[Cialug] Microsoft's attempts to overcome Vista preconceptions

[Jeff Chapin]

With my previous job, I was constantly running into applications that I 
wanted to run that had issues, from having to turn off that horrid areo 
them to get it to run, or needing to jump through hoops to get software 
to run as a restricted user (right click and run the installer as 
administrator, and then do the same on the launcher), or applications 
that was used to simply not running on Vista, and no idea why. I 
understand that some of these issues are partially the application' s 
fault, as they needed to get updated to run on Vista -- but when it was 
boiled down, the fact that the tools I needed for my job not running was 
an issue. So was the 5 minute resume from hibernation. I honestly did 
not care *why* things like suspend/resume/reboot took so horribly long. 
I also have no pity for Microsoft when they fail to test the new OS with 
their own office suite and take many months after the OS release to 
update the office suit to run properly.

Another major issue I had with it was when I started with Vista, I had 
patches pushed out to me almost daily to address issues, and it 
defaulted to wanting to reboot every 5 minutes every time it patched, 
giving me the option of clicking the 'not now' box every so often, or 
losing 45 minutes of the work day to a patch, shutdown, reboot cycle. 
Oh, and that 'reboot now' box? Took a reboot to disable it.

I really felt that I was wasting way too much time administrating my 
vista workstation and not enough on the servers I needed to work on.

Brandon Griffis wrote:
> This is actually kind of interesting to me.  I've been trying to 
> figure out the pros vs cons of Vista.  I think it's easy to say that 
> "it sucks" but a lot of times when I push for reasons I don't get much 
> back (usually just "it's so bloated").
>
> Bloat is a genuine concern, and honestly I'm at a loss to find *what* 
> is bloating Vista vs XP, as I don't see *much* difference.  So I 
> figured I'd ask here to see what differences people find and their 
> thoughts pro v con.
>
> So here is the short list of things I do think Vista is good for.
>
> UAC - I realize I'll probably get some flack on this one, but I think 
> this is a great thing.  Administrative actions *should* need to be 
> confirmed.  Ubuntu (and most desktop linux versions) do the same 
> thing.  It's about time Windows caught up a little to the idea that 
> there should be a user account and an administrative account, and they 
> shouldn't be the same thing but you should be able to do the actions 
> without having to log out and back in (ala win2k).  Granted they 
> aren't actually separate accounts, but still I think it's a step in 
> the right direction
>
> Start Menu Search - this is quite convenient as it keeps me from 
> having to leave the keyboard when trying to launch a program in 
> windows *FINALLY*.  (yes I know there are programs that have been 
> around to do this and that you can setup hotkeys, but I'm talking 
> about built in features and this is nice).
>
> Installation - This one won't matter for most people as they get 
> Windows pre-installed.  But it's nice to finally have a windows 
> version that will actually install to SATA drives (XP sp2 wouldn't do 
> that without a separate driver).  Which is the second benefit of the 
> install, you can load drivers from flash or CDs and not have to hunt 
> around for a floppy (and a driver file small enough to fit on one) if 
> you *do* need to load a driver during installation.  Both of these 
> things are in the "it's about fscking time" category for me, but 
> again, improvements over XP so they have to be checked off in the 
> positive category for Vista.
>
> 64-bit OS - I can't count XP 64 as... well, it just didn't work.  
> 64-bit is an absolute requirement, if for no other reason being able 
> to actually use more than 3GB of memory.
>
> -----
>
> As for the problems:
>
> Long boot - It takes a long time to boot.  I realize the idea is to 
> hibernate and restore (but even that takes as long as an XP boot used 
> to).  And hibernating with a dual boot can cause problems when 
> mounting the partitions in other OSes.
>
> Driver Signing - This is specifically a 64-bit vista problem.  In all 
> the 32-bit versions it works just like XP where it will tell you that 
> it doesn't recommend it, but let you override.  No problem there.  But 
> the 64-bit version *will not* let you run unsigned drivers period 
> (unless you disable it during every boot using F8). 
>
> Memory hog - No idea why.  (perhaps someone could enlighten me).  But 
> 70% of 2GB used up without a single program running is just insane.  
> (note: that's un-tweaked).
>
> Missing 3D Interaction - Why on earth develop a desktop capable of 3D 
> and then do *literally* nothing with it?  For the resources it takes 
> up it should at least offer something.
>
> Thoughts?  Additions?  Questions?  Tomatoes to throw?
>
> -B
>
> On Wed, Jul 30, 2008 at 10:02 AM, Matthew Nuzum <newz at bearfruit.org 
> <mailto:newz at bearfruit.org>> wrote:
>
>     >From a co-worker:
>
>     --
>     Matthew Nuzum
>     newz2000 on freenode
>
>     ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>
>     Spotted this: http://www.mojaveexperiment.com/
>
>     In interviews with computer users, Microsoft have been asking what
>     people think of Vista. That is, people who've never used Vista.
>
>     According to the video on the above website, the response was
>     largely negative.
>
>     They then showed the interviewees Vista but pretended it was called
>     Windows Mojave and that it was the next version of Windows. Cue lots
>     of "Wow, it's so cool" responses.
>
>     At the end of the video, the interviewer comes clean and, again, cue
>     "I gotta get it" type responses.
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