(8 votes, average: 8 out of 10)
Loading ...Why XP was Microsoft’s last great operating system
Mike Elgan, who writes for Computerworld U.S. and a number of other publications, has rendered his own verdict on the XP-or-Vista debate. Microsoft will probably not be happy with him. Full column below.
“Everybody’s talking today about “Drivergate” — internal Microsoft e-mails that show senior Microsoft executives personally struggling to use hardware products sporting the “Windows Vista Capable” sticker. The e-mails also show that Microsoft lowered its standard for some hardware compatibility, apparently to help Intel impress Wall Street.
“This revelation is simply the latest in a long series that add up to one inescapable conclusion: Windows Vista sucks. (And making it cheaper won’t help, either.)
“Compatibility of drivers is just one issue. Another is a convoluted user interface that prevents ordinary users from gaining a sense of control over the OS.
“Windows Mobile, Microsoft’s operating system for cell phones, suffers from a similar problem. The Windows Mobile OS isn’t horrible per se, it’s just that it’s completely wrong for cell phones and other small screen devices.
“Windows Mobile clearly compromises usability to mimic the WIMP (Windows, Icons, Menus and Pointing device) focus of Microsoft’s desktop operating systems. To quote Dr. Phil: How’s that workin’ for ya? It hasn’t helped eroding desktop Windows market share, and it hasn’t helped Windows Mobile, either.
“The biggest problem isn’t that the company’s newest products are unusable, but that Microsoft may have actually lost the “ability” to make good operating systems. It may not be able to let go of its dogmatic insistence on the flawed vision of the same Windows “experience” from wristwatches to supercomputers.
“And there is evidence that delusion or, at least, wishful thinking, prevails at Microsoft. The company’s founder and chairman, Bill Gates, said last week that “Microsoft expects more Internet searches to be done through speech than through typing on a keyboard.” Hey, Bill: Do you want to bet $10 billion on that? I doubt even that Microsoft will fix its Vista driver problem within five years. This is the same guy, by the way, who bragged that Microsoft would “solve” spam by 2006 .
Microsoft has never understood the importance of “simplicity,” a fundamental design concept it has always swept aside to make room for “feature rich” (i.e., bloated and complex).
“Right now, the Windows Vista type user interfaces are in their final days. The future belongs to what I call the 3G user interface , which replaces flat icons and folders with multitouch, gestures, physics and 3-D. It’s imperative for Microsoft to get the next major OS right. But how?
“The secret lies in the company’s Surface initiative. Sure, Surface is at present a little more than a semishipping demo usable for product marketing.
“The Surface demo dazzles with its 3G goodness. But what’s impressive and surprising is that somehow someone at Microsoft was allowed to create a user interface unburdened by “compatibility” with two decades of spaghetti code. What a concept! And no “Start” button!
“Another hopeful sign is that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer appears to agree that Surface is important — or, at least, urgent. He announced earlier this month that Microsoft is accelerating the development of a consumer version.
“Here’s what I believe Microsoft needs to do to save its vitally important operating systems business:
“Microsoft: I’m rooting for you. I really am. But you’ve got to get your act together with your core business and ship an operating system that works, or this could be the beginning of the end of the company’s leadership role in the industry.”
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March 4th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
I agree with the author of this article indeed.
I do like the look of Vista, actually the Start Menu for me is much better than spreading across the screen like XP’s, but that’s it. But to some extent software and hardware compatibility leave a lot to be desired.
This can be worked around by searching, in some cases extensively, for drivers for your hardware on the internet, and hopeing the manufacturer of said hardware has Vista drivers.
I am disappointed that Vista needs more horespower to run well. The general computer owner can’t always afford to do upgrades or buy a newer, faster computer to run Vista properly. (I hear the protests… “Stick with XP if you don’t like Vista then!”)
I am a techie, and am running Vista Business on an AMD Sempron 2GHz with a gig of ram, but I have turned off half of the services to make it usable. How many people know how to do that, or should have to?
Shouldn’t a new and better O/S, be somewhat downward compatible with older hardware and software? Yes XP had it’s growing pains too and runs way faster on older hardware, but how long do we have to wait for MS to get it right?
Thank you for letting me rant.
March 4th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
I’m so sick of this, and these writers don’t help. I’ve heard this same story from Windows 3.1 to 95. Win 95 to 98. Win 98 to 2000. When things went from 2000 to XP you people whined like room full of babies all with pooh in your diapers. I dealt with the Mac 9 to 10 change at work and nobody whined. They were excited even with the ENDLESS problems.
Each OS is generational to the current hardware and hardware is moving at break neck speeds. Would you run XP on a Pentium 200 64 MB or ram? Of course not because the generation of hardware does not match.
If you’re going to be cheap, then be cheap but stop complaining. If you buy a bargain basement computer and expect to run the next gen OS and software, expect delays.
4 years from now, it will be all of you that are trying to cling on to Vista as Microsoft launches something new.
Oh and.. MS does not write drivers. The hardware manufacturers do. They’ve had all kinds of time to get Vista drivers written. If you can’t get one, complain to the manufacturer of the hardware.
March 5th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
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March 6th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
The sad part of it all is that we are being pushed at every side to spend, spend, spend. The latest ‘feature rich’ software requires only the latest and largest new hardware. But as a small businessman, there are many other things demanding my scarce dollars. So after being an exclusively Microsoft shop for years, we are looking at other OS to put back a little stability and get more life out of our computing investments. Their new stuff is great, but not everyone can afford to pitch their computers every couple of years or so to keep up with the latest bloatware. And besides, feature-rich means bug rich. Complex installations that require much post-install fiddling to get rid of the major errors — most of which seem undocumented. Having designed software for a living in a previous life I know all too well that good functional design trumps features in a production environment. When will the software/hardware people grow up?
March 9th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
“I’ve heard this same story from Windows 3.1 to 95. Win 95 to 98. Win 98 to 2000. When things went from 2000 to XP you people whined like room full of babies all with pooh in your diapers. ”
Don’t know if I’d have used such “toilet humour” but, ya, this is pretty much what’s happening. There are lots of examples at save2000.ca, and I’m looking for more.
March 13th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
“Windows Vista Capable” is now the subject of a certified class action lawsuit in Seattle. Canadians will be left out unless we commence an action here. Anyone interested?
April 16th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
If the change from XP to Vista was actually a
BENEFIT to the user base, it would have been better embraced by same…however the experience
has been the opposite for many
Here we have an OS that uses more hardware resources to get the same job done, actively
interferes with using your existing software and
costs twice what its predecessor did all for the
privilege of struggling with driver issues and breaches of privacy
makes perfect sense to me (not)
Vista is essentially a tool to enforce licence compliance among computer users, not just for Microsoft products, but for their business “partners” who have coughed up the fees to make their software and hardware “Vista Ready”
Can’t get a driver for your printer? Not always
laziness…without the full Vista SDK, you CAN’T
write properly compatible drivers
Favourite game or application won’t run? Not a coincidence that it can be solved by switching to the new “Vista” version of the same software which likely only differs by offering the correct security keys, assuring Vista that it a
legal copy.
By controlling the OS and the kinds of software
that are “allowed” to run on your computer, MS is gambling that not enough users can switch to Mac or Linux to hurt them.
Once the installed base of “open” Windows OS’s
has shrunk, good luck trying to get inexpensive or alternative applications (ie open source) that Vista will “allow” on your desktop
So long as XP and W2K exist, there is a balance
to the monopoly of MS in software access…
April 20th, 2008 at 5:13 am
Microsoft do need pointing in the right direction. They are not responsible for the fact that we as consumers copy music or other protected media. This has gone on for years, since the introduction of tape players.
What really concerns me is that the benifits provided by having modern hardware are being eroded by the microsoft validation and digital rights managment services and safegaurds.
I know my system here is valid why should i need to validate my operating system. I purchase them through a major retailer and install them myself, What gives here why do i need this validation software.
In essence its not us who needs it, the validation services are for microsofts benifit, and severly reduce the performance of their operating system combined with rigid digital rights managment it can reduce an X2 6000 to a mere 800MHz it does reduce the usability and performance of your new machine.
I simply resent the fact that microsoft have to dump all this crap on my machine to suit their own ends and take away the very reason I bought a new machine i.e performance
If the internet connection is slow on any given day it will take you up to 5 minutes before you can even use XP properly on a 2 gig machine, with 2 gig of ram.
I buy hardware because i need and desire useeability and performance from my machine.
Even xp is not as fast as Windows 98se and other windows operating systems. It becomes obvious that the exta computing power is being utilised by microsofts validation techniques and other monitoring programms.
I havent switched to vista yet and dont intend too. If I could get linux to power the programmers here i would certainly use it, as the gloss has worn off microsoft operating systems for me, as they just simply do not perform any more.
The main reason Microsoft are trying to stamp out 98, 98se, 2k and Millenium is because these systems have weak digital rights management.
Its a bit like trying to close the gate after the horse has bolted, a futile operation.
The downside is that we as the consumer buy the modern hardware to use for ourselfs, only to have our new modern systems crippled by a top heavy windows OS. It simply doesnt make sense to me.
It seems to me that microsoft are preparing to commit hari kiri over digital rights managemnt and genuine validation.
They think they know whats best for us without even understanding what power users want and expect from their investment in new hardware and software.
Meglomania, madness, call it what you like but to destroy ones own products in the cause of stopping piracy seems akin to suicide.
Techies who have to pick up the pieces are now having to do lots more work just to resolve issues with BIOS and hard drives that have been marked by microsoft software. The validation goes deeper than some realise
My advice to all is if you want to keep your computing freedom then switch to linux as soon as possible.