A Windows to Help You Forget

“In just two weeks, on Oct. 22, Microsoft’s long operating-system nightmare will be over. The company will release Windows 7, a faster and much better operating system than the little-loved Windows Vista, which did a lot to harm both the company’s reputation, and the productivity and blood pressure of its users.” Read the full review on All Things Digital

Gizmodo previews Windows 7

Could Windows 7 accomplish everything that’s expected of it? Probably not, but it makes a damn good attempt. We’ve tested the gold master, the final version going out on October 22. Upgrade without trepidation, people. With excitement, even.

Windows 7 is not quite a “Vista service pack.” It does share a lot of the core tech, and was clearly designed to fix nearly every bad thing anyone said about Vista. Which ironically puts the demon that it was trying to exorcise at its heart. What that means is that Windows 7 is what Vista should have been in the public eye—a solid OS with plenty of modern eye candy that mostly succeeds in taking Windows usability into the 21st century—but it doesn’t daringly innovate or push boundaries or smash down walls or whatever verb meets solid object metaphor you want to use, because it had a specific set of obligations to meet, courtesy of its forebear.

That said, if you’re coming from Windows XP, Windows 7 will totally feel like a revelation from the glossy future. If you’re coming from Vista, you’ll definitely go “Hey, this is much better!” Read the full article on Gizmodo.Com

Cross Q&A: Is Windows 7 Good for Gamers?

Jason Cross knows his tech. A former editor at ExtremeTech.com who also contributed to Computer Games Magazine, Cross has been covering the gaming and tech scenes for 13 years.

Cross is certainly a good geek to explain Windows 7, the Microsoft OS that comes out Oct. 22. Like all new OSes, Windows 7 confuses me. My PC is 3 years old, and while I’ve upgraded it to help it run current games at nice resolutions, I’m still not sure if my machine is up to running Microsoft’s new OS. I doubt that I’m the only one with questions.

So I asked Cross about some of my questions about Windows 7… Read the full article at BitMob.Com

Why Windows 7 Will Be Worth The Upgrade: No Comparison to Vista

Windows 7 will be out on October 22. According to what I’ve been reading, it’s slated to be a pretty good operating system. A much better version than Vista and better than XP.

Jon Prange, Sr. Enterprise Architect for Interphase Systems, a leading management and technology consulting organization writes that there were several challenges that were presented with Windows Vista that limited the operating system’s adoption rate and fostered some poor feedback that quickly proliferated. Read the full article on SmallBizTechnology.Com

Survey: Many businesses plan to skip Windows 7

Although plenty of businesses skipped Windows Vista, a significant number of corporations have no plans to quickly move to Windows 7, according to a new survey. The survey, which received feedback from 1,000 IT administrators, found that nearly 60 percent have no current plan to adopt Windows 7. The survey, conducted by Quest Software’s ScriptLogic unit, received the 1,000 responses from 20,000 surveys it distributed. Read the full article on CNet.Com

Release date announced for Vista’s replacement.

Microsoft announced that Windows 7 would be “generally available” on October 22, according to a Dow Jones news report. UPDATED with confirmation by Microsoft.

Bill Veghte, SVP of the Windows business, is quoted as saying: “We feel confident that we will deliver Windows 7 with our partners on Oct. 22.” Does this mean it appears in retail PCs before it appears in boxes, or will it all hit together on the same day? Regardless, it’s a pretty nice early date, definitely good for the Christmas PC-buying season, assuming there is a Christmas this year. Read the full story on Gizmondo.Com

VistaSucks.WordPress.Com to review… Windows 7 RC

You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone more skeptical of Windows than I. So tune in shortly as I review Windows 7 RC.

Now. for the record… I’m going into this with an open mind. I despise Windows Vista, loathe XP, and have become an Apple Fanboy since Vista’s release. In all honesty though I’d like to see Microsoft do something right. I would love for Windows 7 to succeed where XP and Vista failed. I’d love for Microsoft to give me faith in Windows PCs again. I’ve heard good things floating around the net lately about Win 7. Enough good things that I’m curious to have myself a look for myself.

Here’s what will follow shortly. I will be installing the 64-bit version of Windows 7 on the same machine that I had previously attempted to install & use the 64-bit version of Windows Vista Ultimate on when it was first released. What fairer test could there be? Aside from a minor video card upgrade there have been zero changes to the system since November 2006. The PC has been sitting in storage since I got my first Mac in 2007.

The machine is a single core Athlon FX-57 based PC with 2GB of RAM, SLI Nvidia 7900’s, and a 74GB 10,000RPM Raptor

If Windows 7 is really the OS that Vista should’ve been, it should run exceptionally well on this system which was fairly high end in 2006.

We shall see.  Stay tuned.

Apple Sweeps Consumer Reports’ Laptop Recommendations

NYTimes reports that in the most recent issue of Consumer Reports, Apple’s laptops rated highest across the 13″, 14″-16″ and 17″ laptop categories.

Consumer Reports rates laptop computers on performance, ergonomics, versatility, display, speakers, battery life and weight and provides an aggregate score. Scores for Apple’s MacBook, 15″ MacBook Pro, and 17″ MacBook Pro exceeded all others in each of their categories, earning high recommendations from the publication.

The cost of the machines reviewed, however, varied widely with computers ranging from $600 to $2800 being compared in the same categories. These results come shortly after Microsoft’s most recent laptop hunters ad which features a film-maker looking for a laptop computer for video editing. Microsoft’s is pushing the price argument strongly in their recent ad campaign, while Apple has argued that “a PC is no bargain when it doesn’t do what you want.” Read the full story on the NYTimes.Com (found via MacRumors.Com)

Which is Better For Your Business? A Mac or a PC?

“To start, I need to tell you that up until 2006 I was an avid PC user. Starting with my first computer when I was five, an IBM PS2 Model 30 (without a hard drive), I’ve been loyal. I started with DOS, then Windows 3, 3.1, 95, and then XP. Then came Vista. Before Vista, I spent a lot of time rebooting but it was more or less bearable. After Vista, which is by far the worst operating system ever made, I had to find another solution.

In the summer of 2006, I upgraded about 80% of my company’s computers to Macs…” Read the full article at PCWorld.Com

Conficker infected critical hospital equipment.

“It was not widespread, but it raises the awareness of what we would do if there were millions” of computers infected at hospitals or in critical infrastructure locations, Marcus Sachs told CNET News after the session. Sachs is the director of the SANS Internet Storm Center and a former White House cybersecurity official.

It is unclear how the devices, which control things like heart monitors and MRI machines, and the PCs got infected, he said. The computers are older machines running Windows NT and Windows 2000 in a local area network that was not supposed to have access to the Internet, however, the network was connected to one that has direct Internet access and so they were infected, he said. Read the full article on CNet

Enterprises Chucking Windows Choose Macintosh

“…Windows Vista dissatisfaction and concerns about Windows 7 compatibility and deployment costs have some enterprises looking at alternatives, according to the research. The economy is a factor, too, but more to the benefit of Linux than either Mac OS X or Windows. The number of businesses considering “an alternative to adopting Windows Vista or Windows 7″ is 50 percent, up from 42 percent in 2008, according to the report.” Read the full article on Apple Watch.

A Windows Guru spends two weeks with a Mac

“…I’ve been on the front lines of the Mac-PC war for as long as I can remember. My first work computer was an IBM PC with an 8088 CPU. I liked it so much I forked out the money to buy my own machine: an IBM PC XT clone running an 8086 chip, and bulging with 640KB of RAM and a whopping 20MB hard disk.

Since then, I’ve written dozens of books and hundreds or thousands of articles, columns and blogs about PCs and Windows. Along the way, I’ve earned the unending enmity of plenty of Mac folks.” Read the full article on ComputerWorld.Com

Texas state Senate bans Vista from use in government agencies

According to Sen. Juan Hinojosa, vice chairman of the Finance Committee who proposed the ban, he did so because “of the many reports of problems with Vista.” He goes on to say that:

“We are not in any way, shape or form trying to pick on Microsoft, but the problems with this particular [operating] system are known nationwide. And the XP operating system is working very well.” Read the full article on ComputerWorld.Com found via TUAW.Com

Vista to XP ‘downgrade’ lawsuit revised

“…Alvarado claimed that Microsoft violated its dominant market position by requiring consumers to buy computers pre-installed with Vista and then getting them to cough up additional cash to “downgrade” to XP.

However, according to Computer World, the revised lawsuit goes into much greater detail about how Microsoft allegedly profits from its Vista downgrade practices.

“Microsoft has used its market power to take advantage of consumer demand for the Windows XP operating system by requiring consumers to purchase a PC that includes a licence for the use of the Vista operating system and to pay money (as part of the overall purchase price of the PC) to downgrade to the Windows XP Professional operating system,” reads the suit.

Her complaint hinges on allegations that Microsoft forced individuals running Vista Basic to first upgrade to Vista Business or Vista Ultimate and then pay for a download licence fee for XP Professional.” Read the full article on ChannelRegister.Co.Uk

Comic – Masochist

Microsoft sued for charging for Vista-XP downgrade

Microsoft has been sued this week over claims that the necessity to pay for its Vista-to-XP downgrade program abuses the company’s Windows monopoly. Filed in a Seattle federal district court, the lawsuit found by the Seattle Times accuses Microsoft of violating Washington state business and consumer protection laws by creating an unfair license that cost plaintiff Emma Alvarado $59.25 to revert from Windows Vista Business to XP Professional. Read the full article on Electronista.Com

Why Microsoft Should Give Windows 7 Away

Gizmodo.Com writes: “Windows 7 is shaping up to be an awesome OS. It’s everything people wanted Vista to be and more. Which is exactly why Microsoft should give it away-or offer it dirt cheap-to Vista users.

Windows 7 is the solution to Microsoft’s Vista problem, which is really a nasty hydra of a problem. Let’s not pretend that this isn’t the case. There are three major heads to the beast: Consumer perception of Vista as an abysmal failure and a crappy OS (hence, Mojave); the use of XP instead of Vista in increasingly popular netbooks; and the critical lack of Vista interest from the business community.” Read the full article on Gizmodo.Com

‘Vista Capable’ case could cost Microsoft $8.5B

Microsoft Corp. would have to come up with as much as $8.5 billion to settle accounts with the customers affected by its 2006 “Vista Capable” marketing program, according to documents unsealed by a federal court.

U.S. District Court Judge Marsha Pechman released the figures yesterday from the class-action lawsuit, which claims Microsoft misled consumers with the Vista Capable campaign in the months leading up to the January 2007 release of the operating system.

Microsoft dismissed the estimate in a filing of its own yesterday, saying it was “absurdly [valued]” and if damages were granted, added that it would be a “windfall to millions.”

Even in Test Form, Windows 7 Leaves Vista in the Dust

Some good news for a change on the Windows front. More and more people have got their hands on the pre-release version of Vista’s succesor and the initial reactions are pretty positive. Walt Mossberg chimes in with his opinion:  “…I won’t be doing a full, detailed review of Windows 7 until it is released in final form, but here’s a preview of some of the main features of this new operating system and some of my initial impressions.

In general, I have found Windows 7 a pleasure to use. There are a few drawbacks, but my preliminary verdict on Windows 7 is positive.

Even in beta form, with some features incomplete or imperfect, Windows 7 is, in my view, much better than Vista, whose sluggishness, annoying nag screens, and incompatibilities have caused many users to shun it.” Read the full review on All Things Digital

Vietnamese Government won’t be using Windows 7

“…by June 30, 2009, 100% of clients of IT divisions of government agencies must be installed with open source software; 100% of staffs at these IT divisions must be trained in the use of these software products and at least 50% use them proficiently.

IT divisions at government agencies comprise the IT departments of ministries and government agencies, provincial and municipal Departments of Information and Communications.” Read the full story on Vietnamnet.Vn

PC makers to provide free Vista-to Win-7 upgrades starting July 1

In yet another indicator as to the progress of Windows 7, the Tech ARP site reported that Microsoft plans to allow PC makers to offer customers who buy Windows Vista machines as of July 1 free upgrades to Windows 7 once it ships.

It looks as if Tech ARP may have obtained internal Microsoft information on its Windows 7 Technical Guarantee program. The Web site says that Microsoft provided PC partners with a first pass draft of its Tech Guarantee documentation on December 10.

According to a December posting on the Tech ARP site, Windows Vista PCs must be purchased by end users … between July 1, 2009 through TBD (to be determined)” to qualify for the Windows 7 Tech Guarantee program. The wording notes that “OEMs may choose to offer a shorter program period within the allowed date range.” Read the full article on All About Microsoft

Microsoft Extends XP Life Again, This Time for PC Builders

Windows XP has risen from the grave so many times, it now has more in common with Friday the 13th’s Jason Voorhees than it does with other PC operating systems. Though its successor–Windows Vista–has been on the market for over two years and yet another Windows version, Windows 7, will ship in just months, Microsoft has again extended the time frame for consumers who wish to continue using the seven-year-old XP. This time around, the company is allowing custom PC builders–alternatively called “system builders” and “white box PC makers”–to continue ordering XP for their PCs through May 30, 2009. Read the full story on WindowsITPro.Com found via Bink.Nu

Vista To XP Upgrade Triples In Price, Now $150 USD

“Dell has tripled the charge to upgrade Vista PCs to XP. Under current licensing ‘downgrade’ agreements, system builders can install XP Pro instead of Vista Business or Vista Ultimate; however, Dell has opted for a surcharge of $150 over the price of Vista for the older but more popular XP Professional operating system. Rob Enderle says the downgrade fees could potentially be disastrous for Microsoft: ‘The fix for this should be to focus like lasers on demand generation for Vista but instead Microsoft is focusing aggressively on financial penalties,” says Enderle. ‘Forcing customers to go someplace they don’t want to go by raising prices is a Christmas present for Apple and those that are positioning Linux on the desktop.’” Read the full story on PCWorld.Com Found via SlashDot.Org

‘Vista blows’ says DirectX creator

One of the creators of Microsoft’s original DirectX specification, Alex St. John, has hit out at Windows Vista, saying that it’s holding back PC gaming.

When the guys at ExtremeTech asked if he saw DirectX 10 as a viable gaming platform, St. John replied that: ‘There are several, complex answers to this. First, Vista blows. DirectX came with it…you just want to slap Microsoft and go, “What the hell were you thinking?”‘

Along with Craig Eisler and Eric Engstrom, Alex St. John created DirectX for Microsoft in the first place back in 1995, but he now thinks that the resource-heavy OS is preventing PCs from being able to compete with consoles in the gaming industry. Read the full article on ExtremeTech.Com found via CustomPC.Co.Uk

Microsoft cleans fake antivirus tool from 994,061 PCs

“The Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT) is a small program Microsoft pushes out to computers on Patch Tuesday to clean out a list of malware. On this month’s Patch Tuesday, Microsoft added scans for a malware file that masks itself as security software, and it found plenty of copies.

Win32/FakeSecSen has gone by various names, including Micro Antivirus 2009, MS Antivirus, Spyware Preventer, Vista Antivirus 2008, Advanced Antivirus, System Antivirus 2008, Ultimate Antivirus 2008, Windows Antivirus, XPert Antivirus, Power Antivirus, and Ultra Antivirus 2009. Furthermore, it is skinnable, so each of these variants has a different GUI, although the basic functionality is the same: bother users with warnings of malware until they pay up.

The Microsoft Malware Protection Center recently released some data on how the removal tool performed this month: FakeSecSen was removed from 994,061 machines.” Read the full story on ArsTechnica.Com

Forbes: Snow Leopard Endangers Vista

“…Vista, meanwhile, is tottering. Operating income for Microsoft’s mighty client division actually declined to $3.3 billion for the quarter ending in September from $3.4 billion during the year-ago period. Part of the problem is that businesses tend to switch to a new operating system all at once, and many are choosing to wait. General Motors (nyse: GM – news – people ) chief techie Fred Killeen has even said the auto giant may choose to skip Windows Vista and wait for Windows 7, due in 2010 or 2011.

Apple, meanwhile, is preparing to release an operating system focused on Vista user’s biggest gripes: speed and stability.” Read the Full article on Forbes.Com

More internal e-mails emerge from Microsoft

“More documents are coming out in court proceedings over the Vista Capable debacle. Internetnews.com has good coverage of HP’s fury over Microsoft lowering the requirements for a Vista Capable sticker, at Intel’s request. “Intel officials may have been pleased that Microsoft lowered standards for obtaining the company’s Windows Vista Capable logo program sticker, but the same can’t be said about HP’s execs. ‘I can’t be more clear than to say you not only let us down by reneging on your commitment to stand behind the [device driver model] requirement, you have demonstrated a complete lack of commitment to HP as a strategic partner and cost us a lot of money in the process,’ said one e-mail from Richard Walker, the senior vice president of HP’s consumer business unit, to [Microsoft executives].” PCPro.co.uk follows the trail of accusatory emails inside Microsoft from there: “HP’s email prompted then Microsoft co-President, Jim Allchin, to send a furious email of his own to company CEO Steve Ballmer. Allchin’s email suggests the decision to lower the requirements was made in his absence by Ballmer, following ‘a call between you and Paul [Otellini, Intel CEO].’ ‘I am beyond being upset here,’ Allchin wrote to Ballmer. ‘What a mess. Now we have an upset partner, Microsoft destroyed credibility [sic], as well as my own credibility shot.’ Ballmer, in turn, blamed another Microsoft executive, Will Poole, in a rather erratically typed reply to Allchin.” Via Slashdot. See also The Seattle Times, and InternetNews.Com

Steve Ballmer washes hands of Vista Capable claims

Steve Ballmer claims he wasn’t involved in the “operational decisions” involving Microsoft’s controversial Vista Capable scheme.

The software giant is currently facing a class action in the US over claims that the Vista Capable sticker scheme misled people into buying machines that were only able to run the stripped-down version of the OS, Vista Home Basic.

Plaintiffs in the case want Ballmer to give evidence, but in a document filed to the court, Ballmer denies all knowledge of the intricacies of the scheme.

“I was not involved in any of the operational decisions about the Windows Vista Capable program,” Ballmer claims in the document acquired by the Seattle Post Intelligencer.

“I was not involved in establishing the requirements computers must satisfy to qualify for the Windows Vista Capable program.

“To the best of my recollection, I do not have any unique knowledge of, nor did I have any unique involvement in, any decisions regarding the Windows Vista Capable programme.” See the full article on PCPro.Co.Uk

Microsoft Using Apple’s Macbook Pro In Promotional Material

“…sometimes one encounters stuff that is just too good to pass. So that other day my dad bought a new HP Pavilion desktop, and since I am the geek in residence I ended up setting it up for him. So while I was waiting for Microsoft’s endless configuration and setup screens I decided to dig into the fluffy paraphernalia and promotional material bundled with the Desktop. The first thing that fell into my hand was this Microsoft Vista promotional booklet that had an image of the ideal happy family computing on a laptop. What stood out was that the laptop looked awfully similar to the Macbook Pro!” [It IS a MacBook Pro - Jay]

See the full post including the Playstation in place of an X-Box on Royal HeHe2-ness

Under the Hood, Windows 7 Is Vista’s Twin

“…Bottom line: So far, Windows 7 looks, behaves, and performs almost exactly like Windows Vista. And it breaks all sorts of things that used to work just fine under Vista. In other words, Microsoft’s follow-up to its most unpopular OS release since Windows Me threatens to deliver zero measurable performance benefits while introducing new and potentially crippling compatibility issues.” Read the full article at PCWorld.Com

Engadget.Com asks “Which OS do you prefer?”

Head on over and answer their poll.

First Look: Windows 7

At PDC today, Microsoft gave the first public demonstration of Windows 7. Until now, the company has been uncharacteristically secretive about its new OS; over the past few months, Microsoft has let on that the taskbar will undergo a number of changes, and that many bundled applications would be unbundled and shipped with Windows Live instead. There have also been occasional screenshots of some of the new applets like Calculator and Paint. Now that the covers are finally off, the scale of the new OS becomes clear. The user interface has undergone the most radical overhaul and update since the introduction of Windows 95 thirteen years ago. Read the full article and see the screenshots at ArsTechnica.Com

Revealed: What’s in Windows 7

Microsoft is bullish about Windows 7’s prospects, claiming the company “has never been in such great shape prior to a release of Windows”.

However, it admits that Vista caused both customers and OEMS too much pain, but promised that they would now reap the benefits in Windows 7. “The ecosystem wasn’t ready for the release of Windows Vista,” said Windows senior vice president, Steve Sinofksy.

“The driver compatibility wasn’t there, the application compatibility wasn’t there. UAC [user account control] was so famous, I thought it might surpass Clippy,” he joked. Read the full article on PCPro.Co.Uk

Microsoft renames it’s Vista Blog to the Windows Blog

“…we just re-launched our blog today as The Windows Blog sporting an all-new look and feel reflecting Windows in a broader sense instead of a single Windows release. We figured it was time to give our blog a good facelift (it’s looked the same since we originally launched in October of 2006) – especially as we start talking about Windows 7, Windows Live, and many other interesting Windows topics. Our old design focused strictly on Windows Vista. Our new design is no longer tied to a specific Windows release allowing us to talk about a wider range of topics.” Visit the new site here.

Comic: Motivation

Windows Vista No Longer Matters

Make no mistake: Microsoft has moved beyond Windows Vista, which will become all too apparent during this week’s Professional Developer Conference. Windows 7 is the future, and in many ways it’s the present, too.

Contrary to ridiculous assertions recently made by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Windows Vista is a flop. If businesses aren’t buying Vista, after waiting six (now seven) years, it’s no success. Yet, during the last day of the Gartner 2008 expo 10 days ago, Steve asserted that Vista “has been extremely successful.”

A few days earlier, Steve boasted: “Vista is our best-selling product ever. So, if that takes too much getting over-we’re not going to have products that are much more successful than Vista has been. We sold over 180 million copies in the first 18 months, quite successful.” Really?

But who’s buying this “best-selling” product ever? “We have 180 million users, mostly on the consumer market,” Steve said in an Oct. 2 speech. Oh? According to Gartner analysts Neil MacDonald and David Smith, only about 10 percent of enterprises have adopted Windows Vista. That’s not a high number, particularly in context of the approximately six years between Windows XP and Vista. Read the full article on Microsoft Watch

Poll: What Operating System are you using at home?

“Hey, Dad…Can I have Linux back?”

“My oldest son, creator of flame wars, finally discovered that you can only surf to the nether regions of the Internet so many times before even Vista business succumbs to malware. His computer an unusable mass of pop-ups, spewing traffic over our network actually asked me tonight to reinstall Linux for him.

He still wants a Vista virtual machine since Spore is a pretty fine game and his Zune probably won’t play nice with Linux. However, for everyday use, he’s done with Vista. Not only does it lack the “amusing desktop effects” (which his mother hates, by the way, on her new Linux desktop), but even running Clamwin and Windows Defender, he still managed to infect it with a variety of junk, rendering it useless when he had a term paper to write.” Read the full article on Christopher Dawson’s Blog

Vista’s Succesor gets a Name

“…now is a good time to announce that we’ve decided to officially call the next version of Windows, “Windows 7.”

While I know there have been a few cases at Microsoft when the codename of a product was used for the final release, I am pretty sure that this is a first for Windows. You might wonder about the decision.

The decision to use the name Windows 7 is about simplicity. Over the years, we have taken different approaches to naming Windows. We’ve used version numbers like Windows 3.11, or dates like Windows 98, or “aspirational” monikers like Windows XP or Windows Vista. And since we do not ship new versions of Windows every year, using a date did not make sense. Likewise, coming up with an all-new “aspirational” name does not do justice to what we are trying to achieve, which is to stay firmly rooted in our aspirations for Windows Vista, while evolving and refining the substantial investments in platform technology in Windows Vista into the next generation of Windows.

Simply put, this is the seventh release of Windows, so therefore “Windows 7″ just makes sense.” Read the full post on the Windows Vista Blog

Has Microsoft lost it?

The ‘Wow’ marketing campaign for Vista has been replaced with the more desperate ‘if you try it, you might not hate it’ Mojave campaign, and mini-PCs – one of the few PC sectors that hasn’t stagnated – are sticking with Windows XP. Even Office, Microsoft’s cash cow, is under attack from free and open source rivals.

So has Ballmer inherited a poisoned chalice? Has Microsoft lost it? And if it has, can it find it again? Read the full story on TechRadar.Com

Maine To Skip Vista, Go Directly To Windows 7

In a troubling sign for Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT)’s key Windows franchise, businesses and government agencies continue to snub the latest version of the operating system, Vista, despite the fact that it’s been on the market for almost two years and has been significantly upgraded via a full service pack meant to solve a range of performance issues.

The ongoing shunning of Vista is even more surprising given that its predecessor — Windows XP — is, for the most part, no longer even on the market.

The latest organization likely to forgo Vista? The state of Maine. Read the full story on InformationWeek.Com

The top five reasons why Windows Vista failed

The public reputation of Windows Vista is in shambles, as Microsoft itself tacitly acknowledged in its Mojave ad campaign.

IT departments are largely ignoring Vista. In June (18 months after Vista’s launch), Forrester Research reported that just 8.8% of enterprise PCs worldwide were running Vista. Meanwhile, Microsoft appears to have put Windows 7 on an accelerated schedule that could see it released in 2010. That will provide IT departments with all the justification they need to simply skip Vista and wait to eventually standardize on Windows 7 as the next OS for business.

So how did Vista get left holding the bag? Let’s look at the five most important reasons why Vista failed. Read the full story on Between The Lines

Microsoft extends XP downgrade rights date by six months

Microsoft is sending some very confusing signals about Windows Vista – the latest of which it issued via a statement on October 3.

The Register reported on October 2 that Microsoft was going to extend again the date until which PC makers would be allowed to continue to offer Windows users “downgrade rights,” enabling them to switch from Vista to XP on new machines. The Reg said Microsoft had moved the downgrade cut-off date from January 31, 2009 to July 31, 2009.

I asked Microsoft about the Reg’s report and got this statement… Read the full article at All About Microsoft

A third of new PCs being downgraded to XP, says metrics researcher

More than one in every three new PCs is downgraded from Windows Vista to the older Windows XP, either at the factory or by the buyer, a performance and metrics researcher said today.

According to Devil Mountain Software Inc., which operates a community-based testing network, nearly 35% of the 3,000-plus PCs it examined had been downgraded from Vista to XP.

“Either these machines were downgraded by [sellers like] Dell or HP, or they were downgraded by the user after they got the machine,” said Craig Barth, chief technology officer at Devil Mountain. “In any case, these machines are no longer running Vista.” Read the full story on ComputerWorld.Com

Are Macs More Expensive? Let’s Do the Math Once and For All

“It’s of those eternal questions of the computing world that never seems to get answered definitively: Does the “Mac Tax” really exist? Some folks are positive that Macs are overpriced compared to Windows computers; others deny it steadfastly. Almost nobody, however, bothers to do the math in any serious detail.

So that’s what I’m going to do. And since Apple manufactures multiple models, I’m going to do it one computer at a time, starting with the MacBook, the company’s consumer notebook.” Read the full article at Technologizer.Com

An Open Letter to Windows Vista

“We haven’t talked, but I’ve been watching you from afar and feeling your pain as you’ve dealt with more than your fair share of challenges. Eighteen months after your debut, you simply don’t have an aura of success about you. Worse, your aging predecessor, Windows XP, has unexpectedly gained armies of devotees who refuse to give it up. It’s a pretty sad state of affairs-your original marketing tagline may have been “The Wow Starts Now,” but many people remain steadfastly unwowed.

The idea behind Microsoft’s Mojave Experiment was to suggest that those who spurn you do so out of ignorance. It’s true that some Vista doubters base their distaste on what they’ve heard about you rather than hands-on experience. But I don’t know of anyone outside of Redmond who’d maintain that long-term exposure to you turns the average computer user into a raving fan. Sure, you’re better than you were when you first showed up, thanks to Service Pack 1 and improved compatibility with applications and peripherals. But I’ve talked to lots of people who have used you for many months, and while some of them are pleased with you there are plenty whose feelings range from ennui to anger.” Read the full article at technologizer.com

Quality Control at Microsoft. An expose.

Dean Takahashi, one of the most respected tech journos around, spent years putting together this mind-blowing expose that reveals the truly epic scale of the problems that lead to millions of dead Xbox 360s. It really is one of the most stunning flustercucks in gaming history. According to his account, Microsoft willfully ignored deep, systemic problems in the console’s production that reached from chipmakers-initially, only 16 out of every 100 of its IBM-made processors worked-to production lines, where just before launch, an unbelievable 68 percent of consoles made were clunkers. Read the full article at VentureBeat.Com found via Gizmodo

Former Mac hater reflects on his switch to Mac. (Pt. II)

“…What I find interesting after 6 months is the impact buying that little MacBook had not only on the way I handle my personal computing but to a large degree the influence it has had on the way I do my development work. You see after I bought the MacBook I found myself doing more and more with it. I had a Windows XP development / gaming rig parked directly in front of me but I was constantly sliding my hands over to the MacBook.

My entire development platform-at the time Visual Studio-was completely set up and I had my after-market libraries installed and was using it to build my next online service business. Even with all of my development experience being Windows based I constantly found myself pushing away from my XP system and over to the MacBook.” Read the full story on David Alison’s Blog

Researcher finds Internet Explorer 8 to be a memory hog

“…By test end, IE8 Beta 2 had grabbed 380MB of memory on the 2GB-equipped system running Windows Vista, while IE7 accounted for 250GB and Firefox 3.0.1, the most-recent version of the open source browser, had taken 159MB. When the same tests were run under Windows XP, each browser consumed slightly less memory than in Vista; IE8 Beta 2, however, continued to lead the competition by wide margins.

“When Windows XP starts, the entire OS takes 130 to 150MB,” said Barth. “Suddenly you’re looking at a memory footprint for IE that’s bigger than Microsoft’s earlier operating system. IE8 is fatter than XP.” Read the full story on Infoworld.Com

Dell, Intel give users what they want: to turn Windows off

Dell, Intel and their partners announced this week new technologies that represent major leaps forward for mobility. The companies seem to have discovered the secret to making such bold leaps: Cut Microsoft out of the deal.

One technology involves enabling users to gain instant access to a laptop’s e-mail, browser and other basic functionality — without booting Windows at all.

The second technology enables an Internet-based message to wake a Windows PC from sleep mode. It’s useful both for VoIP applications and for anyone away from their PC who wants remote access.

These new technologies are perfect metaphors for what’s happening in the industry. In both cases, Windows is asleep while Microsoft’s own partners give users what they really want. Read the full article on ComputerWorld.Com