Making sense of Vistas first year
section: windows, for your questions: KezNews forum, 2.2.2008
While many of you enjoyed "the Mom test," clearly there are lots more ways to look at how Windows Vista is doing. Here are three measures I typically use when trying to assess the impact of Vista.
The "downgrade" / Stick with XP movement
The downgrade movement is an indicator of how the most disgruntled users feel about Vista. Most people buying a new PC will accept Vista because that's what nearly all computers come with at retail. So, the folks who are actively seeking out XP machines or downgrading their Vista machines represent a minority, to be sure. Still, it's a vocal and important minority worth some attention. What's more, this movement gained steam during the year, prompting Microsoft to make it easier for PC makers to include an XP disc in the box with Vista machines and extend Windows XP's stay on the market.
However, this effort is set to be further relegated to the fringes come June, when Microsoft plans to stop providing XP to large computer makers. Windows XP-based systems will still be available from smaller computer makers, known as system builders, and Microsoft has indicated the date might not be set in stone.
"No changes are planned at this point, but we continue to listen to our customers and partners about their needs," a Microsoft representative said in an e-mail interview.
Although computer makers will still be able to offer XP downgrades in the box, they'll have to buy those discs ahead of the June 30 deadline, according to the Microsoft rep.
Another option for those unhappy with Vista's performance, but not looking to make the dramatic step back to XP, is a little-known program called vLite, which strips out many of Vista's optional components. Microsoft, is of course making its own change to Vista, the Service Pack 1 release due out before the end of March.
Sales numbers
There are three sales figures that matter: business adoption rates, new PC sales figures, and retail boxed sales of the operating system.
New PC sales and boxed copies are easy to track, but don't necessarily provide a direct indication about enthusiasm for the operating system.
Boxed copy sales have not shown nearly the jump seen with past new versions of Windows. Typically, enthusiasts snap up copies of the new version to upgrade older machines. Less than robust sales of boxed copies could be an indicator that hard-core enthusiasts are less jazzed about Vista, but there are other factors that probably are playing a role as large or larger.
Software/hardware compatibility
Microsoft executives have conceded that software and hardware compatibility, while numerically higher than with XP, wasn't where it needed to be when Vista debuted. This story has improved as the year has gone on.
What strikes me, though, is that even with 100 million Vista licenses sold, there continue to be darn few applications written specifically for Windows Vista. Ahead of the launch, Microsoft was touting the fact that application developers were taking advantage of things like Vista's new presentation engine and other features to create Vista-specific software. source:
news.com
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Comments(15)
i hated everything about vista, but today i fina;;y gave in. i have installed vista
ultimate on my machine.
it kinda cool tho, but i see a bit slow , which made me
tweak it a bit,no uac,no animation.
i think for all xp rebels vista has come.
whether we like it or not we have to switch. more bugs are fixed now.
plus i
check drivers on the net, almost all my hardware got drivers.
once you tweak vista to improve performance, it's not so bad.
i really don't like the user interface, aero or classic. microsoft should have given
the os a decent and clean ui with coordinated colors, or polished the classic ui some
more.
i just upgraded my hardware to a intel qx 9650, 4 gb corsair dominator ddr3 and a asus
maximus extreme.
vista runs very well but i can understand why most people don't
want to spend a couple thousand for hardware in order to run vista
i just hate vista because of it's price...that's why im sticking with xp
don't like don't use. do like? use more!
i got vista ultimate for a$238 oem. that was without bying a new computer.
vista sp1 is almost ready!
second testing stage will soon begin.
be ready to
accept it...
vista is good i'm using ultimate x64 i'll never go back to xp why everyone slag vista
off? i can play all the latest games and use all the same programs at the same speed, the
only downside of vista is that not everyone can afford it, so people currently using xp
will obviously take the piss out of it, vista looks better and is more secure than xp,
plus it is (was) a new operating system, so its good to have something new for a change
from boring xp. people complain about hardware but vista is a lot newer than xp so people
should have newer hardware, otherwise their pc isn't really designed to run it
it really is beyond me why people make out vista is so so bad, i have been using it for
nearly 2 years and cant think of a single reason why i should use xp again, nothing about
xp is better
2 years???!!!
hahahahha... you just lost all the credibility.
vista rtmed
november 2006. that's a year and 2 months ago ;)
bla bla bla...vista bad...bla bla bla...curious...installed...wow!
:-)
bla bla bla... xp ultimate edition... bla bla bla... humm what is it?... tried it...
woooowwww!
:d
herbasabuse you are talking out of your b*tt and know absolutely nothing. you have no
credibility whatsoever and need to lay off the drugs you're abusing.
unless you want to through good money away like edison did you don't need to spend much
for a good pc to run vista on just make sure to have about 2gb ram if you want to run aero
and gadgets. i could build a better quad for under $1000. vista definately has it's
issues but with a little work and provided your peripherals aren't too old you can make
it work well. i paid $180 for ultimate when it first came out but now i've even seen it
as low as $100 or $50 for crappy home. if your going to use it make sure to turn off uac
and give yourself full ntfs rights amongst other things.
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By swandike on 03.02.2008 - 03:02