Study finds businesses more satisfied with Mac OS than Vista

Corporate users of Apple Inc.’s Leopard operating system are more than five times more likely to say that they are “very satisfied” with the OS than business users of Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Vista, a research firm said Wednesday.

In a February survey of 2,200 U.S. corporate computer users, 53% of those using Mac OS X 10.5 reported that they were very satisfied with their operating system. Of those using Windows XP or Windows Vista, however, 40% of the former and only 8% of the latter said they were very satisfied.”Apple continues to set the standard for corporate customer satisfaction,” said Paul Carton, director of research at ChangeWave Research. That, and the fact that corporate buying plans for Macs remain at historically high levels, indicate that users like what Apple’s doing, continued Carton. Read the full article on ComputerWorld.Com

Vista SP1: Threat or Menace?

“Popular wisdom says you should wait for SP1 before switching to any new version of Windows. Ironically, the question on the minds of current Vista customers iswhether it’s the right time to switch to SP1.

Vista SP1 reportedly wraps some 551 bug fixes along with performance, reliability, and compatibility enhancements. But given how customers who have upgraded from XP have struggled with driver and application incompatibilities, it’s no surprise that many are gun-shy of the latest update.” Read the full article on WashingtonPost.Com

Microsoft top brass ‘burned’ by Vista problems

“Private Microsoft emails unearthed during a US court case have revealed that even the software giant’s own executives struggled to get Windows Vista running smoothly.”

“…One executive, Mike Nash, complained he was “burned” so badly by compatibility issues he was left with “a $2100 email machine”.

Steven Sinofsky, the Microsoft executive in charge of Windows, struggled to even get his home printer working with Vista.”

“Jon Shirley, who experienced compatibility problems with his Epson printer and scanner and his Nikon film scanner.

He could not even get some of Microsoft’s own MSN software products to work on Vista and refused to upgrade his other computer to the operating system.

“I cannot understand with a product this long in creation why there is such a shortage of drivers,” Shirley wrote to Ballmer.

Other emails from various Microsoft executives show that even they struggled to work out what “Vista Capable” and “Vista Ready” meant when buying a new PC.

“Is it true that Vista Ready doesn’t necessarily mean Aero capable? I got a Dell Latitude that is Vista Ready but doesn’t have enough graphics [hardware],” Sinofsky wrote.”

Read the full article on SydneyMorningHerald.Com.Au

See also this article on the NYTimes.Com

My nightmare trying to upgrade to Vista SP1

“Pity me. I’m trying to update to Vista SP1 and it turns out I’m one of the people on the Vista SP1 banned driver list. I’ve wasted hours of my life that I won’t get back, and still no SP1. I’ll show you what I’ve gone through, including screenshots, so that you don’t have to go through this mess yourself.” Read the full article on ComputerWorld.Com

Windows Vista SP1 wreaks havoc on some PCs, users complain

“…Microsoft on Tuesday made Vista SP1 widely available for the first time. The company has admitted it’s still not perfect.The service pack will not install on computers that use peripheral device drivers that Microsoft has deemed incompatible. The list includes a small set of audio and display drivers made by Realtek and Intel, as well as drivers from several other manufacturers.

Microsoft said it’s working to resolve the compatibility issues”

“…Other troubles reported by Vista SP1 users ranged from a simple inability to download the software from Microsoft’s Windows Update site to sudden spikes in memory usage. “Went from using 650 MB RAM idle to 1 Gig… I’ll be switching back,” said “Kurrier.” Read the full story on ITNews.Com.Au

Apple snags 14 percent of US-based PC retail sales in February

Apple’s computer sales in the US have grown considerably from last year – at 60-percent unit growth and 67-percent revenue growth – granting it 14-percent of all computers sold for February. According to AppleInsider, Apple’s laptop systems saw the largest growth, representing a 64-percent increase in units sold, and 67-percent increased revenue, suggesting strong acceptance of the company’s new ultra-portable, the MacBook Air. Read the full story on AppleInsider.Com

Desktop OS, Hold the Vista

EWeek has released their Enterprise IT survey findings on OS migration. The general consensus? IT Pros still hate Vista.

“…72 percent of respondents said they expected the desktop OS they were using now to be the one they would be using in 2009. Some respondents were looking beyond Vista, with 6 percent saying the desktop OS they expected to be using in 2009 would be Windows “7,” the post-Vista version of Windows.” Read the full report on EWeek.Com

Court docs reveal Microsoft’s TRUE motivation for relaxing Vista’s License Agreement

“…Microsoft finally relented in January and allowed Vista Home Basic and Vista Home Premium to be virtualized, company officials attributed the change of heart to a newfound “maturity in the industry,” in terms of being able to trust “what’s under the virtual machine.”But the real reason for Microsoft’s capitulation became clear on March 7 via a new joint-status report in the Microsoft-Department of Justice case. It turns out BIOS maker Phoenix Technologies (a long-time Microsoft partner) filed a complaint with antitrust regulators about Microsoft’s virtualization restrictions.” Read the full story on All About Microsoft

Windows Exploit leads to “amazing amount” of stolen Pentagon data.

“…the intrusion was first detected during an IT restructuring that was underway at the time. By the time it was detected, malicious code had been in the system for at least two months, and was propagating via a known Windows exploit. The bug spread itself by e-mailing malicious payloads from one system on the network to another. The messages themselves were spoofed and appeared to be legitimate missives from other employees. Once the recipient opened an infected e-mail, the worm sent that person’s password and other login credentials back to home base.” Read the full story on Ars Technica