Vista Review

Microsoft has announced it will disengage the kill switch. You remember the kill switch don’t you? When you have a Windows Vista system you have to validate you have a legal copy with Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA). If you don’t or WGA fails – after a certain period of time Windows Vista activates it’s “Kill Switch” and turns off nearly everything except very limited browsing (probably only to activate Windows). Is that good? Yes, I suppose that it is. Because we all know that Windows (and Vista) can and will mistakenly identify you (a person with a legal license to use Windows) as a criminal at some point. Get a new hard drive? You’re a pirate. Have to reformat and reinstall and activate Windows more than 4 times? You’re a pirate. Like the article I linked to reads – disabling the kill switch is a good start, but they have a long ways to go before you don’t feel like a criminal every time you need to reinstall Windows.

Wow – if the tv commercials of Mac vs. PC where the PC says even he “downgraded to Windows XP” weren’t enough, today I catch this headline from c|Net where Windows Vista made their list of Top 10 Terrible Tech Products of ALL TIME! Microsoft is really taking a beating on this one. Vista comes in at #10 (out of 10) – so at least 9 things placed before it on the list of terrible tech, but the opening line says it all “Any operating system that provokes a campaign for its predecessor’s reintroduction deserves to be classed as terrible technology.”

While I knew people had been doing this – this article actually has links about downgrading, like “Dell Offers Windows XP again (April 2007), and Microsoft allows Vista ‘downgrade’ (Sept 24, 2007) where it talks of Microsoft allowing PC manufacturers and OEM’s offer an downgrade option for customers who want to switch to Windows XP. The quote I love best from that article is “Fujitsu has been among the most aggressive, starting last month to include an XP disc in the box with its laptops and tablets.”

Fujitsu is putting an XP disc “IN THE BOX” with PC’s and laptops that have Vista installed…… HAHA HAHA HAHA HAHAHA HAHA HAHA HAHA HAHAHA HAHA HAHA HAHA HAHAHA HAHA HAHA HAHA HAHAHA HAHA HAHA HAHA HAHAHA HAHA HAHA HAHA HAHAHA HAHA HAHA HAHA HAHAHA HAHA HAHA HAHA HAHAHA HAHA HAHA HAHA HAHAHA!!!

I knew that people were having issues with Vista and that many thought it sucked, and there are legions of people wanting to see it fail for various reasons (Mac zealots and Linux minions)…..but truth be told it seems to be failing on it’s own merits after all. I mean, come on – the search term “Vista downgrade” has over 2 million results so far!

And of those results look what we find:

• Microsoft to simplify downgrades from Vista to XP: comes from ZDNet! In June 2007 they told about Microsoft making it much easier for their top-tier OEM’s to downgrade customers to XP. I guess before this they had to call MS with each serial number being downgraded and they were going to an easier submission system. Just the fact that they had to do this shows customers were bitching up a storm.
• How to downgrade to Windows XP from Vista: is a guide from Computerworld written on October 2nd, 2007. The first paragraph suprises me, because it points to an article from the week before where it says Microsoft will sell Windows XP until June of 2008! Microsoft’s own PR team says: “So we’re responding to feedback we have gotten from our OEM partners that some customers will benefit by extending availability of Windows XP.” Read between the lines: “too many people are bitching!”
• Downgrade Your Vista to XP: is an article from cNet Asia that says that not only OEM’s and PC manufacturers can downgrade to Windows XP – ANYONE WITH A VISTA LICENSE can!

Other Vista Downgrade links

• Official Windows Vista Downgrade Rights: Microsoft Reference Sheet
• Lenovo Vista to XP downgrade page
• Microsoft Malaysia Vista to XP downgrade rights
• The XP Alternative for Vista PC’s“>Windows Vista Downgrade Rights
• HP Vista Downgrade FAQ
• Vista license downgrade rights for volume licensing
• The XP Alternative for Vista PC’s

Do you live in or near the Microsoft campus in Mountain View California? If so, take advantage of the Vista SP1 Deployment Team’s “Install Fair” December 8th and 9th, 2007. Take your desktop or laptop (registration in advance required) and they’ll upgrade (trial and error at your expense) your system to “BETA” Vista Service Pack 1. You get snacks and beverages (while they fry your PC) – and just to keep the complainers at bay – you’ll get a free copy of MS Office 2007 just for playing nicey-nice!

When I read this article today about “Vista won’t be any faster, it got me thinking. You now, I have a dual-core processor laptop with 2GB of ram. It really got me thinking, 2GB of ram is more than I’ve ever had on any computer I’ve ever owned. I work on PC’s day and night, but previous to the laptop I never had a need to have more than 512MB of ram. I mean, of course I had a need, I just never spent the $$. So the laptop has 4 times the amount of ram that my previous system had – and the only difference is that the old laptop (and my old PC) was running Windows XP Professional. Well, that and the fact that the laptop has a “dual-core” processing, a significant improvement over a single core. Windows Vista was supposed to be so much more “responsive”, and make my life so much easier. I’ve realized today that it’s just as slow as both XP systems.

What happenned? 2GB of RAM? That should be like the difference between a 4 and 8 cylinder engine! The difference between a moped and a motorcycle. And yet sometimes I find myself “waiting” for it to delete files, access a folder, login, reload a browser window. Sometimes it gets real laggy – so I just know it’s time to reboot. That sounds like what previous versions of Windows were like, and what they told us would be fixed in Vista. Now that I’ve had this Vista Premium Toshiba laptop for a year, sometimes I’m so busy working I forget how badly we were screwed over by the promises of what Vista would bring. It brough squat! It’s like having a shiny new jackhammer and only being able to use it like a staplegun. Do you feel the same way? Comment now!

PC World has an article “Will Businesses Skip Windows Vista Altogether?” It’s been a year since Windows Vista has been released, and Service Pack 1 or SP1 isn’t even released yet – currently scheduled for delivery first quarter of 2008. They say the new version of Windows scheduled for release in late 2009 or 2010 is code named “Windows 7″. When SP1 for Vista comes out, Windows Server 2008 will be released at the same time. Microsoft is claiming that an all-time record number of companies have purchased or renewed their Windows desktop licenses in 2007. Of course their claim is “why would business do this unless they intended to deploy Windows Vista?” I’ll tell you why Mr. Marketing Genius – because businesses HAVE to have (at this point) licenses for Windows desktops period – just to function. To “renew” or purchase their licenses and support agreements is in NO way an indicator of Windows Vista desktop adoption in the Enterprise.

This eWeek article says that a record number of companies are beginning to test Vista. Get that? Test Vista. The same article talks about tools Microsoft has released to “accelerate the adoption” of Vista. Wow. They’re being really “pro-active” for a “record number of companies” having licensed or purchased Windows desktop licenses in 2007. It sounds more like they’re scrambling.

The Baltimore Sun reports that Leopard is huge in Japan, in fact it was only on sale 6 days in October and yet took more than 50% of sales for the entire month of packaged OS sales there. So far, it’s doing 40%+ in November. It’s nearest competitor, Windows XP Home, is only 10%, and Vista is (of course) less than that.

Yet another eWeek article states that less than 2% of businesses have adopted Windows Vista to date. Supposedly “more than half” of companies have concrete plans to deploy Vista, but slowly. They also state that inquiries of Linux desktops have sharply increased.

Engadget recently put out a huge Vista vs. Leopard Showdown review in score card format. You should check it out – it’s a good real. But, if you’re interested in Windows Vista, but also in Mac’s Leopard OS, let me synopsize what I think you should know in a nutshell.

• Leopard has a better User Interface, BUT only Vista can do tablet and touch screens
• Leopard has a better Calendar, Contacts, and Email, but Vista has a way better Explorer
• IM, RSS, Text Editing, and File Transfer all better in Mac Leopard
• Leopard is hands down better at authoring DVD’s, editing video, and managing pictures
• Vista is hands down better at media hardware and extenders, and recording live tv
• Leopard has better system tools, remote desktop and no activation. Vista requires activation, no automation tools, and no remote desktop unless you have Vista Business or Ultimate
• Vista is better at filtering spam from email, but both are neck in neck in regards to security
• Gaming is better on Vista – period
• Leopard better at 64 but support and drive partitioning
• Vista is better at network storage and optimization

There are other features I’m sure you’ll want to read about in the checklist in that article. But I think my little laundry list clearly shows that if you are really going to make some kind of a decision between Mac Leopard and Windows Vista it really depends on your profile and what your main use of the machine really is. You can see for obvious reasons, that for the most part Vista is better for business users. Leopard can be great for people that wish to create dvd’s and edit video, and manage pictures. But if your more into gaming and want to do lots of tv recording or network storage Vista is definitely the one for you. I think that the main thing you get from this list is that Mac is finally some decent competition for Microsoft! You don’t have to be a photographer, graphic designer, or artist to want to use the Mac. But Mac users are still kind of “premium customers” in my book. Hardware costs more, support costs more, and you can’t always just jot off to Wal-Mart and pick up a new keyboard or mouse. Many things are interchangeable with PC’s, many are not. You’re not going to just run off to Staples and get a memory stick and slap it in your Mac. Caveat Emptor my friend, do a little research and reading before you buy!

This is one of the most ridiculous things I’ve heard of in a very long time. The Register is reporting that an entire shipment of Windows Vista laptops was possibly infected with the ‘Stoned’ bootsector virus from 1994. These notebooks were shipped with both Vista and Bullguard Antivirus. I CANNOT BELIEVE that neither of these picked up on the virus at all. It truly seems unconscionable for this to happen. But then again – in the update at the bottom of the article, it does point out that over time very, very old virus definitions and signatures are removed, and the software did detect the virus, but had no way to remove it. Even thought you can never truly completely get rid of a virus – this is a really big embarrassment to both Microsoft and Bulldog.

The European Union (EU) dealt a striking blow last month when Reuters reported that the Europoean Union decision forbids Microsoft from bundling Windows Media Player in Windows Vista. This is a landmark ruling that also upheld a $689M fine. While it really didn’t impact their bottom line, or stock price, this will definitely change the way they market Windows from here on out. The ruling states that MS harms consumer choice by tying new applications to Windows in a way that hurt competition. Now Microsoft must bundle versions of Windows (in Europe) without Windows Media Player, but the thing that seems to bother me is – why was that the only program that they targeted? IE put Netscape out of business, Windows Vista now includes Spyware protection and hard drive encryption software, in addition to Windows Movie Maker, Outlook Express, and more. You would think that they should just sell these additional “features” as add-on software programs to compete directly with software vendors instead of ‘baking’ them into Windows.

[tags]Windows Vista, Vista, antitrust, competition, EU, Windows Media Player[/tags]

Here’s an interesting article over at ExtremeTech about The Five Broken Promises of Windows Vista. Are you using Windows Vista? Do you feel it’s performed to your expectations based on what Microsoft promised before it came out? I sure don’t. And neither does Loyd Case. He believe that 5 key things MS promised are not even in Windows Vista at the moment: Font Compositing, Easier Networking, Faster Startup (booting), Improved Stability, and Longer time between Reboots. Read the article…….I also seem to remember Microsoft touting “RSS Everywhere” in Vista, and they had some meetings with Dave Winer (*pretty much the inventor of RSS) about it – but then I never saw ANYTHING more about it. In fact, other than the smidgen in IE7 – I really don’t see any operating level support anywhere for RSS at all. Then again, they scrapped their mini-MSSQL version file system as well I believe. You would think that in 5 years – they would have had plenty of time to get this all right. Thoughts? Please, comment now!

If you are wondering what some of the real-world problems with Microsoft Windows Vista are, you should read Chris Pirillo’s post (and video) about Vista vs. XP.

Chris says that the real problems are when you try to customize and push the system beyond what the normal defaults are.  Audio problems, video problems, driver problems, and more.  There appears to be so many problems that in this post he talks about the fact that ATI and nVIDIA have quietly not providing Vista ready ATI mobility and nVIDIA go drivers.  What seems to happenning is that people are being forced to buy new laptops with new hardware, and once again hardware that was purchased  as “Vista ready” is not.

Comment on your experiences now below!

In Windows Vista, the UAC is “User Access Control”. This is basically where you can have fine grained control (finally) over what users can do when they are logged into your PC. What you get to is based on your access priveleges, and part of UAC is the basis for those hilarious Mac vs. PC commercials where ‘Vista’ keeps asking PC “Allow or Deny” to every single thing he wants to do.

While UAC allows you to restrict other users, even though you (as the owner) are an ‘administrator’ – you are constantly plagued with the “allow or deny” prompts over and over again. If you read this ZDNet article it talks about people disabling the UAC because it’s so annoying. Basically – for many users Vista will be less secure than Windows XP was for them because they can’t stand the annoying UAC prompts. So a “security feature” is so non-user-friendly that it makes people take adverse action!!

I have to say though – I had to turn UAC off, and it had nothing to do with all the crazy prompts. I login to work through VPN, and the work using “remote desktop” the browser has to download a very small (signed) java file to securely connect. The browser WOULD NOT install and run the java applet unless I turned all security down to low and turned off UAC. In other words – I HAD TO BE MORE INSECURE just to CONNECT to WORK the same way I had in XP for years.

So I guess – Windows Vista is now less secure for me too!

So it turns out that one of the most popular software programs on the planet “iTunes” is having multiple conflicts with Microsoft Windows Vista.? For the last month Apple had a warning against upgrading to Vista on it’s web site, but this week it changed to an update stating that “itunes is recommended for use with most versions of Windows Vista”.

This, despite the fact that there are still all kinds of problems with iPod synching with iTunes intstalled on Windows Vista.? Like possible corruption of an iPod on ejection from a PC!? That’s like one of those drug commercials that advertise a pill to completely clear your sinus, but fine print that says “may cause heart attack, stroke, or outright death…”.

Who knows how long it will be until iTunes is completely Vista ready and compatible.? Apple also says that the text and graphics may not display properly and that iTunes is still completely unsupported on 64-bit versions of both Windows XP and Windows Vista.

Looks like Microsoft is having a bad week when it comes to the United States Government. First the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) announced a formal ban on Windows Vista, Internet Explorer 7, and Office 2007.

In a memo to his staff, the DOT’s CIO Daniel Mintz says he has placed “an indefinite moratorium” on the upgrades as “there appears to be no compelling technical or business case for upgrading to these new Microsoft software products. Furthermore, there appears to be specific reasons not to upgrade.”

Then the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announces it may ditch Windows Vista for Google Apps and Linux Desktops from Dell.

In an interview, FAA chief information officer David Bowen said he’s taking a close look at the Premier Edition of Google Apps as he mulls replacements for the agency’s Windows XP-based desktop computers and laptops. Bowen cited several reasons why he finds Google Apps attractive. “It’s a different sort of computing strategy,” he said. “It takes the desktop out of the way so you’re running a very thin client. From a security and management standpoint that would have some advantages.”

Microsoft should be concerned, in fact they should be very concerned.? There have been lots of stories over the last few years about governments of foreign countries switching (or considering switching) from Windows based PC’s to Linux desktop environments.? They have been state and federal agencies in the United States that have researched the possibility of moving off the Windows platform to open source software.? It always seemed like it just “wasn’t ready for prime time”.

But Google apps may just be the missing link.? At only $50 per user per year (for Enterprise use) the cost is sooooo much less than any other Office suite AND that includes support!!? Think about it…google apps could be used in a company with any desktop – linux, apple, or even older Windows based pc’s (as they are phased out)…basically anything with web access.? Since google apps is a web based toolset, you wouldn’t need so much local storage, or crazy virus protection, or even local email and calendering servers (since email and calendar comes with the google apps suite).

If there is no compelling business reason or functionality to upgrade from Windows XP to Windows Vista – there’s no reason for a company to upgrade, especially if you factor in the cost of new hardware.? You need at least a gig of ram, a healthy processor, and (to run the graphics enhancements) additional video hardware to fully run Windows Vista.? But I still run a 1Ghz machine with 512MB of RAM at home with Ubuntu Linux 6.06 – and the system is pretty darn snappy (and now 5+ years old).

If you were an IT director of a government agency and you could:

• save money on email infrastructure
• save money on office suite licensing
• save money on help desk support
• save money on hardware upgrades
• save money on OS licensing costs

…how could you possibly justify upgrading to Windows Vista (in your company)??