Opinions now mounting that Vista is better than XP overall, finally
By Justin Montgomery
I’m always interested to hear out anyone that has the opinion that Vista lives up to all that was hyped during its introduction. Not that I’m for the side that thinks Vista is not up to par, but anytime you hear good things about the OS it’s worth a mention. There’s been some opinions as of late that Vista is actually better for basic home computing than almost anything else, especially now that SP1 has fixed many of the problems.
In a market that watches shipments as if they were movie box-office grosses, Vista has fallen short of very public expectations. Although Vista hasn’t been a blockbuster on par with Windows 95, general penetration rates for the operating system are following the same slow, steady trajectory as those for Windows XP, according to ComputerWorld.
With loads of negative press about slower-than-expected adoption rates and the push for vendors to continue offering an XP option on new PCs, users may be left with the impression that anything is better than opting for Vista — including paying a premium to downgrade to Windows XP when buying a new PC, even though it’s kind of extreme. Granted, the operating system has its share of glitches and issues, higher-end versions are pricey, and Vista requires state-of-the-art hardware for optimum performance. More than a year after its release, Vista with SP1 is reasonably stable and probably more secure than XP. It’s also technically more advanced than its seven-year-old predecessor.
Robert Mitchell of ComputerWorld had this opinion on the subject; "If users buying new PCs are going to stick with Windows, they should get machines with Vista preloaded. Sure, the incessant barking of security warnings is annoying, but those can be muzzled. Windows is the platform on which users run the applications that do the real work. Those applications will increasingly exploit and rely on Vista’s capabilities."
Furthermore, as developers bring products to market that exploit unique Vista capabilities, such as the Presentation Graphics subsystem and support for Sidebar gadgets, users will want them. But those who buy XP with that new PC won’t have access to those applications because they will be working through an operating system designed in the late ’90s to run on millennium-era hardware. What’s more, general support for that "new" XP operating system will end next April, even though many consumers will keep those machines for five years.
Whatever your opinion on the subject, Windows Vista will live on. The simple fact that it’s the number one OS pre-installed on most PCs being shipped today will let it remain widely used, even if those consumers don’t necessarily like it.
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July 29th, 2008
I agree it’s not going away. It was never an awful OS, it was marketed by a company that is seemingly tone deaf to what customers want. And even worse, seem not to care. Hopefully this taught them that the traditional “They’ll get over it because…really what choice do they have?” attitude is leaving with the old guard. This was a textbook case for how to screwup a product launch.
100% of the marketing staff should be fired and grab Ballmer on the way out the door.
July 29th, 2008
So will Microsoft buy me 1 GB RAM plus a new video card for each of my “Vista Capable” computers and guarantee that it will run just as fast as XP while maintaining compatibility with my existing printers and software. Then maybe I will add Vista.
July 29th, 2008
Justin, Justin, Justin … “there’s been some opinions” - “there’s” is the contraction for “there has”, which is singular, whilst “opinions” is plural. It would be correct to say “there’ve been some opinions”, where “there’ve” is the contraction for “there have”.
Anyway, to the subject at hand: it’s probably true to say that Vista won’t go away - then again, its also probably true to say that malaria won’t go away. Vista, like pestilence, is just something that we’ll have to live with and avoid exposure to if at all possible. There are a number of things wrong with Vista, but the thing about it that is particularly obnoxious is DRM. Consumers are treated as criminals, and Microsoft plays big brother to spy on them, with the presumption being that they are guilty until proven innocent. I am surprised that the Vista EULA doesn’t require that one’s licence key be tattooed on either the forehead or right wrist, but perhaps the marketing folks at Redmond will set that straight with Windows 7.
Talking of marketing, Robert Mitchell’s statement that “Windows is the platform on which users run the applications that do the real work” sounds like it would be more at home in a glossy brochure than in a computer publication. Of course, no amount of marketing - disguised or otherwise - is going to change the fact that Windows, due to a number of factors (both business and technical) is becoming increasingly anachronistic. Of course, I understand that this is heresy to those who hold that the monopoly-driven preeminence of Microsoft is a good and proper thing, and that Microsoft’s unassailable position in the market place is proof positive of the rightness of their cause. However, nothing that proceeds from human endeavour lasts forever, and the debacle surrounding Vista is clearly indicative of a tired organisation that is bereft of ideas and lacking in vision - and this is really the thing that is interesting about Vista, rather than simply its technical merit or lack thereof.
July 29th, 2008
How soon everyone forgets the “growing pains” when XP was released….
July 29th, 2008
Have Vista Business both at home and on my work DELL laptop over a year.
…)
- SP1 made no difference. - The IE7 and Windows Explorer go down daily.
- DELL support can not help - they have no desier and equipment on the bench.
- Vista could not be “fixed” by an ordinary user. Nor it could be “fixed” by the Microsoft partners support (like DELL).
- All settings and controls are “traditionally” mixed up and hidden again in new places.
- I does not honer the user settings.
- May not be able to copy 20000 files at a time.
- It can write to a USB flash drive only at about 56Kb/Sek. (DELL support can not fix it.)
- Netwoking - a nightmare. It is not friendly. It is just on strike!
- Actually - the 32 Bit version now seems to be just a dummy, as it occupies 800MB out of 3.2GB RAM it can “see”… So 64 Bits and more mone to invest - is what we are looking forward. (Remember times, when the APC Powershute came on ONE diskette - now it comes on TWO CD’s
- I will do my best not to install Vista for any of my Customers to keep them out of trouble.
- If your Business needs trouble - migrate to Vista…
Any more “good” Vista news?
August 2nd, 2008
Vista is the Windows equivalent of Coke II.
November 10th, 2008
Vista is the joke of the operating system world….it will never be practical in the work environment as it is packed with crap that you just dont need….in particular, unnecessary focus is on power hungry graphics of icons, etc etc…I have been patient and open minded, but now that faith has gone, I actually now believe that Windows ME was better