http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html

I would like someone to articulate to me how Vista is a “cheeseburger”.

Here you go!

Ummm, there’s much guilt to be laid at MS’s door. Can you say convicted monopolist? and pretty much every “partner” they’ve worked with has found a knife in their back with Bill & Steve’s fingerprints on it?

Partner’s like IBM, Spyglass, and Sendo.

The Xerox was not a commercially released system and was never intended to be….

PJ Emeritus on October 28, 2008 at 11:30 AM

Huh? I USED an 8510, and I wasn’t working at Xerox either. And there’s this, and this. So we can thank Apple for the trashcan (‘nee the Windows Recycle Bin), but not much else.

Note that Xerox lost (their case was dismissed) on a procedural issue (the statute of limitations had passed). But they had folders, digital paper, icons, the mouse… Steve Jobs bought Xerox stock as a private act — which act gained him access to Xerox PARC. Microsoft’s successful defense of Windows against Apple at suit was predicated on the “We all got this stuff from Xerox” argument. The out of court settlement from that suit restricted Microsoft’s use of Apple iconism for Windows 1 — but left its use open for later versions of Windows. I count this as a major coup on the part of Microsoft — they ceded to Apple control of a product they knew was going to be replaced, and tied Apple’s hands with respect to future lawsuits.

The 900# gorilla of microcomputing would later purchase $150M in Apple shares, thus making Apple (which was on the ropes at the time) an official part of the Borg.

BTW Ed, you should probably stick to political commentary. Your foray into blogging about technology lately has been a bust. You clearly don’t have the requisite knowledge and Hot Air is not Slashdot.

echosyst on October 28, 2008 at 12:00 PM

Seriously… :-P

I work in IT and I see most flavors of XP and Vista daily. Vista works just fine and most people I’ve deployed it to like it. Their is a learning curve because the interface can be different. All these tech pundits saying its a turd said the same thing about XP when it came out. These are the same people that have been chirping that “open source” would take over the industry for the last 9 years. I would like someone to articulate to me how Vista is a “cheeseburger”.

And this development cycle isn’t new either. Longhorn was in beta testing right around the release of XP SP1.

Vista works fine for me. I think it gets a bad rap.

Well, if the rap is, “It sucks for everyone,” then yes. If the rap is, “It sucks for lots and lots of people,” then no. It’s a resource hog. It is riddled with bugs/features (e.g., the inability for at least the initial version to sync with Windows Mobile devices the way every prior version of 32-bit Windows could). Old software often doesn’t work properly with it. And they changed everything around for no reason, meaning you had to relearn where everything was. Not to mention the annoying security features, which annul themselves, in that if everything deserves a warning, no warning will be properly headed.

If you buy a new, fast computer and only need to use a few common pieces of software, you won’t find much wrong with Vista. Just like those Mojave guys. If not….

Anyway, XP, released in late 2001, was supposed to come out in 2000; at least that’s what I recall being announced in 1998. I’ll be shocked if the two-year roll-out proceeds according to schedule.

Steve Jobs is way, way more liberal than Bill Gates will ever be.

That may be true, but MSNBC is far more liberal and influential than anything Jobs has ever done with his money, not to mention the other ways Microsoft and Gates use money (compared with Jobs).

I heard about problems with Vista, but figured it was BIOS errors with some laptops…

then..

I started having problems with my sound. It was so bad I couldn’t even play DVDs or MP3s on my laptop. I’d get nasty error messages and the computer would freeze.

So, I called Dell and the tech apologized saying my laptop was supposed to be used with XP, but Microsoft refused to allow XP to be put on newer computers. So, I got Vista. The tech said the BIOS didn’t agree with Vista, so there were problems with my model of Dell.

Naturally, I was p.o.’d.

So, he REMOTE ACCESSED my computer, reinstalled a newer BIOS and apologized profusely.

Funny thing is, that didn’t fix it.

I went into the control panel and found clicked on two checkboxes for the SOUND properties. SPEAKERS/HEADPHONE properties (advanced tab). I had to check off the EXCLUSIVE CONTROL box.

Haven’t had a problem since.

So, I don’t know if it was a BIOS/OS conflict or if Vista gets stupid with controlling sound like AOL seizes control of RAM/Printers/network connections/drivers, etc.

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

Yup. And lets not even go into “restraint of trade” with the Psytar lawsuit, aka Bundling for Dummies. Then again, lets.

Oh, and Bill is just as liberal — his Millenium Scholarships ($1B endowment) are restricted by race first, income second. I can see the income restriction, but not the racial ones.

Blech. Count. Me. Out.

I expect ‘Windows 7′ to include every crappy ‘feature’, that Vista does now, with none of it’s (very few) redeeming qualities.

pelajus on October 28, 2008 at 12:58 PM

Time to be a bit nit picky. Zerox invented the GUI, Jobs saw it at I believe a show and tell got all excited about it, started developing his own, brought in Billy Boy Gates to help which eventually brought us to the latest and “greatest” Vista.

Well, heck yeah!!!

And we have got a lot to be arrogant about. Name any other technology company that has done as much to impact its culture than Apple?

1. Create the Graphic User Interface.
2. Invent the iPod, iTunes and the online music store.
3. Enable podcasting.

Just some of the ways that are normal operations today that were imagineered by Apple techs.

As far as Mac goes, the system is too doctrinaire in its design for me to ever have much use with. Even with the warts of the red pill Vista, it still provides much better value than the blue pill Mac.

So, it seems that even Ed has lost his fervor for this race, what with seeing him invest his time on techie subjects this late in the political season. A sign of resignation?

It tries to do too much for you. Just let me configure crap myself dammit!

I really think Vista will be equated with Window Millennium Edition.

ManlyRash on October 28, 2008 at 11:59 AM

Thanks! I needed that.

God save our American States!

Amen.

On the other hand every time I see an ad for Apple or walk past one of their stores I get this “too cool for you” vibe.

Plus Apple devotees are a little arrogant IMHO. Those latte sipping hipster doofus types with their Apple laptops, iPods and iPhones sitting at Starbucks all look like Obama voters to me. Reason enough to stick with Vista!

This is why everyone should have a Mac! :)

Illinidiva on October 28, 2008 at 8:49 AM

No thanks, if I wanted to join a cult I’d be come a scientologist.

Darth Executor on October 28, 2008 at 9:11 AM

Where did this myth start?

I’ve used lots of different hardware running lots of systems from VAX/DECstations to Evans & Sutherland PS350/PS330 to SGI Octanes to PCs and Macs. (Personally, I kinda miss VMS, but I cut my teeth on that system.) My experiences with PCs in the lab and in an office setting is that they require the intervention of a sys admin much more often than do Macs. In the life sciences, Macs were the dominant platform because they provided high-end graphics at a more affordable price than something like an SGI. When Mac made it seamless to switch from their OS to UNIX, my friends in computer science started to migrate to Macs as well.

I understand PCs are popular. They’re cheaper and there is lots more software available. (There have also been a lot more viruses.)

I say “chacun à son goût,” but my observation has been that the folks who are the most viscerally opposed to Macs are sys admins who want to keep their jobs, people who like to “tinker” but who found they couldn’t get past the black box of the old Mac operating system, and folks who haven’t used or can’t afford a Mac.

As for the “political correctness” of Mac vs PC, personally I find the “I am PC” ad to be waaay to into globalism for my taste. I’d rather not be reminded of the overseas hackers attacking my network, thank you very much.

PJ Emeritus on October 28, 2008 at 11:48 AM

Ooohhh an MS Truther. Start a web site and create a crappy little production. Good luck.

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.