Jul 11 2008

Vista: Why Has It Left a Bad Taste?

Published by Ken Stewart at 8:48 pm under Business, Change, Technology

Vista is really not that bad

Vista seems to have left a very bad taste in many people’s mouths… or at least this is what the media would have you believe. Sure, Microsoft’s licensing model is confusing, and since when did Microsoft’s licensing model every really make sense?

Let me start by saying that I swore I would never, ever, ever post something on Vista.

Why? Well, let me tell you I get so sick of hearing the back and forth on Microsoft and how bad Vista is… I swear it’s like watching the 6 o’clock news, and looking forward to who’s been shot, stabbed, or otherwise abused in life… Not that fun!

That being said, I am responsible for setting tactical and strategic technology policy within my company. We evaluated Vista when it was first released, and there was no compelling reason to upgrade; we would have incurred more cost, both in labor and upgrade costs, as well as not seen any significant impact to business.

As always, times change, and I am a firm believer in watching the bleeding edge very closely. My theory is that once the early adopters have lost a few fingers, it should be safe for me to move in.

So I watched, and I waited, and kept watching… and there was a lot of bad press on Vista, some genius negative TV ad campaign (which were really quite funny), and hte entire debacle over whether Microsoft 2.0 would be able to survive post-Billy and without Yahoo!’s advertising business unit…

Well, Microsoft isn’t the dominant enterprise operating system for a reason. I’m not saying 10 years from now Microsoft won’t go the way of Novell, but folks why is Vista receiving such bad press?

Maybe it’s just me (post service pack 1) along with my dual core processor and 4 GB of RAM, but come on…

I wouldn’t advocate just rushing out and purchasing Vista like you would a new iPhone, but if you are upgrading your hardware, don’t be bashful about the new stuff. Embrace the fact that XP is in its silver years and its days will pass into the west. Don’t resist change… Vista really doesn’t deserve all this bad press.

So there, I put my stake in the ground, and that’s all I have to say about that.

Image courtesy of MouseRunner.com

Ken Stewart’s blog, ChangeForge.com, focuses on the collision between the constantly changing worlds of business and technology. Ken is also the Director of Technology at Kearns Business Solutions.

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    Viewing 3 Comments

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      I upgraded to Vista 8 months ago. I had been on Vista when it first came out and was incredibly unhappy with it so I went back to XP for a while. Reading this post makes me ask myself the question, "What can I do on Vista that I couldn't do before I upgraded?

      The answer, I think, is nothing of any consquence. Some of the things that I did well, I can't do the same way now. Some of my old programs don't run anymore. I had to find alternates. I am not more productive and I am not better off for making the switch.

      What I do have, however, is more "applications not responding" errors. I have a more Maclike interface and more compatibility issues with devices like my smart phone and camera. (in fact, I have to use my Mac for my camera... have never been able to get it to work with Vista.).

      I don't recommend moving to Vista. I think that there are many better choices than Vista. I think that the world would be a better place if everything was Mac friendly.
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      I would agree in general with your post. I've not seen any real productivity enhancements... just a pretty interface - which is debatable compared against that of a Mac... however, Mac's lack true enterprise support at this point - so I'm still waiting on that little "undersight" to be fixed before I plunge headlong into becoming a mac fanboy!

      Let me just say that as far as waiting 5 years to release Vista and it being what it is ... I was not impressed with that in mind... but I'm not seeing any bugs - atleast not yet ;-)
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      Well, I for one jumped on the Vista band wagon since it's inception. I've been a fan of it since I first tinkered with it.
      I was taken by all the cool features, and of course the really cool interface.
      But aside from that, it has a lot of convenience's I enjoy. It of course has it's drawbacks and bugs (but so does XP and all other OS's), but as a whole, I recommend it to anyone who asks.
     

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