Good points Ron. People should use what makes them most productive in their situation, no matter what that may be.

The exciting thing about this fiasco with Vista is that after listening to the computer literate express their annoyances, average users are more aware that there are choices out there. It’s true that other MS OSs have had serious issues and became mature over time, but the cat is out of the bag, it doesn’t have to be that way. I’d love to hear a school teacher, a mechanic or a nurse say, “Oh, I use (brand X) because it does what I need. And I can afford it”

Without dissatisfaction among the ranks, there wouldn’t be an opportunity for other OSs to consider their user-friendliness and make it easier for the average user to install, boot up and go.

Believe it or not, the current debate will probably be good for Microsoft in the end. Their next offering may well be a clean, lean, elegant OS, ready for work and play. Either that or they’ll be elbowed out of the way. Evolution is painful, but usually it’s fair.

cpudoc,
Thanks for the comment.
Regards, Ron

dirtgoddess,
Thanks for your observations and comments. As always it will be interesting to see how this all plays out and if Linux or Apple can seize this moment in history and take advantage of the situation.

Regards, Ron

I really don’t understand the reason for upgrading to Vista??? Just only because it’s new?

If you ever see Vista promotion, it says “Better Graphics”, “LiveIcons”, “3D Fliping Windows”, and then “Parental Controls” etc.

Tell me, it is really worth to soup up and waste my processor’s speed and RAM for just good graphics?

Or instead I just get myself a good Firewall, Antivirus, and a cheap parental control software and kick Vista off!

I have also written to Microsoft if they have something better to offer than “eye-candy graphics” for their price. In addition, a long write can be seen at my blog at http://smart031279.spaces.live.com/?_c11_blogpart_blogpart=blogview&_c=blogpart&partqs=cat%3dComputers%2band%2bInternet

http://smart031279.spaces.live.com/

Taimur,
Thanks you for your comments. It is appreciated.
All the best, Ron

About Vista’s choking digital rights management functions and how it affects you and the entire computer industry:

http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html

I too was once anticipating Vista. Then I read this article, and deduced that a dark age for computing was coming if people embraced an OS that controls the user, rather than the other way around.

It’s now been 6 months since Vista’s release. As an OEM Vendor and having to deal with all of the issues on a daily basis, Vista is a nightmare to me. I’ve had over 40 people enter my store with brand new Vista desktop and laptop machines begging me to trade for XP at a loss or asking if I could get Vista to run as XP. Fact is that all of the tweaks to system and registry settings I was able to perform on XP systems to increase speed and performance is impossible on Vista. Other than your average basic computer user that does nothing but web searching and basic usage I have found that over 90% of users, especially business usage can not get Visat to run smoothly at all. Vista will not run most older hardware or software regardless of XP compatible features. People are finding that in order to use Vista they are having to replace all of their older hardware (printers, scanners, etc.) with new ones and most of their older programs they have been accustom to using for years are having to be replaced with programs they are unfamiliar with and can’t import their years of data in to. Vista is nothing but eye candy. Overall it may be corrected after several SP’s are offered and it can meet the needs of the users. With the announcement of Windows 7 in 2010 it appears the cycle will simply be repeated as Microsoft will attempt to push users to it and will soon after drop Vista support. It’s a never ending cycle. Why they couldn’t improve XP which is now a fairly stable system instead of forcing a new OS on us is beyond me. MS is out to deceive the users and take their money and push the limit and once things settle down they will repeat the process. I was all for them during the anti-trust trial and did not beleive they were monopolizing the industry. I now know better. They could care less about the users who have made their fortune and are slowly pushing their customers away. They deceive us as well. Offering all of the different Vista packages and advertising how great and wonderful it is with all the new features is a flat out lie as Vista Ultimate is truly the only version that supports these new features and does so only with the purchase of a new system that can handle it. Most users can’t afford this. They already have their money and are simply bleeding the public for all they can before Linux or some other OS finally offers what the consumers really need. Truly a shame that a company such as MS, with all of their abilities try and take advantage of those that got them where they are instead of trying to work with them and offer what they need. XP is my last dealings with them and I hope others follow. I truly admire Mr. Gates and his accomplishments. However, he has fallen to the level many other rich folks do or has lost control of the company and is letting the corporate employees destroy his initial dream as well as the integrety he started from.

Hello Chris,
Thank you for sharing your professional experience and advice with us. It is appreciated.
Regards, Ron

Vista is a great presentation and there it stops for being a good program. If you do a lot of graphics or use PowerPoint, it takes forever to load and then save and so forth. XP is very fast and Vista is using so much memory, it is very slow. It would seem a new version of something would be faster since speed is what most want only compromising that with some new benefits. That is not the case here! It, on most programs, will indicate “not responding” and then may or may not respond if you wish to wait that long. Ctrl Alt Delete most of the tme will not repond either and you may wait forever for it to finally work if at all. Many times you are locked up and must do a hard stop and reboot. If you happen to have Vista on a computer using something other than Intel such as AMD, you may not be able to use Quick Time for the MP4 videos due to a buffering problem. It will not be able to allow ITunes for videos to watch on that computer. Intel does work the Quick Time fine. I hear others have a problem with Excel on the not reponding and filing but I do not use it that much. I am probably going to a MAC as the PowerPoint is much better, the search on the Internet will not stop after a period of doing a lot of binary searching in which one must reboot again. XP did not have that problem. MAC is going to be worth learning to get away from the Microsoft constant updates or requirements to change in order to continue to operate. I am using a new 2GB Sony FZ notebook and the computer is great but Vista has made it a nightmare to use. I am sorry for those manufacturers that lose out on sales due to the blame on them rather than the horrible Vista very slow and dragging program that is really the fault. VBista basically was crammed down our throat when it came out as most computers had it and you had to special order the XP if you wanted it. Most would think the newer would be better. I am being driven away from Microsoft and will be very happy to get out of this Vista program. Good luck for those that wish to stick it out updating when they say that then may mess something else up or at least that may happen but Microsoft will not take the responsibility for it assuming you can find anyone to repond to anything. Help does not come easy. I cannot wait for them to fix this and I doubt they are going to anyway. Pages like this is all we have and it is doubtful much will happen doing this. At least I feel better. Les Miles

Hi Les,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us. If you decide to give SP1 a try, please let us know if this service pack helps solve some of the problems.
All the best, Ron