Monday, March 10, 2008

They Criticized Vista. And They Should Know.

Here’s one story of a Vista upgrade early last year that did not go well. Jon, let’s call him, (bear with me — I’ll reveal his full identity later) upgrades two XP machines to Vista. Then he discovers that his printer, regular scanner and film scanner lack Vista drivers. He has to stick with XP on one machine just so he can continue to use the peripherals.

Did Jon simply have bad luck? Apparently not. When another person, Steven, hears about Jon’s woes, he says drivers are missing in every category — “this is the same across the whole ecosystem.”

Then there’s Mike, who buys a laptop that has a reassuring “Windows Vista Capable” logo affixed. He thinks that he will be able to run Vista in all of its glory, as well as favorite Microsoft programs like Movie Maker. His report: “I personally got burned.” His new laptop — logo or no logo — lacks the necessary graphics chip and can run neither his favorite video-editing software nor anything but a hobbled version of Vista. “I now have a $2,100 e-mail machine,” he says.

It turns out that Mike is clearly not a naïf. He’s Mike Nash, a Microsoft vice president who oversees Windows product management. And Jon, who is dismayed to learn that the drivers he needs don’t exist? That’s Jon A. Shirley, a Microsoft board member and former president and chief operating officer. And Steven, who reports that missing drivers are anything but exceptional, is in a good position to know: he’s Steven Sinofsky, the company’s senior vice president responsible for Windows.

Mac OSX is the only way to go these days (or Ubuntu if you are feeling adventurous!).

10 comments:

Therry said...

Yeh, heard so many flaws with Vista. But what an average girl next door like me, would do? She's grown up with Windows all her life :P

and I'm too scared to use Ubuntu ... it's so.... programmic!

Finally Woken said...

They say once you touch Mac OSX you'll never go back to Windows.... they're very true! I'm a Mac lover now.

Therry said...

@finally woken:

but why? how? gimme one good reason why MAC is better! people keep saying that but they never give me legitimate reasons - apart from the graphics looking nicer and the hardware looking sleek and chic, those are not enough to convince me ...

Unknown said...

mac just works, you don't need any special secret tricks or hints from your geeky brother. you buy your mac and you can do stuff!

as the NYT shows, even top directors at MS can't get their heads around Vista and they built it!! -- what chance do any of us stand??

Therry said...

"as the NYT shows, even top directors at MS can't get their heads around Vista and they built it!! -- what chance do any of us stand??"

Seriously?? That's just whacked!

But is getting a MAC makes it that tad bit more difficult to find good programs? I confess I still use pirated ones - BUT I will eventually buy the licensed one - like, someday.

I think.

Unknown said...

Nah there are loadsa pirated mac programs, am sure they're easy to find in Jakarta.

Anonymous said...

John, yesterday I was once again told to convert to linux As if I am going to do it any day now... :) I was told I am just a typical girl, that's why I learnt Unix but dont want to switch to linux.

@therry: Just try Mac, and you'll see. If you can make it simpler why make it more complicated with Windows?

Unknown said...

i think a lot if u gave ubuntu a shot u prob would like it as much as mac... but still a chance u can come across some hard snaffus on linux...

Therry said...

maybe i will give it a try once ubuntu supports all the necessary programs. like, photoshop for instance. i heard it already supports macromedia stuff.

oh hang on. macromedia and adobe ARE the same.

man its so confusing.

Unknown said...

u can run photoship cs2 (and 3) and dreamweaver on ubuntu -- but it's not 100% straight forward yet... watch out for it tho :)