A thought from the author: Vista in retail.

I had an epiphany yesterday while I was in the local Best Buy on my lunch break picking up a purchase for myself. I suddenly found myself able to put into words what my gut has been telling me for months.

I was watching mid-day, week-day shoppers as they were browsing around the computer department eyeing desktops, and notebook computers. Most of them looked like Parents or Grandparents shopping for their kid’s school computers or getting a head start on Christmas shopping for the grand-children. As I watched these people toy about cluelessly with the Vista loaded hardware looking like they barely knew how to operate a trackpad, I felt that familiar sinking feeling that I’ve felt so many times before in the same situation.

The following phrase came to me that sums up my feelings on seeing consumers at the mercy of, salesmen, retailers, manufacturers, and Vista and not doing anything about it.

“It’s like silently watching as someone excitedly tells a wide-eyed smiling child to enter a cave to get the treasure inside, when you know that the only thing inside the cave is a 9′ tall Kodiak Bear that’s grumpy & hungry.”

That’s a pretty accurate statement on how I feel every time I see someone naively eyeing a Vista PC in a store, or a salesman excitedly raving to a 50 year old woman about how great her new Vista loaded laptop will be. I want to run up to these shoppers, point at the screen in front of them and basically say something to the effect of “Vista = The Plague”, or “Give that $1499 to me, and allow me to kick you in the groin instead.”

The salesman isn’t going to tell that mother of 2 that her son might not be able to use his old printer, or webcam with Vista, or that the Vista: Basic Edition doesn’t get all the bells and whistles that Vista: Expensive Edition does, or that they may soon find the new laptop to be underpowered and slower than their 2 year old computer running Windows XP SP3.

The consumer isn’t going to know to be wary of Vista. They don’t read reviews or the buzz on the net, they read the newspaper and see the flyer inserts advertising how great and cheap Vista laptops are this week. They listen to what salespeople tell them. Because if he/she works in the computer department they must know what they’re talking about. And if by chance they think they recall hearing something bad about Vista and want XP instead, well they’re S.O.L. “We don’t have XP anymore. XP is old. This is the new and improved Windows.”

I really can’t help but feel sad for these people.

This is a bit of a rant… (as many of my thoughts usually are) but these people are victims of the PC industry and Microsoft. These everyday Joes and Janes that just don’t know any better than to settle for what is forked over to them by the industry, these are the people that need to know what they’re getting into but sadly will never know until it’s to late.

The only people that would buy a Windows Vista loaded computer are the naive, those with no choice in the matter, or those that are very knowlegable, brave, and a perhaps a little sadomasicistic.

Yes, I feel this stongly against Vista. And coming from someone who used to swear by Windows and hated Macs, I think that speaks pretty volumes of the current situation with Vista and PCs.

This is of course just my opinion. And while I’m certain I’m not alone in it, there are others that would say that there are a lot of people out there that Vista works just fine for. This is an undisputed certainty.

There are people out there that will walk out of a store with a Vista bundled PC, get it home, and use it with no problems. But these are typically the people who have very few demands or expectations from their computers.

Case and point: My physiotherapist. She is an intelligent, well educated proffesional who recently purchased a Vista Basic Laptop to replace her aging XP machine. I asked her how she’s found her time with it. She replied that she has had no problems with it and that she “got her pictures on it.”

I’m certain that if all I expected from my computer was to be a photo repository, I would have no problems with her computer as well.

The odds of her doing anything demanding on, or with her machine are very low. She’ll never do any photo tagging or sharing. She’ll never play any games, or get into home movie making or amateur music making, and she’ll likely never even think of needing more RAM in her computer. But I feel sorry for her when one day she tries to hook up her old webcam only to discover that she needs a new one that’s “Vista Certified” or when she can’t figure out why the systems seems so slow and the hard drive keeps spinning.

She won’t have a clue why and will one day just accept that maybe she needs a newer, better, faster, Vista laptop. Maybe a different brand name computer this time so it will be better than the last one.

(sigh) It’s depressing.

Who benefits from all this? Microsoft does. So does the hardware manufacturer, & the retailer, & the commision based salesman. All with a vested intrest to sell consumers the proverbial lemon. Then there’s the Geek Squad guys who benefit from charging customers to fix their new machines when the problem isn’t the computer, it’s the OS loaded on it.

Who’s the loser? Well duh! It’s the Grandmother on hold with Tech support for 45 minutes and tears in her eyes wondering why the brand new expensive laptop she bought for her Grandson for Christmas doesn’t play his “Made for Windows” Direct X 10 games, Crashes a lot, and runs like a dog.

Here’s a tip Grandma. Don’t let a retail outlet salesman pimp you to a grumpy Kodiak. In other words… Stay the heck away from Vista.

So what’s my overall point? My point is this: If you feel like I do, then next time you see someone in a store, about to make a Vista mistake, take 5 seconds to whisper a “Vista = Leprosy” their way. They may listen to your advice, they may not, but either way it’ll do wonders for your karma.

Ok I’m done.