Vista: still beta software, really
It’s difficult to realise the utter dissatisfaction that Vista produces until you actually use it in your personal environment for extended periods. Dissatisfaction quickly turns to annoyance, annoyance to realisation, realisation to anger, anger to rage and rage to a smashed desktop/laptop which although looks nice runs one of the most flawed pieces of core software available.
Before you say, “you’re not qualified to talk like that”, actually, I am. As well as being a Microsoft Partner, I am legally allowed on behalf of Microsoft to advise small businesses on mobile technology and I’m a certified Windows Vista Advisor, so I know exactly what I’m talking about here. I’ve used two iterations of Vista, and that was enough.
Home Premium came first and that was actually livable. Although it’s buggy and slow, the ‘glamourous’ looks of the new O.S. and enhancements like Media Centre are nice. But overall it was still disappointing. I’ve saved most of my rant of Vista Business. Oh. My. God. What utter crap! Right now, this is an unworthy successor to Windows XP Professional, which, by Service Pack 2, was a stable, pretty easy to use, advanced-networking-ready client that suited 80% of the world’s computer users. Primarily, I’m a Mac user, but the virtues of XP Pro are clear. When Microsoft officially stops selling this operating system, it will be a tragedy. A travesty, even.
Vista should still be in beta; it just doesn’t work properly and businesses will regret using it. I don’t exactly regret advising a local finance firm to buy five new A$2800 Sony VAIO notebooks with Vista Business on them – hey, the OEMs hardly support XP anymore. Vista Home Basic offers far too little at far too high a price; Vista Ultimate offers far too much at a totally ridiculous pricetag – about A$750, I think.
So if you possibly can, buy Windows XP Professional for that new computer of yours. Vista can wait a year or two before it can be widely accepted – Vista SP1 is out now, but I’ve heard that it changes little. It still needs to mature.
Oh: I definitely don’t want a Mac / PC war here – but you should seriously consider a Mac. It really could suit you. And when the time comes to upgrade your O.S., it’ll actually make your computer faster. And it doesn’t cost A$750 – it costs A$158 with more features than Microsoft’s Ultimate incarnation of Vista. For some non-biased tech news and views, hit up tbtechblog.blogspot.com – a professional blog that I edit and write for.
