I Would Like to Register a Complaint

In a continuation of what was covered in this ZD Net blog post in June, Microsoft is allowing down-grades from Vista[IMG ] to Windows XP[IMG ]. I know people have beencomplainingabout the myriad problems in Vista, but this seems to be a greater admission of defeat than Microsoft is known for. For those of you who would prefer to avoid the Vista issue entirely, try the Bad Vista

Steven Frank has a funny story about this sort of stuff: he’s finding Vista much easier to install and work with, and more stable, running on his Mac, because the retail copy doesn’t come with all the extra OEM crapware:

http://stevenf.com/2007/09/macs_really_do_run_windows_better.php

Its funny how everyone seems to have problems with Vista and its all over the internet about how bad it is. I for one havent had any real problems with Vista yet and i’m glad i got it. I guess my point in all of this is… anyone remember XP when it came out? :)

the backwards compatibility for applications in vista is something I have had to deal with at work – not a single one of our major apps don’t work in vista.
This problem is going to rear it’s head big style when the next version of windows comes along (since it’s rumoured to make a total break with previous binaries) and I was sat thinking about the whole sorry situation and my mind tripped back to the old wow implementation – windows on windows not world of warcraft ;P.

why microsoft doesn’t take their virtualisation technologies and bring them into the consumer OS in an effort to provide a more stable execution environment without having to sacrifice modernising and even rewriting the OS codebase is totally beyond me.

lets hope the microsoft learns from the totally stupid debacle that vista has become and get smart about backwards compatibility and turn to the emulation/virtualisation technologies that exist.

Even on my gaming rig I actually run a dos emulator in order to play some of the ancient pre-95 and even some post 95 games, why they can’t do this with windows is anyones guess.

ack.. make that “not a single one of our major apps work in vista”

yay for fingers that type without consulting your brain first!

hmmm.. I really do wonder if my firefox is borked, can’t see my other posting on any other machine :S

here it is just in case:

the backwards compatibility for applications in vista is something I have had to deal with at work – not a single one of our major apps don’t work in vista.
This problem is going to rear it’s head big style when the next version of windows comes along (since it’s rumoured to make a total break with previous binaries) and I was sat thinking about the whole sorry situation and my mind tripped back to the old wow implementation – windows on windows not world of warcraft ;P.

why microsoft doesn’t take their virtualisation technologies and bring them into the consumer OS in an effort to provide a more stable execution environment without having to sacrifice modernising and even rewriting the OS codebase is totally beyond me.

lets hope the microsoft learns from the totally stupid debacle that vista has become and get smart about backwards compatibility and turn to the emulation/virtualisation technologies that exist.

Even on my gaming rig I actually run a dos emulator in order to play some of the ancient pre-95 and even some post 95 games, why they can’t do this with windows is anyones guess.

I keep on hearing complains about Vista, but I still am to see any problems in my PC. By the way, I built my system 2 years ago, for about $450 and I just installed Vista about 3 months ago (I was previously running Linux Suse 9.0).
I also just built another system for my Father in law, and that PC is also running fine. I wonder… does it have anything to do with the manufacture? Why do not I have the same problems everyone is dealing with?
Good luck everyone!!!

P.S. I still want to own an Apple system… Hopefully soon I will be able to afford one.

“Some would claim this is the early adopter tax we must incur from adopting Vista before Service Pack 1.”

When it comes to “Bleeding Edge” and pretty much anything Microsoft. Its just Bleeding.

As a gamer I knew to stay away from this OS. I went to buy a laptop from Best-Buy this summer because I really do not want to build one myself and all they offered was Vista as an OS.

I have been using Ubuntu recently but due to most hardware vendors being on Microsoft’s payroll it seems I never get a smooth ride. With my Sound Blaster card on my desktop I can only get sound from one device (seems to be an ongoing issue with these cards and Ubuntu) and with this here laptop (Dell C840 with nVidia GeForce4 440 Go) I cant get it to 1600X1200 resolution or over 60Hrtz for my CRT monitor. This screen flicker is killing me.

But even with all the draw backs to this gongshow they call the open-source community, I won’t let those guys in Redmond screw me over with Vista.

But as the OS Wars rage in you #Chris channel. Win XP is for my needs (thats the key… MY needs, not yours) the best OS for me.

But every morning when I boot up the old desktop I am faced with the question… Ubuntu Linux or Win XP… I ALWAYS choose Ubuntu just to see if I can keep hammering at this sound card issue. But when it is time to Play… Win XP all the way.

“I am a right clicka”

Anybody’s $0.02 is appreciated. Are the particular problems I mentioned common things, or are they unique to my computer?

I wasn’t just venting. I’m curious to see if anyone else has the glitches I do. Wouldn’t it be interesting for different people had different glitches in the same BS? (Uh … I mean OS. ‘Course, BS is accurate, too.)

I’ve not been pleased with Vista, either. I purchased a cheap Dell Inspiron laptop a few months ago to help bridge the gap in the “somebody in our family needs to sit at a computer NOW” syndrome that is going around the house.

Of course, Dell “claims” to offer OS options such as Linux or XP, but that option was NEVER easily visible to me when placing my order online for this laptop. So… it came installed with Vista Home Basic.

I’ve NOT been pleased with this OS. As was stated in the main post, this thing will freeze when somebody breathes wrong across the monitor. Working with any graphics (even to view) is a JOKE. It stalls and often just crashes even when viewing them.

I also use a SanDisk with the U3 installation. It coughs, hiccups, and often just refuses to acknowledge that this USB has even been installed.

Sometimes it likes the USB mouse, sometimes it just doesn’t. Often this PC will just stare back at me with contempt after completing a full program installation. I will go through an entire install procedure with a nice “Finish” box option only to find that the program apparently does NOT exist on the box after I’m done. No results in the Programs menu; nothing in the Programs folder; nothing in the REGISTRY!

Yes, I remember the problems noted when XP was introduced. Seems MS just doesn’t remember their rollout issues each and every time. I STILL use W2k on my box at work for this very simple reason. It is running stable, networking well, and takes a helluva lot less memory to operate.

Now, if I could just get the IT guys at work to stop blocking things that I need to use to get my job done…

In response to Pascal, yes, you do have a valid point. I’m sure all OS’s have had their share of problems, Vista being no different. But, I refer you to a concept called “Cognitive Learning Skills”. These Microsoft people are supposed to be the best and the brightest and can program circles around everyone else, at least that’s what their product’s prices say they are. Yet these technical “gurus” seem not to learn from their mistakes, and the same problems seem to keep showing up over and over again. At least, that’s the impression I get.

I think I would have been much better off with XP (well, just that there was no reason for me to go to Vista), but I had the same problem as Kold up there. Best Buy only sells computers with Vista on them. I asked to downgrade to XP, but they said they weren’t allowed to do that, citing the same rule I now hear doesn’t even go into effect ’til 2008. What a bunch of shit! Boy, that makes me feel stupid and naive.

(A DOS emulator? I gotta remember that! I have a few old games that I still like to play, and all I get right now is that “this system does not support full screen mode”, or something like that, and won’t let me play at all. Thanks!)

I recently purchased a new desktop(~march) and a laptop(~may). both
came pre-infected with vista. it crashed constantly, it wouldn’t run any of
my games right, and it just plain aggravated me with the endless cancel
or allow dialogs. I even removed all the oem crap, but nothing worked on
either computer. when the software that came with my new lightscribe
dvd rw drive was reported to need upgrading to be compatible with vista,
i decided enough was enough, i wiped my hd clean and dug up some old
win 2000 disks that i had laying around. the install went perfectly, i found
drivers for everything at the acer web site, now it all works much better.
it even displays perfect full screen mode, even though vista said that my
hardware doesn’t support it.

I’ve also installed openSuSE 10.2 on both machines and i dual boot them
since i know that i won’t be able to keep using win 2000 forever,
eventually there just wont be any drivers for it. i know this from my experience with DOS (the only OS i ever really liked) and win98, both of
which i had to abandon for lack of drivers and software. most software
says on the package “requires windows 2000 or newer” an that will soon change to xp or newer, so I’m hoping i’ll be ready to fall back on linux
when that time comes. overall the future of computing looks bleak for the
time being, i hope it gets better(or at least, not much worse).

Dear Mr. Pirillo,

Forgive me, but I just noticed something. It concerns your comment at the beginning of my original submission: “People complain about Vista through me now. I’m not sure if that’s funny or sad?”

Correct me if I’m wrong, but it sounds like you’re not too pleased with my topic, problems with Vista. No offense, but have you been paying attention? Look at all the other articles and comments on your website with Vista as the topic. The vast majority of them bash Vista, and they’re everywhere. Why single out mine to say something like that? And, besides, I thought that’s why you put up all the posts that you do. Not just for information’s sake, but also to help people vent when they need to, to get feedback, and come together to examine a problem. I figured if anyone could understand, it was you and the people who frequent you site.

I’m sorry if I’ve stepped out of line, but that comment kinda bothered me because it seemed out of line.

Am I overreacting?

Respectfully,
Chris Proctor

People who say, “remember the problems with XP?” don’t seem to appreciate that not only have M$ not learnt from that er, experience, they appear to have got worse in terms of their obtuse, unfinished interface, and relentlessly unhelpful help system. Yes, we remember the problems with XP; it’s Micrsoft that have forgotten.

Chris, it’s CP being flippant. He isn’t criticising you.

You know what? Forget the comment I posted on Sept. 25th. Pirillo is definitely on our side when it comes to ranting about Vista now. Just check out his new post, titled “Vista Rants”. He’s opened the floodgates for submissions like mine, so I forgive him his little comment. No prob.

Here’s a funny side-comment.

One of my buddies has always said that his problem was that he has a great piece of hardware (an intelligent mind), but crappy software (hard to express his thoughts and feelings).

He’s figured it out. His brain’s running Vista! It’s no wonder why he’s quite intelligent but continously acts like a retarded, childish baffoon!

Ha, ha, ha, ha! XD

Well, what do you know! Give Vista one point back. I bought a different mouse recently, an optical without the wireless capability, and plugged it in. It works 1000% better than that Nexxtech one. No glitches of erratic messages. This leads me to think Vista WASN’T THE PROBLEM AT ALL, it was all that damn mouse’s fault. Whoda thunk it?!

I keep getting a message while tryng to install a game “Hardball 5″ THE MESSAGE IS “SYSTEM DOES NOT SUPPORT FULL SCREEN MODE” what does this meen. Is there a way around it or is the game useless? I am running Windows Vista now. Is there an upgade or something? Thanks Shaun Cioffi