Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is asking if Windows Vista is following the steps of Windows Me. Many articles already made the connection already.

When Windows Me was released by Microsoft back in 2000 it was a total debacle. The operating system offered the consumer very little in the way of new technology (a new interface that looked like Windows 2000 and features such as System Restore, UPnP and automatic Windows Updates). It was tricky to install, trickier still to get running, buggy, tough to get hardware working, even tougher to get legacy hardware running because Microsoft decided to remove non-PnP drivers from the installation CD, had compatibility issues with software, and quite often it just didn’t want to shut down properly. It truly deserved its #4 spot in “The 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time” list. On the plus side … it didn’t have any form of Product Activation.

Is Vista another Me? I have to say that I think it’s a case of yes and no. True, Vista is nowhere near as buggy as Windows Me was and it does offer broad support for hardware. It’s also fast, very reliable (certainly in my experience) and actually quite nice to use (we’ll come to whether it’s worth the money in a minute). However, Vista does have trouble with quite a lot of legacy hardware and software, something which is quite rightly making people nervous of making the leap. But the area where Windows Vista and Windows Me are too similar is in what they offer in terms of benefits to the end user. If I think back to the marketing material for Windows Me and I remember being told about the new TCP/IP stack, UPnP, System Restore, Image Preview, a whole lot of new games and so on. Now we have Windows Vista and this OS has Aero, Windows Sidebar, Instant Search, improved security, Windows Mail, Media Center support, shadow copy, parental controls and so on. What was the new killer Me feature? I couldn’t see one at the time and if there was one, it still eludes me. Where’s the new killer Vista feature? Hmmm. Again, one just doesn’t stand out.

Nothing stands out because, Microsoft, in their brilliance, cut all the new, worthwhile, features they had planned for Vista.

In my opinion, Vista has turned out to be nothing short of a disaster and I think it’s even out doing the disaster that was Windows Me.

Every day I come across blog and forum posts written by some poor guy that bought and installed Vista and is now having all kinds off issues and are experiencing buyer’s remorse. Having the latest version isn’t always necessary and especially in this case, there are no compelling reasons to rush to upgrade to Vista. Don’t make the same mistake of others, either reinstall XP, or if you are due for a new computer try to get one with XP, buy a Mac, or try Ubuntu.

[Windows Vista = Windows Me II?]

Tags: windows vista, microsoft vista, microsoft windows vista, vista, microsoft windows me, windows me, me, security