The Vista Experiment...

... is over.

When I got a new computer I decided since it is part of my job (at work and in my personal life) to support computer users I should stay on the "cutting edge". I had Windows Vista Ultimate installed on my new laptop.

After taking over a week just to get a few client software packages loaded - considering that the productivity suite came pre-installed - I dug in and started to get to know all that was Vista!

As happens with every new operating system older software can have trouble loading and working. The one thing that Vista had that I applauded was the ability to install and run software as if it was on the older operating system. This actually seemed to work well. But that's where it ended for me.

Let me sum up my opinion of Windows Vista: What a piece of crap.

I am not a Microsoft basher at all. Even though I work with both UNIX and Linux regularly I did not find need to elevate them above what is the defacto standard desktop operating system. Since Windows XP SP2 has been a very, very good system for years I had gotten past any knee jerk Microsoft bashing. Solaris, Mac and Linux have become darlings because their basic under lying structures are modular and can, in a sense, protect the core operating system from "locking up", but they are also less useful in many respects. Windows tries (and mostly succeeds) in being all things to all people. Until Vista...

With Vista I had serious stability issues whenever I used my laptop as a laptop. Locked in the docking station it seemed to work OK, but ladies and gentleman it is a laptop! Crashing aside what bothered most me was a sense of value. Vista had no apparent value over XP SP2, none. All the fancy look and feel only made the computer boot and run slower than it should have.

On top of that the venerable Microsoft Office Suite that came pre-installed was simply horrible. In many ways it was needlessly changed making it ultimately less usable. Edit Copy, Edit Paste, Edit Select All, Edit Delete - it used to be just that easy. Not any more. Attention: Steve Ballmer, Bill Gates this was NOT an improvement.

I don't want to go into all the reasons I have given up on Vista, I just want to get my work done. I want to stop playing around on Google searching for ways to put Vista back to the way Windows used to be. FYI Classic View is not the answer either, believe me. And I know I am not alone; computer maker Dell will once again offer Windows XP on new systems, responding to customer complaints. The decision reverses a Vista-only policy the PC seller has moved to since the release of Microsoft's latest OS. The web is full of disgruntled Vista users. Corporations are seriously considering Linux for the desktop for the first time because the end of the Windows XP life cycle means they have to do something and going with Vista isn't it.

Plain and simple my friends, Vista sucks!




CW