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PC Magazine Editor Throws in the Towel on Vista
Journal written by twitter (104583) and posted by
ScuttleMonkey
on Sat Aug 18, 2007 11:56 AM
from the windows-dreams-dying-or-dead dept.
from the windows-dreams-dying-or-dead dept.
MacNN caught this incredible defection and loss of faith by a former Vista booster, PC Magazine editor-in-chief Jim Louderback, as he steps down from his position. "I've been a big proponent of the new OS over the past few months, even going so far as loading it onto most of my computers and spending hours tweaking and optimizing it. So why, nine months after launch, am I so frustrated? The litany of what doesn't work and what still frustrates me stretches on endlessly. The upshot is that even after nine months, Vista just ain't cutting it. I definitely gave Microsoft too much of a free pass on this operating system: I expected it to get the kinks worked out more quickly. Boy, was I fooled! If Microsoft can't get Vista working, I might just do the unthinkable: I might move to Linux."
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PC Magazine Editor Throws in the Towel on Vista
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Makes sense to me, AC. Vista users are unhappy. (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://lists.clickers.org/linuxsig/index.html | Last Journal: Friday November 09, @11:00PM)
A silly AC writes:
Apparently there are more people reading Distrowatch with Vista than they are with Debian, ... The ultimate irony here - Distrowatch.com. It just kills me.
Vista owners are looking for a new OS. Why does this confuse you? If Vista is as bad as Louderback says it is, gnu/linux is the only upgrade option that will work. Large numbers of Windoze users looking at a site like Distrowatch is bad news for M$ and good news for software freedom.
I guess all this nonsense about Vista being a flop is far from true.
Visit the Vista failure log [slashdot.org] and wake up. M$ can't push Vista. It's SP1 won't fix things and I doubt they can come up with a new OS people will really want. They have gone too far down the digital restrictions path to recover.
Re:Makes sense to me, AC. Vista users are unhappy. (Score:5, Insightful)
Allegedly? Do Tell... (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.nymar.demon.co.uk/)
Allegedly? So are you saying that vista adoption is not slow?
Gotcha. So it's not selling slowly, but that's only because it's a resource hog. I guess MS have realised that what the consumer really wants is bloat, and that if they hadn't made the OS so greedy then no one would be buying it?
Or did you just mean that it is selling slowly, and that's because it does need too many resources, but that it's very rude of us to go around saying so. Perhaps you meant yes it's not selling, and yes it's bloated, but don't go around bad mouthing DRM?
The trouble is, really, that to pin Vista's woes (alleged, if you insist) on any single factor is probably a gross oversimplification. Vista's problems include patchy driver support, a confusing pricing scheme, the lack of any compelling "must-have" feature for the OS, the fact that a lot of people don't want to change from XP, dislike of the licence terms, fears of added expense in terms of new software and hardware that may be needed to run the damn thing.
The that fact that it's a resource hog isn't helping, either, and neither is the DRM (because like it or not, an awful lot of XP users also use P2P) and neither is the fact that it's had some scathing reviews, many of them from writers normally counted among the Redmond faithful.
Still, at least the resource problem will go away as machines get faster. I suppose if you had to pick a single cause that's the one that lets the OS still seem like a viable concern. Maybe sales will take off next year if and when XP really gets retired.
Re:Allegedly? Do Tell... (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://thewaxwingslain.com/)
And, I found a way to dispose of my license for Vista which recouped some of the additional cost.
I'm really happy with XP Pro, Vista didn't give me any new feature that I had to have, and, number one on my list, on a given E6300 w/ 2gig RAM and an X1950, I get much much better performance and fewer headaches with XP Pro than I did during the few hours that Vista ran on this machine.
I don't think Microsoft's going to be able to pull this one out of the fire. Even an SP1 won't save Vista. We're going to have to see an entire new nameplate before people are going to line up in droves to buy a new Microsoft OS. Vista was a bomb. Period.
Re:Allegedly? Do Tell... (Score:4, Insightful)
Just yesterday Stu posted about this problem in WServerNews "More On Thumbs Down On Vista For Admins". [wservernews.com]
Installing the Windows Server 2003 admin tools actually is said to help very much. Read http://4sysops.com/archives/install-windows-serve
This is funny in at least two ways:
1. The dreaded command prompt, so arrogantly looked down onto by 'we-are-so-advanced-Windows-GUI'-users comes in
2. So you are buying crap software for a hell of money, and then you have to share tips on the Internet, on how to nicely dissect pieces from here, and others from there, in order to gobble together a functional operating system !?
Welcome to the world of GNU/Linux before 1998 !
Re:Makes sense to me, AC. Vista users are unhappy. (Score:4, Insightful)
I see this sort of comment flying around on here, unchallenged. As much as I love MS bashing, does anybody have any links to articles that verify this? Doesn't the DRM only come in to play when you want to watch HD-DVD or Blu Ray movies (or some Windows Media format)? How can it be sitting there chewing cycles at any other time?
Another poster on here insinuated that user's would not want to move from Vista to XP because they like to use P2P programs. How on earth does Vista prevent that?
Re:Makes sense to me, AC. Vista users are unhappy. (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://slashdot.org/ | Last Journal: Friday October 03 2003, @10:40AM)
Well, the famous one is A Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection by Peter Guttman [auckland.ac.nz]; which goes into great detail.
Its not really the DRM, so much, as it is all the "features" (cough cough) that supports the DRM, especially how Vista encrypts alot of traffic crossing the system busses...and how Vista checks the "tilt bits" many many many times per second. All this needless "housekeeping" slows the system down.
You should see how long Vista takes to boot up and run on a Sempron 3100+ with 512mb of ram...
Ye Gods, it's so damned sloooowwwww...
Re:Makes sense to me, AC. Vista users are unhappy. (Score:4, Interesting)
Well, the famous one is A Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection by Peter Guttman; which goes into great detail.
And is mostly FUD, resulting in people believing things like this:
Its not really the DRM, so much, as it is all the "features" (cough cough) that supports the DRM, especially how Vista encrypts alot of traffic crossing the system busses...and how Vista checks the "tilt bits" many many many times per second. All this needless "housekeeping" slows the system down.
Vista only does this when you are using DRM-encumbered media. It does not do it at other times.
Re:Makes sense to me, AC. Vista users are unhappy. (Score:5, Interesting)
- a happy Vista user, for the record
Re:Makes sense to me, AC. Vista users are unhappy. (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://www.networkboy.net/)
-nB
* NOT IT, vastly different purposes in life. IT is about mainstream hardware, standard servers, only having to deploy 2-3 images across 90% of the company. Engineering Computing is about the other 10%. Almost as many images as users, custom hardware specs, support for *every* OS available, back to Win3.1 and across 17 different linux distros. If they say "no way" to Vista, then I'm sold on the opinion and won't touch it (incidentally, nor will IT for the same reason).
Re:Makes sense to me, AC. Vista users are unhappy. (Score:5, Insightful)
However, it seems to me that it's likely that there are people who dislike Vista who've never even touched it, nor are informed about it. They dislike it because others, whose opinions they're willing to trust, do.
Tha'ts what viral marketing is all about ... trusted people influencing others. But it works both for you and against you.
Re:Makes sense to me, AC. Vista users are unhappy. (Score:5, Informative)
(http://nneonneo.ath.cx/)
Of course, like any new laptop, it comes with Windows Vista. Despite my misgivings about Vista, I decided to keep it for a few days before nuking it (and the 20GB of recovery partitions that Toshiba stuck on there).
Put simply, it is slow and inefficient, broken in a number of ways and seriously crash-prone. I booted it up; ran the first-time wizard; started Vista up and watched Explorer crash (and come up with the "Report to Microsoft" dialog). So, I rebooted the computer, thinking that maybe the Toshiba recovery needed a reboot to get things working. Explorer didn't crash after reboot, so I assumed everything was OK.
Later, I'm attempting to edit my network config for the static IP (DHCP is disabled on my router as I run a server, and the router lacks the "static DHCP" option). UAC comes up (about 6 times throughout this process), but on one instance manages to permanently hang the network settings window, requiring that I kill the process.
That's an annoyance, sure, especially as it is a new system with no additional software (except Toshiba's stuff). I eventually get the networking going good (though Vista still refuses to see the SMB shares on my Powerbook G4, even though it sees my PC's shares just fine, and my PC [running XP] sees my Powerbook's shares just fine). So, I go on the Internet and obtain Firefox (what, you think I was going to use IE7? You must be joking.), which installs smoothly and works flawlessly on Vista. I'm quite happy about this.
Later, I'm playing Warcraft over LAN with some friends over, and, in the middle of a game, Vista's firewall decides that it should start blocking Warcraft's communication. Keep in mind that I've been playing for, oh, 4 hours at this point, and Vista has given me no trouble. Suddenly, the firewall dialog appears in the middle of my screen, and requests that I block/unblock the program. Of course, I choose Unblock, and a minute later, Warcraft crashes (some kind of network failure in CNet.cpp I think). Odd, of course, as it had been working fine for 4+ hours, so I reboot Warcraft, and half an hour later, the same thing happens (firewall dialog, Warcraft crash, etc.). Evidently, Vista has forgotten that I wanted the program to be unblocked.
Frustrated, I go to edit the settings for the firewall, but Warcraft is already listed as unblocked. We play some more, for maybe 2 hours, and it happens again. Annoying, sure, but I can't do anything about it anymore.
Well, OK, that might be the fault of Warcraft (III) not being updated for Vista or something.
There are other problems: Vista will not go to sleep when I close the lid (probably Toshiba's fault, but XP, which I recently installed, seems to handle that just fine); Vista randomly loses an Internet connection sometimes on a wired Ethernet link; Vista's window manager takes up a lot of RAM (300+MB private bytes) and a constant 3% CPU usage on both cores (on a 2.0GHz Core Duo processor); etc. etc. Even my old Sony VAIO (whose harddrive suffered a major crash after 3 years of service) with XP SP2 worked better and had fewer random bugs/crashes.
Summary: I am extremely displeased with Vista. Microsoft had 5 full years to improve their operating system, and instead, they have something that's less usable, less stable and more bloated (7+ GB for a fresh installation?) than their aging Windows XP system.
Personally, I'm almost inclined to think that Microsoft is trying to drive continued sales of XP from Vista. True, I haven't given Vista much time -- there are some things nice about it, like the revised Start Menu -- but in that short time it has utterly failed to please me.
- An unhappy Vista user, for the record.
Did you uninstall Norton? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Makes sense to me, AC. Vista users are unhappy. (Score:4, Insightful)
So yes, it is an upgrade, but unlike the Windows world, it is also a full install. I understand you are disgruntled because you want to use OS X on cheap PC hardware (or you want to buy a Mac without paying for OS X being installed), but that doesn't make your post correct. You are playing word games and not looking at the issue objectively.
Louderback is a good person to ask. (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://lists.clickers.org/linuxsig/index.html | Last Journal: Friday November 09, @11:00PM)
I'm starting to wonder at this point is... how much of the Vista hate is just hype-driven? ... [people] dislike it because others, whose opinions they're willing to trust, do.
No one hates Vista, it's just software. Only tools from M$ talk about "hate" when people have the nerve to say Vista does not work. That kind of talk makes me think you have a strange definition of "happy" when you say are a happy Vista user.
Trusting someone like Louderback is entirely reasonable. He's a M$ fan. He gave Vista nine months and worked hard to make it work for him. As Editor in Chief of PC Magazine, he has access to resources that should have made him happy. If M$ can't make him happy, they won't make you happy. It's a lot more reasonable than listening to some random dude from Slashdot who looks like astroturf.
There are clear risks and no benefit to Vista and it's hurting PC sales. Are you going to spend $300 and play application roulette for something with bugs the size of Manhattan? Are you going to buy a new computer with it? Few of us will. I'm not, unless it comes with gnu/linux on it. M$ fans are not because they can't be sure XP will work with it. You are going to have to produce a big list of cool stuff Vista does to convince even M$ users to migrate when other M$ fans have such negative opinions.
Re:Makes sense to me, AC. Vista users are unhappy. (Score:5, Informative)
Well, apparently, it just doesn't work for everybody. Isn't that what the PC Magazine editor is saying in TFA?
Re:Makes sense to me, AC. Vista users are unhappy. (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://www.xemacs.org/)
I'm not saying Microsoft Windows is bad, just that it's not ready for prime time. Maybe Microsoft will catch up to other O/S vendors in another 10 or 20 years. It's fortunate for them that they're a protected monopoly and they'll probably have that time.
The upgrade treadmill does not work for you. (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://lists.clickers.org/linuxsig/index.html | Last Journal: Friday November 09, @11:00PM)
You might be happy with a seven year old OS, but most of us would like something a little more modern. Most GNU/Linux distributions have been through two stable releases since 2001 and each brought real improvements and features.
I don't begrudge your happiness but that kind of thing is short lived. Sooner or later XP users are going to join w2k, ME, 98, 95, 3.1 and DOS users who can't find new software or replacement devices that work with their OS. The non free software forces are working on new formats and devices that won't work with XP. If you wait too long, your work harder to transfer and your losses will mount. The waste of your time and effort is intentional and is the way the upgrade treadmill works. Those who think otherwise live in a fool's paradise.
Free software is the only upgrade that escapes the non free data trap and upgrade treadmill. The purpose of non free software is to make money for it's owners. To do this, the owners must keep users helpless and divided. Free software has a simpler purpose, to do what users want.
Re:7 year-old OS (Score:5, Insightful)
Calling Windows XP a 7-year-old OS is like calling modern Linux systems nearly 4 years old because the 2.6 branch was released in late 2003. Or that servers are running 6-year-old OS's because the 2.4 branch was released in 2001.
Re:The upgrade treadmill does not work for you. (Score:5, Informative)
When we took it back to the office, we tried to install the Telstra 3g software for the small hardware attachment. It didn't work. We rang Telstra and after a long delay, the techie asked if it was 64 bit Vista Ultimate. It was. "Ah, he said, it won't work!". The only solution was to get the 32 bit version.
I went back to Harvey Norman and explained the problem. He said we would have to buy the "32 bit Vista Ultimate" upgrade (for about $A550). I argued this was hardly an upgrade and remonstrated that the salesman had said it would work (we had grilled him closely on this). He said that the 64 bit OS came with THAT laptop and they would not exchange the OS. There were long discussions with the MS rep. In the end, after threatening consumer action, they backed down and came up with a free 32 bit "upgrade". I suspect they paid for it themselves.
There is another part to this story. My friend wanted MS office 2007 in the laptop. He was quoted about $A700. Being a hardened OOo user I just shook my head. However, quite quickly the salesman changed his tune. He asked my colleague if he had a child at school. He had a 21 yo daughter living in another city and working. He quickly found a way for this to be deemed (incorrectly) as eligibility for a Student version (for about $A195). I asked the salesman if anyone paid the full $A700. He said only businesses coming in with a sales order paid it. Individuals and small business were all paying the Student version. This is a dodgy system and shows there is clear buyer resistance to paying full price for MS software, in Australia, at least, and that the retailers seem to understand this. I woudl suggest that OOo is having some impact in the marketplace.
PS. My colleague regularly sends me mangled Office 2007 documents to have fixed up in OOo (like another poster from this article).
Re:The upgrade treadmill does not work for you. (Score:4, Insightful)
You might be happy with a seven year old OS, but most of us would like something a little more modern.
Who cares? Software doesn't rust. XP does most everything I want (although OSX is nice, too), so what does Vista offer? Making things deliberately break on XP will most likely push me away from MS entirely.
Re:Makes sense to me, AC. Vista users are unhappy. (Score:5, Insightful)
Poor little windows users must feel so trod upon.
The only thing is Linux is ready for prime time. And users can run it dual-boot if they still need their wondows training wheels.
There is a really good GUI interface for configuration and the stuff isn't that hard. Really. The fact that Linux allows people to customize and configure doesn't mean they have to or have to know all about it. Microsoft hides that stuff from users and makes it hard to do your own configuration. There was another thread here about how all the ad servers slow down web page loading and it was mentioned there that Vista won't let you add offending sites into the hosts file. I did it on a Linux machine and an Apple laptop running OSX - and it was easy. now I don't have any more offending popups or ad junk and my pages load really fast - just with blank spaces where the ads would have been otherwise.
But people don't need to know how to do that stuff but they can if they want. Lots of stuff comes with step by step instructions. People can go with the stock setup - which right out of the box is much more secure and capable than windows - or they can *if they want* learn more and actually administer and configure their own computer. I will take the path of choice rather than have my hands tied by Bill and Steve.
But the windows crowd needs to take a powder. Their fav OS is getting knocked because it sucks. They need to accept that and get on with their lives.
Re:If he's such an MS whore (Score:5, Informative)
(http://www.exacttarget.com/)
Re:If he's such an MS whore (Score:5, Funny)
There obviously is little incentive for Microsoft to spend much time and effort in this area over the last 5 years of developing this "new" operating system.
LoB
Re:If he's such an MS whore (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://balanceofjudgement.com/)
Agreed. The problem is, this time, Microsoft is attempting to force the issue by removing XP from the market. I have spoken to no less than 7 people in the past WEEK alone that are buying new computers now so they can get XP instead of Vista. People don't get to wait the 2 years until the software is stable, Microsoft is forcing them to buy the unstable version so that it can improve its quarterly earnings. When XP was released, Microsoft waited over 2 years to pull 98 from the market. This time, they tried to do it a mere 4 months after releasing Vista, only to extend it to the end of the year (a mere 9 months) after the consumer outcry.
While Microsoft is entitled to pull a product if they don't want to sell it anymore, the flip side of that is that the only reason they can get away with it is because of their power over the market. When a company removes from the market a product for which there is huge demand, to replace it with something with little demand, you can be assured there's something seriously wrong with the competitive status of that market.
Re:If he's such an MS whore (Score:4, Insightful)