forbes smacks down Microsoft's Vista

[alfredo]

Has Microsoft jumped the couch for real this time? I have little faith that Vista will be released in Jan 2007. We've heard the the promises before. Wasn't this new OS to be released in 2004? As I said before, MS should have gone UNIX.

http://www.forbes.com/technology/2006/03/22/vista-microsoft-ballmer_cz_dl_0322microsoft.html

Microsoft Vista: Not 'People Ready'
Daniel Lyons, 03.22.06, 11:45 AM ET
Steve Ballmer


Boston -
The new version of Microsoft Windows, called Vista, has slipped again. It was originally going to ship in 2003. Then 2005. Then 2006. Now in early 2007. I'm not surprised, having seen a demo of Microsoft's new programs at an "event" for tech buyers in New York last week.

The new programs are phenomenally complex, with scores of buttons and pull-down menus and myriad connections among various applications. A Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) VP zipped through a demo, moving information from Outlook to Powerpoint to Groove to some kind of social networking program that lets you see how your colleagues and your colleagues' colleagues rate various Web sites.

Meanwhile, 500 tech buyers sat there in the dark, their eyes glazing over from the sheer mind-numbing pointlessness of most of this stuff. The audience laughed out loud when the Microsoft guy showed off a kludgey system that lets you fetch Outlook e-mail messages using voice commands from a cell phone.

The system has all the charm of those automated phone systems you encounter when you call customer service: Your call is very important to us. And while it is cool and futuristic to have a computer "read" your e-mail to you, uh, dude--we all have BlackBerrys anyway. In fact, many in the audience weren't even watching the voice-activated e-mail demo--they were checking mail on their BlackBerrys

[wakeme2008]

1. I will stay with my PowerPC Apple and XP machine

thank you very much...

[quinnox]

2. I like win 98 still

Gonna get XP soon cause of a new computer but at least I understand there are ways to make it look and act like win 98.

[B3Nut]

8. XP and 2K walk all over 98

Much more robust multitasking, task management, computer management, and networking tools. 2K and XP have a task manager that can display running processes, CPU utilization, and memory usage. 98 is much more limited. Also, 98 needs to be rebooted if you change networking settings...2K and XP can change IP addresses on the fly. Much easier to troubleshoot and tweak. I still have to support the odd 98 machine, and I always recommed upgrading whenever possible. If I wipe 98 out and install 2000 the computer works much better afterward.

Todd in Beerbratistan

[NYCGirl]

3. I love my Mac! NT

[tridim]

4. Yawn.. OS bashing is so 1990's

There's a massive double standard for everything Microsoft. It's been that way forever, and I bet it'll also be that way 100 years from now. Meanwhile I'll continue loading my applications in Windows and letting it do it's job in the background, 99% flawlessly.

[alfredo]

7. this is more about systemic problems at Microsoft.

Why haven't they been able to put together a working OS to replace XP? They have access to the best and the brightest. Why are they having so much trouble? Where is the weak link?

[tridim]

9. Because they're trying to live up to the double standard,

which is nearly impossible. They know that if it's not 100% perfect they'll get spanked by non-expert sources like Forbes Magazine.

IMO the real issue is that Windows users and Microsoft know XP is solid. Most users don't care about Vista's release date, nor do they want to pay for it. The stockholders are the only party that care about releasing a new OS every 5 years.

[alfredo]

10. I saw on slashdot that they are going to have to do a 60% rewrite

of the code. They are pulling XBox people off their projects to work on Vista.
http://www.smarthouse.com.au/Computing/Platforms?Article=/Computing/Platforms/R7G5G6U4

Will people even care if Vista ever gets released? If Vista bombs, they will have wasted billions of dollars and valuable time. At one time MSFT was golden. It was giving a great return for your investment. You look at the 5 year chart and you see a stagnant company. It's not keeping up with Nasdaq, Dow, and S&P 500. I guess you could make money on the volatility like they did with Apple in the Pre return of Steve Jobs days. It just doesn't look like a good long term investment anymore.

[bpilgrim]

12. yeah, the poor big 800lb gorilla is always getting picked on for no reason

yeah, everyone who has problems with MS are simply too stupid to run a computer correctly or they just hate MS for no reason.

reminds me of a DLC consultant :evilgrin:

peace

[tridim]

15. Well they do get picked on by Mac users for no reason

I'm a Windows user/programmer and I complain about MS all the time, but that's only because I'm an end user and a paying customer. It's the stupid OS wars that are a waste of time, and it comprises the vast majority of MS bashing.

I just have to laugh at people who bash Bill Gates. Sure he's a ruthless businessman (like most successful businessmen), but he's also the greatest philanthropist in history. He's giving away his money to good causes just as fast as he makes it.

[MrPrax]

5. More:

Boy M$ has lots it's prestige and for good reason...

"Microsoft can't afford to screw up like this. There are free alternatives to everything Microsoft sells, like the Linux operating system and the Open Office application suite. Rivals like Novell, Red Hat, Sun Microsystems and, yes, IBM are pushing those programs big time.

Given Microsoft's delays I can't believe open-source stuff still hasn't caught on for desktop computers. It's amazing, but people will wait months and months for products that are so complicated that no ordinary person can figure out how to use them.

Why not at least switch to an Apple Computer Mac? Apple's new operating system is stable, reliable and easy to use. The applications are simple, gorgeous and work well together. And they're here. Today. SteveJobsSteve Jobs must be waking up a happy man this morning.

Forbes


Me neither...Ubuntu is a pretty solid distro now and is becoming more popular...

I highly recommend that folks, esp if you got a large hard drive, set up a partition and install it, just to put it through it's paces...while somethings are different, advance users will find a lot more function for doing routine things...

If you don't go that root, burn a Linux self-booting disk like Damn Small Linux or Koppix and have a look at it...it will run completely from your disk and leave nothing on your computer...have a look.

[TreasonousBastard]

6. What would it do for me anyway...

I gotta say that I am impressed with the stability of XP Pro, but I use hardly any M$ applications.

Could I move data seamlessly from WordPerfect to Open Office? Can I get my Eudora email on the phone?

They gonna have PostScript functionality built in?

[stevietheman]

11. I'm staying on Win2K until I fully transition to Linux.

It's simple. Microsoft is struggling to take us in a technical direction we simply don't want to go toward. They have indeed jumped the shark.

[REP]

13. Vista Uses 7GB HD Space, 800MB RAM at Idle - What's Not to Love?

I have 57 processes running and 291 MB RAM used ... Yes, I think they need the time.

[jmowreader]

14. So what's the minimum system right now--2GB RAM/250GB HD?

You know why Microsoft does this shit, right? It's because they make a product which doesn't go bad.

Face facts: no one needs to do everything Microsoft's products will do.

There's an ancient dictum called Pareto's Law. Pareto said 20 percent of your people will cause 80 percent of your problems, and this has extended out to just about all areas of life--80 percent of your breakdowns are caused by 20 percent of your machinery, 80 percent of all construction projects can be completed with 20 percent of the items on the market, and so on. It falls apart when you get to Windows, because I think 95 percent of all computer users would be satisfied with an OS that did five percent of the things Windows does. (This is in large part because the web browser in Windows is welded into the OS; a separate browser would satisfy people who surf the Web, and those who aren't connected wouldn't be packing around the baggage.)

So now look at us: We're to the point where you can browse the web for facts on dinosaurs, click one button and have these facts seamlessly transported to Access where you make a database that you can one-click move to Excel for serious analysis before one-click shipping them to Word where you format them before one-click sending them to Publisher for creating a book and one-click sending them to PowerPoint for creating a visual presentation which you one-click e-mail to your friend so he can see that dinosaurs did not turn into birds as was once widely believed, but into elephants, and the current membership of the Republican Party are proof of that.

Academics might love this, and perhaps cubicle rats, but the rest of us just get on DU, post "the Republicans really have turned into troglodytes, haven't they?" and be done with it.

[alfredo]

16. Looks like some there's some answers as to why MS can't

seem to build that new generation OS.

http://www.eetimes.com/news/semi/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=183702787

Others commenting on the blog quickly took up the cry.

" ballmer: fired!

allchin: fired!

valentine: fired!

we cannot ship our OS. this is not a joke. if we don't take some radical decisions, the company is over."

And:

"Ballmer has presided over the fall of Microsoft. days are numbered."

And:

"Accountability should start at the top. My commitment was to deliver on my component. Allchin's commitment was to release Windows . . . . and he failed to deliver."