March 4th, 2007 by 
brett
Dear Microsoft Corporation,
You’ve really done it this time.
And I am leaving and never speaking to you again.
It’s not that I want to dislike you. I was loyal to you for so long.
I stuck with you through thick and thin. From DOS 5.0 through XP. Through decent functionality and through countless crashes.
But this new operating system is the last straw.
I’ve read through hundreds of online reviews and comments about Vista. I’ve asked IT guys and Microsoft Certified Professionals. I’ve read the PC magazine reviews. I’ve given it a spin on my friends’ laptops.
You’d think at least someone (other than your PR people) would find something to like about a piece of software that took an industry leader five years and a gazillion dollars to develop. But I’ve yet to hear anyone say “Wow!” about it.
There’s a few lukewarm praises like “it looks better than XP if you have a new graphics card.” But most people say it’s a just a naggy, inferior imitation of Mac OS X.
A Windows worshipping gamer acquaintance told me it took literally seven or eight hours of churning to install his Vista Home Premium (sic) upgrade. After staying up all night, he found none of his device drivers worked.
With the tales of the new DRM lockdown, the User Account Control nagging, the virtualization restrictions, and the priced-to-upsell $400 product – your credibility is about as good as OJ Simpson’s.
I just don’t trust what you say anymore.
It’s a shame because there were better times in our 15-year relationship. There was the golden era a few years back (around the dot com bubble) when Windows was the platform. There was an aura of innovation and lots of exciting software new coming out for Windows.
But those days are gone. And your days are numbered, Microsoft.
I had this epiphany when I tried out my friend’s Macintosh with OS X. I realized how much grief you’d put me through: the constant crashes whenever I tried to run more than three applications, the endless required reboots, and the vicious malware attacks that I wasted many precious hours wrangling with. And then having to pay extra for third party security and virus programs - because you couldn’t keep a handle on things.
But as a veteran power user – by grace or by service pack – I always managed to fix it.
Others aren’t so fortunate.
You’ve terrified folks like my poor dad. He is afraid to install new software for any reason. He mumbles things like “Computers – you just can’t trust them.” He’s been conditioned that if he tries to install a new program or download an update – even if he does it correctly - something is likely to go awry for no explicable reason. That’s why he sticks with IE 5 and Office 97, cause he sees upgrading as too risky to gamble with.
You made millions of poor secretaries and office workers cry just for trying to do normal things like printing and saving.
It didn’t have to be like this. Shame on you!
The secret is out, Microsoft. The reputation that you can’t be trusted to deliver reliable software is getting around fast.
Hasta la Vista!
About the author: Brett is a Denver SEO, Mac freak and open-source software advocate. He’s been Microsoft-free for the past two years (except for opening the occasional work-related Word attachment) and loving every minute of it.
March 6th, 2007 at 7:35 pm
very funny, for now i’ll stick with mac it’s better and easy to work with.
March 6th, 2007 at 9:55 pm
thanks, Melvin..! I agree… OS X is really nice.
March 6th, 2007 at 11:46 pm
I feel your pain.
I am keeping XP for now, but weighing my options. I didn’t have much trouble installing the same edition on my laptop. But I hate the crap it puts you through.
As you say, the Mac does the same thing better. If I didn’t find their prices so offensive, I would buy one.
March 7th, 2007 at 8:23 am
James,
$599 for an Intel Mac Mini that can run Vista …
March 8th, 2007 at 10:28 pm
Spyware, virii, slow patch releases, reboots after everything, having to reactivate Windows with some call center on the other side of the world after upgrading my computer, “Windows Genuine Advantage” crap, and now DRM… If my copy of XP Pro hadn’t been an educational version for $10, I might have bailed after Windows 98.
But I started exploring Linux and its been worth it. I keep XP on a small partition I can dual-boot to, but rarely need to (and never want to). I love Debian, but openSUSE 10.2 (opensuse.org) is a great linux for Windows users. Burn their DVD ISO install disc and don’t look back. Sure, OSX is great, but a free OS on inexpensive PC hardware kicks ass.
March 9th, 2007 at 9:04 am
Cool Todd….
I just was watching a video of
Beryl in action and it’s really sweet. Good choice!
March 17th, 2007 at 10:14 am
Customer service agent at Toshiba states that they are getting 20 to 30 returned Vista computers each day. So many returns that Toshiba has waived all restocking fees for a return on any new computer running Vista.
March 17th, 2007 at 5:49 pm
Sean,
Oh man! Like I said, I don’t want to dislike Microsoft. But they have proven themselves repeatedly unreliable.
April 22nd, 2007 at 11:33 pm
My Vista nightmare. I purchased a Sony Vaio with Vista thinking I was getting a fast computer. Vista was not compatible with the non-microsoft SW I was using, and worse yet, it caused Excel and Outlook to lock up. As the days progressed and about a hundred hard restarts, I decided to return the computer but my tech guy didn’t do it in the 3o-day window. Instead, we wiped out Vista and installed XP. The problem is the components in my computer aren’t compatible with XP. Not I have an expensive laptop that still locks up. To make matters worse, Vista architecture is different than XP and my tech guy wiped out all of my pictures and video. Most are unrecoverable so I’ve lost almost everything and still have a pice of crap computer that Sony will not support becasue it has XP. Class action anyone? I’m in. This has cost me HOURS of lost productivty and multiple all-nighters.
June 10th, 2007 at 8:05 pm
Ha you have seen anything yet, wait until it has crashed and destroy the file on TWO of your PC while trying to upgrade AFTER the program said no problem go right ahead. What a usless OS. I’m seriously considering stripping off my system and going to something good
June 14th, 2007 at 4:43 pm
the Vista program is a total waste. I received it as an add on to a new computer. The cd wiped out my windows operating system. i cannot sign on using any added programs and aol has disappeared. The grahics are cheap, poorly designed and looks like you need eyeglasses or your eyes checked. dont waste your time or money on this program. Stick with windows 2000.
July 28th, 2007 at 3:20 am
im using vista. firstly ill outline the 1 yes 1 problem i have with it.
when i click a mpeg to download in firefox, it crashes windows explorer, which vista finds its crashed and restarts it.
everything else about the system is nice.
im lucky to have an extreemly good pc, dual core, 2gb ram, etc etc and i have the aero theme, which has the wow factor.
also people complaining about the added security features, have obviously never tried to use an admin feature on ubuntu.
the added security of the UAC is a nice feature, letting you know exactly what you installing and if you want to install it, and although it may be an annoyance for some, for the large majority of the non techy pc user, its a really good feature.
the windows sidebar is a nice addition, i use it to check my cpu usage, weather reports, and a really nice little feature i like, a big clock! no more squinting at the screen to see the time!
i think vista has the wow factor, but everyone wants to bash it, but its bashing it doesnt deserve.
all i say is how can you judge a book by its cover?!
i mean you can instal it and try it, i reccomend using their free virtual pc tool and give it a try before u decide on it.
Vista Has the wow factor.
July 28th, 2007 at 3:33 am
ha ha,mac is the best anyway
July 28th, 2007 at 3:34 am
I’ve used Vista since day one and have not have one single problem. I’ve used a great majority of features including some old games and still no problems. I just dread the Service Pack, as this is when things slow down and some op-bugs appear. I love Vista but I understand the hesitation of others using it.
I am using it now on both my home PC and laptop (Turion TL-60 refurbished). I used both Office 2003 and Office 2007, spybot, lavasoft, ccleaner, yadda, yadda, yadda. I consider myself fortunate then that issues haven’t arisen.
I am also running Macromedia CS, Microsoft Expression, Visual Studio 2005, Nero 7 Ultimate, and etc…
I do not use Windows Media Player 11, I don’t like it. I use Quinessential and Nero Showtime.
Hope this helps. For Security I have Windows Firewall enabled and for Virus Support I use Avast.
July 28th, 2007 at 3:43 am
@neil:
Yean, vista has the ‘wow’ factor if you’re just interested in looks (personally, I feel Aero is an ugly abomination). However, I just want an operating system to run the programs I need for my job (Graphic Designer / 3D Artist / Musician). Vista still can’t do that, so it’s an ornament - something that sits there looking pretty but is functionally useless. Even if I could get my programs to run under Vista, the OS itself seems to be using far more of my CPU time than XP - which would cause issues with some of my more CPU-heavy apps. If they ran.
Mind you, I hate OSX too (ugly, slow, too much clicking needed, breaks fundamental UI design rules - and not in a good way).
As for some of the people having trouble with a Vista install wiping out everything, it sounds like you did a clean install and didn’t read the instructions and warnings carefully enough.
Fuck Microsoft, Fuck Apple. I guess I’m moving to Ubuntu too. (for some reason WinE has no problem running the apps I need to use, yet Vista can’t).
July 28th, 2007 at 3:48 am
The only good things that are supposed to come out of Vista is a) A shiny new interface (that loses it’s “Wow” factor in about a week and a half), b) DirectX 10 API (which I’ve used the current games that support it, and have only seen slight shading enhancements and other minor details, nothing amazing), and…oh no it’s seems that I’ve ran out of things that are nice about it, and those things are but worthless gimmicks. The only thing I do miss, though, is the Games Explorer. One thing I sure wont miss is the 533mb of RAM stolen by the Aero window management software, the 25% performance loss in games (some say due to drivers, I believe there’s more frosting in the cake), and terrible networking. Hopefully SP1 will fix some of the BS in this new OS. Until then, only Mac OS and xP are my OS’s of choice.
July 28th, 2007 at 3:50 am
I have a toshiba $700 1GB laptop that had XP.I upgraded the ram to 2 GB, removed McAfee, Installed AVAST. As for other software, I have VS 2005, Corel Graphics Sute, Mercury Quality Center, Accurev Server, Oracle Lite and SQL Server Dev Edition, CC.Net Office 2007 and tons of more applications. When I migrated from XP to Vista Home Premium(Had to stay up all night), It went pretty smooth. My Machine works pretty fine.I did turn the UAC feature off. My Laptop has a crappy graphics card, but again, I am not using laptop for gaming. So It is allright I guess. I think people are truly making a big deal out of Vista migration. I am happy with Windows Vista. To satisfy my linux needs, I did install YDL in my PS3. YDL is as good as UBuntu for sure.
July 28th, 2007 at 3:57 am
@brett:
I agree with you on the damage MS has done to computing in general - I have many non-techy friends who are often confused and befuddled by Windows.
A common issue is with WiFi - despite turning off the windows wireless control and using the one that came with your WiFi card, Windows will, every now and again, decide to turn its own one on as well, resulting in the computer saying it’s connected, but not connecting. That’s the most frequent thing I’ve had to fix recently. Has there been some sort of windows update that does this?
But yes, people are scared and intimidated by computers mainly because of Microsoft incompetence. OSX (much as I hate it) is good for regular users, but Macs are still too expensive for the average user.
Linux might be ok for the most basic of users, but try and do anything reasonably advanced (music-making for example) and you’re in for a journey through command-line valley, stopping at directory structure confusion and terminating in dependency hell. Yes, even with ubuntu. Computers suck.
July 28th, 2007 at 4:12 am
is this an idiotic post to try and be cool?
my goodness…stop with the lame complaints like “i tried to run 3 apps and crashed”. C’mon XP is an awesome operating system. One of the best on the market - very stable, relatively quick, and more secure (since SP2). Maybe its your stupid apps that are written by someone else. Did you know most crashes are caused by third-party drivers and apps? But its fun to jump on the bandwagon, act like a lemon, and bash Microsoft.
Have you REALLY worked on / around Macs before? Have you ever seen the Apple BOMB? I used to work with Mac desginers and many times in a day I’d hear a “DONG” (the apple bomb) and then expletives from the designers. Me, I wwas running Windows NT, coding websites, running SQL and 10 other apps with no problems. That was circa 1995.
I don’t know about Mac OS X now and I don’t persume to be an expert with it. I’m sure its good. Just as XP is good.
But c’mon to buy into Apple’s brainwash that XP was terrible and vista is terrible?
For everyone of your silly anecdotes about upgrading, I can come up with 20 good stories. What stupid idiot upgrades a computer? Anyone with a clue knows its best to start a clean install.
You’re just fooling yourself.
July 28th, 2007 at 4:16 am
oh by the way, for your “upgrade nightmares”, you’re being stupid if you upgrade without doing research like reading up on microsoft website. they have lists of known compatibilties and issues. they spend millions on researching all this info. if you don’t read the info or research first, or run their upgrade advisor, etc, are you the idiot or is microsoft the idiot? Don’t just stick a DVD in and expect your 1980 VGA card to run Aero. Lets see if a Apple IIe will work with OS X.
July 28th, 2007 at 4:20 am
you are an idiot. vista has had some minor issues but it’s one of the best OSes out there.
stop blogspamming, POS
July 28th, 2007 at 4:20 am
i think the one thing microsoft has done wrong is they try way too hard to support all you laggers with old hardware. if they just ditched you guys and controlled their hardware they’d be in better shape. but you have to consider the thousands of third party hardware that they have to get working with their software. then you compare that with the Mac and maybe you’ll understand why if you have some problems, its to be expected. then, go to your vendor and complain and get them to fix it. its not all Microsoft.
July 28th, 2007 at 4:39 am
I have a vista and i love it. you get a little better handle on your OS with the UAC feature. Also you can view/disable any services that aren’t needed with ease. For the others who say vista is laggy and slows my computer down zzz noob Negative you have either shtty hardware and need to upgrade out of the 90s or you *THink its slow cause you see about half the ram then normal in use by a program outlisted this is because of the New Feature *SuperFetch what this service does is Saves what programs you open often and autoload them in your RAM. Now you may think Hm thats smart but what if i need to open a program that uses alot of memory Well no problem Superfetch will just decompress the memory and load up the program you need with out a problem! Vista OS is the Future for the upcoming hardware changes. Convert now or fall forever.
July 28th, 2007 at 4:44 am
@jubalh
im a graphics designer/ developer / musician and vista does everything i need it to
and if u move to ubuntu dont expect allot of mainstream programs to run as well as they do on windows. i was on ubuntu for about 4 months but i switched back because i missed the home comforts like msn ( a decent full vbersion with video etc) and dreamweaver, also i did have an online game working on it, but they upgraded and it didnt work 
July 28th, 2007 at 4:54 am
Vista was a mixed bag for me, new computer though and great video card. Had to get new scanner and printer though. Have to say most problems I experienced seemed to be the programs and not the system. Example, I could only get Nero to work for video editing, and it worked great, but nothing else, Premiere, ACDsee, or any other of the several “Vista Certified” programs I tried. Bought the system for gaming though and in that Vista was great. So this will be the last new Microsoft OS I will probably use though, been dual booting into Ubuntu. I was impressed with the fact Feisty picked up my new 22″ Samsung LCD (226 BW), and the 8800 GTX video card, and my new Brother MFC, as easily as Vista. So yeah there is a learning curve, but the difference in price between Ubuntu and Vista and Office well how can I justify the expense?
July 28th, 2007 at 4:59 am
The company everyone loved to hate fifteen years ago was IBM because it was the biggest competitor. However, I think software is blotting faster that the growth of computing power. I suppose if it was all under the hood performance improvement, nobody would think that Microsoft did anything.
July 28th, 2007 at 5:06 am
I, too, had a bunch of problems with Vista. Problems that were mostly due to a peice of hardware that was incompatible (mobo). I found this out with the use of MS compatibility tool — it warned me that the motherboard was incompatible. So, I bought a new mobo after having a few problems (PCI bridge and all PCI cards (2) redetected after each cold boot, but everything worked)
I am not too happy about having to buy a new mobo, but I also could have checked in advance of making the purchase, and found the compatibility info on the mobo manufacturer’s site (their site has said, from the time the mobo was manufactured), that it is not Vista compatible. But I happened to have some extra $$$ (earned by my services as a programmer for a successful company, where I program on this “failed, doomed” platform), and I made an impulse purchase.
On the other hand, I bought a Gateway laptop, with Vista, and it rocks! No problems yet. Literally, the thing has never crashed, had any driver compatibility issues, or anything. I have purchased a mouse, keyboard, and a 22″ widescreen Samsung monitor with 3000:1 contrast and a 2ms refresh, and everything works beautifully with Vista (everything has the “Certified for Windows Vista” sticker on it).
July 28th, 2007 at 5:22 am
Stop your whining. I dont drink from the Microsoft kool-aid fountain but I’m sick of the whining. The anti-microsoft crowd just spends too much energy whining about why ms sucks and why everything else rules. I own a vista laptop, a mac book and I run Suse Linux, PC BSD and Fedora. No one OS is perfect. They are all far from it. Linux and MAC release as many security fixes, challenge me enough when I want to make a config change to be as annoying as Vista. And my mac book ran like crap until I upgraded to 2GB of memory. So lets be honest in our whining
July 28th, 2007 at 5:22 am
I’ve been running Vista for quite some time now. (beta tester). And once you get through how everything is different, It’s great.
For those having problems retreaving info. (pictures, music,etc.)so they can downgrade. Vista uses virtual files. To find them Look in the C:\Users\User_name\AppData\Local\VirtualStore folder to locate files and folders.
Also I have had numerous people have me help them get Drivers for their computers. I don’t know why everyone is having such a hard time. I have found 99.8% that I needed to get other machines running.They are out there. LOOK FOR THEM…..
As for the security warnings. You can tweak them, or if you give it a month for Vista to learn your habits. You’ll see that they slow down to just a few.
God I still remember when XP hit the shelves. Same people crying over everything about it. Can’t find drivers… need more Ram…. need a new graphics card… it keeps crashing…. worst OS ever….yada yada yada.
July 28th, 2007 at 5:26 am
Great point about trying mac os/x and realizing how crappy vista is… to take it even further, try the latest ubuntu… it’s free and completely blows vista out of the water. unbelievable.
Is vista a good os? sure, why not. Is it great? perhaps. but given the amount of time and resources ms put into building it and compared to mac os/x and (FREE) ubuntu, it boils down to being a huge embarassement and lesson in how not to build software. its saving grace is the well established OEM channel relationahips that result in (almost) every new DELL, HP, etc… being shipped w/ Vista by default… if everyone out there had to walk into business depot and actually shell out $400 for vista, well, ms would be in a world of hurt.
My fav feature of vista?? the dialog that pops up everytime I boot up asking is I want to find the driver for the on-board 90kpbs dial-up modem on my DELL lapltop, that, for the record, came bundled with visat.. the obvious rest of the story is that I click the not so helpful “don’t find the driver and never ask again” option, which as far as I can tell does absolutely nothing.
if nothing else, the whole vista thing is highly entertaining to watch.
July 28th, 2007 at 5:28 am
When I bought my new laptop from Dell a few months ago, it came with Vista. I was very excited, actually, to have it and play around with it — the first Microsoft product I’ve been interested in using since XP came out a number of years ago. Granted I’m a Linux and FLOSS enthusiast.
I knew Vista was a memory hog, and although Dell (and others) recommend 1GB of RAM for Vista, I spent the extra ~$200 for the second gig of RAM — just to be on the safe side.
My laptop came, I powered it up, and after about 10 minutes of loading I was able to get to the First Time Setup screen… it was all fancy and nice. My desktop loaded for the first time and it was shiny, attractive, the Sidebar looked useful (though the gadgets totally screamed OS X), and I was ready to rock. All the drivers looked to be working.
I jumped on to IE7, downloaded Firefox and was on my way. After I installed maybe 15 small to medium sized programs, I noticed that Vista had gotten oddly slow, even when all the programs were closed (I checked Task Manager just to be sure).
I rebooted, thinking that might help. It really didn’t. I couldn’t understand why even with 2GB of RAM, Vista was still taking several seconds to open the start menu after I clicked the little Microsoft logo.
As others have reported, it seemed to be Aero. I went into Control Panel and switched Aero off — just giving me the same Aero colors without the Aero Glass or anything like that. That helped a lot, but it was still too slow. The start menu took about one second to load after I clicked. Way too long for a brand new computer!
I ended up switching to “Windows Classic;” think Windows 98, but with better text rendering and slightly nicer colors.
That ended up pretty much doing the trick. Okay, whatever. So, I was ready to move on. But then it seemed like every program that actually DOES something needed to be granted permission. It even asked me once if I wanted to run Calculator. Calculator! The most harmless of all programs.
To give you an example, every time I opened iTunes: do you want to run Last.FM? There were a few games installed that didn’t even connect to the Internet — each time I wanted to open one I had to assure and reassure Vista that I wanted it to run.
Okay, whatever. They’re maybe trying a bit too hard in the wrong area to make me safe. At least Microsoft is making some kind of an effort to keep me safe.
But the deal breaker for me was when I, along with many others, discovered that a number of US Government and International agencies had access to my computer and were sniffing around, most likely for terrorism stuff. Errrr!? I didn’t feel safe anymore. It’s bad enough I was probably being watched by Microsoft, but my hard drive was being inspected non-stop for TERRORISM by the AUTHORITIES?
As much as I am a die-hard Linux and FLOSS enthusiast, I was genuinely excited about Vista. I wanted it to be the main operating system on my new laptop. Not anymore.
I switched to Linux — Kubuntu, specifically. I just had to. I wanted, for once, to be able to actually like a Microsoft product without being able to poke a hole in the wall and find skeletons. With Linux and FLOSS software, not only can I legally poke holes in the wall, but if I find some skeletons, I’m legally aloud to throw them away.
Good luck.
July 28th, 2007 at 5:29 am
Virus Infection Spyware Trojan Adware
That Windows vista for you
July 28th, 2007 at 5:34 am
Ben, could you point us to more info on the us government “inspecting” your hard drive??
July 28th, 2007 at 5:37 am
How boringly predictable. Vista sucks and Linux is great. Try to have your mom, dad and grandparents run Linux. Then post some comments on how great it is.
July 28th, 2007 at 5:38 am
After OS X there’s no going back… Never ever =)
July 28th, 2007 at 5:40 am
@neill Well, for me, Lightwave 9 works better in Wine than in vista - but that’s probably a driver issue. I’ve also found myself using Blender more and more, as it makes some operations much easier, and has an interface based on similar principles to lightwave: confusion, ugliness and a lack of consistency.
For music, my Emu 1616m soundcard is unsupported in ALSA (linux) until 1.0.15, but the beta Emu driver for Vista crashes a lot, requiring a reboot to get sound to return. My musician friends who have been using vista on better-supported hardware are quite unkind about the audio / asio performance compared to XP or OSX. Worst of all, no Pro Tools! Getting my nice expensive VSTs to work in linux is a nightmare that I’m dreading. FST looks… complicated.
As I’m now developing sites mainly in PHP with AJAX / CSS, dreamweaver is less of an issue, I prefer to use Eclipse and a browser window connected to a test LAMP setup. I will miss dreamweaver for rapid UI / layout prototyping, though, unless I can get it to work under Wine too.
Photoshop CS2 runs fine under Wine with a bit of work, but the GIMP is usually sufficient for the majority of work - especially in this web 2.0 age where everything is just gradients, gradients, gradients.
I don’t use MSN, or any IM programs. So I’m not too fussed about that, and the only game I play regularly is Enemy Territory, which has a linux version.
Time to try using Ubuntu (Studio) exclusively without an XP safety net, I guess. This’ll be fun. Really.
July 28th, 2007 at 6:05 am
I gave Vista a serious tryout when I got it pre-installed with my new laptop. Tried it for a couple of weeks, and I’m no n00b mind you, but I’ve given up on trying to understand how this should be ‘wow.’ All in, it’s a very poor user experience, from the “what can it actually do for me” point-of-view.
So, after having wasted five weekends trying to get it to do what I want, I installed Ubuntu Linux three weeks ago. Took me 15 minutes to install and I’ve been up and running since then
Ubuntu is great, I wish I dared to make this step earlier. Everything just works, is simple to use, and the learning-curve cross-over from XP is very short (be sure to pick up the most excellent book “Ubuntu for non-geeks, 2nd edition” if you want to give it a try–CD with Ubuntu included!). Ubuntu does what I want it to do. Using the Add/Remove Programs menu you can actually install software! (Useful, free, quality software.) And better yet, Ubuntu keeps all YOUR installed software up-to-date! Automatically! Try that, Vista :-<
I installed it on my mom’s PC last weekend along with WINE so she can run her Windows games. She’s been using it since and called me last night to thank me for installing Ubuntu. She’s happy to use it and hasn’t had ONE annoying pop-up window with “This program wants to access bla bla potentially dangerous bla bla … OK or Cancel?” question from the PC since
For pete’s sake Microsoft, my mom is almost 60, how did you think she was going to be able to use Vista if I can’t even get it to just work the way I want to!!!
I’m going to switch my dad’s computer next month. He’s getting the hang of OpenOffice right now, so he’s able to make the switch from Microsoft Office when he goes to Ubuntu.
And that’s it folks
I don’t have to play tech support for my family anymore - upkeep of Ubuntu is just so simple and easy even my mother understands how to install updates now when needed (she never figured it out on Windows, always told me “the computer wanted something, but I pushed cancel.”) My wive already switched when I showed her some games to play 
(PS. Love ya honey!)
Hasta La Vista indeed
So take a leap of faith so to speak, and try Ubuntu. You can run it from the CD without it touching anything on your harddrive to give it a go. And when you do install, dual-boot with Windows or OS X is a default option! Read more at http://www.ubuntu.com
See you there!
July 28th, 2007 at 6:08 am
WOW how do I uninstall this
July 28th, 2007 at 6:10 am
Windows (probably XP since you said you didn’t actually install Vista) most likely crashed when you ran more than three programs because of hardware issues. I run both a mac and pc, both well equipped, and can effectively crash the mac trying to do too much at once on it.
Apple gets to almost completely control the hardware on which their OS is installed, whereas someone could try to install Windows on the dumpiest computer on earth and cry foul when “windows” causes problems.
I think not fixing what isn’t broken is a good idea and will continue to run XP, which I can never recall crashing.
July 28th, 2007 at 6:12 am
Why is Gods Name Would I want to dual boot OS X and Linux. Linux suck worst than Vista
July 28th, 2007 at 6:24 am
New User - “Anyone with a clue knows its best to start a clean install.”
Apparently you don’t know how many clueless users there out there dumbass
July 28th, 2007 at 6:40 am
Vista is causing me angst.
July 28th, 2007 at 6:52 am
Guys first of all i dont see y all are against vista..
as far as i know vista is very good… but still many Sw doont support.. but thats nota big issue… coz most of the major SW are giving out vista compatible SW as we talk g\here…
crahe3s????
wht the hell /… i am running p4 with 1.5gb ram ddr
256 graphics card…nvidia 6200
NEVER HAVE CRASHED SO FAR…
UAC… if u know wht it is .. u will love it .. some times its a annoying factor.. but most of the time it saves me…
any body reading this utter blog of vista nightmare-oowww…can give this blog a oooowwwwww…!!!
July 28th, 2007 at 7:01 am
I’m writing this on an Ubuntu laptop (Compaq Presario) after wiping Windows off it for the last time 8 months ago. Next to me is my iMac (24″, awesome!) playing my music. I have used MS for years, DOS > 3.1 > 95 > 98 > 2K > XP. I refuse to pay for another operating system from them. Constantly spending money to stay current and then the ever present ‘upkeep’, crashes, and the MS Spyware with its side benefit of ever shrinking hard disk space. I’m done. Thanks for the memories Microsoft. Never again.
July 28th, 2007 at 7:04 am
You are an idiot. Let’s just say I’m under 18. I had Vista running like a pro in a day. Don’t even try to consider yourself a power user.
July 28th, 2007 at 7:06 am
Stop!! you’re rocking my boat!! as an I.t. guy i must thank Microsoft for consistently putting out products that make me look good. If windows and Office especially the newest itereations didn’t have so many issues, i wouldn’t have 300 needy bitches that can’t do a thing wihtout me when there system get’s a virus crashes or needs a new program. at my job i get to be a hero and a genius everyday and i’m paid well for my service. As I type this out on my mac OSX laptop that’s on it’s 13th day of uptime, I wonder what would happen if those same whiny bitches had Macs. I’d be back to delivering pizzas like i was doing before windows came along. the more people like you tip off the public that windows isn’t’ the only game in town and they don’t’ have to deal with Microsoft’s nonsense the more whiny bitched will buy and install Ubuntu open office and Apple software. That means less functionality and usability problems for me to fix which , over time will hits me square in the pocket book over. For the love of god, keep the users thinking that their only choice is to use windows and that computers are complicated and unreliable and they need people like me t fix them by not publishing how well the other options work. thanks.
July 28th, 2007 at 7:07 am
Reply to Siva (one post above)
a) Maybe you should learn proper english. Shit, the phrase “1337 h@x0r” has better sentence structure than you do.
b) “UAC… if u know wht it is .. u will love it .. some times its a annoying factor.. but most of the time it saves me…” - If you have to rely upon a program like UAC to “save your ass” then you should really learn a few lessons in proper computer security and protection
c) “any body reading this utter blog of vista nightmare-oowww…can give this blog a oooowwwwww…!!!” - I’ll give you a good blogging if I ever find you. Any OS that takes 10GB for a bare install can suck my balls. I can run a bare install of Gentoo Linux that has all the functionality that Vista has out of the box on less than 2GB…oh yeah, and it doesn’t cost me $200-$400.
d) “coz most of the major SW are giving out vista compatible SW as we talk g\here…” - Is there even such a word as “g\here”? Last time I tried to search for that word with wikipedia it said you should check your spelling and try again.
e) “as far as i know vista is very good… but still many Sw doont support” - What good is an OS that has near zero support for third party software? Great, I can look at the pretty glass effects for the entire day since none of my programs work. Did I mention I can achieve the same “WOW” of Aero with Beryl?
July 28th, 2007 at 7:09 am
In reply to SYPHRON
“You are an idiot. Let’s just say I’m under 18. I had Vista running like a pro in a day. Don’t even try to consider yourself a power user.”
ding Grats, you’ve gotten out of high school and you now know how to install Vista. Try installing a couple dozen non-Microshit apps on that box of yours and see if it still runs like a pro.
July 28th, 2007 at 7:15 am
In reply to “Linux Losers”
“How boringly predictable. Vista sucks and Linux is great. Try to have your mom, dad and grandparents run Linux. Then post some comments on how great it is.”m
I’ll probably be putting Gentoo on my parents computer next time I’m up there. Why? All they need is E-Mail, Web, and Music. They have a crusty old 1.7Ghz Celeron in their machine and even XP (which is much better than Vista in my opinion) runs like a dog. I’ve ran Gentoo Linux with Firefox 2.0.0.5 and OpenOffice on a Pentium II laptop and it runs smoother. And did I mention that it will never get a virus, trojan, worm, etc. Nor will it ever get adware, spyware, malware, etc.
July 28th, 2007 at 7:16 am
“and the learning-curve cross-over from XP is very short (be sure to pick up the most excellent book “Ubuntu for non-geeks, 2nd edition””
So easy to use, you need a book to figure it out! Seriously, if you needed a book for Ubuntu, you are a noob.
Vista is a fine OS, for those that actually understand that yes, you need the hardware for it. For those of us that arn’t working at McDonalds part-time, it’s not expensive.
July 28th, 2007 at 7:17 am
no problems at all installing vista. running dual boot with xp just in case, but no issues yet.
July 28th, 2007 at 7:21 am
I had trouble even installing Vista. First, it couldn’t find my cd-rom drive when I had already booted from the cd-rom, and was in the installer. After about a day, I eventually got past that (dunno how). This time though, it didn’t react to neither of my usb-mouse and usb-keyboard. Fine, I thought, plugged in a ps2-keyboard and rebooted. Now my computer wouldn’t even start. I think the motherboard broke. So I’ve sent it for replacement, and am still waiting for a new one. Thanks, vista! I’m sticking with XP now.
July 28th, 2007 at 7:23 am
Boy oh boy, another reply to “New User”
“i think the one thing microsoft has done wrong is they try way too hard to support all you laggers with old hardware. if they just ditched you guys and controlled their hardware they’d be in better shape. but you have to consider the thousands of third party hardware that they have to get working with their software. then you compare that with the Mac and maybe you’ll understand why if you have some problems, its to be expected. then, go to your vendor and complain and get them to fix it. its not all Microsoft.”
I run a fairly respectable rig if I must say so myself. 2GB ram, dual core Opteron 175, 8800GTX, 4×500GB 1×160GB 1×250GB 1×300GB hard drives, 700 Watt PSU, and on and on and on. Anyways, the quote “i think the one thing microsoft has done wrong is they try way too hard to support all you laggers with old hardware” has a certain appeal to me. Last time I checked it was the exact opposite of what you mentioned. I’ve ran into people that bought Vista and own PCs that came from the mid-XP era (2003-2004 or so) that are having hardware compatability issues with Vista. Whether it be a sound card (standard AC’97), integrated video card (Intel i810..yes they put those on plenty of machines), etc and none of them seem to run very happy in Vista.
Next in line is “but you have to consider the thousands of third party hardware that they have to get working with their software” - They have to GET those working? As in, they actively need to fuck with the stuff to make it work? I can run the stock gentoo-sources-2.6.21-r4 kernel and it supports EVERY piece of hardware in my computers dating from a Pentium MMX 200Mhz laptop to my desktop. The only extra driver I need is the video card driver. All I need for that is emerge ati-drivers or emerge nvidia-drivers and that’s fixed too. So all in all I have video cards that need external drivers. The funny thing is that I use Gentoo Linux on a bootable USB hard drive to fix problems that family and friends have with their Windozer machines.
July 28th, 2007 at 7:24 am
Macs are nice - I should know, I own one. I love the interface the design but there is one small hitch - the price. I use it and recommend Macs to my friends.
They may be cheap in the US, but the UK, they are not. I take one small example, the MacBook. It sells for starting price of $1099. In english money that is £536. In the UK the base MacBook with exactly the same spec is £699 ($1432). So that is a price difference of £163 ($333). Not so cheap after all. If only Apple wouldn’t be so unfair with their pricing and remove the unnecessary price difference, Macs would be perfect.
July 28th, 2007 at 7:33 am
Response to “neil”
“also people complaining about the added security features, have obviously never tried to use an admin feature on ubuntu.”
All I can say to you is sudo sudo sudo sudo sudo sudo sudo…
July 28th, 2007 at 7:37 am
I am no where near a n00b, and switched to Vista on my main computers (very beefy hardware). I have to say, I was very disappointed. I experienced software crashes from certified software and other little annoyances (like being logged in as a ‘admin’, but still having dropped privs in a CMD shell). The clicher was with file and folder permissions. I would create a file or folder, then find later that it was marked a R/O or had other ’special’ permissions set on it. Then when mounting up an external HDD that had files from my XP days, I had to do the customary ‘take ownership (recursive)’, but even after doing so, Vista still screwed the pooch on the permissions.
Frustration led to doing a full switch of my primary desktops over to Ubuntu. I have not looked back.
For those fanboys that say ‘have your parents try Linux and see just how non-easy it is’ could not be more wrong. My dad is the kiss of death to operating systems. I had him run the Feisty live cd for a week, and then he installed it himself (simple as clicking on the icon) and has had NO problems in the past month (unlike the daily XP problems he inflicted upon himself).
July 28th, 2007 at 7:44 am
The “Macs are more expensive” statements I see everywhere are misleading. I’ve read numerous comparisons between a Mac and a similar equipped PC, and almost all conclude the pricing is similar (some times the Mac is even cheaper). The real problem is there are to few Mac models, which sometimes makes you think the Mac is more expensive (since the cheaper configuration you want simply doesn’t exist).
July 28th, 2007 at 7:55 am
Very well said. Now go on and download Ubuntu and try out Beryl! Then you’ll see what a real desktop experience is like.
July 28th, 2007 at 8:14 am
Jack (#33):
Here’s more information on the government “checking up” on Vista users.
http://www.whitedust.net/news/3984/UnitedStatesGovernmentOnlineWatchdogs?Partofthewaronterror?…/
July 28th, 2007 at 8:35 am
I used Vista for months, but just switched back to XP. I am a IT consultant working for a big Microsoft partner, so I thought it was my duty to run Vista, but even my company IT department advises not to upgrade to Vista.
I was running Vista ultimate and with the exception of the encrypting file system, I touched on just about everything over the 5-6 months I ran it.
Here are my problems with it:
Application sharing in MSN Messenger is not supported on Vista (even Microsoft has not upgraded their software to support Vista)
My leading edge computer runs much slower on Vista than XP
Yes, the Glassy UI is a bit nicer to look at - big whoop
The Web Conferencing tool my company uses does not support Vista
Having to screw around figuring out which proggrams need to run as administrator to work properly and manually change shortcuts, etc.
VPN problems!!!! I have multiple examples where I can VPN into client sites on XP just fine, but Vista fails. I have spent hours on the forums trying to track down the problem.
Having to track down manually drivers for a lot of peripheral hardware
I expect the new generation of software across the whole industry might support Vista better - try waiting until 2009. Of course, by then, Micrsoft will have released another new version
Agreed - Hasta la Vista.
July 28th, 2007 at 8:42 am
Vista is here to stay. Get a grip.
July 28th, 2007 at 8:59 am
I’m an old guy. I’ve been waiting for the government to have custom spyware made for them and sent everywhere. If the young people are able to finish there lives without being under a dictator it would be a surprize to me. Freedom to speak and choose is the real issue. For that reason don’t trust Vista.
July 28th, 2007 at 9:01 am
Who hires the best. Right now if you are a hot shot programmer out of school, you have several choices; Google, Apple and Microsoft. If you are really good, you’re not going to want to live in Seattle, highest suicide rate in the US, rain day after day, horrible traffic, very high heroin addiction. I was a consultant for many months, working at Boeing, I couldn’t wait to leave…and yes I know, I heard it all the time “But it’s pretty and green up here”, I don’t care.
Like it or not Google and Apple are rising the bar, innovating, trying new things. Will the IPhone work out, maybe, only history will tell. The stuff I’ve seen at Google will blow your minds, just wait 18 Months and the internet will evolve again. What’s Apple going to do next? If I was just out of school, my last choice would be Microsoft. I would much rather work for Steve, Eric or Larry then Bill. Look up the Corporate Executives for all three, who would you work for.
Take Excel for example, Bread and Butter software for Microsoft. How much has it changed in the last ten years, great they added an Easter egg pinball game inside it. But have you ever tired to reference a different ‘sheet’ in a formula. It’s horrible programming.
During my Boeing gig, I used to play volleyball with the microsofties, nice people, nice cars, great sand volleyball court on the campus. After playing we would all go out and drink. I was amazed at lack of fire and passion. It was just a job. I can understand, you work for Bill Gates, he strikes fear, not honor and respect. Google on the other hand is crazy, they are hiring the best of the best, and paying them very well. They are excited. The is a big sucking sound in Silicon Valley, that ends at the front door of Google. Google’s rejects go work for Microsoft. And at Microsoft. If your really good you go work for -> X-Box, Pretty good -> R&D, OK Good - > Vista, Less then good -> Programs (Word, Excel, etc). It makes sense, put your best talent in the profit centers.
The only reason Microsoft is still a player… they have market share and tons of CASH!!! If something better comes along in the way of an OS or (super browser) that does what word and excel can do, my guess is that MS goes away like IBM did. Look at the WII, sales are crazy on that thing and it’s not made with the super deep pockets of MS or SONY.
July 28th, 2007 at 9:08 am
Vista does suck the only good windows product I used was XP with the latest updates! But the thing that amazes me is Mac OS X is just as expensive than windows and people rather buy that when you get get Ubuntu, or any other linux distro easy to use free or $20.00. ???? I never used linux before, but when I switched over to Ubuntu 7.04, with Beryl, and Automatix IT IS AMAZING!!
July 28th, 2007 at 9:24 am
Does anyone else think this was written by Apple?
July 28th, 2007 at 9:33 am
Windows Vista is perfectly fine. If you have a problem with it your just an idiot.
Ubuntu still is not ready for prime time.
Mac is fine.
July 28th, 2007 at 9:48 am
Heres my Vista “Horror story”.
I put the Vista disk into my new machine and watched it install. After that, it loaded up my desktop for the first time, and made noise. Wait a minute,,, it loaded the driver for my sound card automatically. In fact, it installed drivers for ALL my hardware, and I had full functionality right off that bat, including ethernet drivers, video card drivers, everything. NOW they have gone too far, obviously this Vista thing has crossed the line. And to my horror, its still running, and its running well. What do they take me for!
Sorry everyone, I could keep going and going on this, but my point is that Vista gave me only one problem since I started using it (many months), and granted I do have many many years of computer knowledge (most likely pushing “important things” that I cant remember now, out)I did not have to reach into my internal database for this one. It worked great, and still is.
I see this stemming from 2 problems. First of which, is some people who know nothing about computers, or hardly even how to use them, are giving their “professional” opinions on how crappy Vista is. Heck, some people who are complaining so hardily about this operating system, have never even owned it, or spent more than 5 minutes using it.
Second problem, I blame the computer manufacturers like Toshiba (just to name one), who make notebooks so low-end that they cant even run vista properly (also the low end machines come with vista basic (which I will openly admit, is a steaming pile of crap, which is why you dont skimp on your operating system just to save a few bucks, get the good one).
Anyone who goes out to buy a computer and goes “oh, look, a 400$ laptop, what a great deal and I want that one” is not someone who can accurately give a review on the software (plus the laptops are so “Cheap” that they can hardly even run vista (they would struggle with XP as well).
Ok, sorry everyone, heres the point of my comment. In my opinion Vista is getting a bad rap, and from all the wrong people. Im sure there are cases where the operating system has done horrible things for people, but was XP an angel from god? Ok, im done. And I do apologize for my rant
July 28th, 2007 at 9:52 am
What a fat crap or article… got to be from an American shit head who also voted twice for Bush and is happy about it.
July 28th, 2007 at 10:07 am
Dang Tokintegra…you sound like a paid for MS cheerleader by blaming all the Vista woes on hardware and stupid users. That must be the answer Vista is a pain for most who use it.
There is no way that when people talk about problems that it can be that their software won’t run in Vista, some of their hardware drivers are still lacking, or that the performance Vista promises still isn’t there.
My biggest complaint(s) in regards to Vista is the software incompatibility and the fact you have to have the hardware of some GOD machine to get decent performance. I also tend to think that at the moment XP is more angelic that Vista for those that don’t want to invest so heavily in the upgrade…for software and hardware. I think there is hope for Vista, maybe after SP1!?
July 28th, 2007 at 10:36 am
Tokintegra, I also find it interesting that you say Vista is ONLY for strong users, like you. OK then what should the newer, less experienced users use? Are they even allowed to use computers in your world? You know very well, that given the time and Money that MS put into Vista, It should dance like angels. What people are talking about here, is their honest problems. Vista will get better, given more time and money and all of you beta testers, testing it right now. OS-X first release had it’s problems to. That’s the nature of software. The original idea at MS, was that IT people would maintain the computers, and that you would be protected from yourself. As a consumer of Computers, I don’t want an IT department in my house, or even the super computer wizz kid down the block.
July 28th, 2007 at 10:42 am
Vista is Bushes fault too????? Wow, tell me more.
I thought we, the USA, invented computers, IC chips, Modems, the internet, etc. That makes us Sxxxheads?
July 28th, 2007 at 10:50 am
Windows Vista’s buggy SATA2 driver has wiped out my precious 80GB Data.
Anyway now I am happy with Mac OS X, GNU/Linux.
July 28th, 2007 at 10:55 am
Made millions of secretaries and office workers cry because they can’t save?
Do you expect people to take your letter seriously with such outrageous exaggerations?
And “constant” crashes every time you had tried to run more than three applications? Huh?
Why is it that I experience so few of these crashes that everybody loves to complain about when talking about Windows? At ALL times I’m at LEAST running Winamp, Photoshop, Firefox, Trillian, and Google Talk and crashes are VERY few and far between.
I’ve been using Windows for many years and I’ve had three BSODs.
July 28th, 2007 at 11:04 am
Gee, hot topic! Anyone here concerned about what kind of Microsoft controlled world their children will grow up in?
Vista advances the amount of DRM, software-lockin and “big brother” spyware features in the OS. A world in which a mega-corporation decides what I can and can not do with my computer scares the bleep out of me.
Please stop and think about what Microsoft (and the US Government for that matter) is doing right now. They are restricting your freedom of choice. That’s right, you didn’t know you had that, did ya
For example, the One Laptop Per Child project is supposed to share knowledge with children in 3rd world countries. The BBC (British Broadcaster, with a lot of educational programs) just locked itself in with Microsoft. The video player for accessing their educational programs for free only works on–wait for it–Windows
And of course the stream format is proprietary, so no luck for the 3rd world children and their OLPC computers which are running Linux of course. Why Linux? Well, that runs on cheap hardware and Microsoft ain’t going to give away anything to support the advancement of human kind. (The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation does so though, so good for them!) Can you figure those children buying Vista for their educational classes? Nope, me neither.
Microsoft is in it for the money–nothing wrong with that in itself–but they are actively stopping the advancement of the human race as a whole.
Free as in freedom is important. Think big people
July 28th, 2007 at 11:14 am
Wait and see, by next year the hype and anti-hype will have died down…people will be using Vista on their super-dooper fast hardware…all will be well with the world.
At least its not Windows ME.
I personally have had no issues with it, I bought a new HP laptop (Core 2 Duo) it runs it fine with or without fancy graphics. I also just built a new computer for a friend with Vista UE, yes its a beast of a system but in two years time it’ll probably be a fossil…it runs Vista perfectly.
Dry your eyes and get back on with life.
July 28th, 2007 at 11:34 am
Lol guys. I guess I was just tired of all this hate on the operating system. Im sure part of it stems from the fact that I listen to yuppies complain about vista at my work, when theyve never even used it. I always kept my mouth shut, this was the first I spoke up about it, and the last, so I spoke a bit too loud I suppose. There are of course some software compatibility issues, for sure. Only problem I had was my new machine wont run Call of Duty 2.
To break it down I guess I should say Im not blaming it so much on less experienced users, as much as Im just sick of hearing complaints about it from people who dont know how to do anything but surf the web and check their email.
There surely are some definitive issues with the OS, but in my opinion its getting much more of a bum rap than necessary. (I can never put just 2 cents in i guess, its always my whole darn paycheck =)
July 28th, 2007 at 11:40 am
I use Macs and PCs daily for work and play. I find I can manipulate files much faster with Windows XP Explorer than OS X Finder. (By “manipulate files”, I mean move, copy, rename, delete, and open one or more files on multiple volumes.) I’ve been using Vista for about a month now. Although I like some of its new features (like the improved Task Scheduler), I despise Vista Explorer. It tries to look like a Web browser while incorporating many of the features of OS X that it make it inefficient. The titlebar is way too big–probably just to show off its silly translucency. The interface is cluttered and ugly. I’ve tried switching to the Classic theme, but I still hate it.
July 28th, 2007 at 12:13 pm
ha..ha…too good..
July 28th, 2007 at 12:23 pm
Vista is no tea party for anyone wanting to use Adobe Production Suite (especially After Effects). However, saying switching to Mac is a solution is not. Gray kernel panic and hardware drivers area a nightmare. No one likes to talk about that much. I am just as at home on a Mac as I am on a PC. I have to be, I edit video and audio for a living. However, Macs are obscenely priced and you know damn well a Mac mini ain’t gonna cut the mustard. Let’s be honest but fair about this.
July 28th, 2007 at 12:28 pm
ok so here i go bashing an operating system vista… I know super nerd why even care. I used it for a good two weeks for work light office productivty burn dvds etc. It was flashy and on my machine ran just fine however here is the catch it just started to eat up more and more ram. I am disappointed i guees cause here is linux and osx with half or less programers with 1/10th the budget of ms and are putting out products with less errors in there code with a more robust system and that uses less lines of code. Did the os work as it was designed yes did it run office 07 fine you bet was i impressed no way. I agree it is job security cause it is just a matter of time before people who make the trogans make the viruses decide to start in on vista. People say well it is casue of there market share I say it is cause of the ease of the explotation it is not like linux or osx where when i want to make a life altering change i have to ok it. Windows still uses a registry and for as long as they stick with that it will be a virus and malware magnet cause you can write to it even with out doing an install. I am sorry but them be the facts patch all you want but the registry should have died in 2000 kill that and you will have true security
July 28th, 2007 at 12:29 pm
I have a laptop running vista and fedora 7, a mac and a pc running xp, recently I tried to print some documents in vista, but I could not get anything to print, even after several tries. Just for kicks, I tried to print on my mac, and guess what? It worked perfectly, then I printed the same document using fedora, and even xp, without any trouble.
July 28th, 2007 at 12:34 pm
i have to run windoze XP on my 3 year old laptop due to corporate crap. Recently (3 months ago) it really started to slow me down (2Ghz pentium-m with 2Gigs RAM) specifically due to all the spyware, virus scanners, firewall software installed by IT security…paranoia is rife running windoze….got fed up and installed Ubuntu 7.04 with Compiz-fusion - Well…..my old laptop has become new again! it runs windoze better inside vmware than it did standalone! Imagine having to run a whole operating system just to get e-mail (outlook) and write documents (word), at least I can develop under linux and loving the extra performance gained. Ubuntu has revived my desktop experience…all this for free! Good bye Micro$oft…good riddance.
July 28th, 2007 at 12:36 pm
Advice from Microsoft: defrag your harddrive and all your problems will be solved!
July 28th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
Love it! Made me laugh a few times too, a very good read. Thanks for sharing this with us.
July 28th, 2007 at 2:43 pm
…
July 28th, 2007 at 2:46 pm
When will you Ubuntu?
July 28th, 2007 at 3:07 pm
Ubuntu for school > all
Windows for games and nothing more
osx…i have Tux
July 28th, 2007 at 3:43 pm
When you switch to a mac, you won’t miss Microsoft within a week. Goodluck and thanks for a funny article.
July 28th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
Windows vista sucks, there are nothing more than beutiful desktop. I have windows xp and ubuntu on my machine
July 28th, 2007 at 4:20 pm
Ive used XP for years (since the day it was released) and I love it. It has been stable for me and on a game machine it simply does what its suppose to which is stay out of the way. XP is that older lady down the street who is still kinda hot and has a few tricks left up her sleeve. Shes stable, easy to have fun with and likes games.
Ive tried Vista on another machine……HOLY CRAP….I cant believe they released this mess! Slow, Unstable, Bloated, I call it the Hollywood OS, it might be pretty to look at but its vapid, empty headed and any kind of relationship with it will only last a very short time before you serve it papers.
OS X is like that hot chick that can carry on a conversation about something other than shopping, better yet she has low expectations so you might actually get to first base with her.
July 28th, 2007 at 5:18 pm
I run OSX Tiger on an 11-year-old Powerbook (500mhz Pismo). It installed and runs like butter. I use it everyday. At work, I use multiple PCs (I work at a software co.) with all the Windows OS’s. One of my coworkers (a PC engineer) noticed me using OSX during lunch and asked me to try different things (”Let’s see it do dock animations!”) as if searching for something the old laptop could not do. But it was flawless. Yes, the apps ran slower that they would on a newer machine, but they RAN and did not crash. He couldn’t fathom how the hell it worked. I even ran multiple apps to show him how stable it was. He dismissed it, saying Vista was superior. I told him to install Vista on an 11-year-old PC laptop and see how far he gets.
July 28th, 2007 at 5:19 pm
I run OSX Tiger on an 11-year-old Powerbook (500mhz Pismo). It installed and runs like butter. I use it everyday. At work, I use multiple PCs (I work at a software co.) with all the Windows OS’s. One of my coworkers (a PC engineer) noticed me using OSX during lunch and asked me to try different things (”Let’s see it do dock animations!”) as if searching for something the old laptop could not do. But it was flawless. Yes, the apps ran slower that they would on a newer machine, but they RAN and did not crash. He couldn’t fathom how the hell it worked. I even ran multiple apps to show him how stable it was. He dismissed it, saying Vista was superior. I told him to install Vista on an 11-year-old PC laptop and see how far he gets.
July 28th, 2007 at 5:49 pm
Mac Hardware is the same or less expensive as Dells I made the switch to Apples about 8-9 months ago. I use to use Linux and WinXP(more xp though). I made the switch to a MacBook Pro and never looked back. Macs have tons of open source software, commercial software, freeware etc. I could never use Windows again after using OS X.
Contrary to what many believe…for comparable hardware Macs are either about the same price as a Dell or less expensive. See the link below to the comparisons.
http://www.systemshootouts.org/
So for all the people complaining about Mac Hardware prices.. stop spreading FUD and ignorance!
July 28th, 2007 at 5:53 pm
Hello everyone,
I’ve been a poweruser for as long as the personal computer existed. I’ve extensively used every version of DOS and Windows till Vista. I do scientific research on Debian (Linux) and IRIX (Unix), and I need to work on Windows 2000 at work for corporate reasons. At home, I have Powerbook G4 running OS X Tiger, an old laptop running XP, and a desktop that dual boots XP and RedHat Linux. It used to triple-boot (I had Win98 running for a while).
I’ve been supporting family members and many friends with their computers. I’ve supported WinPCs, Macs and Linux boxes. I’ve helped set-up and establish a number of networks and clusters. I have always tried to understand the user-experience on every platform.
So, when a few asked for help installing Vista for them, or helping them with new computers (all the bells and whistles) running Vista, I came across every single complaint shared here. I was able to help, but the experience got me to reflect on the “Wow” factor.
Since I can’t claim to be an expert on Vista, I can’t really tell someone that it is good or bad. I can only compare installation and maintenance to the other OSs. The initial expectation I had that this would be easier and more straight forward with Vista. It was not. What I’m hearing from the people I help does not indicate they are enjoying their experience with Vista. Most compare it negatively to XP, excepting cosmetics.
So I’m guessing/hoping this will improve with future SP releases.
For now, I will not upgrade my Win OSs to Vista. Waiting is safer.
As for what I think would be good for users, here is the breakdown:
1- Mac OS X would be an OS that a 4 year old (not kidding here), a geek and a 90 year old would be able to use with complete ease. In its current incarnation, it is extremely stable. I have never had to do a hard reboot, and have rarely had to support someone using a mac. Best choice for noobies in my opinion. Given the switch to Intel, Macs can now run all 3 major OSs: OS X, Linux and Windows (XP and Vista). So for a poweruser or a gamer, it would be a practical choice, and there is virtually nothing that cannot be done on a mac. The hardware is high quality, and resale value is great.
2- For powerusers that want to build their own boxes, use older hardware or are on a budget; and for putting together computer clusters, Linux is the way to go. Debian on a desktop is arguably the most stable OS out there. Although Linux (especially Ubunto) has come a long way, I would not yet suggest it to a complete noobie to computers, my child or my my grandmother. With Linux, you definitely get a great deal of freedom to play under the hood. Not everything can be done on Linux, yet. But open source software is very rapidly closing the gap. Wine continues to improve, and support for software designed for Windows is progressively growing.
3- For the rest, people with some experience on computers (enough to keep it firewalled, malware free and defragged) but are not really geeks, as well as hard-core gamers, a well-maintained XP SP2 would also do. I would advise this group to consider Vista in a year or two, rather than right now.
July 28th, 2007 at 6:49 pm
maybe in a year ot two Vista will close the back door the government is using to spy with.
July 28th, 2007 at 7:32 pm
Yeah, I was using xp and tried vista. Both often caused me to pull my hair out. Then I went to osx and macs and my life is sooooo much better. I used to be a big microsoft fan. Apple products including software just seem to work better and I feel like such an idiot for being a microsoft slave all those years.
July 28th, 2007 at 8:10 pm
Problems with Macs
Programs do crash, OSX does crash, and there are viruses for Macs, but some Mac users claim this is not true.
There is no way to change the color of the text on icons
When the dock is big, and the desktop icons are on auto arrange the icons hide under the dock, and you can’t click on them.
Macs come with trial software, but they claim they don’t
Macs don’t come with a simple drawing program (like MS paint)
The Grid spacing is to far apart, and there is no way to change it.
You can’t open bookmarks (at the very top of the screen) in a new tab with the center click.
Apple hardware is overpriced (the cinema display for example).
They hide information from there customers, wail Microsoft is very public about there projects
Not as many hardware options (no tablet PCs, and no internal TV tuners, or internal memory card readers)
You can’t see a thumbnails of videos in a folder.
Macs ask for a password to install programs, and their commercials complain about PCs asking for a password.
When copying a file, or rendering a video, the estimated remaining time never seems to be accurate until it is half way done.
The USB extension cable for the keyboard only works with the apple keyboard.
July 28th, 2007 at 8:33 pm
Jonathon,
You forgot to mention the very best thing about Microsoft: they’ll hire ANYONE to shill for them, even a semi-literate, utterly transparent liar like yourself!
July 28th, 2007 at 8:35 pm
I haven’t seen that in 5 years. What’re you on? And I don’t run any anti-crapware software - don’t need it. Occasionally a poorly-written app might just quit. Relaunching immediately is no problem.
Nope, they ask for a password on occasion, like when an installer wants to place system files, but most apps just drag from a disk image into the Applications folder and don’t require a password.
The real paid trolls here are the ones who say they have installed Vista and have had no problems. Besides, when you get a Mac you have the option of running Microcrapware on it too - the last stage in the cure process for those suffering from Stockholm Syndrome.
July 28th, 2007 at 8:36 pm
I’ll just say how very grateful I am for Windows Vista. It’s a major contributing factor to the increase in Apple’s share price over the last year.
Every Apple supporter should urge Microsoft users to take a good, close look at Vista, and then visit an Apple store. That’s what will get us 100% year-over-year market share gains.
July 28th, 2007 at 8:46 pm
Mac OS X is incredible, rarely does anyone not like it unless they have been hiding from it for years.
My advice is try all the different systems, but be sure you try the Mac and understand how to use it. Mac is not as easy to use as iPod or iPhone, but it’s every bit as impressive if you understand how it works. Windows can’t compare.
What is Microsoft going to do? I think their stock is going to fall before long.
July 28th, 2007 at 8:54 pm
Amen brother! I took one look at Vista Beta 2 and bought a MacBook, then a few months later a Mac Pro! I’m happily OS X’ing away now and loving every second of it.
It’s been a year now and I now own an iPhone and am drulling over the upcoming Leopard update.
Apple/Jobs just “gets” it. Period!
July 28th, 2007 at 9:05 pm
Here’s my Vista horror story: http://www.russbrooks.com/2007/6/24/hasta-la-vista
-Russ Brooks Former Microsoft Devotee of 25 Years
July 28th, 2007 at 9:19 pm
Vista It Take to install 10 min
it debend how fast and new your PC ..
July 28th, 2007 at 10:57 pm
When its time to get a new computer I will be avoiding anything labeled DRM.
July 28th, 2007 at 11:22 pm
@Jonathan Harchick
Wow! You are a frickin’ Idiot! I don’t even want to waste my time explaining how every single one of your statements solidifies how stupid you really are.
Holy crap you are misinformed!
July 28th, 2007 at 11:26 pm
i dont know whats worse vista or mac users :/
July 28th, 2007 at 11:29 pm
After 8 out of 10 customers this last month kept calling me with one problem or another with Vista I decided to refuse to sell any computer with anything other than XP until Vista has a major Service Pack available - What most of you are forgetting is that computers are suppose to be easy to use. Most mon & pop’s don’t care to be advanced users, they just want what they paid for, a reliable easy to use system that doesn’t cost them an arm & a leg. Why no one isn’t complaining about M$ charging $400 for Vista Ulitmate & $300 for Office is beyone me.. Also, for my customers who has a kids heading to college I only recommend Apple. Of the 12 or so that have bought one I’ve not had one complaint. I’ve not received one call about virus or spyware issues, not one complaint of freezes or hardware compatiblity issues. One did have a fan go bad but had it replaced at an Apple store in one day. ~~ Food For Thought~
July 28th, 2007 at 11:54 pm
Lots of M$ astroturf around here…
July 29th, 2007 at 12:12 am
Put as only a mac user could
July 29th, 2007 at 12:32 am
I have actually been quite happy with XP, and I see no reason for me get Vista. Yes, there have been a few little problems now and again with XP, but nothing I couldn’t handle. I must agree that I haven’t heard a single good thing about Vista, which I was expecting.
July 29th, 2007 at 4:17 am
So much back-and-forth nonsense here… I have multiple Windows-using friends; some of them even claim to actually like Windows. That’s fine. I won’t argue with people’s preferences. However, none of them will switch to Vista. Vista is a giant mess and its advantage over XP is no different than Windows ME’s advantage was over Windows 98. That’s right. There’s none.
I’ve also seen some statements about Mac out here that are 10000% false. Again, I don’t mind people’s preferences and it is ok to not like the Mac platform, but at least state the facts. 1) Trial software - There is ONE piece of trial software that has come with my last few Macs. Know what it is? Microsoft Office Test Drive. You know how to delete it? That’s right - throw it in the trash. NO need to “uninstall” anything. 2) Macs ask for username and password just like Vista - NOT true. The only installations that ask for that are ones that write to system libraries. Otherwise, 90% of “installations” are simply dragging applications to your application folder. Nothing gets written to the system and, consequently, nothing sneaks in and starts running in the background. 3) Malware for Macs - Ok, in labs, these do exist. In the wild, they do not. Why not? Because, there has been no easy way to get an infected Mac to continue to infect other Macs. YES, you can get Microsoft Office on Macs to become the carrier to infect other Macs/PCs with Microsoft stuff, but then, that’s more of an MS problem than Apple. When the actual OS can be compromised to the point of turning into a zombie and then zombifying other Macs, then I’ll worry. While labrats show possibilities that do nothing more than get their name in today’s Yahoo article, I am not impressed. 4) Programs crash - Yes, they do. Programs are fallible. Operating systems are fallible. However, when a program crashes, I’ve yet to see it take the OS with it. OS X still runs like a champ. OS X can crash, too, though I’ve only managed to crash it while experimenting with how many OS’s I can run simultaneously (Win98, WinXP, Win311, MacOS 6, C64, N64….). I also had some strange settings on those virtual machines, such as using chip features that my chip may not have had. I’ve since had success keeping them all running without crashes.
If you want to like MS, that’s ok. I’m not advocating you switch to Apple, but please stop with the lies that were hardly true in the 90’s, let alone 2007. And Leopard…. will knock Vista even further into the past.
BTW, to all you Ubuntu advocates…. as soon as I clear some hard drive space, I think that’ll be the next virtual machine I create. I think I finally need to have a look.
July 29th, 2007 at 4:55 am
Sorry-old eyes and numb fingers hit the return instead of the shift. Anyhoo, I was lookin at Macs and was not only very put off by their price, but also by the fact that I don’t want to buy something that doesn’t have the global application that windows has. EVERYONE has windows and in my circles, about the only ones using those goofy macs are the computer nerds who make our lives miserable by writing all these hard to understand and harder to follow directions for programs that I will never use and could care less about. Nope - Windows will have a loyal following for many many years to come because it’s the industry standard, whether you want to believe it or not, and all the whining from tech geeks in the world won’t change that. If you guys really wanted to do something useful instead of complaining, hows about stopping all the stupid spyware bundled with all these fancy “advanced” programs? I’m goin fishin.
July 29th, 2007 at 5:40 am
@ the ol fisherman
This guy is another example of someone spewing FUD, rather than looking objectively. Up until 6 months ago, I was the only Mac user among my friends. We shared many files with each other. Sure, some of our applications were different and we needed the version for our platform, but that was it. We could all listen to the same music files, avi files, mpg files, etc. Macs use all the same standards. It’s Windows that uses proprietary formats nowadays.
Ol Fisherman also mentioned how Mac users make life miserable with “hard to understand and harder to follow directions for programs…” Interesting. What’s more difficult?
Here’s the comparison. For Windows, installation for 99.9% of applications means running an installer. For Mac, I’d say 90% of “installation” is dragging a file to your applications folder. And just to clarify, you can drag your application to any place you’d like to put it. It just makes sense to keep your applications in one folder.
2) In Windows, to remove those same installations, you need to open the Control Panel,select Add/Remove programs, run the uninstall, and possibly reboot. In Mac, to remove those same “installations,” drag said folder(s) to trash and empty.
Sorry, Ol Fisherman. I believe you to be a giant liar and/or simply ignorant.
July 29th, 2007 at 9:50 am
I don’t get what the big deal about Ubuntu is. I am currently running it on my laptop, personally out of all the linux distros I still prefer Red Hat or Fedora.
I really doubt that Ubuntu will ever become a mainstream OS. I’ve had a lot more problems with Ubuntu than I ever had installing Vista.
July 29th, 2007 at 10:51 am
Lots of longtime diehard Windows users are switching to Mac. There is a learning curve for OS X, but once you’re over that you will be looking at a much more positive user experience.
July 29th, 2007 at 1:22 pm
I installed Vista Home Prem on a new system and it’s okay. It’s prettier than XP and has little more flexibility. It crashes some times. Actually, I think MS word is worse. My advice is if you have XP stay with XP. If you buy a new system and flexibility and speed are essential then install XP. If you’re like me and like to putz around with new stuff then Vista won’t kill ya.
Kmuzu
July 29th, 2007 at 1:32 pm
I’m not going to read all your messages, however everyone had his own and more or less convincing experiences with Windows XP, Mac OS X, or with another less popular OS. I’m not saying OS X is perfect nor trying to convince you, but c’mon, I must confess, I really pity Windows users, and that I find Linux longtime pioneers really courageous. Regards
July 29th, 2007 at 5:20 pm
i disagree entirely. I used to be an avid Linux user, having switched over from XP about five years ago. When I purchased my new laptop which came standard with Vista, I was utterly blown away. Everything works instantly, the computer looks amazing, and… everything good about a computer comes true. I set up Linux on the computer as a dualboot, but I still find myself booting into Vista way more often.
As far as OSX goes, I’m forced to use that at work… and it doesn’t even come close to counting as an operating system in my mind. is so flawed it’s ridiculous.
July 29th, 2007 at 6:40 pm
“Wow! This sucks!!!” is exactly what I said a week after upgrading to Vista. It made my year-old PC feel like an old 486. Then there’s the drivers that don’t work, programs that don’t run, and the bad joke known as UAC. I have never been so disappointed in an OS upgrade in my life.
And by the way, Aero is downright ugly and distracting once you get over the “shiny object” factor. Not that I ever really liked the childish look of XP, but I had really hoped MS would get it right this time. They didn’t. I constantly felt like my eyes were out of focus with the odd mix of blur, transparency, and gloss. And just because you have 16,777,215 colors to play with doesn’t mean you have to use them all at the same time!
Anyway, I’ve switched back to XP for the time being. What a nightmare that was! I guess if you buy the Vista upgrade they deactivate your old XP product key. I had to call and convince some guy who barely speaks English that I’m not a criminal trying to rip-off the oh-so-poor Microsoft. He finally read me this huge number that I had to type into XP to get it activated again.
The bottom line is FU Microsoft! I’m going to be in the vicinity of an Apple store on Tuesday and will very likely pick up a new MacBook Pro. I’ve had a friend who’s been trying to get me to switch for a couple of years and I’ve blown him off in hopes that Vista would be great. All I can say now is, “Wow! I should’ve bought a Mac.”
July 29th, 2007 at 7:03 pm
I really like Vista now that I have it tweaked to near perfection. Be sure to disable UAC User Access Control and DEP Data Execution Prevention. Then you can enjoy Vista like it should be. But then again , if you do all that you might as well be using XP. Really , if you disable all the security features, all you have left is XP with eye candy.
July 30th, 2007 at 1:37 am
I had thousands problems in windows as well, since I bought a MacBook Pro. After one year experience on Mac, one thing I have to say:
xp and vista are for people who deserve pain.
Get the easy life. Get a Mac!
July 30th, 2007 at 4:21 am
Someone above said: “Me, I wwas running Windows NT, coding websites, running SQL and 10 other apps with no problems. That was circa 1995.”
Guess what? You still are. Vista is just another revision of NT. It’s XP with some revision/extension of the kernel and an updated windowing environment.
DX10 isn’t on XP for the simple reason that MS wants to force you to buy Vista. They could easily backport it with a service pack to handle any changes to other OS layers.
July 30th, 2007 at 5:17 am
I believe the majority of people who post pro-Vista comments are simply average computer users. They don’t game, they don’t do graphics and 3D design, they don’t program and do CPU intensive operations; they simply surf the net and check email. For all of us who “really” use computers for what they were supposedly meant for, Vista is the Godfather of Suck. I agree, most users will “oooh” and “ahh” at Aero, and try to impress their friends that they are “hip and trendy” by purchasing Vista PC’s, and they will succeed at winning over more computer casuals to Vista, increasing Microsoft’s profit and stocks. Eye candy is nice, but functionality and productivity are way more important. I hope this post might sway another potential sucker from the grips of the Microsoft ankle weight, Vista.
July 30th, 2007 at 6:02 am
I bought a laptop for my father-in-law with Windows Vista and he hated it. So I built him a desktop with XP and he’s thanked me a bunch of times. I think XP was their Zenith.
He also really liked Ubuntu, but this website he frequents uses WMV….who does that anymore?
July 30th, 2007 at 7:37 am
My partner is a developer at MS and he and all of his coworkers insantly put it on their home computers when it first cae out . . .then a couple weeks later they all went back to XP because Vista did not work and was too slow. My own expereince is that it is slow, I get a zillion stupid error messages that make no sense, a lot of my programs do not work . . . For example, I use a #d program called Poser and Vista was incompatable with it. I had to turn a bunch of things off in Poser to git it to work - this took a couple weeks to sort out. I have not gone back to XP because I fear the transition . . . I am hoping that things get upgraded so it will work in the future. . . I am waiting for service releases to fix my problems. Don’t have Vista yet - avoid it - at least for a year until they get their act togeher. Don’t be a test for MS. They should hire their own testers! (I know a bunch they laid off.)
July 30th, 2007 at 11:07 am
Like many I used to be a DEVOTED Microsoft user- switched to a MacBook laptop, then upgreaded to a full tower system– I am now a DEVOTED Apple user– only so many times you can be jilted by the same company before you move on.
July 30th, 2007 at 4:02 pm
no. 24
err… amsn works fine with msn and so does the webcam,
err… kopete works fine with msn and so does the webcam,
July 31st, 2007 at 12:15 am
I have a friend who regularly lambasts me about my Mac use. This same friend has been an XP user for several years. He has had issues with adware, viruses, spyware, and trojans. Eventually he bought a new computer which came with Vista. He gave his old machine to his son who now tries also to lambast me about using a Mac. He has had to send his Vista machine in for repair twice already, but still swears blind to me that it is a superior machine to his XP machine. In the meanwhile, I have run OSX (10.0, 10.1, 10.3, 10.4) for six years and have only suffered one OS crash in that period. During the same time, I have had to use Win2000 at work and have had to return three computers for repair because they not only suffered the BSoD but eventually failed to work completely. Is this because I am an OSX user and hence tried to use Windows as an OSX machine and caused my own difficulties? Let’s consider - I moved the taskbar to the top of the screen because that was where I was used to seeing it…. And that was it. That was the only thing I inflicted on my Windows machine. But it still failed. And my friend’s Vista machine is failing despite the fact he is attempting (through account separation and Parental Controls) to limit the damage that might be inflicted by non-savvy users. At the end of this, he still tells me that his system is superior to mine - that it is cheaper, more reliable, has a wider array of compatible software, and represents better value for money. I bought my system, including the freely installed software (Yes, I’ll ignore the Office Mac Test Drive) for less than the total cost of his lower configured Vista machine with it’s craplets, system failures, service costs ($50 per visit to the service centre), and required software (Office). I have heard of Microsoft addiction being compared to the Stockholm Syndrome. What does the above sound like to you?
July 31st, 2007 at 12:33 am
Got new laptop with vista for college. It took 7 minutes to boot the very first time. I then installed Ubuntu. It uses new Santa Rosa chipset, so it took me and one other about a week to get everything working. But now IT WORKS and will stay working forever. I use XP on 4 other computers and it really is true that you have to re-install it every 6 months to maintain reasonable speeds.
I will never use vista thankgod.
July 31st, 2007 at 9:24 am
“is this an idiotic post to try and be cool?”
Yes, that is what your post was! Thanks for telling us before hand!
July 31st, 2007 at 12:22 pm
Count me in as another unhappy Vista user
August 1st, 2007 at 3:07 am
It’s childish to say that Microsoft Windows Vista is not ready for the market.
Learn what Microsoft suggests as hardware requirements and it will work just very fine, in fact much better than Windows XP which can be a slow hog if you are running two memory intensive softwares at the same time, with Vista it goes fast with same hardware platform.
And why nagging about UAC ? Sure it can annoy, but if you are one of those who prefers to not see those popup warning windows when you are near to damage any secure related settings, then disable UAC and get no more naggings.
Why comparing Mac OS X with Vista ? Pretty dumb comparing, two totally different OS with GUI, they are not near similar in the GUI handling. Sure both tries to look fancy and hype, but thats it. Try to do anything advanced under Mac OS X and you need to learn UNIX, in that fact Vista is much easier.
Now to explain more, I am NOT a Windows Vista fanatic, my main OS is actually FreeBSD, so far away I can come from Windows, but Windows Vista was a positive experience on my machines, and that is honest words and nothing else.
August 1st, 2007 at 9:27 am
If you liked this post. You’d like this similiar one too. vistasucks.wordpress.com/2007/06/14/dear-windows-a-vista-review/
August 1st, 2007 at 12:04 pm
When I read a post as to the high price of Macs, I’m once again reminded that most PC users have low end machines. Do not compare apples to oranges, no half-pun intended. I’m pricing high end machines for my company, both PCs and Macs, and at the high end, they are equal, if not the PC a thousand or two (dollars) more. If you are running a sub $10K machine, you are amongst the 99% of computer users who know nothing of, nor care to know, the high end, and happily exist in blissful ignorance! (It IS bliss if you can settle!) Unfortunately, you pay for what you expect!
As to comparing OS flavors, and rant about this or that OS breaking rules and such… These attempts at computer-human ergonomics are all just guesses, programmed by giant committee. Committee-think lowers the I.Q. of a room usually by 12 points a person, which puts, especially Microsoft, the giant company that it is, into drooling idiot territory. Apple has fewer involved, but they have their own issues. Just 20 people working on an OS would need John Milton as its leader to maintain a positive I.Q., but he’s long dead, so there you are. Nobody has it right by miles… or light years. Get over it! Or better, program us something better! Put the world to rights.
Marketing wise, I can see the angst of the Windows world. Apple is slicker, by far, because they understood that it’s “YOUR computer,” not “a PC.” HP is beginning to understand that dynamic, but again, when you get to the high end, it’s all priced the same.
August 2nd, 2007 at 8:56 am
I just bought a new laptop from Dell, the website didn’t allow me to customise the OS so I phoned Dell and requested XP installed as standard unfortunately they said they can only supply Vista on the model I chose. I opted for a 9 cell battery having read reviews that it may last up to 7 hours, apparently these review were based on an XP operating system because my 9 cell battery only lasts 3 to 4 hour running vista and I wasn’t doing anything processor intensive with it either.
I am a graphic designer and 3d animator, so the real question for me is will Lightwave and Photoshop work under vista? And if so will it render 3d scenes slower than XP? Assuming my software will install and run under vista I’m going render out a scene using lightwave, then format the drive, install XP and render the same scene again. If the scene renders significantly faster under XP then I wont be using vista.
Vista seems to work ok if you only need to surf the net and type up your home work, but those users who use the cpu to it’s full potential are probably better off using XP. However as I have found the only way to know if Vista is for you is to simply test it out, find out if vista will do what you need it to do and them compare that to XP and then make an informed decision as to which OS works best for your own needs.
August 3rd, 2007 at 5:29 am
Oh no! My Vista nightmare! I got it preinstalled on my laptop and… the setup worked! :O
I went to Toshiba’s website to upgrade my graphics card’s drivers and… surprise, it worked!
I decided to install my copy of Office 2007 and… it worked!
I went to play GTA:San Andreas and guess what? IT WORKED!
I’ve not encountered one single problem in Vista that wasn’t easy to resolve. I’ve not got a BSOD on it in the 4 months I’ve had this laptop. Where are all these supposed problems?
(okay, installing the graphics card’s drivers may have frozen my laptop, and sometimes aero turns off when I run a RAM and CPU hungry application but forgets to turn it back on again, but that’s about it)
August 4th, 2007 at 10:01 am
I’ve been using Vista for 3 weeks now - I’m a web developer who has never bought into all this shite about mac vs pc, win vs linux. Vista is a great improvement on XP, UAC can be disabled, the interface is really, really nice and with the right memory specs the OS runs very smoothly. I think Microsoft have hit the nail on the head with this one.
I think it’s great.
August 4th, 2007 at 12:26 pm
The truth is that Windows Vista has quite a few “wow” features, but like all Microsoft operating systems it will take some time for the public to warm up to it. Of course, there is always the loud minority with an axe to grind that will continually taunt any Microsoft software release.
August 4th, 2007 at 1:01 pm
Well I don’t have to say a thing. Just google for what information it is sending home! May be a idea for next article. http://geemodo.blogspot.com/2007/07/if-you-thought-wga-was-problem-vista.html
August 6th, 2007 at 2:12 pm
True that…Microsoft has had it. The article, funny, yet very true. I myself am now switching to Mac…Thanx everyone
August 7th, 2007 at 4:52 am
Vista is crap. It is the most annoying OS I have ever used since Amiga days. Have only been able to install it successfully on one system from out of 5 systems. I also work with Gentoo and OSX. OSX just destroys Vista from every single perspective. Gentoo is another story but I feel more comfortable and safe in Gentoo than I do in Vista.
August 9th, 2007 at 5:54 am
send me this
August 10th, 2007 at 10:47 am
If you’re planning on upgrade from XP to Vista on your old system. My advice is to DON’T DO IT. I did that on my brother’s PC and it was running so slow. I ended up building a new system using higher processor,Video card and lots and lots of RAM. See, Microsoft will tell you that it will run but they didn’t tell you that it will run at a snail speed. If you really want Vista that bad buy a new system that comes with it and go for the best system that you can pick otherwise it’s just not worth it. And now there’s another problem with my machine. That damn freaking drive will not stop churning. I turned off the indexing. Disable anything related to indexing and it still churn not as much but it still does. When it does that it slows my system down dramatically. My recommendation, if you’re happy with XP then don’t switch it. Vista is not that much different than XP except it looks nicer that’s all.
August 11th, 2007 at 9:31 am
Well, I really can agree with you. I have used Windows since version 1 all the way to XP. For a couple of years ago I bought a Powerbook, just to have a portable computer as well. I instantly liked OS X and today I really prefer using my Powerbook.
A couple of month ago I tested Vista. I never noticed any “Wow”… All I noticed that all the features I cared about already existed - in my two year old install of OS X. Smart folders, a fast way to search files and so on. Nothing new really. Besides the new interface and the UAC that annoyed the h*ll out of me.
http://www.gate303.net/2007/06/12/os-x-leopard-one-os-to-rule-them-all/
August 30th, 2007 at 1:28 pm
I think the appropriate word to describe Vista is “eye-candy”. It looks like candy, it has everything to make it look a bit better - but nothing more. Rounded, shiny, colorful - that’s what it is like! The Aurora wallpaper reminds me on sugar with some food colouring. Most of these things are possible to get on XP. XP is the best OS by Microsoft. P.S. GET A MAC ANYWAY!!!
September 5th, 2007 at 10:55 am
I was so disgusted with Vista, I quit Microsoft over it. Kid you not. Four months ago.
After using it for about three months at work on a high-powered notebook and desktop, and losing countless hours of work and sleep and files over it, I had absolutely had enough!
I’ve been a Microsoft OS power user since MS-DOS 3.3 (long before I joined Microsoft), and upgraded at every step. I’ve grappled with Windows as a programmer, power use, photographer, recording musician, manager, video hobyist, small business owner, IT manager, you name it.
I’ve installed Windows of various flavors well over a hundred times or more. I’ve been the Unofficial-Official (and unwilling) tech support guru for friends and family all the way–and (regrettably) introduced most of them to Windows in the first place.
I was furious when Windows 98 came out. It was Windows 95, with most of the more glaring bugs fixed. And they had the gall to CHARGE me for it. But I already PAID for Windows 98’s beta test (called “Windows 95″). But, I sucked it up. (I did skip Windows ME. Not gonna sucker me twice, or three times, or whatever the count was up to.) But I remained a loyal Microsoft customer and eventually went to work for them.
Vista changed all that. (Office 2007 really pushed me over the edge.) Now I have a new outlook. No more Microsoft. I don’t dislike them as a company or as an employer. They tried very hard. And the people are talented and individually try very hard and want to do the right thing. (It’s really the lawyers and marketers that screw everything up…not to mention fear of shareholders [ironically the uninformed day traders and fund managers who could care less about the company or products and are just out there gambling and increasing market volatility].)
Nevertheless, as a result of these infuriating new products (and indeed the history), Microsoft has gotta go from my life.
First, I thought that Mac OS X was the answer, so I bought a MacBook. It took me a while to get used to the “maximize button that doesn’t”, and the “closing a one-window app’s one window still leaves the app quietly running” issue, and the mixed-up hotkeys (which I’ve learned to prefer).
But I’m used to these and other issues now, and although the Mac and Finder has just as many functional quirks and little annoyances as Windows and Explorer, overall the Mac is clean, pretty, and everything works. (I also fixed the inconsistent GUI theme with “Uno”. A bit annoying that I had to do that–if I can’t skin the UI out of the box, at least make it consistent between built-in applications.)
One observation (not really a complaint because it’s easy to mitigate): If ever an OS was presented as a “toy” (as XP was often accused of), Mac OS X is it. While running on industrial strength UNIX, the bundled GUI applications were created for rank noobs. While simple and easy to use, they tend to have an apalling lack of configurability. But no biggy–there’s plenty of third-party software out there.
The real problem with the Mac–fatal problem in fact–is the true cost of choosing it: absolute vendor lock-in. What’s worse, it’s not just a “one-decision” lock-in (or two decision–OS AND hardware). The more you use a Mac and come to depend and rely on it as more and more of your data and habits become locked into it, the more likely ALL of your future hardware and OS decisions will be locked into the Mac. No thanks! Been there, have the scars. In truth, in that way it’s twice as bad as Windows.
So better late than never, I decided–without ever having even tried it–to switch ALL of my machines (including the MacBook) to Linux. Actually in hindsight, I would have chosen OpenBSD, as it is much more “free as in speech” than the GPL model of most Linux distros. Oh well.
I went with Ubuntu, sight unseen. Installation was easy (I know it can be a nightmare to install–but paying $300 for a nightmare vs. a free nightmare are very different things.)
Admittedly, on the MacBook I am still using Ubuntu full-time in a VMware Fusion virtual machine, on a completely stripped down and crippled OS X login. With the snapshot feature, it is very forgiving. And fast! For now, I have no reason to invest the time in a real install, because I can’t tell that it isn’t.
Since I am not investing any more time or data or habits into Mac OS X, it doesn’t matter that I’m still “technically” still using it under the hood. I think of it now as a glorified boot loader (well a boot-loader that still takes up 400mb of RAM). For now, the damage is done–I purchased a Mac, the money is gone. Wiping the disk would not accomplish any more liberation than I’ve already achieved–using Linux every moment of my computing existence.
I’m the kind of person who must know absolutely everything about a technology that I adopt. I keep forgetting that. (Even after I just went through the same thing with my shiny new Mac OS X.) Thus, about ten days of mostly all-nighters and alienating my family were thrust upon me, as I learned Linux inside and out. It was a painful transition. It is so different than Windows. (In fact for obvious reasons, it’s closer to Mac OS X at the guts level.) But at the end, I felt reborn. (Or maybe it was the lack of food, water, and sleep.)
No only do I feel reborn, I feel up-born. I have a much higher awareness of the world of operating systems now. I learned about UNIX and all of it’s derivatives. To my amazement, I learned that virtually every OS in use in the world today–except for Windows–was derived from UNIX (or the ancestors to what is not UNIX). IBM AIX, Sun Solaris, Linux, Mac’s Darwin, you name it. Now that I have a reasonable handle on Linux (a process that started with Mac OS X), I know ALL operating systems. Well, most anyway.
I am now a Linux evangelist. With GNOME at least, it is an amazing system, and amazingly USABLE system, and just an amazing idea. And I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that it is open-source. How did this amazing gem come to be? (Not to mention GNOME, package managers like Synaptic, and the thousands of other free and open applications and utilities!) I keep trying to imagine how the projects are organized, with people working in their free time with no pay, no competition for raises and bigger offices. I can’t picture it. My Microsoft brain is in danger of exploding.
Either way, it’s amazing, and I have resolved to contribute back in some way. Tester, possibly even developer and host of some new open-source project (after I learn Python–no way I’m going to re-learn C!).
Whether or not Mac OS X is better than Linux (say, Ubuntu) is not the point. (And by the way–Linux, at least with GNOME–trounces Mac OS X. This opinion is from a user with zero preconceived biases about either [actually not quite true--I had the vague notion that the Mac would be better than Linux] and with equal–and significant–time on both.)
The point is–even if Mac (or Windows) were better than Linux–that Linux is F-R-E-E. Free as in “Freedom”. Freedom from DRM intruding on your life and encumbering your work even after you paid for it. Freedom from paying for software which the vendor spends a significant portion of working in ever more restrictive DRM schemes making it harder for you to use. Freedom from vendor lock-in. Freedom from the dictates of idiots in a Marketing department touting focus group numbers. Freedom from share-price slavery. Freedom from a significant portion of the cost of software being spent on advertising and marketing. Freedom from magazine editors being “bought off” for good reviews. (It happens–maybe not in so blatant of terms–but any reviewer for a publication that accepts ad money from the companies with said products being reviewed, is ultimately under some pressure, which all ads up as a whole to a significant skewing of general opinion. Trust me, there are whole organizations devoted to insuring favorable reviews, that have nothing whatsoever to do with making the product better.) Freedom from marketing budgets influencing more users than the quality of the product. Freedom from vendors being (or feeling) forced to introduce new features, before fixing old broken ones.
And here’s something I’ve never heard anyone else mention. There’s one more freedom that Linux offers: FREEDOM FROM VICTIMIZATION. The state of being a victim (except in cases involving felony offenses) is often more about a feeling. You FEEL like a victim, and that upsets you. When something randomly bad happens to you, you can choose to feel like a victim, or you can choose to recognize your own bad choices (if applicable), and/or you can choose to shrug it off as best you can and move on, as best you can. When bad things happen and your OS is to blame, if it’s Windows or Mac, you feel like a victim. You paid for this cr*p, and now it has turned on you, and your data is gone. Linux releases you from that victim mindset. Hey–it’s FREE. So what if it has a few hitches? (If it did, that is. So far, I haven’t found any.) You figure out how to work through it, and move on. By doing so, you consciously choose to take responsibility for your fate, you choose to act, and you choose to remain grateful for the free gifts you have.
Long Live Freedom! I’m never going back.
September 5th, 2007 at 11:10 am
Hi Brett, after looking at my submitted post, I noticed your site replaced my uses of double-dashes (the poor-man’s m-dash), with single dashes, or possibly n-dashes (hard to tell without some effort). Which of course completely changes the meaning. A double dash (or m-dash) is like a parenthetical aside; an independent though (usually supplementary), inline with the main though. A single dash or n-dash is completely different, and swapping one for the other can (and does and did) completely change the meaning, such as with many of the passages I wrote just previously. (In most cases it just made whole sentences incomprehensible!)
September 6th, 2007 at 6:03 pm
My frustration actually didn’t start with Vista.. it started with Windows Mobile 2002 in my Jornada 928. The HP made a great piece of hardware but for some inconceivable for me reason had to put in a buggy & raw system. The satisfaction from using it is the same as from using Vista - only present with a prefix dis-.
September 12th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
Mac sucks, whoever told you it’s better for music, that is your enemy. If you don’t have problems with your Win config, don’t even think about switching to Mac. It’s just another computer with the marketing hype around it. And except for the Macbook, it’s fairly expensive. but again, the Macbook is not capable of any serious project. I always get these system overflow messages in Logic 7.2.. so I just wanted to highlight that even though Vista may have some problems, the whole environment is much better there under Windows for creative work.
October 24th, 2007 at 4:32 pm
It amazes me that a few people still carry stone age ideas about Macs in their heads, saying things like Macs are just “pretty” and can’t do “serious” stuff. Do these people have ANY IDEA how many well known TV shows and big name hollywood movies are produced on a Macs running Final Cut Studio? or that vast amounts genes for the Human Genome Project were sequenced on Macs. Todays Intel based Macs can run Mac OSX, Windows, Ubuntu and more. Microsoft Office?, Open Office? Take your pick!
I could go on, but looking at Apple’s rapidly rising Mac sales figures, it looks like most people are smart enough to figure out who is winning here…
October 27th, 2007 at 1:48 am
A poetic way of expressing disgust. What should Microsoft learn that they don’t know yet?
November 14th, 2007 at 9:49 pm
Vista runs great. Get over it. 64 bit cpu with 64 bit os. Stay away from nvidia crap, they have dragged their asses on software support and their mobo chipsets are notorious for compatability problems. XP had way more issues all they way until SP1a was released. Before SP1a it was GARBAGE. How quickly we forget. I have seen and installed EVERY release of windows and Vista has the fewest problems out of the box from day 1 period. ***BONUS-VISTA WILL SAVE YOUR ASS ONE DAY. DELETED OR MODIFIED FILES CAN BE RETRIEVED BY SIMPLY GOING TO PROPERTIES OF THE FOLDER THAT CONTAINED THE FILE, CLICK THE PREVIOUS VERSIONS TAB AND VISTA WILL SAVE YOUR DAY. I HAVE SEEN IT SEVERAL TIMES ALREADY AND THE USER IS ALWAYS EXTREMELY GRATEFUL.
For all you “Power Users”(LOL) learn about hardware, software, technology, and integration before you bash a good product. Since you are a “Power User”, you probably buy Dell(LOL) or build inferior machines with crappy MOBO’s/CPU’S and then wonder why your crappy hardware doesnt run a new os properly. New technology usually requires new hardware.(Apple is far worse with hardware than MS ever was or will be). I build plenty of machines and they all run Vista like a champ, even an old IBM P3 Intellistation, but then again it has an intel chipset.
Damn ID-10-T errors.
November 14th, 2007 at 9:53 pm
Oh by the way for all you Apple idiots:
APPLE=FISHER PRICE
A shiny toy for children who are technologically inept.
(What hardware does apple run now? Oh thats right they finally wised up and went with Intel. LOL)
November 14th, 2007 at 10:05 pm
Final cut pro is a joke. Try Vegas Video or Premiere, they are MUCH better.
And for supercomputing such as the human genome project, linux would crush Windows or MAC OS any day of the week.
Before you open your mouth, actually know what you are talking about.
MAC MORONS.
Oh and by the way I started prior to Commodore, IBM AT/XT, and the TI home computer(we stored our programs on audio cassette tapes). I have also supported many Macs for large customers (graphic design houses) and they absolutely are horrible to work on. Supposedly they never break. What a lie. Apple support is a waste of time. I know more about Macs then they do and their solution is usually “Just reinstall the OS, or you need a new motherboard(about $850 usually). When I would show these customers that a PC could do the same job as a Mac, only faster with way more hardware and software to choose from, they were always shocked. And after deploying some PC’s the rest of the Macs fell quite quickly. There used to be only one reason to have a Mac, and that was commercial print houses only due to the way Quark handled fonts on the Mac. That day has come and gone. BYE BYE MAC!!!
November 14th, 2007 at 10:20 pm
MAC = UNEDUCATED YUPPIE CONSUMERS WHO BELIEVE DUMBED DOWN MARKETING
KEEP BUYING THOSE IPHONES, YOU CAN EVEN REPLACE THE BATTERY(JUST LIKE THE IPUD), AND IF YOU PUT ANY UNAUTHORIZED SOFTWARE ON YOUR IPHONE, APPLE WILL BRICK IT WITH THEIR SOFTWARE UPDATES. OH AND I BELIEVE THEY ARE BEING SUED FOR USING SOME TYPE OF HAZARDOUS MATERIALS.
AND YOU COMPLAIN MS IS TOO CONTROLLING. IT IS EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE.
BUY A MAC AND THEY TELL YOU WHAT HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE YOU CAN RUN, AND WHEN IT DOES BREAK(AND IT WILL) THEY BANG YOU OUT BIG TIME TO FIX IT. $100-$200 TO REPLACE A BATTERY? COME ON. I HAVE A HTC PC PHONE(8125 WIZARD) FROM 2 YEARS AGO AND IT STILL CRUSHES THE IPHONE. THE NEW HTC KAISER IS CHEAPER, UNRESTRICTED, AND YOU CAN REPLACE YOUR BATTERY ALL BY YOURSELF.
I GUESS THATS WHY TERMS LIKE MORON, IDIOT, AND IMBECILE ARE ACTUALLY TECHNICAL TERMS. IF YOU ARE PRO MAC, YOU PROBABLY FALL INTO THE BOTTOM 25%. DON’T BE MAD AT ME, TRY EDUCATING YOURSELF AND RISE ABOVE THE MAC MINDEDNESS(LOW IQ RANGES).
November 23rd, 2007 at 12:23 pm
Vista is garbage. Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer crash all the time. Printers don’t work properly even with correct printer drivers. Palm pilot software won’t load. Microsoft Office locks up regularly. This is all on a new Vista desktop system I bought about 4 months ago. Most of my software disks–including Microsoft products–won’t even install in Vista. I buying a Mac for my daughter this Christmas, and probably getting myself one.
December 3rd, 2007 at 7:36 pm
vista is like an unreliable, unpredictable and faulty escalator as compared to a short set of stairs
December 3rd, 2007 at 7:41 pm
Microsoft needs to open up it’s fat nerdy velcro wallet and fix this vista fiasco before class actions do it for them.
December 3rd, 2007 at 8:17 pm
The cabal of brainiacs who developed and sold this vista lemon should be reassigned to Microsofts version of Siberia. They can join the “new coke”, Yugo, and McRib masterminds in their castle of shame.
January 3rd, 2008 at 4:57 pm
Vista - let’s sum it up really quickly what kind of STUPID IDIOTIC company “develops” an OS that can no longer read the Help files of Office programs from a few years ago? What company develops an OS and then sstrips things out of it uunless you pay more? I won’t bother to go into SIX hours of repeated attempts to get a simple Lexmark printer to run (YES it was with the correct driver), then there’s the internet - three attempts - sees my router ok but will it run? No. Three days later - it starts to work! no reason just felt like it no doubt. Compare this with a Nintendo Wii - select Internet, Find Router, What’s the encryption key please? Thank you- here’s your internet service ready to run sir. TWO MINUTES FLAT! And as for that infernal “windows is looking for a solution” when you’ve asked it to kill a program for the umpteenth time. I rest my case. The only good thing to come of this is the Windows death knell sounding across the globe. Thank you for that at least Microsoft, oh and could you switch the light off when you leave? No don’t bother I’ll do it, I doubt if you could even do that without asking permission and confirmation at least three times!
January 7th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
oh sweet Lord but it’s true.
MS you are absolutely killing me.
After years and years of defending you, I get this.
January 8th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
I think Vista was a great idea. I’ve run Windows ever since 3.1. Microsoft has done me the service of forcing me to Linux, because Vista will never be allowed to enter my house.
I’ve got a new quad processor PC coming in next week with NO OPERATING SYSTEM, and then I’ll figure out how to install a Debian kernal that supports multiple processors.
Thank you Microsoft, for making our relationship so miserable that I finally decided to leave you.
January 12th, 2008 at 11:17 am
Biggest piece of crap to come down the line
January 18th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
“a sad life of jonathan harchick”
this idiot is everywhere, he just HATE APPLE without any reason.
His sick in mind!
LIAR, coward, idiot, primitve like hell, fat, no life, low-life form.
LMAO!
February 1st, 2008 at 2:11 pm
Geeks- and non-geeks, you all miss the point. Technology is nothing in itself. And limitation constitue our life. I might sound like a fascist, but a person deserves freedom.
Free software rules!
February 1st, 2008 at 2:18 pm
Think about doughnuts, for a change…
February 1st, 2008 at 11:04 pm
I’m a long time Windows user (3.0) and DOS (god maybe 2. something) before that. I’ve installed networks from IBM’s PCNET to WFWG, LanManger, Novell, W2k, W2K3 and most recently Linux with a Novell interface and I’ve never lost any significant data until tonight with VISTA. The more I use it, the more I dislike it. I copied and pasted a folder (PUBLIC) from C: to D: drive. It was apparently there - I viewed the files; they were there and then I couldn’t access the drive, the permissions were screwed up and now it(the data)- gone …. I’ve struggled with this laptop for 2 months. I believe I’m done.
February 8th, 2008 at 11:50 pm
Wow was I surprised at all the Microsoft bashers… I do agree Vista has some faults, but hey could we write an operating system…no way.
I am still using XP on my 320 with dual core with 2 Gig Ram mirrored machine. Guess I was a little hesitant to go with Vista when I did my last upgrade. But I have worked on MACs and if MAXC users were truthful they would tell you how many PhotoShop and Illustrator and In Design files they lost due to an OS crash from the Apple Bomb. I know that is why I run a PC for all my Graphics apps. I do web development, design, my own hosting and SEO and I can offer a tip. Feel sorry for those who have Vista if they have problems and be glad it is not you. Be nice and send them a link to this blog and maybe some of the great tips listed above will help someone in need. Loved the posts they made me have my smile for the day!
March 10th, 2008 at 12:15 am
I upgraded from windowsXp 2nd edition to Vista home premium. I was fighting with my computer to get a clean install when it dawned on me that Vista is a different windows from WinXp so of course i had to upgrade my software the problem is with Roxio i upgraded to Roxio MYDVD9 and Microsoft WORKS9 and i got a clean install and installed my drivers from Dell websight. And something else helped i setup another user administrator this is where i install when i am downloading while the other connection is for play and looking up what i want to look up. So if you have an error correct it on your administrator con and it when you are downloading it will make a restore date and i set it to restore once a week and my pc automaticly maintains my pc. Good advice my friends try it so don’t be afraid of Vista another thing find out if u have a Vista32 or 64 don’t mix download a 64 if u have a vista32 error city U.S.A wish i could share more but out of room lol good luck and keep computing.
March 20th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
I have had the freedom of working on Mac OS X at an office years ago and discovered I would only reboot once a year.
Even with Office XP I reboot about once a week. Vistsa works best on a machine with a performance rating of 5.0 or better (Microsoft’s grading scale). My new XPS Dell 420 is running a 5.4 on the scale and runs Vista well.
On a bad note, you can’t find many discounted software titles yet that work on Vista.
March 23rd, 2008 at 1:03 pm
Hi all,
I am just a plain ordinary asshole on a PC. I really like this blog - here. It is like someone has thrown a bucket of cold water on my head and said, “Hello - are U still there?”
This is where PCing has brought me to. After 40 years of programming and tech work-arounds I am officially a PC Geezer who needs new glasses now.
The reason why I refer to myself as a “plainordinaryasshole” is because I don’t understand why I am too stoopid not to upgrade to Ubuntu. I feel so sorry for Microsoft. I think that those many users who still use MS products are purely and simply addicted to the punishment it delivers with each new migration and each new update and each new patch. I would of thought it would be better by now.
I dunno .. are we all addicted to migrains or sumthing?
regards, plain -o-a
May 29th, 2008 at 7:56 am
When you do a free spyware scan and find out you have spyware or adware on your computer, the first thing that comes to mind is how to get rid of the spyware on your computeradware spyware uninstall
May 30th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
I hope MicroSoft gets hit by a meteor and all those fuckers die!
July 3rd, 2008 at 4:10 pm
hell i havent had any problems lol
July 6th, 2008 at 4:35 am
Want to fight back? check out this link: http://combatwombat.7doves.com/2008/07/06/the-new-hate-ms-revolution
September 28th, 2008 at 11:37 am
idiots all of u mac lovers.. Vista’s da best.. ve used em all.. neva a single crash.. aero’s gr8, runs evytin, u just need a brain to recognize it n use it.. i dont use any antivirus too.. no viruses on vista..(i neva used 1 in xp, n no viruss den eidr(i manually remove em)) The entire framewrk of vista is simply the best.. Ve used ubuntu, mac.. alla dem suck in frnta vista
September 28th, 2008 at 11:40 am
IT PRO up der talks sense
September 28th, 2008 at 11:44 am
nutin eva crashes on vista.. wt u runnin it on? P1? Stupid config, stupid opinions.. Use vista on a decent pc..ull fall in luv wit it.. blame urself if u tryta run it on crap
October 6th, 2008 at 10:46 am
Hello Iam Mac Thanks for really screwing up with Vista my sales really going up. Then when you started the Mojave Project hey look at mojave wow that “looks” good. You have just been punked It’s Vista come on out ashton. You really make your customers feel like a dumbass. thanks for Double the sales
December 1st, 2008 at 8:29 pm
Preston Promethius said:
“I believe the majority of people who post pro-Vista comments are simply average computer users.”
Actually, some of the pro-Vista comments are from average users, but the majority are from seriously neuron-challenged Microsoft shills who are as hard to miss as a BSOD on live television. What a pathetic bunch of money-grubbing losers.
March 3rd, 2009 at 5:24 am
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April 7th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
Ya know, I’ve gotta come to Windows defense… I finally gave Vista a chance when I bought my newest computer… and while I definitely miss XP, I have had absolutely no problem with Vista. I don’t experience all these “crashes” that people like you talk about, and I am even currently running 6 Firefox tabs and 5 total programs (Notepad, Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Firefox, and Zune music player) with no problem. I’ve even ran all these programs at the same time as playing Half-Life 2 using high settings, and experienced no crashes. Also, as far as virus problems go, I use a free anti-virus program called AVG (http://free.avg.com/), which is a little on the simple side for the free edition, but has proven quite dependable since I haven’t had any problem at all with viruses.
Personally, I think it’s just “cool” to hate Microsoft nowadays. You’re not “hip” if you don’t talk trash about Bill Gates and pitch out an extra 1000 dollars (hyperbole) for a computer sporting equivalent power but w/ an apple slapped to the side of a nice bright white tower and the comfort of knowing that hackers could care less about attacking your OS right now (give them time, they attack Windows because it controls the majority of the market).
April 7th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
oh, and for the Aero haters… that’s a setting you can turn off, you don’t have to let it eat up your RAM.
June 14th, 2009 at 8:55 pm
Hello,
May name is Marina and I’m student of the Marketing course of University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. My group is making an academic research about owners of communities and blogs like “ihate.com”. Please, can you help us? You just need to answer the survey bellow:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=ckFTbS10bXRnUUNobmNsMzVJMkhydkE6MA..
Thanks, Marina Arruda.