Vista

[dicklesWB (imported)]

Hello all. Im new, been reading here alot for the past 5 years but never regesterd. well,...here i am.

Ok, just by total coincedence, I just bought a new computer 2 days ago, with windows vista. seems to work well. little different, still kinda getting use to it. everybody said it was way more like MAC, I dont really think so, but im just one person. Overall, so far i like it. its ok. i got vista pro on my my new machine.

now,....part two,...i am dickless want to be, hence the screne name. i want to have it removed at the base. as i said earlier, ive been lurking for years and enjoyed every minute of it.

I dont make wavesl, i dont cause dispute or problems. just want to be part of the crowd. cause really,...this i where i belong.

see ya.

david

[sapient (imported)]

Microsoft has committed to supporting WinXP until April of 2009 ...

Okay. Note to self: Going back to Macintosh no later then March 31, 2009.

To be fair, Windows XP has been better then I feared. But it will be good to go "home".

[Sac_mec (imported)]

I think it is actually scandalous that Microsoft have stopped providing updates for ME, which was on sale just 5 or 6 years ago. Ditto updates to 98 and other OS systems such as NT etc. All the politicians talk about us caring for the planet, at last, yet these systems were sold as new OS's not long ago.

If you bought a second hand car from 2000, would you not expect {and get}

all the spare parts you needed to keep it running.

Microsoft were regularly updating the necessary patches for 98 and ME until last year and then they pulled the rug on all further updates. Imagine all the office and privately owned PCs that have been dumped at tips because of this inbuilt obsolescence. The planet cannot afford such waste; only Microsoft gains.

In the case of XP, it may well have taken much of the 5 years that it's been on sale to make it work but the public at large have not been shouting from the rooftops for a replacement model which deliberately degrades part of its working programs to the end user - the buyer!!

I recall with sadness when Microsoft Word overnight seemed to wipe off the market the excellent Lotus Smartsuite.

The public ought to still have the right to choose between XP and Vista on newly sold PCs - and I don't believe they'll have that choice.

As for providing patches, supports and downloads etc.. Microsoft ought to

provide full support for at least 10 years; in just the same way as car/auto makers do and other suppliers of "hardware".

In view of the huge number of recent updates needed to Microsoft Office and to each of the programs {17 downloads, I think } I felt it necessary to completely remove it totally from my perfectly functional 98 machine.

I now use software from Ability on that machine. I am angry at the withdrawal of support for machines that WE buy and which need updates because of security holes. I believe Microsoft have a public duty, if they have any social conscience to support their purchasers - and the planet - to provide support for 10 years, which is a reasonable time for a well maintained and protected PC. Pressure needs bringing down on them to extend XP support well beyond 2011; they were being sold as new only 3 weeks ago.

This looks like the worst aspect of the 'throw away' society that we all ought to oppose. After all, there are only so many land-fill sites!

Think hard before you 'upgrade' to Vista. Despite all the PC magazines giving it a warmish welcome, it is not without security breaches already. Also think about this, who owns your PC?? Is it you the purchaser or as Slammr has pointed out is your machine controlled by a COMPANY?? What kind of new Vista are we really looking at?

[Paolo]

When I posted on an MS site that I was still using 2000 SP4, one of their ops went ballistic. He began spouting about security and features it doesn't have, blah blah blah...

I've been using 2000 since it came out. I've had the computer freeze solid three times - all the same thing - while playing a 4 gig AVI file in VLC Media player and it hit the end frame of the AVI. I've had explorer go down a total of four times. Four times since 1999? Why mess with an OS like that?

Because you don't make money on it after a time.

As far as web browsing, you still have the thing going for you in that you can build a new computer, "naked" from new parts, and install the OS of your choice. At least until the parts begin coming out coded with instructions to not accept 98, 2000, etc. You have to admit, ME was bad. Really bad. It looked like 2k, but it wasn't. And your AV and spyware companies still realize that they can make $ by having their products run on other OS's, and not just XP, etc.

When you exclude such a huge chunk of the market, you lose out on a lot.

Take for instance the site secondlife.com recently featured in "THE WEEK" magazine.

They have 3 million users with about 1 million online at any given time. Yet their software is so restrictive that many cannot use it.

You can't use it if you have satellite internet. Of all the video cards in the world, there are like 5 that work with them. Huh???! How many people are going to walk away angry and not become a customer?

If it's Vista or nothing, then how many MS customers will go over to someone else and spend their money there?

Treat your customers like shit, and soon you will be out of business.

[Sac_mec (imported)]

I could not agree more that ME was a mistake - a poor OS marketed by Microsoft and sold worldwide to millions of users though, nevertherless. After taking advice I rolled my ME machine back to Win 98 but I lost the decent photo albums and the "Go back" feature. As Microsoft had put out to the world this model which threw up more blue screens and freezes than any other, all that doesn't excuse it from continuing to support it with essential updates. They still should ditto 98.

Paolo, you are right there is no profit to be made in marketing and selling a good OS that only needs minor upgrades.

There will now be a whole industry of new books, new magazines in support of Vista and also a whole range of printers, scanners, hardware updates needed to make this model work for ordinary people (I believe).

Sadly due to their size the 'shit' argument doesn't hold up, I fear Paolo.

Lots of people know little about the insides of their PCs and want to know less.

If they need a new PC they'll go to the superstores or PC websites and if they want to buy a new PC, the option to them will be Vista. Far too many people don't know about Apple Laptops etc... they only know Microsoft.

Many people have heard about Linux but because it doesn't come preloaded,

they are too concerned. Of course in 5 years time Vista will be destined for the dustbin and Microsoft will come out with a new PC 'that you must have!'

The world doesn't have to be like that. How many people use more than a fraction of the features of their existing PCs?

As customers we deserve better and we do deserve ongoing downloads for

all Microsoft PCs sold for the last ten years. This is something that the US government, the EU and all global trading powers ought to enforce and oblige on them. Sadly it seems that their lobbying powers appear to be greater than those of our legislators, (imho). What a sad and bad state of affairs.

[Paolo]

When the Mac G5 Powerboooks came out, my old boss bought one. It was fantastic! And I don't like Macs. Right out of the box, off the shelf, it was loaded with all kinds of cool stuff - including a media player that could immediately snip and edit movies in most formats, iMovie I think it was. With Windows, you have to find 3rd party tools for this.

I do believe my next desktop will more than likely be a Mac, with the old 2k machine kept in storage "just in case." We have no shortage of 2k PC's sitting around at work that can do just what I need them to do.

But you're right, the average Joe PC user will run right over to Vista, spend days getting it to go, and then get used to it. Then when Vista has runs its course, they'll run right out and grab the next one...

...sigh...

[sapient (imported)]

To be fair, Windows XP has been better then I feared.

Oh dear, I never should have said that... *two weeks of computer trouble later*

[Paolo]

Blessed are the pessimists, for they have made the backup disks.

[jemagirl (imported)]

When the Mac G5 Powerboooks came out, my old boss bought one. It was fantastic! And I don't like Macs. Right out of the box, off the shelf, it was loaded with all kinds of cool stuff - including a media player that could immediately snip and edit movies in most formats, iMovie I think it was. With Windows, you have to find 3rd party tools for this.

I do believe my next desktop will more than likely be a Mac, with the old 2k machine kept in storage "just in case." We have no shortage of 2k PC's sitting around at work that can do just what I need them to do.

But you're right, the average Joe PC user will run right over to Vista, spend days getting it to go, and then get used to it. Then when Vista has runs its course, they'll run right out and grab the next one...

...sigh...

Hi Paolo,

I have a G5 and love it. I believe they are still available, however the new line of Towers is the Mac Pro, and the laptops are Mac-book Pro. They are based on the intel chip. The really neat thing is because they are running the intel chip they can boot up natively ( yes that's natively ) in Windows when Boot-Camp ( still in beta ) is installed. So you would be able to run all you old windows programs. I thought it was a pretty smart move by Apple although it did cause a lot of Mac folk's harts to skip a beat. I don't know if it will boot in Vista or not as that is the new wrinkle in the paint, but I'm sure some ones tried it already.

Jema

[Blaise (imported)]

I have a Dell XPS DX PO51 with all sorts of stuff that I never used. I use XP Media Center but, again, it has features to which I never refer. At this time, I have no income to improve it. I would love a Mac. When I upgrade next, there is what I want. I have to earn more more money to afford to do that.

I like this PC. XP has not been the problem I worried it might be. I use little that the PC can provide. I guess that I used XP with the older computer. I don't remember. I did have problem with the operating system I used with the older computer.

When my cognitive skills were better than they now are, I thought about Lenox. I wish that I had explored it.