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Software Missing From Vista's "Official Apps"
Posted by
Zonk
on Thu Feb 22, 2007 03:27 PM
from the big-holes dept.
from the big-holes dept.
PetManimal writes "Microsoft has just released a list of 800 applications it says are 'officially supported' on Windows Vista. What's special about this list, however, are the programs that are not included: 'Popular Windows software that is conspicuously missing from Microsoft's list includes Adobe Systems Inc.'s entire line of graphics and multimedia software, Symantec Corp.'s security products, as well as the Mozilla Foundation's open-source Firefox Web browser, Skype Ltd.'s free voice-over-IP software and the OpenOffice.org alternative to Microsoft Office.' Another area in which Vista has found to be lacking is gaming, as discussed earlier on Slashdot."
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Software Missing From Vista's "Official Apps"
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If it won't work with what you need... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:If it won't work with what you need... (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://xmoo.com/)
I have heard statements like "If only Mac has this and that software, I would switch in a second" or "If only Linux has more games, I would leave Windows forever".
So now that Windows doesn't have support for this and that software, it has given users a chance to revisit those statements above and make a decision.
Re:If it won't work with what you need... (Score:5, Informative)
It's not like your app won't work if it's not certified (otherwise how would they test it?). Being logo-certified just means you get to put a sticker on your retail box so that shoppers who only know that 'it's gotta work for me and I have windows' have some way to know it's been verified to pass those tests on their OS.
Re:If it won't work with what you need... (Score:4, Funny)
Still, the time requirements are quite high, and even $1000 is a quite high cost for what is an infinitesmal (if even that) perceived benefit.
Re:If it won't work with what you need... (Score:5, Informative)
(http://www.geocities.com/orion_blastar/contact/ | Last Journal: Tuesday April 03 2007, @07:19PM)
Just like when applications that would not work under OSX got patches released to make them work, so will Windows programs get that Vista patch to make them work under Vista.
I am using Vista and Firefox, Thunderbird, and Seamonkey all work, but Mozilla did not bother to test them to pass the Vista certification.
While there are a lot of commercial games that won't work under Vista due to draconian security protection preventing them, one can apply unprotect patches to bypass that draconian security protection from Game Copy World or whatever with the NOCD crack. Future commercial games will support DirectX 10, and only Vista uses DirectX 10, which means future games will shut out the Windows XP and lower markets because they cannot do DirectX 10. Civilization IV might have issues, for example, but Civilization V might not and only run under Vista.
Just like everyone moved to OSX and shut out the Classic Mac OS 9 and under crowd, so too will everyone move to Vista and shut out the XP and under crowd.
Yet I got a feeling that a lot of F/OSS projects will still support XP and under, despite the commercial software companies that have contracts with Microsoft to only make Vista versions.
Re:If it won't work with what you need... (Score:4, Funny)
(http://www.dekadance.se/)
Yeah, I especially love xcwcp and uutraf! libf2c2 is a great application also, and let's not forget about k7fftwgel-dev, it's just SO much better than k6fftwgel-dev!
Re:If it won't work with what you need... (Score:4, Informative)
(Last Journal: Tuesday December 19 2006, @05:12PM)
We have maybe 50 Photoshop licenses where I work, and about the same number of Quark licenses. Bunch of different versions of Acrobat. I think, out of those three pieces of software, we have maybe 4 Windows software licenses, and the photoshop install media has been sitting in my desk drawer for more than a year without anyone asking for it.
Vista **does** work fine (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Vista **does** work fine (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://slashdot.org/)
You are the product.
(*) - That's "you" in a general sense. I in no way mean to accuse you personally of actually purchasing said software.
What does Microsoft really have? (Score:4, Insightful)
What does Microsoft have? They have market share (ie. a customer base). They don't have particularly innovative or high quality software products/services and their revenues are largely independent of their offerings. They have you (*). They just have to keep finding ways to repackage you (*) to keep generating income. If MS didn't make Vista, they'd keep selling XP. However, it is very hard to keep dishing up left overs and still keep a straight face. Vista is a statement more than a product.
Who says it doesn't work??? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Who says it doesn't work??? (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.whitepost.org.uk/)
Your OS keeps crashing? You're running an unsupported application. Go away and don't come back until you've fixed that.
Still crashing? You must be running unsupported hardware. What's the exact make and model number of every single component in your PC? You don't know? Go away and come back when you do.
Hardware vendors are just as bad:
Your hard disk appears to have failed? Sorry, you're running an unsupported operating system. Go away.
Your power supply has exploded? Sorry, we only support people who don't actually ring up requiring support.
Your power supply has caught fire, destroying your house and all your belongings? [click]
No conspiracy, move along... (Score:4, Insightful)
Microsoft isn't certifying the most popular competitors to it's own software. Pardon me if I don't appear shocked. I was a bit suprised to see Google's desktop search made the list though.
I don't think that's it - I think it's just a rubber-stamp list of whoever signed up, paid their fee, and jumped through the hoops. If they were excluding competitors, I really don't think Google Toolbar would have made the list.
RTFA (Score:5, Insightful)
Has the Mozilla Foundation or OO.org submitted an application to undergo the testing program? Probably not.
This list is just the programs that are allowed to put that official Microsoft logo on the box that says the program will work with Windows. It doesn't mean that programs whose developers haven't bothered to go through the testing program aren't going to work in Vista.
Re:RTFA (Score:4, Insightful)
Must be a slow news day...
This is a non-story? (Score:5, Insightful)
So all those missing apps... (Score:3, Informative)
"The tables in the "More Information" section list the products that currently have earned the "Certified for Windows Vista" logo or the "Works with Windows Vista" logo. There are many applications that are compatible and work well with Windows Vista but that are not listed in this article. This is because such applications have not yet gone through the Windows Vista logo program or are still going though this program."
So I guess we should blame adobe, firefox, etc. for not being on the ball and submitting their apps? Is that the point of this article? Or just more VistaFud(TM)
Non-story. (Score:5, Interesting)
There's no story here. There is some vague hint in the summary that Microsoft is purposefully not certifying software, but this is a vague and unsupported claim at best. The only real claim that can be made is that some software is not on the list... and so what? There are dozens of reasons. The software could A) not work with Vista, b) not have been submitted for testing, C) be in the process of going through the process...
What's the point? As another poster said, if it doesn't work, don't use it.
Wait for SP1 (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.whiteboxlinux.org/)
Of course ya just gotta feel sorry for the poor schmucks who buy a new namebrand PC between the release of Vista and SP1 since they don't get a choice. Which is just one more reason why only the uneducated masses buy a namebrand PC.
Lacking in gaming... (Score:5, Funny)
And people still claim Vista's not an OS X ripoff. What more proof do you need?
Grain of salt (Score:3, Informative)
(http://slashdot.org/ | Last Journal: Monday October 04 2004, @03:55PM)
How is this Microsoft's fault? (Score:3, Insightful)
Firefox works great, Skype has a little trouble. (Score:3, Informative)
(http://dimiter.dyndns.org/)
Firefox works on the beta 2, on the RTM, and on the x64 versions of Vista.
Skype doesn't seem to know what's Unicode on Vista x86. Actually, Skype 3.something just displayed an empty contact list on me. Skype 2.something works great, thanks to oldversion.com, but doesn't handle cyrillic [wikipedia.org] characters right.
If only MS hadn't developed Vista so quickly (Score:4, Funny)
Nevermind that OpenOffice isn't on the list... (Score:3)
*I am aware that this article is in regards to certification and not compatibility. I'm just going along with the masses, since not many people commenting on this article care to recognize the difference!
Not to defend Microsoft, but... (Score:3)
(http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc3675.html)
Let's look at this list. (Disclaimer: I have never used Windows Vista.)