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Don't be misled by these 10 Windows Vista myths

A) PC's are quite inexpensive nowadays

B) After 3-4 years, most people want or need more features/speed/performance etc anyways or some of the "freebies" included like a nicer monitor, printer, etc.

C) Never hurts to have multiple PC's in your house

D) Many a times, you can part out on old PC and put some of those old part to good use. For example, take out that old 80 GB hard drive, spend $30 for an external case and make yourself an external hard drive to back things up.

Or even buy a business class PC and take out your old DVD burner or CD burner and put it in the new PC. Lots of possibilities.

But what you have to remember here is that our Linux crowd wants to keep their PC's forever (not necessarily a bad thing) instead of trying to stay fairly up to date and current. They like to run those old PII 400 Mhz machines because, well, Linux just runs so well on it.

i can't really appreciate my experience with vista. i installed it in my toshiba laptop with the following specs:
P4 3.0Gz HT
2GB RAM
80GB HD 5400rpm
Nvidia Gforce 64MB

since the glass i know will need a lot of video ram, i disabled it, but OMG... my machine is not even running. it CRAWLING! and when i ran the Vista compatibility check, it rated my machine at 1.5 out of 5 i believe!

i just want to get the opinion of the author of this article with regards to Vista operating in machine with that type of specs.
(you can e-mail me at rrl@carl-apollo.com)

duh.... what is the truth then?

Deb - when you cram your head in Microsofts arse you lose credibility
Deb Shinder

Your "article" is merely a favorable rework of Microsoft's press release.

Enhanced search capabilities? WHO CARES? Microsoft listed this as an "important feature" so obviously your brown tongue needed to wax lyrical about it.

The problem is that you clearly have no idea about operating systems and yet you accuse others, with VASTLY more knowledge and experience of technology, of creating FUD.

Vista brings NOTHING to the user except for extra costs and expenses.

You say that Vista runs fine on a small PC. OK does it work on a Pentium 3 with 128 Mb of RAM, a TNT2 card, and a 10 GB harddisk. That's what my dad has on his machine. He is very happy thankyou and I dont have him calling me daily. If he ran Vista on his machine, as you clearly recommend he would need a monumental upgrade. Can he actually launch ANY application in Vista on those specs?

You fail to mention that, to date, there is not a single Vista compliant graphic card or monitor that can fully support DRM. Oops another upgrade because nothing works.
http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html

No mention either that Nvidia has only just released BETA graphics drivers on the day that Vista launched and ATI have just introduced their OpenGL versions. And there is NO SLI support
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=37429

How about talking about the fact that Direct X 10 only has two cards that fully support it but you need to sacrifice your first and second born child to buy it.
http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/taxid;2136212627;pid;3024;pt;1

Or that there are almost no drivers for the 64bit editions. I run Windows XP-64 and have a hard time finding them. If you have an expensive sound card then you are really out of luck. There is no hardware acceleration in Vista so a $5000 sound card sounds exactly the same as a $10 one and you need a hack to fix it.
http://www.pcw.co.uk/personal-computer-world/news/2173250/audigy-cards-won-work-surround

YOu ease people by saying that VIsta is secure and yet there are no firewalls that support 64-bit mode. Nor are there antivirus software that can run effectively. I challenge you to show me a working 64-bit firewall - this excludes Microsoft's primative firewall.

Deb = instead of wasting your life filling the universe with more useless press-release drivel; why not use your investigative and writing skills to find out the truth behind the DRM in Vista.

For you I feel sorry. Whoring yourself out to a multinational is great for the bank balance but cuts deeply into the soul.

For the record I have a degree in Computer Science and have spent 25 years in the computer industry.

As an exercise: feel free to do a google search for Vista problems. I'm sure that the results will enlighten you.

...Google Linux driver problems and MacOS problems. Or maybe Mac hardware issues and recalls, or hardware that isn't compatible with Linux at all...

Guess what Mr. 25year compsci guy, every OS has problems, they're called users.

Some are better at some things, some are better at others.

Thanks for adding to the well-reasoned criticism here, your opinion is heavily valued.

Lets see..
You are a Microsoft partner and you are calling me biased?

The article didnt mention Mac System 6.5 or Mac System 7 or 8 or OS9 or Linux or Solaris or HPUX or AIX or BeOS or Windows 3.11 or 95 or 98 or 2000. So I kinda left them out because we were talking about Windows Vista. But if you like I can happily tell you the advantages and disadvantages of each. Since I have used them all.

Your assertion that the users are the problem is what I'd typically expect from a shallow superficial person with little respect for other humans.

When Windows crashes into a blue screen it isnt the user's fault. Some idiot at Microsoft or the hardware vendor wrote a bug into their OS or driver. And some other idiot didnt test it.

See! Not the user's fault.

When a user interface is so clunky and confusing that no human can understand what went wrong when the message "Sorry an error has occurred" then it is not the users fault. An idiot wrote the message.

The problem, Mr. I. Dont Know ****, is resellers and partners like you and "journalists" like the wonderful author of the steaming pile of wisdom called "10 Windows Vista Myths".

You and companies like Microsoft are so busy condemning the user for being an idiot or a criminal pirate-theif and cramming some ****-we-dont-need, in our faces, so you can make a quick buck, that you forget that you are supposed to be helping the user.

As a reseller you should be interested in selling the customer software that suits their needs and a journalist should be objectively assessing the value of the reviewed product. At the moment, neither of you should be letting anyone near Vista.

Thanks for playing but go away keep your sycophantic comments to yourself.

You need your lithium prescription upped.

Evanescence or Nirvana ?

A the user or
B the os or
C the hardware manufacturer
With out knowing the cause of the problem
Is at the least unprofessional

what do Linux driver problems and MacOS problems and hardware issues and recalls have to do with myths about vista? you lost me.

users do a much better job of finding problems with software than creating them. only if you work in tech support, which i have, can you call users the source of your computer problems.

i won't hold my breath waiting for a coherent argument as to how users cause computer problems more than, say, your average tech with a cs degree. and i won't even bother making that comparison with actual software engineers.

I was responding to whatsisname who obviously has some kind of strange vendetta against Bill Gates and Co., apparently. Maybe he didn't get hired twenty years ago or something, and he's pissed he missed out on all the stock options...

Anyway, all I was saying was that every OS has its issues, be it UI intricacies, incompatibilities, processes, etc.

It's completely obvious to me that this guy hasn't even spent any time with Vista or seriously tried to examine it, or he wouldn't be spewing some of the stuff that he is. At least, not if he had any objectivity.

And to be sure, i'm not saying Vista is perfect. But it's easily the best Windows yet, and just from my experiences with my practically-luddite father, is easier to get started with than even I had expected.

When I demo it to customers, they almost universally like what they see.

I confess, I occasionally like the little inkblobby game on Vista.

I'm an MSDN Enterprise subsciber. I've been using Vista for 6 months.

I see you have not disagreed with any of my original statements nor supplied any references to anything that I have said that is incorrect. YES Operating Systems have issues. But they have NOTHING to do with Vista. Vista, at the moment, is a crock.

Oh and about getting a job with Microsoft: I LOLd.

"I see you have not disagreed with any of my original statements nor supplied any references to anything that I have said that is incorrect."

Why does he have to prove your incorrect when you never gave any proof that you were correct to begin with.

whatever? what kind of answer is that? sound like you been eating crow!!!

That's not saying much. That's like cheering because your 14-year-old finally learned to tie their shoes.

Cheering because the Linux community comes out with a piece of **** OS once called Lindows and now called Linspire.

Oh boy, that one is a work of art too now isn't it?

good shot! I'm sure he's gonna run down suse next!! what about open bsd? gonna throw some trash at that to? I just can't wait to see the witisism fly from your lips. this guy's gotta be the bill gates of the next generation!!!!

...hack. Seriously, dude. Do you have Henny Youngman writing your material?

That's why you don't understand it. I tried to limit myself to small words in order not to confuse you.

The king of assholishness masquerading as pseudo-intellectualism. Seems fitting for some techie's attitudes, most definitely.

I don't think this word means what you think it means. Besides, it's too many syllables for you anyway.

Oh, but I unfortunately do all too well.

One type of pseudo-intellectual is anyone who can tolerate Rush Limbaugh for more than 5 minutes, much less continually go to him for his "opinions." A close relative is someone who is a fan of Dennis Miller and his strained obscure-for-no-reason-but-to-sound-superior analogies which, in reality, fly 5 miles over the head of his average audience, especially the Limbaugh-listening members.

They're the kind of people who have absolutely no reason to feel their little sense of superiority over everyone else, and yet are the most vocal in trumpeting said superiority.

Ironic, no?

probably understands most of his jokes, little puppet. That's why they go to see him. They are a self-selecting group. One of the CD's of his that I have was recorded during his show on the Berkeley campus--a place the Naked Trucker or Andrew Dice Clay probably couldn't find on a map, or would probably find an empty hall if they did manage to get there.

That's why Dennis Miller failed on MNF; the average Miller audience is vastly more educated and intellectual than the average football viewer. Don't confuse the average of a subset with the average of the entire group, and especially a subset that has an inherent selection bias.

Did you skip over the words "years back" when I talked about Rush Limbaugh? Or is it SOP for you to ignore the parts that don't match up with what you'd planned to say?

I don't trumpet my superiority, and that's why I carry my Mensa card tucked away in my wallet instead of pasting it to my forehead. Nevertheless, I don't apologize for it, either.

First off, calm down dude.

Second, graphics cards and monitors don't really have anything to do with DRM except in the most general sense of the word.

What you are talking about is HDCP and many of those companies that made promises of functionality are now being sued for misrepresentation.

Besides the fact that anything to do with HD-DVD and Blue Ray is still up in the air as far as standards are concerned.

How about we take a page out of the Linux zealots book and blame the manufacturers and their lack of driver support instead of MS. MS doesn't make proprietary drivers mind you.

Third, Nvidia and ATI will quickly get drivers for Vista once they see the profit motive, trust me, $$$ speaks louder than words which is, by the way, the reason not many of those same devices work in Linux with their proprietary drivers...a lack of market size and therefore $$$.

Fourth, I'd tell your dad to stop being so cheap and buy a new PC. I'm sure it is doing for him what he wants it to do, but one day he may wake up and actually do something more like the rest of the world does today like make a home video, rip some music, edit some home photos, etc and he's up the creek without a paddle. I don't care what OS you have, with a PIII and only 128 MB of RAM he isn't going to get far. Basically, what he owns today in that dinosaur is a internet appliance and not much more.

Fifth, 64 bit editions of anything are slow as a snail in development because just how many people own a 64 bit system? Give it time. Patience grasshopper. Wax on, wax off.

DRM in Vista has yet to prevent me from doing anything that I was doing in XP Pro.

And I'm pretty sure that no one here cares about your Computer Science degree. 25 years in the biz is impressive, I just hope your degree wasn't from back then.

I have no degree and can run circles around the newbies in the industry that do.

First - when someone claims FUD then back it up. This is hack journalism at best. Not a single neuron was used to write the article. No attempt was made to logically refute any arguement. Just press-release waffle.

As someone who has to deal with people asking about Vista it is useful to be able to point to good journalism. I was hoping for an educated, thoughtful, positive article.

Second, Graphics cards and monitors have EVERYTHING to do with it. see my link in previous comment. Read it. Once DRM is there, DRM can apply to anything. i.e. PDF documents can be declared DRM.

Third, MS released an operating system when the drivers were in Alpha. MS certifies that Laptops and PC are able to run Vista. MS also ONLY sells Vista on these PCs. The ones without functional drivers.

Fourth, my dad uses Firefox to cruise the stock prices and writes the odd email. Why does he need to upgrade? He is also representive of the larger portion of the non-IT and grey community. If I install the latest version of Ubuntu on his machine it will go faster, by comparison, if I install Vista on his machine it wont boot.

Fifth, I've been running Windows XP - 64 bit since the day it came out more than a year ago. PAH! Most applications DON'T WORK on 64-bit windows. Especially firewall software. After a year. I am being patient.

Vista has been in development for 5 years and the RC was out for 6 months. There is a fundamental flaw in Vista's implementation that causes the driver issues. (to do with the HAL but I dont want to go really tech)

For DRM .. you actually mean "at the moment I haven't got DRM therefore it is all good."

Sure, no one cares about a comp Sci degree but my understanding of operating systems and Programming exceeds most. There are more knowledgeable people than me who I have quoted for reference. Which I see that the author has not done.

I installed Vista in July last year. Last week I purchased $10,000 worth of new hardware (4 computers) to support the OS in our test lab.

I'm disappointed with Vista. Here was the best opportunity to make Windows a great operating system, and they blow it. It could have been small, efficient, easy to use and secure and instead they blow all their time and money on DRM. My university professor used to say "no operating system kernal should exceed the size of a floppy disk.". An operating system requiring 128Mb of RAM just to function, is obscene.

Aero is less than useless. For all that graphic content just burns more electricity which costs you and the environment more.

Sadly, if Microsoft persists with Office 2007, DRM, and Vista we may actually see a revolt from Vista to anything else.

Court cases have already been filed.
It still has not been established that it could even be legally sold here in Europe. (It is however, but very causciously) Microsoft has still not settled the court cases it already has pending against it. Vista? Could be (as has been already said by others) a very long suicide note.

how would Vista not be legal in europe? I am familuar with the media player issue in XP. but I have not heard about any legal issues with vista as of yet. but I can immagine that the "DMR Feature" (word Feature used losely)being one instance.

Then run, the sky is falling, the sky is falling.

Linux is the only answer...even though it has what a 3-5% market share on the desktop.

It's the end of the world and only freaks like you are going to be able to save all us uneducated people.

I find it quite weird that the Windows advocates in this forum are vigorously attacking the Linux users for being zealots. And it is weird that you accuse me of being one too. In your zeal you have become the thing that you despise.

Personally I think Linux suffers from severe usability issues. There is too much reliance on using command-line geek crap and not enough time spent on the human-computer interface.

In the past the installers were impossible - requiring you to have an intimate knowledge of hardware interrupts and all sorts of crap most people wouldn't know. It was just a chore.

More recently Ubuntu seems to have smoothed out most of those issues and is a breeze to install and even to install subsequent apps but it was still a royal pain in arse to get things like XGL working properly on Dapper Drake.

Macs are a good example of UNIX done well, however, the constant focus on DRM and having to buy hideously expensive mac hardware is a serious issue. Decoupling the OS from the hardware would significantly increase Apple's market share and encourage software development. Although if I was buying a laptop now it would be a mac. It runs mac/windows/linux - the best of everything!

HPUX, AIX and Solaris all have their own issues and are really for running Middleware applications and websites. Most dont even have a head. Although, it must be said that Linux is making some headway into this region.

I use Windows because I like to play games. That is the only reason, the above platforms arent so good with games.

I can write multithreaded apps for Linux, Macs or Windows but because I like to play games I use Windows. That said getting a functional GUI app running on windows requires a lot less "magical incantations" than on a mac or linux so that makes things easier. And Direct X is really making the creation of graphics surfaces very easy.

The introduction of Vista with crippling DRM just pushes me to run somesort of distro of Linux and VMWare WindowsXP or Vista to handle the games. I'll wait until some new World of WhateverCraft 12 comes out for Vista only before I move from Windows XP to Linux, though.

As for my dad, he'll probably stay on Windows 2000 for a long while yet.

Fair and for the most neutral.

As far as your dad goes, hell, I had an old laptop that I only recently got rid of that I kept Win 98 on for a while and then Win 2000 for even longer.

Win 98 really wasn't that bad and Win 2000 was pretty darn solid. Hey, when you have old hardware and use it like I did (in the garage and used only for browsing the web and other mindless tasks while I was smoking a cigarette) many of the older OS's worked just fine.

http://media.revver.com/broadcast/3946/video.mov/1722

http://media.revver.com/broadcast/3946/video.mov/1722

But before the "Linux is hard" zombies use this as fodder, I should point out the ?2001 at the bottom of the video. Six years ago, Linux wasn't the polished OS it is today. I know because I had tried and given up on RedHat 5.0 around that time because X refused to work. I didn't try Linux again until about three years ago, and was pleasantly surprised to find that SuSE installed quite easily then.

To give you an idea of just how long ago 2001 was in the OS world, remember that all the buzz was about the brand-new Windows XP then, and Longhorn was still a codename for some obscure version of Windows that would be coming out "in a couple of years."

I tried to use Linux as my only OS for about 4 years, and switched back to Windows. Its just too much hassle either trying to get some cludgy solution to work, or having to give up a feature entirely just to support another OS. I do thing in seconds in Windows that took hours ( or just could never do at all ) in Linux.


I love the idea of open source, which is why I tried so hard to stick with it. But in the end, there is a lot more to life than computers, and you are missing it if you are spending hours trying to get some application to work.

here you go again being abusive. "when I lack a feasable defence I must be abusive and rude." gee I like you motto. lummox^2

other2332233223: "My university professor used to say 'no operating system kernal should exceed the size of a floppy disk.'. An operating system requiring 128Mb of RAM just to function, is obscene."


Well, kudos to you then, using a TRaSh-80 all these years. That takes some integrity.

I mean seriously, if you're going to come out with statements like that, you're obviously not living in the 21st century.

Or, you're anti-capitalist, which makes you a commie. Or a terrorist. Either one. Really, why do you hate America?

I love that quote - here is the full text.

"There's an old saying in Tennessee?I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee?that says, fool me once, shame on?shame on you. Fool me?you can't get fooled again." -GWB

To explain the concept of kernels I suggest you read the following URL, when you come back then you'll understand why my professor gave a graphic example to remind us to keep the OS Kernel tight.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kernel_%28computer_science%29

Anti-capitalist, commie, terrorist, I hate america..... Is this a troll?

He's rickk's second account. Rickk got so sick of no one agreeing with him that he created an alter ego to agree with himself. To mix things up, occasionally he'll have the puppet post something and then use the Rickk account to say "Dude, you are so brilliant." That's why he's the "puppeteer". I shudder to think where the hand gets shoved to control him, though.

Now I'm going to use a little trick I learned when I used to listen to Rush Limbaugh years back: I'm going to say that they're going to deny it, and when they do, that will be proof that I was right because I predicted they would do it. And if they don't deny it, then that's obviously proof because they couldn't deny the truth.

You know I think you are right. I've never seen them post at the same time.

And have you noticed that they use the same words - like linux, the ,a ,and, you, are, and zealot.

Definitely food for thought. As we say here " Doesn't that drown a dead dingo's donger."

And now viewers, we get to see yet another weapon in the "i got nothin'" online arsenal.

The "Suggest they're somebody else's second account" tactic. Nice.

Those of us who have been around a while recognize when a discussion has petered out, and some of the wittier ones insert a joke here or there as a coda.

Would it make you feel better if I called you Hitler and ended the discussion traditionally? Oh, wait, you can't invoke Godwin's Law on purpose. Stupid Catch-22.

Well, first off, I like Dennis Miller and second, I like Rush Limbaugh.

Apparently, him and I are quite a bit alike but perhaps there is a difference in politics.

I'm the old fashioned, conservative Indiana hick. My first car is an old pickup and my second car is an even older pickup

If you know what a Hoosier is then you aren't a Hoosier because no one here sure as hell knows what a Hoosier really means.

Bobby Knight should still be coaching at Indiana University and the Colts while just winning their first Super Bowl as the Indianapolis Colts should of won it a long time ago.

And btw, who needs a computer repair kit. My tool box works just fine.

I am, unfortunately, a bleeding heart liberal pinko commie through and through.

I hope this doesn't mean we can't still be friends?

are you speaking? is that your gibberish I am hearing? since you also have no Idea of what your brain is telling your mouth I guess that calling you an anti-American would not be too out of line. with people like you speaking for people like me I might as well give osama a tour of the whitehouse, Why do you think America likes you? just another lummox!!

Perhaps not terribly practical just yet, but it is a good step in the right direction. Now we just have to wait for 3D/Holographic Viewing technology to mature, and for Wii controller technology and voice recognition to become more sophisticated.

Just because one technology or the other isn't perfected yet, doesn't mean to discount it or not include a rough draft so to speak in a product.

Look at Naturally Speaking. Some love it, most say it doesn't work all that well. I have no experience with it.

But I'd bet if you or anyone else here were handicapped, that product or at least some other similar product would not just be a savior to you even if it doesn't work that well, but also it would be the hope of the future.

Is that the machines that we use will do what we expect and what we want
The computer industry needs to start working on doing just that
Not my opinion just the many customers I have
I understand why pc?s fail
Most people do not
Trying to explain it to them gets harder and harder

I Just bought a new laptop for home and wanted to see what all the fuss was about with the aero and transparency. So one of the first things I done was to switch the feature on. I then found out it was already on. Big deal, I would not have bothered with Vista but the kids needed another computer for their home work. Oh I had a great time getting it see my XP machine on the home network.

Looking-Glass (a Sun/Linux Project) is probably a bit more visionary in this respect, and closer to that next-gen interface, than Aero is. We will have to see if they can actually 'get it there' first...