What Can MS Do?
- 3
- Add a Comment
Gnomie Elayne D. Cipolla writes:
Hello Chris, Just finished watching the video on Vista and MS’s “tell it to the hand” attitude toward its bread and butter… the consumer. Having just purchased a Toshiba Satellite laptop at the beginning of February and didn’t hear about the nightmare that is Vista until after I purchased this machine, I started having troubles from the get-go… one day, two weeks after purchase, the machine refused to boot. Tried using the recovery disk that came with it and it worked fine for two more weeks, then the same nonsense started happening all over again. I bit the bullet and took the laptop to the local Toshiba authorized repair facility and it found it had bad sectors on the hard drive. Because the machine was still under warranty, the repairs won’t cost me anything. However, I will find out how well the Vista OS works once I pick up the laptop later today. I inquired about having XP2 installed in place of Vista and was told that the laptop would not accommodate XP in any way, shape, or form whatsoever. The machine was “made” to run Vista and Vista it will be.
So much for my story. To answer your question as to what MS needs to do to improve itself… that’s relatively easy. Test, test, and test again… with average folks and not just tech types. And as you said, listen to the people who use it. Just because someone doesn’t have a line of letters and degrees after their name doesn’t mean they don’t know what they’re talking about. MS is in a competitive field and wants to remain on the top, but if it only keeps its eyes on the bottom line… well, it’ll be on the bottom looking up before long. Change for change’s sake is not progress. My dad used to tell me, “When Detroit comes out with a new model, don’t buy it the first year. Wait a year and let them get all the bugs out of it. Every new model has problems even the most diligent engineers can’t foresee.” I think MS needs to see that the consumer has the opportunity to purchase a computer with the option of using the proven, older OS or the new one and stress to the OEM that it’s important that the hardware be made to accommodate both versions in case the consumer wishes to go back to the tried and true. XP had a boatload of problems when it first came out and look how long it took before Microsoft finally got it working right. I guess what I’m trying to say is that there should be some kind of major overlap when a new OS comes out. Something that even a non-techie or non-geek can install, complete with drivers. (”so simple, a caveman can do it!”)
I can remember the first thing that was told to me by my professor in my Web site design/development class. It was the first rule of computers for him: “Keep It Simple, Stupid.” Always keep in mind that not everyone is computer savvy and make the design simple enough so that a first-time user won’t feel overwhelmed, but a tech-savvy person won’t be insulted. It’s a lot like writing… always take into consideration who your audience is.
Thanks again for all the good work and information you’ve been providing over the years. It’s been a real help.
3 Comments
alan lindsey
March 7th, 2008
at 4:20am
My Toshiba Satellite Pro (U300-10W) came with Vista Business, which I tried and didn’t really like. I did a repartition/reformat (Gparted live CD) in preparation for installing XP SP2, and found myself with a brick: the XP installer couldn’t find the disk! Restored Vista. A brief trip into cyberspace yielded advice from forums etc. and a set of XP drivers from Toshiba, including the vital Matrix Storage Manager for the SATA HD. The Satellite was soon up and running with XP, and is one of the best notebooks I have used in terms of size/keyboard/speed/battery life (I bought the larger battery)/connectivity and even looks.
Like Elayne, I too was told by Toshiba that there was no “downgrade” path to XP, but my experience - and the availabilty of a full set of XP drivers on the Toshiba site - seems to suggest otherwise.
As to the suggestion that a machine is built solely for Vista… doubtful, even if a final “unknown device” after the XP installation turns out (thank you to someone out there on a forum!) to be a built-in area of flash memory for Vista’s ReadyBoost, inaccessible to XP.
R$E Ruel
March 8th, 2008
at 5:24pm
If I am reading this right, it sounds like the hard drive was the problem. Maybe Elayne should take some time to learn about her machine. It easy to complain about the Vista operating system, but she should learn about her computer. I have used Vista since it came out, on my desktop and my laptop and I have had very few problems. Take some time to learn the machine and the operating system.
Roomagoo
Rick Hogan
March 10th, 2008
at 2:18pm
Elayne brings up some interesting points. I would like to comment on a few of them.
First, I find it interesting that she talks about the “nightmare” that Vista is, but then goes on to explain that she had problem caused by a hardware defect, not a problem with VIsta itself. Although it’s not exactly clear from Elayne’s comments, one has to wonder if she realizes her problem was caused by defective hardware, or if she has been mislead, by all the anti-Vista hype in the media, into thinking that Vista itself is somehow the cause of bad sectors on her hard drive?
Elayne then goes on to recommend what Microsoft should do: “Test, test, and test again… with average folks and not just tech types.” That sounds like a great idea, but how can they make it happen? Microsoft offers public beta versions of their software before the final release, but how do you get “average folks” to figure out how to download and install a beta version of Windows and actually start using it?
I suppose Microsoft could send out install discs for beta versions of software to all registered Windows users. I suppose that would be a way to make people more aware of the beta test and give people more encouragment to try out the beta software, but how many “average folks” have a spare computer, or the knowledge to set up a dual boot configuration so that they would have a way to test the beta version of Windows while still having access to a previous version that they can rely on for their normal, day to day work?
Perhaps MS should give out millions of free computers with beta versions of their products already installed in order to encourage more “average folks” to get in on the beta testing. I suppose there are a lot of people around who might be willing to spend some time beta testing new software in exchange for a free computer. And surely doing something like this would only add a few thousand dollars to the final cost of a copy of Windows, after the testing is complete. I’m sure people would be happy to pay that for the sake of get more thoroughly tested software, right?
Elayne then goes on to suggest that MS and the hardware vendors should offer a longer period of “overlap,” where one has an option to buy computers with either the new or old version of Windows installed. Perhaps this is the most reasonable suggestion she makes. Of course, this option already exists, it just isn’t well publicized. If you only know about buying computers at Best Buy or the like, you might not realize you have this option. It’s only if you go to a “local” system builder to buy your computers that will likely be offered an option of which OS you want.
I think the problem with this idea is just that it opens the door for vendors to have to support both the “old” and “new” version of the software for a longer period of time. And supporting multiple versions of software always increases costs. This is why vendors are usually anxious to get people to upgrade to the newest version of whatever it is they are selling. But, I suppose most people would mind getting this increased cost passed along to them when they go buy a new computer, right?
When you really get down to it, most people who are using Vista really aren’t having any major problems with it. The pre-release testing MS does is quite adequate to fix most of the really major, wide-spread issues that may exist. Sure, it’s far from perfect, but the bottom line is, most people aren’t willing to pay a whole lot more money for computers/software, just to have a little bit better chance of not having a few minor problems in the software they buy.
Rick