[ozarkbard]

If something is working just fine with XP, I really don''t like the idea of having to buy newer hardware JUST for the nwe OS... I don''t care if the hardware is 5 years old. What is sad that this stuff becomes junk now just because a new MS OS is out, not because it broke.

With everyone having to buy a new computer every 4-5 years to support MS''s new OS''s, has no one thought about all the old hardware that is now useless?

Isn''t this a big issue right now.. what to do with all the junk hardware from yesterday''s computers? Don''t we already have a big problem with old computer hardware filling up landfills and junkyards?

If we keep doing this 5-year turnaround on everything computer-related, our computer junk is going to surpass all our other junk very shortly.

Exactly what is the price of throwing away ten million computers each year?

[pvperson]

Your article only validates the concerns held by people over getting Vista. Basically your saying, yes its more trouble and yes it will take time to get used to and yes some of your programs or equipment may stop working, but hey it''s new, get over it. Well, drop dead and get over Vista.

[tastepolice]

I have 2 comps.....one for *** around with online, and the second is games and storage. I had Vista dual-booting on the game computer. Even with an E6600 and 2 gigs of memory, it seemed to be a bit hampered when it came to performance. I only installed it on that computer to become familiar with it, since I often troubleshoot other people''s computers.....and it cost me all of $12.13 for shipping to get. I absolutely HATE the UAC that pops up every time you ***. That was the first thing that got shut down, but now I get the security alert every time I start my computer, but at least it''s only ONE popup, so I''ll take the moral victory on this one. I upgraded the smaller HTPC computer to a G35 mobo using an E8400 and 4 gigs of memory, running at 9x400 mhz with the memory operating @ DDR2-960. I decided to banish my copy of Vista to that computer, and it actually works a bit better. Yes, I know a 32 bit OS will only see a max of 3.2 gigs of memory. 2- 2 gig sticks of DDR2 was super cheap, so I went that way.

My biggest beef(other than UAC)...
I had a TV tuner card that did the update to Vista....no problem. If I install a fresh copy of Vista, I can''t use that tuner card since it says there are no drivers for it! HUH???? I also have numerous programs that Vista either won''t let install, or won''t let run. DRM really, really bites.

Apple was the big winner when Vista came out, not Microsoft.

[rwsmith29456]

I read about half this article then quit. It pretty much plays down problems with Vista and just says, go with the new system. "a bit more horsepower"? Hah! It takes a substantial increase in memory size, video capability and processor speed for Vista to work anything close to what XP does on an ordinary machine. I had to get a new scanner after installing Vista. It says this problem has mostly been solved. The error message that I got said the scanner was just too old (5 years?)to bother with. I doubt Vista will ever support my old scanner, which worked just fine. Vista may have some improvements but it is a sorry replacement for a system that worked as well as XP.

[davidjross-2009]

I disagree with Larry Maggid''s statement that "most software will work with Vista." I have several good software programs - and they are not that old - that do NOT work with Vista, whereas they worked perfectly with Windows XP. I think this is another gimmick by Microsoft to get people to buy brand new software.

[alphaa10-2009]

OzarkBard said, "It seems every time we get close to nailing down a certain OS in terms of stability, functionality, and cost... MS ends it and tries to convince us that this new thing is what we''re supposed to buy..."
---

Correct in every excruciating detail. Magid is a friend of industry, not a consumer advocate. He likes to imagine he is astride everyone''s concerns, but he downplays what should be recognized as a real problem facing XP users force-marched to Vista.

Information technology people (or "geeks"), know Vista is a dog with only a pretty new veneer. Microsoft delayed release of Vista for an entire year in order to introduce, not more security, but IP security features designed to please Hollywood, not the user.

More to the point, many IT professionals have risen en masse to protest the plan to kill all XP sales. They have asked Microsoft to allow users to choose which OS they prefer.

Microsoft, itself, already has announced plans for a new, "better" OS to replace Vista-- so the logical thing is to make do with what we have until Microsoft proves it has something of value.

When developers realize people are not rushing out to buy into Vista, they will continue writing programs and supporting XP-- as they should.

[fredcs25]

Vista is not perfect but, what is, surely not Linux or Mac or any other computer OS.I have 4 computers[3 dest tops,1 notebook]all run Vista and yes at first I had some problems with older programs but that problem has long sense pasted.One of my computers is 5 years old and it runs Vista Basic perfectly with no problems at all.I think most of the trouble that people are having with Vista is their own doing and not the OS or the machines fault.The XP OS is as dead as windows 98 so get over it and move on.

[andacar]

Hats off to you Larry for your review, especially since you are now deluged by the predictable avalanche of hate mail. This reminds me of a conversation I had with a Microsoft tech at a convention. He said that no matter what they did it was wrong. If they left an OS alone for a while they were accused of not innovating and creating new and better things. If they changed it they were accused of always changing just for the sake of change. Why do I never hear that criticism of Apple when they change their OS every few years, especially the recent fiasco with the buggy as hell Leopard? Vista is working fine for me.

[mollydtt]

I never really wanted to switch to Vista, but as they say in the article, you really can''t buy a new computer without Vista these days. My main complaint is that Lexmark wouldn''t offer a driver for my printer, so I had to buy a new printer. I was so mad at Lexmark for refusing to issue a Vista driver that I bought an HP printer, which I hate. All just because you can''t buy a newer faster computer with xp anymore.....

[chrismayandy]

How can you possibly say Vista works good? I bought an HP with Vista pre-installed late last year. I installed all service packs. It has been a complete frustrating nightmare and disappointment. We can really only reliably use the Vista for email and internet. Just yesterday, I spent 30 minutes trying to get it to play a regular music cd. Could not get it to work. It is real finnicky and not reliable. It is slower than molasses. Are you actually trying to gell consumers to "get over it" and jump on the bandwagon of a grossly inferior operating system? Why would you recommend that? Have you spoken to a large number of regular people who try to use Vista? I mean, really, do you also say that there is no global warming and that we should just get over it and pay higher and higher gas prices? Incredible.

[Syndicate]

XP SP2 is a great OS. Finally. Fact is Microsoft wants to force us to upgrade. No thanks. I like XP. They could have just upgraded the features in XP. I guess if I can''t buy Xp I can steal it. The greatest thing about XP is the lack of DRM and the instant performance increase you get when you downgrade Vista. I will not buy a computer with Vista.

[sevenveils]

At this juncture it makes both economical and technological sense to abandon the Microsoft Operating System platform.

First: SUN and Apple operating systems are UNIX based. Include the heavy hitting Lynux versions of UNIX from SUSE (Novell) and RED HAT (IBM) and it''s easy to see Microsoft Windows is the lonely, only proprietary operating system on the market. From a developer''s point of view it''d be far easier to write and maintain software that is UNIX compatible. In fact, Windows NT (core technology for XP and VISTA) was written on a UNIX platform.

Microsoft considered briefly making VISTA a UNIX based OS and again, as the company has done on a regular basis, made another major business mistake by not doing so. It is my hope that SUN, Apple, and the once networking leader Novell take back their share of the computing world and put the NT based Microsoft OS in its place along with other memorable OS''s such as OS2 and BeOS.

It''s time to shed the Microsoft baggage in order to keep innovation fresh and exciting.