Great moments in advertising
posted at 8:45 am on October 28, 2008 by Ed Morrissey
Microsoft has taken body blows over the last couple of years over its cheeseburger of an operating system, Vista. Its main competitor has a national advertising campaign exploiting its unpopularity with users, while many of their customers still refuse to upgrade from XP. The Vista brand has gotten so bad that Microsoft actually had to run an advertisement showing that they had to fool users into looking at Vista — not exactly a morale-builder for those stuck with their Vista operational issues.
Now Microsoft has announced the successors to Vista, due out over the next two years, Azure and Windows 7. Unfortunately, on the same article reporting this development, one of Microsoft’s partners ran this ad:
What are you waiting for? Azure or Windows 7, now that we know they’re just around the corner. Why would anyone “make the move to Windows Vista with confidence” when even Microsoft isn’t confident in Vista? The advertisers don’t have a lot of say about which ads get which placement, but one would figure that Microsoft had informed Dell that a new OS was about to be announced — and maybe Dell should have quit asking consumers to stop waiting for Vista when they may as well wait for Azure or 7.
PC World reports that Windows will get slimmed down significantly in the new release. It will have much fewer embedded programs and instead give users the option to download only those native apps they desire. Microsoft hopes to eliminate the conflicts and the overload that plague Vista now. It will require users to be on the Internet, but most people already are for significant periods with their computers.
It sounds like Microsoft learned a lesson. So did its users.
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I really don’t have a problem with Vista. I like it, and its always run fine on my laptop.
changer1701 on October 28, 2008 at 8:48 AM
XP sp2 was (well, IS in my case) such a nice system. Why did they deviate from the plan? They should have learned that lesson from Windoze ME.
Nethicus on October 28, 2008 at 8:49 AM
This is why everyone should have a Mac! :)
Illinidiva on October 28, 2008 at 8:49 AM
Vista works fine for me. I think it gets a bad rap.
But that’s how the public is, they get some idea in their head about what a product is worth and, facts or performance be damned, they won’t budge. Microsoft’s point with Mojave was trying to show the public the error of its preconception. But the public is a stubborn mule.
LastRick on October 28, 2008 at 8:53 AM
Ed, why the rap on cheeseburgers?
And for an even more interesting advertising story, see Pepsi’s new logo here.
Note: Pepsi’s new CEO is Indra Nooyi of “America is the middle finger” fame.
BigD on October 28, 2008 at 8:54 AM
My next computer purchase will be a Mac, after hearing the horror stories from friends who had bad experiences with Vista.
That, and I have an iPod touch that just always works. If their computer systems are the same, I’m in.
Slublog on October 28, 2008 at 8:54 AM
I thought Vista on my laptop was a nightmare. It didn’t even come with reinstall disks! I’d have to buy a new OS to reload on it. I’m not going to do it and I’m not going to give liberal Bill Gates another dime of my money to fund MSNBC. I bought an IMAC and I’m reloading the laptop with Ubuntu.
They’ve got a new product? Perfect time to launch the Conservative Revolution. Boycott any new Micro-Soft products. Hit liberal America in the pocketbook.
hawkdriver on October 28, 2008 at 8:57 AM
Mac?
Good Lord. I have had two things from Apple, ever: an iPod that constantly broke and iTunes, which is the sloppiest mess I’ve ever seen.
As for Vista, I had myself convinced that the problems my daughter was having on her HP notebook were all because Vista was interacting with older technology modems and routers, and this was the problem.
Then her 8 month old system crashed.
Jaibones on October 28, 2008 at 8:58 AM
Vista? Bah! I’m thinking of a Mac for my next PC (pun intended).
But Apple has its problems too. My iPod locks up every time I start Rush’s podcast after downloading it. Every….single….time.
After resetting it, it works fine.
TwinkietheKid on October 28, 2008 at 8:59 AM
Never had a single problem with vista – cause I have a 24 inch Mac that all my friends drool over. It’s a real peach.
InTheBellyoftheBeast on October 28, 2008 at 9:00 AM
What am I waiting for? I’m waiting for an OS that doesn’t suck as hard as Vista. Uber slow, bloated software.
Windows 2000/XP was at least a usable version of Windows. Mac OSX for those who prefer ease of use is a better option than Vista. And on the Linux side Ubuntu is quite good compared to Vista.
BryanS on October 28, 2008 at 9:00 AM
I’ve got no problems with XP (SP3) so there isn’t a compelling reason for me to have to go out and upgrade my hardware just to run Vista. Azure/7 sound fine though.
rbj on October 28, 2008 at 9:01 AM
They’ve got a new product? Perfect time to launch the Conservative Revolution. Boycott any new Micro-Soft products. Hit liberal America in the pocketbook.
hawkdriver on October 28, 2008 at 8:57 AM
Nice to hear you bought an Imac; were you aware that Steve Jobs is a lib, an eco-lib at that, and Al Gore sits on Apple’s board?
You would be surprised just how many conservatives populate Microsoft’s ranks.
Bishop on October 28, 2008 at 9:04 AM
Spoken like somebody who isn’t a survivor of the MS Windows ME disaster. You completely ignore the fact that MS lost a whole lot of consumer trust in the way they went into denial that the product was awful. To a certain extent, I think they over-reacted with Vista. My biggest problem with it has been the many many patches I’ve had to install to get software to run.
highhopes on October 28, 2008 at 9:08 AM
Jaibones, I’ve had the opposite luck. Any Microsoft product I’ve had just never worked as advertised. I’ve got a three year old IPOD that’s been on two deployments with me and it still works like a champ after all that heat and sand. I bought my daughter a Zune and it stopped working the first month.
Vista is the worse running least intuative OS that has ever been made in my book. But then again I’m biased because when I see MS on my computer I feel like I’m helping to Matthews and Olbermanns paychecks. But the crashes, the lockups, the attacks from on-line because they can’t secure the system. The IMAC on my desk has been running smooth for about three weeks now. They gave me a free look at their office suite for a month and it’s really good. If you buy its a fraction of what MS Office is. 80 bucks or so.
Boycott the people that are trying to destroy us. And make no mistake, that’s what they’re going for. They don’t even just want a majority anymore, they want to rid the world of Republicans.
hawkdriver on October 28, 2008 at 9:09 AM
Great catch on the ad juxtaposition, Ed. Too funny.
Microsoft wouldn’t be having these problems with Vista if they had been honest about the system requirements up front. Instead they authorized zillions of computers labeled “Vista Ready” and similar to be sold. People found out to their dismay that they were anything but.
Had they rolled it out only on the high-end hardware that it really requires it would’ve sold fewer copies but with much less dissatisfaction. And had they been honest about the reams of incompatibilities (drivers, peripherals) there would be far fewer horror stories.
In business as in politics, the cover-up is often worse than the crime. I expect a similar backlash against the MSM Obamedia when large numbers of people discover that the product labeled “President Ready” turns out to be an empty suit or worse.
Gilda on October 28, 2008 at 9:09 AM
Must be a nice consolation considering that all your friends drool! ;-0
highhopes on October 28, 2008 at 9:10 AM
No thanks, if I wanted to join a cult I’d be come a scientologist.
Lol. Steve Jobs is way, way more liberal than Bill Gates will ever be. Hit liberal America in the pocketbook: don’t buy macs.
Darth Executor on October 28, 2008 at 9:11 AM
Apple doesn’t have a network yet that is pretty much a 24/7 running Obama Ad though do they?
Maybe those Conservatives at MS should start up a software business of their own.
hawkdriver on October 28, 2008 at 9:12 AM
I’m glad that Microsoft is finally listening to its users and is eliminating the bloat and pork from its OS. And, actually, you have to give Microsoft credit for Windows XP… XP has been out for over eight years now. Think about that: one operating system has been sufficient to run most of the world’s computers for EIGHT YEARS, despite all the radical changes to technology occurring around that timeframe.
Outlander on October 28, 2008 at 9:12 AM
That’s the thing, an Operating System is there to process messages from the devices and execute them as machine instructions.
It’s not there to serve the creative impulses of the developers, or to be this big bloated bureaucracy with thousands of stupid demons clogging up the system.
The purpose of the OS is to take care of essential business, get out of the user’s way, run lean by cutting the fat out of the process, and stay out of the user’s face with indoctrinating “special messages” from your “advertising partners.”
That’s why I will not vote for Obama.
jeff_from_mpls on October 28, 2008 at 9:14 AM
I’ve never had a problem either. I love it as my entertainment server…my wife’s powerbook on the other hand has been an overpriced shiny turd! We have an ongoing joke that whenever something goes wrong…we need to “force quit!”
badpenguin on October 28, 2008 at 9:14 AM
Commodore 64, BAYBEE! Anyone know where I can get some gigantor floppy disks? My tape drive just bit the dust.
robblefarian on October 28, 2008 at 9:15 AM
reel-to-reel?
If I ever got rid of my tape drive, it would free up the entire basement of my house. Don’t know what I’d do with the space. But I need that tape drive. It holds a million bytes of data.
jeff_from_mpls on October 28, 2008 at 9:17 AM
I’m on my husband’s laptop right now(maybe I should rephrase that)…which is Vista.
It’s the better of our two computers.
annoyinglittletwerp on October 28, 2008 at 9:17 AM
Yeah, go with Apple next time around.
4shoes on October 28, 2008 at 9:20 AM
Microsoft OS’s are kind of like Star Trek movies. The odd-numbered ones are rock-solid and the even numbered ones are dogs. I’m fairly confident that Vista and Win7/Azure will be like Windows ME and XP. ME was a dog, but XP more than made up for it, especially once SP2 came out.
That said, Vista isn’t that bad, so long as your computer is beefy enough to take it (and you install SP1). It was built on the Windows 2003 Server kernal, which I think is the biggest mistake they made. You’re trying to shove a server-class OS onto a client machine.
crazy_legs on October 28, 2008 at 9:20 AM
I have Vista on four computers; I’ve been running it since it was released to manufacturing (Nov 2006). Love it, wouldn’t go back. XP is XPunged.
And if you “wait for Windows 7″, you’ll still have all the migration issues of going to a Vista-based system. Windows 7 will use the Vista kernel. (That’s pretty much official.)
NeighborhoodCatLady on October 28, 2008 at 9:21 AM
Best Screenshot ever.
Only thing that would be better is a screenshot of the Blue Screen of Death of Windows 3.1 Lore.
BKennedy on October 28, 2008 at 9:21 AM
Ha! Excellent.
Gilda on October 28, 2008 at 9:21 AM
i’s been a mac user for years
cant wait to get the new one
blatantblue on October 28, 2008 at 9:22 AM
I hate Vista. I needed a computer quick and ended up with Vista. I can no longer use 2 printers that MS said Vista was compatible with. MS lied. I lost the use of a good scanner, too.
Blake on October 28, 2008 at 9:23 AM
And BTW, if I was better with Ubuntu, I wouldn’t have bought the Apple for my desktop. I’m not an Apple Druid. I just want to keep my money away from liberals. From any liberal.
hawkdriver on October 28, 2008 at 9:23 AM
2 years is around the corner? This post shoud be as embarrassing as your Qwest Prices post :P
- The Cat
P.S. The blind taste test proves that people don’t like Vista because of what they heard on that viral e-mail/A friend of a cousin that works with a guy that said his dog . . . /What they heard on CNN Business.
If you run high a performance program on a crap machine then the program will look like crap. And if you say your machine runs that 7 year old program XP just fine I laugh at you like a Frenchman.
It’s like the guy that says the Lotus Engine sucks because he put on in his Ford Focus and it crashed when he went out on the highway . . .
MirCat on October 28, 2008 at 9:24 AM
I ran MS-DOS, Win 3.x, Win 95/98, Windows2K. I never switched to ME or XP because I never saw the need.
I switched to Linux three years ago. The revelation of the Windows metafile security breach was the final straw.
I first used Debian, then Ubuntu. I’ve never looked back. Linux isn’t perfect; but Windows wasn’t perfect either. Ubuntu gets updated regularly with bug and security fixes, and improvements. In the three years I’ve used it, Linux has steadily gotten better, while Windows has gotten worse.
I could move to Apple. It’s just another flavor of Unix, after all. But why? Ubuntu does everything I need, and runs on hardware that costs less.
Bartrams_Garden on October 28, 2008 at 9:25 AM
I bought my MacBook Pro because I wanted a laptop and I was avoiding Vista. My Windows XP PC still works great and I have Linux Ubuntu on a dual boot. My MacBook Pro is great too, especially when it comes to editing video.
I guess I’m supporting all the liberals. :-(
I was especially disappointed (but not surprised) to see Apple throwing a bunch of money at trying to defeat Prop 8 in California.
Ordinary1 on October 28, 2008 at 9:25 AM
This laptop came loaded with Vista. Buggier than hell. I tried Ubuntu, it couldn’t accommodate the network adapter, so it was XP time. Works great now, despite a nasty keyboard.
I think they should market a kernel that is able to add different ‘wings to the house’ depending on what the end user wants, but the problem is MSoft is trying to dominate EVERYTHING and has to put in enough stuff to try to make their way the standard for it all.
snickelfritz on October 28, 2008 at 9:26 AM
Windows 2000 and XP worked okay for me, but ME was a disaster. I resisted moving from XP to Vista, though after a few months, it seems okay. But leaner with more options would be much better.
Still, my next computer will probably be a Mac.
petefrt on October 28, 2008 at 9:26 AM
Apple doesn’t have a network yet that is pretty much a 24/7 running Obama Ad though do they?
Maybe those Conservatives at MS should start up a software business of their own.
hawkdriver on October 28, 2008 at 9:12 AM
The point is that if you intend to punish liberals by not buying their computer products, you will find yourself typing everything on an old ribbon typewriter and licking envelopes instead of clicking “send.”
Bishop on October 28, 2008 at 9:26 AM
I like Vista. It’s almost as good as Linux. I hate using XP. I’m just so tired of XP’s look and feel, and how it is impossible to change that look and feel.
Even though I’m ideologically committed to Linux and free software, my experience is that attacks on Vista are unfair. I want Linux to win the OS wars because it is a better OS with better programs–not because Microsoft bungled the PR when promoting something new to a resistant know-nothing public.
thuja on October 28, 2008 at 9:30 AM
Maybe, right now MSNBC is the 50 meter target.
hawkdriver on October 28, 2008 at 9:31 AM
I love it, people complaining that it didn’t come with a CD (computer manufacturer not software author’s thing) and that their machine was buggy with Vista, but oh umm it had a problem with another newer OS. . .*cough cough don’t buy Acer cough cough you get what you pay for cough cough*
I long for the day when you had to know what you were doing to even hook up your machine and before AOL dumped all you whiny losers on the Net.
- The Cat
+1 for awesomeness.
MirCat on October 28, 2008 at 9:31 AM
Learned a lesson? Microsoft is calling their Cloud Computing Product Windows Azure. But the definition of “Azure” is “Bright blue in color, like a cloudless sky.”
As MacDailyNews said yesterday in their “take”…
Learned their lesson?
DakRoland on October 28, 2008 at 9:34 AM
Grammar police:
Many native English speakers would say “many fewer”: It’s the “much” and the “fewer” that don’t play well. Maybe “much less embedded bull$#!7″ is what you meant?
Anyway, I guess you’d expect an ancient Unix-head like me to pick such microscopic nits ;)
mr.blacksheep on October 28, 2008 at 9:35 AM
Laugh if you want, but I bought a 1,200 dollar HP laptop six months ago with a brand new shiny version of Vista on it and it ran poorly. Oh, want better internet security, buy this 99 dollar version of Norton Internet Security. Oh you liked that test version of MS Office, here’s the real version for three times the price of the IMAC software. Oh, it crashed? The disks you made when you bought the computer doesn’t restore the system? Er, sorry, can’t help you, We’re sending the money we saved in Recovery disks to Chris and Keith.
hawkdriver on October 28, 2008 at 9:39 AM
How quickly everyone forgets the uproar that occurred when XP came out. No drivers, flaws galore, the cry of “I’m sticking with Windows 98!!!”
Look, Vista was a preemie. The driver support was poor, though not necessarily all MS’s fault. I beta tested it for about a year before RTM, and after the vendors caught up with the driver demand, it’s run like a charm ever since.
Vista is a great operating system, far more stable than XP. The KEY is to make sure your components are up to the job. It’s that simple. I haven’t had a crash since WAY before RTM. And that’s running on a Pentium 4 machine.
wccawa on October 28, 2008 at 9:41 AM
True story: I once sat in a computer training class where the guy next to me thought that the mouse must be some sort of foot pedal.
Oh! And don’t worry about all the “whiny losers” on the net. President Obama and the Democrat Congress are going to squelch free speech and tax internet use to the point that it becomes a luxury item for the elites ideologically aligned with our new overlords. Thanks again to stupid fools like wise_men for undermining the GOP and giving us this utterly contemptable election and destroying our nation.
highhopes on October 28, 2008 at 9:41 AM
i’ll never buy a windows product again.
windows mobile sucks.
vista sucks.
good bye microsoft, hello apple.
bloghooligan on October 28, 2008 at 9:42 AM
I haven’t had any issues with Vista at all. I run x64 Ultimate and find it an improvement over XP if a bit bloated. As long as your hardware is up to snuff it runs swell. NEVER have had a BSD.
I think we have what can only be described as MDS.
ronsfi on October 28, 2008 at 9:42 AM
A poor craftsman blames his tools.
highhopes on October 28, 2008 at 9:43 AM
Again, your complaints are for HP. (They also have known driver issues) again that’s up for HP and their parts vendors.
And if you went for Norton then you really don’t know the first thing about software. :P
- The Cat
MirCat on October 28, 2008 at 9:44 AM
I respectfully disagree, although there is much truth in what you say pre-2008.
Norton Internet Security 2009 is DA BOMB. Effective, agile and with a tiny resource drain. It’s what I recommend to all my customers.
wccawa on October 28, 2008 at 9:47 AM
A poor chief uses a butter knife to carve a turkey.
- The Cat
MirCat on October 28, 2008 at 9:47 AM
It’s funny how programs, computer manufacturers, etc, with each new release who’s #1 and who you stay away from upon pain of death can trade places.
- The Cat
MirCat on October 28, 2008 at 9:49 AM
I have had no problems with Vista.
Plus those arrogant bar stewards over at Apple tick me off most of the time. (Although I do like most of the “I’m a Mac” series.)
Abby Adams on October 28, 2008 at 9:50 AM
I LOVE these Mac vs. PC threads!
I run all four OS–OSX, XP, Ubuntu and Vista.
I’ll stick with my Mac. Liberal or not, I’ve been using a Mac for the better part of 22 years. All things equal, I’ll stick with Apple.
robblefarian on October 28, 2008 at 9:50 AM
Hey Cat, you don’t have to get personal or offensive. I’ve been screwing with computers since my TI994A and it’s tape drive. I assembled my first PC from parts I bought from computer shopper magazine. And I know a lot more computer savvy folks than me in our S6 section (commo shop) that have a bear of a time keeping the Vista machines working. So don’t try to dismiss people as idiots just because they’ve had problem with the MS OS.
It wasn’t a stable system even on a brand new HP laptop six months ago.
hawkdriver on October 28, 2008 at 9:51 AM
Also true. But I keep an open mind with each new hatch of critters, and try ‘em all. ;)
wccawa on October 28, 2008 at 9:51 AM
If you buy Apple, you support the neolib socialist movement.
If apple was forced to support hundreds upon hundreds (if not thousands) of third party vendors or allowed third party hardware, they would be in the same boat as MS.
MACs look good in movies. That’s about all they are good for.
RightWired on October 28, 2008 at 9:51 AM
I bet most of you offering your “expert” advice believe Apple invented the MP3 player.
ClassicCon on October 28, 2008 at 9:54 AM
Al Gore invented the MP3 player, duh.
MirCat on October 28, 2008 at 9:55 AM
Interesting revelation. Remarkably similar to the arguments of old-guard Media Gatekeepers who bemoan the entry of lowly pajama-clad bloggers into their formerly restricted club of “professional elites.”
Surely mere blogs must be beneath the exalted likes of you, populated as they are with whiny losers who aren’t even versed in the details of AUTOEXEC.BAT! Peasants. *sniff*
Gilda on October 28, 2008 at 9:57 AM
Now I’m gonna be collateral damage…
DarkCurrent on October 28, 2008 at 9:57 AM
I’m no expert at any of this. I’m just a conservative that sees a corporation using it’s wealth and power to destroy the political party I belong too. Again, it’s just the current 50 meter target. If Apple gets a network of it’s own and starts a 24/7 Republican bashing party too, I’ll adjust range.
hawkdriver on October 28, 2008 at 9:59 AM
LOL! I miss the good ol daze when we had to wheedle our own computers out of wood! Ahh dat was summin.
ronsfi on October 28, 2008 at 10:00 AM
Initially, the trouble with Vista was the lack of support by hardware and software manufacturers (despite some hardware being labeled Vista ready). That particular issue has mostly been taken care of.
It’s a fine operating system, but is a bit too resource intensive for most of the systems it is installed on.
thequeball on October 28, 2008 at 10:00 AM
Will this run on my Tandy TS-80? I still like MS-DOS 3.0 and am a bit concerned about the upgrade.
TugboatPhil on October 28, 2008 at 10:05 AM
And my buddies were collateral damage when Liberal America boycotted their own military. Every time Chris Matthews came on his “MSNBC” program and told our enemies in Iraq that we were in a quagmire and we can’t win it, he made them stronger. MSNBC help make Iraq more dangerous.
And is there any one network that will be more responsible for an Obama victory than MSNBC if he should win?
hawkdriver on October 28, 2008 at 10:06 AM
Well, I don’t think I’m a loser, but my new computer with Vista does make me whine! I’m not sure if my problems are OS related though. I’ve never had this sort of problem before, so I just blame Vista, since I’ve heard so many awful things about it. :P
I admit to being a complete technomoron. I finally figured out how to delete text messages off my cell after having rather hilarious miss-sent messages from some love sick guy on it for months, though I still don’t know how to send them. Hmm…maybe I am a loser.
And no, I’m not older than McCain.
pannw on October 28, 2008 at 10:09 AM
I bet most of you offering your “expert” advice believe Apple invented the MP3 player.
No, they just invented the GOOD MP3 player.
I bought a Mac in August of 2007. I had never had any catastrophic failures or serious problems with Windows XP, it was just all the little things day to day that got to me. For instance, I purchased a scanner in 2000 with a Windows 98 machine. When I upgraded to Windows XP, I had to download an updated driver – no big deal. Then, when XP SP2 was released, I had to download yet another driver – again, no big deal.
However, I began to have problems. Approximately ever two months, I would have to completely uninstall the drivers for the scanner and go back through the process of installing the driver again. When I purchased the Mac, I plugged the scanner in and, lo and behold, it just worked. It still works today, and I have yet to even install a driver. I have had ZERO problems with it.
I couldn’t be any happier with my Mac, and if I do need Windows for something, the Mac can run it too.
Once you go Mac, you never go back.
TexasAg03 on October 28, 2008 at 10:09 AM
I miss the good old days when clothes were washed by going down to the river and beating them against a rock. Not everyone could do it correctly you know, it took very speshul skillz held only by experts like me.
These newfangled washing machines with their simple dials and pushbuttons have brought springlike freshness to the underpants of *gasp* commoners and I am no longer considered aromatically superior. Sad, it was all I really had going for me. :(
Gilda on October 28, 2008 at 10:11 AM
As someone who has spent the last eighteen years tilting at the Microsoft windmill, let me tell you that Vista is the same quality as any of their other operating system versions – crappy.
As a system admin who has the responsibility to set up and network computers, let me tell you that if you see word Home in the title, run like hell. “Home” is Microsoft’s way of telling you “Hey, we needed a cheap version, so we made an especially crappy one.”
Windows 7 or Azure will be the Lite version of the other or they’ll have their own “lite” versions. In any case, avoid Windows Light like the plague.
As for Mac, that is my preferred system these days. It is more stable than Windows, but still not the best system we could have. It can be clunky and doesn’t take advantage of some of the more advanced technology out there.
Kafir on October 28, 2008 at 10:13 AM
It took Microsoft 4-5 years to fix all the bugs with XP with their stupid service packs. I.e., they released XP 4-5 years earlier than they should have. How am I supposed to trust Vista with that kind of record? And don’t even get me started on their earlier Windows releases with all the bugs they had, and how each consecutive OS they released was promised to be more stable and yet disappointingly had the same problems.
No way in hell am I buying anything with Vista. And judging by the reviews it has received from professional reviewers and from people I personally know, it would be the right thing to do.
AlexB on October 28, 2008 at 10:13 AM
Speaking as a computer support technician, one of the greatest headaches of doing the type of work that I do is working with Windows. To be very blunt, Windows is the most unfriendly user-friendly system ever created. Internet Explorer is even worse, which is why I tell all my friends to dump Explorer and move to Mozilla Firefox instead.
But one of the recent high points of Microsoft hilarity is when its Senior VP and well-known pitbull, Steve “Baldy” Balmer announced that Windows VISTA was the Windows Operating System for the next ten years.
So allow me to take you for a brisk stroll down memory lane as we look for a moment at the previous Microsoft Operating Systems from the LAST ten years:
Windows 3.1
Windows 3.1.0
Windows 95
Windows 98
Windows 98 SP1
Windows 98 SP2
Windows NT 3.1.5
Windows NT4
Windows ME
Windows XP
Windows XP SP!
Windows XP SP2
Windows VISTA
This is why I have a hard time not rolling on the floor laughing my ass off that Windows is getting ready to give VISTA the heave-ho in favor of their latest and greatest. It is like these guys can’t just come up with one operating system and then stick with it for a few years.
Oh, and in regards to why so few companies are not jumping on the VISTA bandwagon, all you have to do is do a check of how much it costs the average major corporation to migrate from one operating system to a new one. Then take that number and multiple it by the number of times Microsoft has played its merry game of Musical Operating Systems.
While the final tally may not be what the recent bailout of Wall Street cost, it isn’t exactly too far from that figure as you may think.
pilamaye on October 28, 2008 at 10:15 AM
So that explains why my neighbor’s IPod came preloaded with the Communist Manifesto and Kayne West’s greatest hits.
thuja on October 28, 2008 at 10:15 AM
Bingo. My Gateway Media Center with a Terabyte hard drive runs Vista like a swiss watch.
If it doesn’t work for you, you need a better machine.
Sefton on October 28, 2008 at 10:18 AM
I have Vista on 3 PC’s.. All work fine. I think it was an improvement over XP in many ways.
RobertCSampson on October 28, 2008 at 10:19 AM
The Vista failure has been nothing more than a marketing failure. I’ve been in the industry for over a decade, and Vista is the most stable desktop OS Microsoft has released to date. I’ve been using the RTM since October ’06, and it’s worked flawlessly. The main problem, perception-wise among users? It’s different. It just doesn’t look the same as XP. Duh. People didn’t like the interface on XP at first when they transitioned from 95/98/ME/2000. I think the main difference between the transition to XP and the transition to Vista is that people never truly got behind Vista because there was too much (unfair) bad press surrounding it. Their loss (and Microsoft’s, unfortunately.)
Beo on October 28, 2008 at 10:21 AM
I find the concept that the newer Windows choices will require you to interact with Microsoft servers on a regular basis to run your applications disturbing. If I were making corporate IT decisions I would be seriously looking into Linux options.
Apple on the other hand is far too arrogant a company for me to ever want to do business with. The fact that you must send iPods and iPhones to Apple (at your own expense) in order to replace the battery tells me all I need to know about how they regard customers.
Buford on October 28, 2008 at 10:22 AM
If buy is the sticking point, then download Ubuntu for free and install as needed. Problem solved.
tom on October 28, 2008 at 10:25 AM
Actually this is more of a rebranding than a rollout. They are mostly tweaking the default install options and paring down the interface. It will still be Vista. BTW your list is a great reminder of the colossal influence of perhaps THE most successful company ever. After all. They only changed the entire effing world.
ronsfi on October 28, 2008 at 10:25 AM
Both Windows and Mac systems have their share of time bombs for users — We run mostly Macs at the office, but needed just a no-frills Windows computer as a backup for our bookkeeping software, and discovered that with Vista Home Premium, there was no console for lowering the security level to get it to work with the Mac server — if you wanted to do it, you had to go into DOS, which took extended perusing of online message boards to discover.
On the other hand, the search engine to find files is Mas OS 10.3 was so miserable that you basically had to know where the file was beforehand in order to locate. Apple fixed the problem in OS 10.4 and now in 10.5, but the thing was with only 10 percent of the market, Jobs could get away with a horrid app like that, while had Vista originally come out with the Hellen Keller of search engines, they would have been justifiably crucified by the public before they could have fixed it.
I like OS 10.x layout better than Vista, and Leopard also allows integration with in our remaining Windows computers in ways the earlier OS X versions did not. But Apple still has a bit of an attitude that if your computer is more than 2 1/2 years old, you really should just go out and get a new one, since they’re not all that big on supporting backward compatibility (we’ve got gobs on OS 10.x Motorola software that at least will run on the new Intel Macs, but life would have been much easier if Jobs had made the switch to Intel when OS X originally debuted). If Apple does success in winning a much larger share of the market, they’ll find catering to the core group alone is going to alienate people who don’t want to have to go run out and buy all new hardware and software every few years (and backward compatibility is one of the things that Microsoft has had to balance that has caused a lot of Vista’s problems).
jon1979 on October 28, 2008 at 10:35 AM
Took care o’ that for you. ;o)
Macs have their applications, but they’re far too ‘closed’ for me (a programmer). Not to mention being WAY overpriced.
The only “Mac” I want is running for President!
RegularJoe on October 28, 2008 at 10:43 AM
I remember the nearly nonfunctional Windows 3.0, then the similarly nearly nonfunctional Windows 3.01. It took them until Windows 3.1 to get the “Windows 3″ brand right.
And did they upgrade us people who bought the earlier nonfunctional versions for free, and who complained mightily about the crashes and loss of data? NOPE. In this caveat emptor world, we had no choice at the time but to either buy the even more overpriced and underwhelming MacOS along with its clamshell hardware, or wait for something better.
It’s why, when OS/2 came out, I lept at it, and loved it until the day IBM killed it off. And why most of my machines now run either Ubuntu, Fedora, or Red Hat Enterprise Server.
Come to think of it, the whole Windows vs. OS/2 thing is, in a nutshell, the Obama vs. McCain thing. Obama is being touted as the new solution, untainted by connections to the past — and McCain is being pounded down as old, dowdy, out of touch, responsible for the past. It’s all marketing genius, devoid of reality. As one might say about Barack Obama, aka Billy Gates:The ability to create a vat containing approximately three tons of swine droppings, to convince his customers that it smells like Old Spice aftershave, and to persuade them that the real thing isn’t quite as good as the stuff in his vat.
We thankfully have choices, but, to be frank, Obama has won the marketing race to date.
unclesmrgol on October 28, 2008 at 10:47 AM
I like XP. I cried when my 6 year old desktop died. The only PCs I could find in my price range had Vista- hence the tears. I do believe it’s better than Windows Multiple Errors (ME), but totally unnecessary. And, to make matters worse, I had to buy a newer release of an important software I use for school because my existing version wasn’t vista ready!!! Sometimes capitalism hurts.
looking4statesmen on October 28, 2008 at 10:51 AM
I still prefer XP over Vista, W2k, and Win 95, all of which I run on my Mac without the need of an emulator to slow things down (along with Linux).
As an Mac old timer, I do have to smile when I see things like “Azure and Windows 7″. Is that supposed to be like Aqua and Mac OS X?
taznar on October 28, 2008 at 10:52 AM
ronsfi on October 28, 2008 at 10:25 AM
Yeah, by systematically stealing products from other developers and branding them as their own.
PJ Emeritus on October 28, 2008 at 11:04 AM
Amen, brother. THAT was a grown-up OS.
RegularJoe on October 28, 2008 at 11:07 AM
Wow, what a coincidence… those all run on my PC without an emulator, too! I wonder which of us paid more for our computer? ;o)
RegularJoe on October 28, 2008 at 11:09 AM
Most of my customers now run Vista, and they like it. The key was to not upgrade, but to load Vista fresh.
For me? I will wait, I believe in “generation skip”. I think Vista just showed what not to do next time.
right2bright on October 28, 2008 at 11:10 AM
Oh, MS is coming out with a Linux distro?
At home, Ubuntu Hardy 64-bit on the laptop (SuSE got too bloated), Xubuntu Dapper on the kids’ first-gen iMac (runs like a scalded dog), and Angstrom/GPE on my PDA.
At work, XP SP3, but only ‘cuz they make me.
DrSteve on October 28, 2008 at 11:12 AM
Whoa, surely you’re not suggesting that Apple DIDN’T do that, are you?!? Go read up a little on the Xerox Star system.
RegularJoe on October 28, 2008 at 11:15 AM
Why don’t you? It was the Xerox Alto, btw. And Apple took nothing away from that meeting but the knowledge that the thing could be done, then reverse-engineered their own version of it. MS stole actual code from SEVERAL developers. Even stole the Internet Explorer name from a company in Illinois they knew was too small to fight back.
PJ Emeritus on October 28, 2008 at 11:29 AM
The Xerox was not a commercially released system and was never intended to be. Xerox corporate had already killed the project, as a matter of fact, and ASKED Jobs & Co. to come to Palo Alto to look at it – even PAID Apple by purchasing stock to get them to take the presentation.
PJ Emeritus on October 28, 2008 at 11:30 AM
LOL. Read your own link, on the Alto – thanks for the back-up!
PJ Emeritus on October 28, 2008 at 11:32 AM
MDS! That was so very very long ago and MS has been in nonstop development ever since. Both Apple and MS looted Xerox and good for them since nothing was being done with the ideas that now allow you to post your comments. This thread is taking on a KOS quality that I find uncomfortable.
ronsfi on October 28, 2008 at 11:39 AM
‘Planned Obsolescence’ I haven’t trotted out any good conspiracy theories lately, so here goes:
Any future Microsoft o/s may have late release bugs-every three years they would start breaking your computer so that, rather than users staying with XP,they would need to upgrade to the next o/s.
The problems with Vista happen because they hadn’t perfected the late release bugs yet, and they started early.
Doug on October 28, 2008 at 11:43 AM
So because they built their core products and their business model long ago, creating their industry dominance with it, we should forget about it and call telling the truth “MDS?” LMAO
BTW
Xerox Alto:
http://boxinasuitcase.com/media/blogs/box/xerox_alto_screenshot.jpg
Mac OS:
http://lowendmac.com/wale/07/macs_files/mac-os-1.gif
Not exactly separated at birth.
Windows 1 simply moved the menu bars to the bottom – lol.
Here’s a hint: ALL the keyboard shortcuts are exactly the same. Only difference is the NAME of the modifier key. (Command vs Control)
PJ Emeritus on October 28, 2008 at 11:48 AM
Vista is fine. It was fine when it launched. The only Vista that had issues was 64-Bit users and that was because of a lack of drivers.
The driver issue has been solved on everything except laptop graphics cards and that isn’t MS fault. Blame it on ATI and nVidia’s stupid deal with manufactures. Either way, it isn’t that hard to merge an INF file into nVidia’s full 64-bit driver.
Tim Burton on October 28, 2008 at 11:50 AM
The early version of Vista was a bit problematic, but it has been fine for quite some time. I am a software engineer and I tax my system more than most people. It has been reliable and stable. Ed seems to think that coming out with a new version of a an O/S proves the existing version is bad? A totally asinine and incorrect assumption. ALL Software vendors have the next version around the corner after the prior release hits the street, including the beloved Apple.
echosyst on October 28, 2008 at 11:56 AM
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