Vista No Windows 95
Vista came with my new computer, otherwise I would not have stepped in it. When my friend Rusty called me back in the fall to say he un-installed Vista and reinstalled XP-SP2, I knew there was a problem. The Mac commercials accurately poked fun of this phenomenon.
Remember Longhorn? That’s the product Microsoft didn’t release. Looking back at the huge step in technology that was Windows 95, Vista is a joke. It’s amazing that the same company produced both. Apparently many MS executives didn’t like the new OS either. (Use bugmenot.com if password is needed to see article.)
Microsoft made things fancy because they assumed that’s what people wanted. “Pop and sizzle” - I’ve heard that line before. They replaced simple, recessed lighting with a Disco ball. They put spinner wheels and a giant spoiler where it just didn’t belong.
Tags: vista, vista-pimp-car
March 11th, 2008 at 8:08 am
OK, ok, ok… let me set the record straight. I never uninstalled Vista to install XP. I uninstalled and reinstalled Vista (twice on my Dell Inspirion 6400 POS and four times on my Lenovo X61 tablet) The Dell never, ever ran worth a darn. The Lenovo, after the fourth, and super squeeky clean install, ran pretty well. Of course, I was then afraid to do anything but chekc email and browse the web for fear of corrupting the stability of the computer.
The article you pointed to indicates that MS Employees warned that MS had lowered their Vista requirements too low and consumers would be disappointed in the performance of their Vista upgrades. I can’t agree more. Vista sucks on anything without seriously advanced graphics card and a ton of ram. Of course, ram is cheap. However, I just picked up a brand new HP media center designed computer from Costco that is intended as a home entertainment computer. As I wiped that bad boy clean of its Vista corruption, I discovered that much of the hardware was more than ten years old. I found resources online referring to the same mother board from 1998. That is rediculous! That HP is still selling boards that are ten years obsolete is why Vista is the biggest problem to technology innovation since Netscape. Remember having to code iFrames and Layers? Imagine trying to make a blaoted operating system run on a motherboard that sucked ten years ago!
I found that getting the very best, well-tested hardware has a huge impact on Vista performance. My MacBook pro runs vista under VMWare better than any windows designed computer I’ve ever tried. Yes, mac. I don’t have transparent aero windows but it rarely hangsor crashes. Today I attempted to connect to a network printer and Windows Explorer “stopped working”. I allowed it to check for a solution and even rebooted while I continued to check my email and work on other tasks on the primary Apple OS.
My advice to those thinking of upgrade:don’t. There is nothing I can point out that is worth the risk. For those buying a new computer: get the best you can afford. Don’t even toy with less than 2 gig ram (max it out at NewEgg.com) and opt for a graphics card with 256mb or more onboard memory. Get a solid, fast hard drive with lots or room to grow and… ah, hell, just get a mac.
March 11th, 2008 at 8:10 am
p.s. that HP is now running server 2003 quite happily and Vista never did find the printer. The mac, of course, politely asked if I’d like to print to the network printer…
p.s.s. I spell like a four year old.
March 11th, 2008 at 8:27 am
I have Vista and I am toying with going back to XP is Vista SP1 doesn’t get better.
March 12th, 2008 at 1:56 am
Gotta hate when companies want “Pop and Sizzle” over functionality.
March 12th, 2008 at 7:02 am
I could have sworn you did the XP switcharoo, Rusty. At any rate, nice discovery about the hardware issue. Crazy what passes for “new”. Apple has it’s share of imperfections but, man, it freakin’ works.
“Pop and Sizzle” - oh, memories of FT 2.0! That man is a genius!