A waste of time?
It’s sad to see Microsoft try so hard and fail, especially since that means that 20% of my time will be wasted on that failure and Vista is truly 20% failure.
New OS Same Old Windows
On my third day of a fresh, Windows Vista Business Edition, install (yes it’s legit) it has crashed irreparably. System Restore won’t work and the boot disk doesn’t work. This isn’t some sort of low end Pentium III; this is on a core 2-duo desktop machine.
What We’ve Left Behind
We hear a lot about Microsoft catering to business users and to the administrators of the world, but when installing Windows XP on multiple computers it quickly became apparent that Microsoft doesn’t know what it’s doing and who it’s catering too. With XP the install process was constantly halted to ask inane questions. You couldn’t just, “set and forget,” when installing XP, you had to constantly baby sit the install. This can quickly become a pain when installing on several computers and yes I know there are work-a-rounds to this.
Some Improvements
On that note I’d like to bring up another Vista annoyance. We’ve heard a lot about Microsoft speeding up the install process and to be truthful I was delighted with the speed of the install. So it only comes as somewhat of a disappointment that on every fresh install there’s time wasted on a, “system performance review.” I don’t trust Microsoft to rate my computer and can only imagine how quickly its review will become out-dated. Why on a, “business edition,” we are forced to sit through such drivel is beyond me, but I’m sure sys admins will love this one.
Why Move Things Around?
Is there a Microsoft employee out there who can describe why workgroup preferences are found under ,”System” instead of, “Network Preferences?”
No Compliance Checking
Previously Microsoft allowed users who were “upgrading” from a previous version to buy a cheaper upgrade install disk. The upgrade install disk would check for a previous install. If none was found, the user was requested to enter an older install disk. With Vista, the new “upgrade” drops compliance checking, requiring an actual copy of the old OS to be installed. Better keep track of those old OS install disks.
Draconian EULA
In a calamity of errors, Microsoft now invalidates your XP product key when upgrading to Vista. It’s an odd move. One would think that over time users will naturally migrate away from XP as they did with previous versions of Windows. Why even bother with regulating XP keys? Instead Microsoft looks as though their actually stealing from the customers they depend on by invalidating a product that a customer has legitimately purchased.
To summarize:
- Much needed streamlining of the install process
- Faster install process
- Most of my programs still seem to work.
- Bad performance rating at the end of the install process
- Draconian EULA; invalidation of XP keys, no compliance checking
Conclusion
Microsoft has released a much improved product, but there seems to be no compelling reason to upgrade. The UI received a shot in the arm, dual-monitor setups work well and most software seems to run with few to no hitches.
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