KSUFans Archives
Fan Life => The Endzone Dive => Topic started by: jeffy on March 22, 2008, 08:36:33 PM
-
DON'T.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/09/business/09digi.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
By RANDALL STROSS Published: March 9, 2008
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”?
Here’s one story of a Vista upgrade early last year that did not go
well. Jon, let’s call him, (bear with me — I’ll reveal his full identity
later) upgrades two XP machines to Vista. Then he discovers that his printer,
regular scanner and film scanner lack Vista drivers. He has to stick
with XP on one machine just so he can continue to use the peripherals.
Did Jon simply have bad luck? Apparently not. When another person,
Steven, hears about Jon’s woes, he says drivers are missing in every category —
“this is the same across the whole ecosystem.”
Then there’s Mike, who buys a laptop that has a reassuring “Windows
Vista Capable” logo affixed. He thinks that he will be able to run Vista in
all of its glory, as well as favorite Microsoft programs like Movie
Maker. His report: “I personally got burned.” His new laptop — logo or no logo —
lacks the necessary graphics chip and can run neither his favorite video-
editing software nor anything but a hobbled version of Vista. “I now have a
$2,100 e-mail machine,” he says.
It turns out that Mike is clearly not a naďf. He’s Mike Nash, a
Microsoft vice president who oversees Windows product management. And Jon, who is
dismayed to learn that the drivers he needs don’t exist? That’s Jon A.
Shirley, a Microsoft board member and former president and chief
operating officer. And Steven, who reports that missing drivers are anything but
exceptional, is in a good position to know: he’s Steven Sinofsky, the
company’s senior vice president responsible for Windows.
Their remarks come from a stream of internal communications at
Microsoft in February 2007, after Vista had been released as a supposedly finished
product and customers were paying full retail price. Between the
nonexistent drivers and PCs mislabeled as being ready for Vista when
they really were not, Vista instantly acquired a reputation at birth: Does
Not Play Well With Others.
We usually do not have the opportunity to overhear Microsoft’s most
senior executives vent their personal frustrations with Windows. But a lawsuit
filed against Microsoft in March 2007 in United States District Court in
Seattle has pried loose a packet of internal company documents. The
plaintiffs, Dianne Kelley and Kenneth Hansen, bought PCs in late 2006,
before Vista’s release, and contend that Microsoft’s “Windows Vista
Capable” stickers were misleading when affixed to machines that
turned out to be incapable of running the versions of Vista that offered the
features Microsoft was marketing as distinctive Vista benefits.
Last month, Judge Marsha A. Pechman granted class-action status to the
suit, which is scheduled to go to trial in October. (Microsoft last week
appealed the certification decision.)
Anyone who bought a PC that Microsoft labeled “Windows Vista Capable”
without also declaring “Premium Capable” is now a party in the suit. The
judge also unsealed a cache of 200 e-mail messages and internal reports,
covering Microsoft’s discussions of how best to market Vista,
beginning in 2005 and extending beyond its introduction in January 2007. The
documents incidentally include those accounts of frustrated Vista users in
Microsoft’s executive suites.
-
You have to have some fairly exotic hardware to not be supported by Vista.
-
You have to have some fairly exotic hardware to not be supported by Vista.
Like most of the stuff they run at work?
-
Hey, here's an idea. When you upgrade, make sure your OS has drivers that support your hardware. Crazy, crazy, idea. And if there aren't drivers out now, buy from new manufacturers. They've had over two years to develop drivers for the new OS. Buy from someone not so lazy.
For &@#%s sake, the same article was written about XP when 2000 was preferred, 95 when 3.1 was the crap, and 1.0 when DOS ruled all. People need to get over it. Either upgrade or don't, but why the hell would you write an article like this after a year of identical articles?
-
Hey, here's an idea. When you upgrade, make sure your OS has drivers that support your hardware. Crazy, crazy, idea. And if there aren't drivers out now, buy from new manufacturers. They've had over two years to develop drivers for the new OS. Buy from someone not so lazy.
For fracks sake, the same article was written about XP when 2000 was preferred, 95 when 3.1 was the crap, and 1.0 when DOS ruled all. People need to get over it. Either upgrade or don't, but why the hell would you write an article like this after a year of identical articles?
They even make a tool now that will tell you if your crap is supported. The Vista upgrade advisor. :ugh:
-
Microsoft is an evil company.
-
Microsoft is an evil company.
Why?
-
I also want to know if anyone can get comparable functionality from any other OS? Show me another OS that has such developed drivers. Linux bites. I bet only one or two people know how to install a driver on a linux machine. OSX? Considering it's a closed box, the drivers still suck. Want to upgrade hardware? Yeah, too bad. Has anyone ever used an Nvidia card on OSX? It doesn't even have a settings control panel.
People have seriously low pciq.
-
i have vista. it was on the dell that i bought a month ago. it hasn't caused me any headaches...yet.
-
Linux is a server os. Never meant for the desktop.
Windows is just crapware. Always unreliable and bloated.
Microsoft is a monopoly that has shut out the competition.
If there was an os that was small fast,reliable , easy to use and could run your winblows software , people would have left MS a long time ago. Microsoft makes sure no alternatives exist.
-
Hey, here's an idea. When you upgrade, make sure your OS has drivers that support your hardware. Crazy, crazy, idea. And if there aren't drivers out now, buy from new manufacturers. They've had over two years to develop drivers for the new OS. Buy from someone not so lazy.
For fracks sake, the same article was written about XP when 2000 was preferred, 95 when 3.1 was the crap, and 1.0 when DOS ruled all. People need to get over it. Either upgrade or don't, but why the hell would you write an article like this after a year of identical articles?
They write the article now because, as the article says, there is a class action lawsuit pending because of it.
-
Linux is a server os. Never meant for the desktop.
You were pretty much dead th moment you stated that..
Windows is just crapware. Always unreliable and bloated.
No, it isn't. Most of my customers never have any problems. Only a few and only because of a crappy piece of hardware or something stupid they did (such as visit a pr0n site they shouldn't have or downloaded LIMEWIRE or some other retarded peer-to-peer because it's "so cool!")
Microsoft is a monopoly that has shut out the competition.
If there was an os that was small fast,reliable , easy to use and could run your winblows software , people would have left MS a long time ago. Microsoft makes sure no alternatives exist.
Bleah.. MACs are good machines. They are quickly becoming the alternative to MS's blunders regarding Vista. The Vista experience has growing pains like any other MS product but what makes Vista stand apart were the bold words that BGates told the world about being the safest and most secure, and then come to find out, it wasn't and more cumbersome.
The bottom line on any system you buy is to do your homework and understand what's in it. Many vendors now sell machines that are 100% compatible with Vista and more than half the apps that run under Windows XP now work well under Vista with little or minimum patching. There will always be people who wait (I did because I have three sites that have Vista, although only on a couple of machines) but I do run it on a development computer to test my apps.
I'm sure that Gates and company are going to end up winning this case. They seem to do so here (not so much in Europe.)
-
Linux is a server os. Never meant for the desktop.
Actually it's more of a thesis turned religion.
-
Linux is a server os. Never meant for the desktop.
Actually it's more of a thesis turned religion.
Excellent.
And Opcat- listen to mj. I believe you just got worked.
-
Don't do "updates" to windows. If you want to go to Vista, buy the complete install (or cheat and get it from a friend), format your drive and start clean, imo.
-
Don't do "updates" to windows. If you want to go to Vista, buy the complete install (or cheat and get it from a friend), format your drive and start clean, imo.
Definitely a good call!
-
I love Vista. Great corndogs
-
mmm.. corndog tuesdays!
-
Hey, here's an idea. When you upgrade, make sure your OS has drivers that support your hardware. Crazy, crazy, idea. And if there aren't drivers out now, buy from new manufacturers. They've had over two years to develop drivers for the new OS. Buy from someone not so lazy.
For fracks sake, the same article was written about XP when 2000 was preferred, 95 when 3.1 was the crap, and 1.0 when DOS ruled all. People need to get over it. Either upgrade or don't, but why the hell would you write an article like this after a year of identical articles?
Hey now, Windows 95 was always the bomb. Don't act like you didn't bust a nut over the "desktop toolbar" and the ability to multitask back in the day.
Microsoft is an evil company.
Why?
Because they make money!!! :curse: :chainsaw: :mad: :scared: