VistaSucks.WordPress.Com

This site

vistasucks — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 19:35:46 +0000

I’m officially ending this “project”. Vista has been replaced, Windows 7 is a worthwhile upgrade from either XP or Vista if you’re too cheap for a Mac Mini.

The site will stay up for archival purposes.

In closing…

If you’re going to use Windows, get 7. If you’re getting 7, get the family pack and upgrade ALL your computers as mixing XP, Vista, and 7 in a household can cause a lot of headaches. Don’t buy anything with Windows 7 Starter Edition loaded on it.

As for myself…

I will continue to support Windows as it’s what pays my bills. But 7 hasn’t won me back from the Mac side. Not a chance.

When people ask me about the Mac I say two things.

I used Windows for over 15 years before trying a Mac. Now you couldn’t get me to swear off Macs if you offered me $10,000 cash right now. I’d laugh and walk away.
Windows work pays the bills. Mac work pays for the popcorn at the movie that the PC work paid for.

Actually… Maybe you should use Windows. I could use the money.

Signing off…

Jay

A Windows to Help You Forget

vistasucks — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 02:38:35 +0000

“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

vistasucks — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 04:00:22 +0000

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?

vistasucks — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 00:59:03 +0000

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

vistasucks — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 23:39:20 +0000

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

vistasucks — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 06:49:21 +0000

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.

vistasucks — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 04:49:43 +0000

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

vistasucks — Wed, 06 May 2009 08:18:11 +0000

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

vistasucks — Tue, 05 May 2009 07:23:03 +0000

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?

vistasucks — Sat, 02 May 2009 19:09:03 +0000

“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.

vistasucks — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 02:37:50 +0000

“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

vistasucks — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 19:05:44 +0000

“…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

vistasucks — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 04:26:47 +0000

“…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

vistasucks — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 17:54:07 +0000

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

vistasucks — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 05:32:20 +0000

“…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