Microsoft just can’t get the public to like Windows Vista
By Triston McIntyre
Sometimes having the most used operating system in the world still isn’t enough to get buyers to to adopt a system that isn’t catching good vibes from the media. Microsoft seems to be having that very problem with Windows Vista, but there are still a few tricks it can pull in hopes of increasing popularity.According to CNET, just being Microsoft isn’t enough to fool the masses into adopting an operating system that a select few are speaking against. Microsoft firmly believes that Vista isn’t a bad operating system - it just gets a bad rap.
Mike Nash, one of the corporate VPs of Microsoft, said, “The perception of Vista is a lot better for the people that have used Windows Vista than (for) the ones who haven’t…At some level, a little seeing is believing.”
The problem, of course, is then getting people to actually try out the operating system when Windows XP SP3 is so readily available, and most importantly, making Vista compatible with the hardware and software most users already have.
Right now, Microsoft estimates that about 10% of Windows users suffer from incompatibilities, either of the hardware or software variety. Microsoft relishes the notion that all but one of the top 100 applications work with Vista…but that doesn’t mean the 10% that is suffering isn’t going to spoil it for the rest of them.
Puzzlingly, Microsoft has said that sticking with XP is the proper move for businesses. No doubt that can’t help integration with everyday consumers; if people become used to Vista at work, household adoption might follow. But Microsoft feels that businesses should stay to the tried and true.
Microsoft hopes to sway the minds of the media and consumers by starting a new compaign of the PR variety. Nash plans on contacting all the important entities and telling them that Vista is just getting a bad beat, in hopes of earning a second chance from consumers.
However, it could be too late; many consumers have caught wind of Windows 7, and figure Microsoft will repeat the whole Windows ME debacle by releasing a new and revamped “XP” to make things all better. This latest initiative might be too little, too late.
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May 6th, 2008
Well, Mike Nash is DEAD WRONG. The opposite is true. I hear people talk about Vista, and wanting to use it. That’s because they haven’t regularly worked with it. The people who have (like me), say otherwise.
I use Vista at work (I’m using it to type this) in order to learn it to better support any of our customers that choose to switch to it. Yeah, I like it…when I have triple the memory as I would need in XP, a 2GB ReadyBoost drive, and SP1 installed to fix most of the bugginess. It’s very pretty, aesthetic, cool sounds. But guess what? XP is still faster, and runs all modern-day Windows programs. Oh, and it’s also easier to manage through AD, Group Policy, etc. (GP is a separate nightmare with Vista.)
May 6th, 2008
Well, Mike Nash is DEAD WRONG. The opposite is true. I hear people talk about Vista, and wanting to use it. That’s because they haven’t regularly worked with it. The people who have (like me), say otherwise.
I use Vista at work (I’m using it to type this) in order to learn it to better support any of our customers that choose to switch to it. Yeah, I like it…when I have triple the memory as I would need in XP, a 2GB ReadyBoost drive, and SP1 installed to fix most of the bugginess. It’s very pretty, aesthetic, cool sounds. But guess what? XP is still faster, and runs all modern-day Windows programs. Oh, and it’s also easier to manage through AD, Group Policy, etc. (GP is a separate nightmare with Vista.)
May 6th, 2008
And vista is so slow in response that you have time to click ’sumbmit comment’ twice .
May 6th, 2008
A company cannot “force” a operating system or anything else to a unwilling public. Vista is a terrible performer, after turning off super fetch, windows defender, turning off aero, deleting all the crapware, deleting the HP games, turn off system restore, deleting Norton, Symantec.
The Ram is still using 51% at idle, thats 51% of the available 1 GB. Over 500 MB Ram for doing nothing.
Why the hell should I or anyone else have to tweak, delete, turn off, modify, uninstall, change the start up, turn off system restore to try to get better performance? Don’t tell me me to get more Ram, I should not have to buy more ram to make a new machine to work as it should. Unless of course Bill Gates or Steve Ballmer wants to give me a free upgrade for Ram. A better idea would be a free upgrade to XP.
I threw in a Knoppix (Linux) “Live DVD” the Ram was only using 155 MB, just so I wasn’t imagining anything, I tried the “Live DVD” of Ubuntu 8.04 and the ram use went up to a “astounding” 165 MB.
So why is Vista using over 500 MB of ram and the Linux CDs are only using 165 MB of ram at the most?
No wonder people are going back to XP and looking for alternatives. I plan to partition the drive on this Vista machine and install Knoppix. Knoppix worked great and was fully compatible with this new machine.
This Presario FT 762NR which I bought for $399 at Staples with the intent to install XP and Linux on it.
As much as I wanted the EEePC, I cannot fathom spending the same amount of money as
a full sized laptop on sale and getting much less.
The EePC is way over priced, a common laptop on sale from Staples or Best Buy for the same amount of money has a 120 gig hard drive and also does DVDs and CDs.
Knoppix 5.3 on DVD works great on these laptops, its faster than Vista and has more features out of the box.
So whats this about Microsoft can’t get the public to like Vista?
No… it can’t be……. lol
May 8th, 2008
Vista works great for me. Never had a problem. Never been more productive. It looks and feels great. If you’re not a cheap, dodgy, pirating criminal and use the system as it’s meant to work you will not have a problem I guarantee. I bought a new laptop with it pre-installed and I’ve never looked back. XP is a dead-end. People going back to XP are just trying to spite Microsoft. That’s all it is: spite.
May 8th, 2008
I found incompataibility was nearer to 70% when trying to use my existing versions of the software! Office 2000 and Quicken both failed to install. Speed was really bad on a machine with a 5+ experience score. In the end I went back to XP after a complete nightmare trying to get stuff to work with out upgrading everything!
Also porting email from Outlook to Windows mail is pratically imposible unless you install the latest version of Outlook!
May 8th, 2008
I agree with Mike Nash, Vista gets bashed by too many people who have never even used it. I myself wasn’t too keen on it and tried to get a laptop with xp, but couldn’t find a good one..So I was forced to try vista home premium. And the result? I like it! A lot!!!
Vista has many nice functions that were missing in xp, the search from the start menu is so much easier and quicker than the old programs list, built-in speech recognition works very well (dictation needs a little work, but commands work a treat), it also comes with preinstalled calendar, windows meeting space, contacts, backup functions, parental controls, automatic sync funtions, files & settings transfer, and the new media storage & organisation are impressive coming from microsoft. There are many more of these, and let’s not forget that it is actually more secure than xp. The firewall was properly configured straight out of the box as well..
And guess what? I haven’t had one single problem with it. None. No driver compatibility issues, no crashes, all my software runs just fine (and I use a lot of programs, many of them open source).
And for those that say it’s bloated and eats up all their system resources: just turn off the visual effects (like transparency etc) and it will be just fine. Of course it still uses more resources, but what do you expect? -It has way more functions up its sleeve! Vista truly is a next generation OS, it is ready for so many technologies which xp just couldn’t handle. Most of these we haven’t started using yet, but that’s the point: microsoft is pushing for change. They could’ve just made a safe, boring OS which can’t really do anything new - but instead they chose to take a risk, look to the future and think ‘what will our computers need in two years time?’ and make vista capable of so much more. This of course means a huge amount of extra services, which eats up system resources. But guess what? You can just disable those services if you’re so sure that vista is crap and doesn’t offer anything good. Take a look at the services and research them and you’ll know what I mean about vista being ready for new technologies…
My conclusion is: it is definitely their best OS yet, and for the average home/small business/home office user won’t cause any problems - at the same time it provides many advantages and just makes using your pc a hell of a lot easier.
Most of the people bashing it just want to sound like they know what they’re talking about. They heard soandso say that vista sucks, so they jump on the bandwagon without really knowing what they’re talking about.
Seriously people, just STFU and TRY IT OUT!!!
May 8th, 2008
Is this a Microsoft add site? What’s with commenters saying a new operating system is good just because it worked on their system? That’s like me congratulating myself and saying I’m a good parent because I’ve never been to jail. A new operating system is SUPPOSED to be A LOT better.