Another point of proof of Vista being the ‘dead OS walking’ is given today by Mary-Jo Foley on ZDNet.

It seems that another Wall Street firm is predicting lower earnings for Microsoft because the company continues to have problems with Vista. The company cites lack of business adoption, and the wave of ‘retrogrades’ to Windows XP.

Nothing is curbing the ‘lack of respect’ for Vista, as Service Pack 1 did not go far enough for many, and left problems unsolved for others. For every person I have dealt with on a business basis (which I believe a better indicator than the casual user), Vista is at the very least frustrating, and at the worst, the cause of consternation and profit loss.

Microsoft simply can’t do enough, quickly enough, to erase the bad feelings that this blemish on the world of computing has wrought.

What Microsoft can do now is uncertain – but doing nothing is the last thing it should be doing. Acting as though forced distribution is the equivalent of customer acceptance by Steve Ballmer simply proves how clueless the man really is.  (Though getting egged in Europe should give him some idea of the great esteem that part of the world has for him – and his corporation)

People are clamoring for change from what is being offered, and the press only gives half the story. The unspoken half is the degree to which this is felt – there is much anger in the people I see. It will not be quelled any time soon without some large scale admissions and apologies from Microsoft. I can try to reassure those running, or retrograding to XP that the product will be fine for the foreseeable future, but I am only one person, without any official blessing from the Pope of Redmond. Of course, the Pope wants this FUD, because it forces the sheep into blind acceptance of the newer, ostensibly better Vista.

But those sheep harbor much ill will in their hearts…

from ZDNet

The hits just keep coming for the Rodney Dangerfield of operating systems — Windows Vista.

No respect, no respect.

The latest: Wall Street firm Sanford Bernstein is dropping its Microsoft earnings estimates because of Vista perception problems, which the firm believes will impact negatively Vista’s adoption curve. From excerpts from a new Sanford Bernstein report from by Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporter Todd Bishop:

“The inescapable conclusion of our 2008 survey is that support for Vista has been battered across all enterprise sizes and corporate constituencies. As a consequence, the Vista cycle looks likely to be materially less robust than indicated in our prior survey.”

The analyst report also cites the “opportunities for continued XP ‘downgrades’” as a factor contributing to Vista’s problems.

As I continue to get reader requests for information on these XP downgrades (or “upgrades,” as some unhappy Vista users prefer to call them), I thought it would be worth repeating one more time exactly what’s what on that front.

I believe history will come to call them retrogrades, and look upon this mass movement as the start of the really dark times…

As previously reported, Microsoft is requiring PC makers to stop preloading Windows XP on new machines after June 30, 2008. Microsoft support for XP doesn’t end on that date; free Microsoft-provided support for XP continues through April 2009. Microsoft “Extended” support — for which users must pay (other than for security-specific hot fixes and various self-help tools, which are free) — lasts through 2014.

The ability to downgrade to an earlier version of Windows is not a new option that Microsoft and PC makers introduced because of Vista. Since at least 2001, Microsoft’s Windows license has been structured in a way to allow users purchasing a new version of Windows to move back to an older release. A number of business users typically avail themselves of this option in order to keep all of their users on the same version of a product and/or because they require additional time to test their applications and peripherals for compatibility before moving to a new Windows release.

As M3 Sweatt, Chief of Staff of the Windows Core Operating System Division (COSD), recently blogged, both consumers and business users have the right to downgrade from Vista to XP — but only for certain versions. Downgrades can be performed by a PC maker (when authorized by end user, as Sweatt noted), or the end user. Sweatt explained:

Is M3 this guy’s club name, or does he fancy himself like Prince –too cool for a name using only standard letters?

“The OEM versions of Windows Vista Business and Windows Vista Ultimate include downgrade rights to Microsoft Windows XP Professional, Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, and Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition.”

For customers who get their operating system releases via a volume-licensing arrangement with Microsoft, downgrade rights on Windows client “are granted with all systems software licenses acquired through the Select License and Open License programs.”

One caveat: Before moving from Vista to XP, users should make sure the older drivers are available for newer PC models. As Microsoft’s Sweatt noted in his blog entry:

“(I)f you purchase your new PC with Vista pre-installed, and are considering downgrading to Windows XP, please ensure that your various peripherals and components have drivers for Windows XP. “

Bottom line: All the hoopla over Dell, Toshiba, Lenovo and others offering Vista users new “loopholes” via XP downgrades is not new at all. Downgrading/upgrading to XP is a right, not a privilege.

This last point is very welcome, as the only favor any of these companies has been doing the customer is giving them an XP disc, when they charge them for the privilege of having a useless operating system removed and replaced.

-

Technorati Tags: Vista rip and replace - retrogrades - Windows licensing - Dell - Rodney Dangerfield - no respect