vista is a flaming turd
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With apologies to Earle, who wrote earlier and really likes Vista, I had to post my second Vista experience.
Keeping in mind that no good deed ever goes unpunished, I got stuck loading Office and vpn software on a coworker’s new Dell computer. This is the one that Dell wouldn’t let them return for one that runs XP. Since there seemed to be no way of getting a similar Dell with XP short of installing it myself (which I was not going to do), I had to get in there and make sure the machine could connect remotely (or risk having to listen to my coworker whine at me for the rest of my natural life and probably beyond).
I got out my hazmat suit and anthrax-proof breathing apparatus, hooked up the beastie, and powered it on. Most impressive: for a brand new machine with a muscular processor, it certainly moved very slowly. I couldn’t help wondering how much faster it would have moved with XP (or better yet, linux).
I am well aware of the UAC conundrum, from both sides of the aisle. Even though I knew it was coming, it was still annoying. I kept trying to imagine my coworker booting up the computer and going through this at home. Either she or her husband would be dead before the morning light. She is not a patient woman. She is also not a patient woman who has ever seen or heard of Vista, UAC, or much of anything else that’s not XP.
I knew how to answer UAC questions but my coworker would not. I predict within two or three popups, the OS, if not the entire machine, would become airborne. I will suggest she lob it with such ferocity that it hits Gates himself. That man should be sentenced to use his own operating system for the remainder of his life. Yes, it’s cruel, but he earned it.
The Vista initial setup was nothing short of annoying. The assumption that you need Google desktop (probably Dell’s fault) is faulty, to be polite. The way the rest of the questions were asked required a lot of thought on my part to get to what they meant, as opposed to what they asked. When the desktop finally came up, I was greeted with the single ugliest stock desktop I have ever seen. Why does the desktop require a clock and live net feeds? No good reason. As we say at work, `It’s Bill’s will.’ There was not a whole lot of room left for other things… you know.. icons and stuff like that.
The last time I tried to install Office 2000 on Vista, it refused to let me. This time it complained about a print driver but `allowed’ the install. Phew. The vpn software went in relatively easily except for the popups, which were constant. No, this was not going to last.
Aside from the rampant prettiness of the GUI, the most annoying thing was the rampant hiding of necessary functions. Everything was a struggle to find. Keep in mind that I have used everything from DOS3 to Mac and linux operating systems and somehow managed to find things pretty easily. Not so with Vista. They must have paid millions to various groups of consultants for usability studies to have a product this impossible to use.
It was necessary to reboot the machine so I had to locate the shutdown/restart procedure. Since there was nothing apparent, I hit the start button. The only thing that looked anything like what I needed was a lock. This turned out to be Suspend. Ok, then where is restart?
I’ll tell you where restart is… you have to expand the panel to see it. What usability genius decided you didn’t need anything so silly as a power or restart function available when you hit the start button? The next person who tells me Vista is designed for ease of use will get a rude surprise in his coffee.
C’mon - who hides the power button?
After about seventeen more UAC queries and a few more fruitless searches for common procedures, I was so wide-eyed with horror that I shut the machine down and wished my coworker good luck. I fear her wrath when I see her tomorrow. I’m nervous. I may have to bring my wife in to defend my honor.
There is, quite simply, no excuse for this alleged operating system. It is an unqualified disaster. It has no place on the desktop or in the enterprise (unless you’re using the boxes to stack things on). If I had purchased a new pc with this little vision of pc loveliness, I would demand a refund on the OS, if not the entire pc. I’m shocked that the populace has not marched en masse on Redmond, burning Ballmer in effigy. Or in-person.
Windows… it’s not an operating system; it’s a virus.
It’s so bad that I’d rather use a Mac.. [shriek!] Vista will do more for Mac and linux than anything Mac and linux can do for themselves.
I’m still stunned by the experience. I haven’t removed my hazmat outfit yet but this might be a good thing.. my wife has a rather interested look on her face…
11 Comments
Doug
July 15th, 2008
at 6:28am
I guess everyone is entitled to their opinion. With that said, the University that I work for has already started to support Window Vista for our faculty/staff office computers. We have a list of system requirements:
– Intel processor with at least 1 core rated at 2.6Ghz
– at least 2GB of RAM
– a dedicated graphics card equal to a NVIDIA GeForce FX5200
– at least a 40GB hard drive
Our goal is to have all our public site computer labs running Windows Vista by next summer. The main reason for this roll out… student recruitment. If students looking to enroll into the college for the 2009 - 2010 school year are touring the campus and see that the University is running an operating school that officially available in the Fall of 2001, they are not going to come here.
NO OPERATING SYSTEM IS PERFECT! My primary operating system on my personal computer is Mac OS X Leopard; so I come run multiple operating system with virtually or through a dual-boot configuration. My primary operating system on my work computer is Windows Vista. I have problems with Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Mac OS X. But the fact is, Windows Vista is more secure than Windows XP.
According to statistics done by the IT support team for students at my University, during the 2007 - 2008 the first Windows Vista virus/malware issue was reported on March 18, 2008 and the first Windows XP virus/malware issue was reported on August 24, 2007; three days before the beginning of the school year.
earle.allen
July 15th, 2008
at 6:37am
given in the [ vain ] hope of making Vista easier to work with
SCREENCASTS
CLEAR GOOGLE BAR -
screencast-o-matic.com
RECYCLE BIN -
screencast-o-matic.com
EASE OF ACCESS -
screencast-o-matic.com
CONTENT BLOCKING -
screencast-o-matic.com
CLEAR HISTORY -
screencast-o-matic.com
SECURITY CENTER -
screencast-o-matic.com
SNIPPING TOOL -
screencast-o-matic.com
ANNOYANCES -
screencast-o-matic.com
CHANGING FONTS -
screencast-o-matic.com
VISTA’S PICTURES -
screencast-o-matic.com
REMOVE PROGRAMS -
screencast-o-matic.com
DOCUMENTS -
screencast-o-matic.com
START USERNAME -
screencast-o-matic.com
ALL PROGRAMS -
screencast-o-matic.com
START PAGE -
screencast-o-matic.com
My Desktop -
screencast-o-matic.com
mike
July 15th, 2008
at 8:00am
While many of those annoyances can be removed or overcome I have to agree with the opinion that Vista is trash.
End-users (or IT staff) shouldn’t have to go through the waste of time and resources turning features on and off just to get an OS working smoothly.
The whole point of an operating system is to allow you to run applications to be productive. Vista has BECOME the reason for computers and that’s completely ridiculous.
To me, an OS should be transparent on a higher level as it were. Yes, the OS features are always present but the true mark of a solid OS is HOW productive can end-users be running the applications designed for said OS–be it Linux, MAC OS, or Windows.
As I’ve posted before, Vista is Windows ME all over again..just pricier ;-)
Peace!!
Techie24Chick » Blog Archive » Vista..Nothing Short of Annoying
July 15th, 2008
at 10:16am
[...] Read More… [...]
leftystrat
July 15th, 2008
at 10:41am
Earle: I think it’s great that you did those screencasts so others could benefit. Hopefully you’re getting a lot of hits and helping many.
My main point is that there should be no need for intensive 3rd party help. A company with any time at all in the business shouldn’t have usability issues like this, whether beginner or pro.
As Mike said - it’s the Disposable Third OS Cycle thing that MS does :)
We have put a number of linux boxes on the floor with no training whatsoever. Vista would require training, prep (also Mike), and much cursing of Bill’s name.
leftystrat
July 15th, 2008
at 11:02am
Doug - fortunately, as you pointed out, everyone is entitled to their opinion. Thanks for posting yours.
I run linux as my main OS, running Windows XP in a virtual machine under VMplayer. It behaves very well virtually - much better than when it was on physical machines.
My only complaint is the lack of Win network admin tools for linux. The existing ones are very difficult to use, even though I’d think there would be a huge market for good GUI tools.
Your stats are very interesting. Please stop back later in the year and let us know how you’re making out. I definitely want to know.
Brian
July 16th, 2008
at 6:34am
Lefty- You should have disabled UAC before installing all the secondary software and then turned it back on when finished. This would have saved you time and by the looks of it, cut your post in half. The UAC bashing was not necessary. It is designed to protect the home user that is too ignorant to protect themselves. The same goes for the positioning of the restart button, which is used so rarely it really isn’t worth mentioning. Lastly, you made slight comments to this fact, but the majority of the initial startup issues you mentioned were caused by the manufacturer and not the OS, so please place blame where it belongs. Granted, the Vista overhead may be causing some speed issues with certain apps, but for the majority of home users, especially ones buying new hardware, the Vista experience is more vibrant for them. I still use XP for my grunt work, but I enjoy Vista on the machine I use for general “playing”.
leftystrat
July 16th, 2008
at 6:56am
Brian - was it supposed to be intuitive? Should I have automatically known to disable UAC? Should I have known HOW to in addition?
As for UAC `bashing’, that is a misperception. Reread where I said that I agree with it in principle. If it drives *me* up a tree, the casual user is going to have a myocardial infarction.
I have stated many times that I don’t want a more `vibrant experience’. In fact I don’t want an experience at all. I just want to use the computer. The OS, as mentioned above, should be transparent.
But by all means, enjoy it.
It’s unsuitable for public consumption; I stand by that. It’s way too heavy. MS has incredibly large cojones to foist it upon the public. The fact that enterprise has avoided it in droves bears me out.
Imagine how snappy your hardware would be if it weren’t bogged down by the GUI.
Yours in XP and linux,
-leftystrat
vid
July 16th, 2008
at 5:10pm
i will agree that vista has some flaws even with the service pack 1 and that macs have some wonderful features that vista doesn’t have, but the thing that makes vista awesome in my opinion is that it is able to play a wide variety of games such as halo 2 and crysis
Jeff
July 17th, 2008
at 5:07am
Yup.
I felt the same way when OS X first came out for the Mac. I’m a graphic artist and was die-hard Mac. OS 8.5….OS 9.2.2…great. Then came OS X.
Yeah, I felt the same way. Just replace where you put Vista in your article with OS X and I could have written it.
Funny how folks don’t seem to remember the OS X introduction and having to have OS 9 and X on your system just so you could use Illustrator and Photoshop (I loved the two desktop folders and not easily being able to tell which went to which OS). They don’t talk about the dozen or so folders that can possible hold the font your looking for or where to put the font you want to load. Nor do folks talk about how it was complete re-write of the Mac OS and all the software makers had to change their apps to run on it. Hmmmm, just like what MS is looking to do with Win 7. But, I bet we hear way more whining when Win 7 comes out than we did with OS X.
Just, my opinion of course.
Word of Advice
July 18th, 2008
at 8:56pm
Don’t buy a Dell, Vista runs fine.