Can Microsoft save Vista?
Short answer: No.
Long answer at Ars Technica: They can at least stop being PR wallflowers about it.
Microsoft has stayed relatively tight-lipped about the issues Vista faces. All the while, competitors like Apple have harped on problems like driver support and slow performance with nary a word from the Microsoft camp. Microsoft now admits that it should have fought back sooner. ...
With its hand forced by high-profile companies like Intel and GM refusing to upgrade, Microsoft doesn't really have a choice but to get the word out. Ars Technica's suggestions center on promoting Vista's security and the fact that for all the whining, it's sold far more copies of Vista than Apple could ever dream of shifting anything whatsoever. Finally, it needs to stop Osborning itself with all this "Windows 7" talk.
Scarily, the entire article doesn't offer a single suggestion for actually improving Vista, the operating system. A subtle insult? Or is lipstick really the only weapon Microsoft's got?
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i've been using vista for about a year now and i wish i could report otherwise, but i havent had any problems thus far. why do people declare it to be such a failure? far as i can tell its a fine OS with a terrible PR department. then again, one of my most important features in an OS is eye candy... so what do i know.
If MS would have been up front about which machines can REALISTICALLY handle Vista then it's likely none of this would be nearly as bad as it is today.
They handled things like assholes and this is the result. Go figure.
it's sold far more copies of Vista than Apple could ever dream of shifting anything whatsoever.
yes, and Britney Spears has sold more CDs than Devo could ever dream of selling.
I've got two vistas going. One is a wreck, the other works fine.
I think the reason people hate it is three-pronged:
1. Schadenfreude. They want to hate it, so irritating flaws are presented as critical failures. Leopard's getting the same treatment: perhaps this is something that really takes off when a superior replacement is known to be in development (Windows 7, Snow Leopard)
2. Three stooges UI. Things which slow you down but don't entirely make sense even when you get used to them. This is a symptom of certain minds that expect a systematic elegance that many of us don't really give a shit about.
3. System requirements. Lots of people buy cheap laptops. Vista runs like shit on them.
For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled. - Richard Feynman
One thing really honks me off about Vista right now... 32-bit support. Vista was a chance that Microsoft had to break off from the 32-bit processor world, and go entirely 64-bits. Face it: any processor only capable of running in 32-bits would barely (if at all) be able to run Vista. Going entirely to 64 bits means that hardware makers only have to support one version of the drivers, and people who run 32-bit CPUs really don't want Vista in the first place.
Microsoft never really had the balls to make the tough calls like this. I give a lot of credit to Apple for making the tough calls, like going from 68000 CPUs to Power PCs, and then to Intel CPUs. Yes, there was a little intermediate pain in the switchover, but, long term, things are much better for them for doing so.
While those of us using 64-bit operating systems such as OSX Leopard, Linux, FreeBSD, OpenSolaris, etc. suffer from a lack of higher density memory on the market.
In other words, because Windows is 32-bit, Apple's MacBook Pro doesn't support more than 4GB of memory.
Windows XP was a stable OS. When Vista came out and businesses started going back to XP, most people realized it was a terrible OS. What's more annoying is that companies that sell computers try to ram down everybody's throat Vista. As a consumer I'd like to have my choice of OS and Hardware.
Just because of this I'm seriously consider buying a Mac and trying it for the first time.
What problems with Vista? I've used Vista on all my tablet PCs and UMPCs since it came out and it works much better than XP on those machines (as long as you turn off transparent windows). Energy management is better and the devices just behave crisper. The wireless on my Vista laptop works flawlessly whereas the XP laptops in our office are always having trouble connecting.