Windows Vista
So the cat has finally been let out of the bag. What was once known as Windows ‘Longhorn’ has been officially dubbed Windows Vista. And I have to say that I am not impressed with the choice of names or what the new Microsoft OS is offering.
It’s been about a year since I have made the complete transition from a Windows based nightmare over to the wonderful world of Apple and OS X. After realizing that I had been wasting my time on a sub-par operating system, I am no longer plagued with viruses, adware, or the blue screen of death. Althought the first release to developers won’t come until August 3rd, many people have taken it upon themselves to to start dishing out the dirt on the the upcoming Vista release. Most of the press that it’s receiving is far from flattering. One blogger by the name of Veggiedude sums up my feelings in a recent post:
Vista stands for:
- V iruses.
- I nfections.
- S pyware.
- T rojans.
- A dware.
I think he hit the nail on the head. Until Microsoft can prove that they have made an operating system that isn’t the trainwreck that previous Windows releases have been, I will continue to believe that it will never live up to the efficiency, quality, and beauty that is OS X. Only time will tell.
Well Mr 45 Royale w/ Cheese…as i sit on the crapper this morning i figured i’d respond to your latest post. I’m not gonna sit here and front like windows is the bomb, we both know it could be a lot better. But I know i’ve been in computer “game” a lot longer than you, so lemme see if i can break it down for you. XP is leaps and bounds more stable than the previous releases of windows but still not as stable as a MAC, thats a given. But the reason for that is the same reason that Apple lost so much ground and market share to Microsoft in the first place way back when. Microsoft said, our software will run with any IBM compatible hardware, period. Meaning any manufacturer could make a harddrive, make some memory, or a motherboard, and microsoft will support it (or try to at least). Apple’s OS/system on the other hand would only run on Apple hardware. What that meant for Apple is that their system was far more stable because they could control all the environmental variables, but it also made it more expensive. System makers could keep down costs for an MS system because they could get parts from multiple manufacturers, but that inherently made the MS OS less stable (more code to support an array of different products). But even though Microsoft made tons of money, so did a ton of other companies over the past 20 some odd years, whereas if apple would’ve dominated, only apple would make dough and everyone else would just make software (which apple would just embedd their own similliar to what MS has done, and then apple would make everything…Steve Blow Jobs ain’t stupid). And because of all this, thats why Microsoft dominates the tech world. Lets put it this way, i’ve worked for some big money making companies, and i’ve never seen a company’s infrastructure running on an Apple based network. Which brings me to the comments made by your VeggieTales friend. I liked the play on the Vista name by the way, i’m not hating. But also for the reasons stated above, is why you see so much adware/viruses/spyware for an MS OS/MS product is because the world runs on Microsoft. If you’re trying to hurt the world economy with a virus you don’t write it to go after the company in 2nd and 3rd place with the least market share (give me props, 20 people can’t send email today, i’m a god!!)…you go after the big dog. Same thing with adware, you want to reach the biggest audience…or spyware, you want to see what most people are doing. But my point to that is, that if tomorrow we woke up and Apple had 90% of the market share..the viruses, adware, and spyware would be soon to follow. So basically, apple is more stable because apple is in second place. So be careful how far you promote apple my friend, because as soon as their number 1 you’ll be hating it. Class dismissed, Holla at cha boy!
Ok, first things first. I’ve been in the computer ‘game’ for some time myself, way back before Al Gore invented the internet when I was a co-sysop of my own BBS on my trusty 14.4k modem. Come to think of it, I don’t know if you knew that…
I’ve been around the block and seen everything from Microsoft and owned most of the Windows operating systems. And you know this as well as anyone, since you have helped me fix a lot of my Micro$oft OS problems!
Nowadays there are more bug patches and fix upgrades than you can shake a stick at. It seems like everyday my Dell XP Professional machine tells me that itis not up to date and I have to download a new fix for whatever hole Microsoft has left wide open. I know that they have a bigger target on their heads because the percentage of OS X users is much, much smaller, but come on. They had to release Service Pack 2 to cover up the horrible job they did protecting your valuable information from online predators; and Service Pack 2 ended up being even worse! The ‘fix’ kills your productivity and slows down your computer. Don’t even think about clicking on an icon the wrong way without Windows choking or telling you that you don’t have permission to access that information because Microsoft thinks it knows what’s best for you and your computer. It’s a bloated, outdated system.
The bottom line is Microsoft cares more about making money than providing quality products for their users. It’s evident in their rush to release a product and then worry about how they will fix the cover ups later. I’m a little shook that they government uses Windows-based machines. You have to sacrifice security for compatibility for productivity for reliability. There’s always something that you have to give up to make it work for you. I’m sick of letting it choose when it wants to work.
Maybe they’ve adopted a new philosophy. After all, it will have taken them 5 or 6 years to release a new OS when Vista comes out (I will not count Service Packs as releases when the issues they address should have been fixed by now anyway). If this latest version is as lackluster as previous versions, Microsoft is in trouble. They’ve already lost a considerable amount of marketshare because people are starting to look at other OS’s and open source programs for better reliability and performance. 98% of the population is using a sub-standard product, and that just isn’t good.
I wonder what will happen once Apple starts building their machines with Intel chips. When people are able to run both Microsoft Vista and OS X Leopard on their systems side by side, do you think the choice between the two will be that hard?