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Stay Away From Microsoft VISTA

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mouser:
After spending days of frustration making my programs Vista compatible, with mixed success, I unexpectedly feel like I need to add my voice to the growing chorus who feel like Windows Vista is the worst of all worlds, and a total unmitigated disaster of an Operating System.

Now I am not a knee-jerk Microsoft hater.  Personally i have a deep distrust and dislike for Apple and their marketing-scam-driven design methodology, and having used linux for a few years and dealt with linux servers for a while, i can honestly say i am not a fan of linux.  But every time i try to cut MS some slack they seem determined to prove they really are as f*cked up as their worst critics claim.

XP Pro is a fine operating system.
Microsoft Vista is a disaster.  Stay far away from it.

By far the worst thing is all this bullshit braindead User Access Control and the entire support system around it that is designed to improve security but instead winds up making using the operating system like living with the most annoying roomate you ever had in college.  If this is what a corporation with a reputation for User Interface testing produces, i'm going to rethink the entire notion of user interface testing.  I'd rather have my cat design a UAC system -- at least the cat knows what every damn firewall program knows -- you need to have ways to whitelist applications, etc.

But for me by far the most evil, harmfull, idiotic thing MS Vista does is with regards to the "Virtualization" approach to keeping old programs compatible.  Basically to solve compatibility problems with programs whose authors were stupid enough to use Microsoft's genius Registry System (another horribly stupid idea with everlasting negative reprecussions) or dares to create files in ITS OWN DIRECTORY, Vista tries to help these programs by creating secret hidden copies of the files they create, which neither users nor the programs will ever be able to find.  Best yet, it tricks the programs into thinking these files are in different locations.  Oh want more?  Ok, there can be multiple copies of these files, one in the original directory (which are now unbeknownst to the program unwritable) and then another copy in the secret directory.  Oh users with admin privileges will see the files in the normal directory, others get the secret hidden shadow copies.  Now watch the fun when users think they are working with one file but are really working with another.  More fun: If a program deletes the file -- guess what? it's still there? no it's not, its the other older shadow copy!  Please shoot the person at microsoft who thought this was a good idea.

You can read more about the virtual store here: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb530410.aspx



Look, if they wanted to solve this problem they could simply have said, that all programs which need to write files in such directories need to be installed and set to run in a compatibility mode where everything works as expected in win XP.  This current solution is a total unmitigated disaster for everyone involved.

Here's another lesson for designers: Don't try to be so f*cking clever writing all kinds of secret behind the scenes stuff like this -- the result is a train wreck.

To "help" programmers microsoft also wrote this system for "embedding manifests" inside exe's which lets you tell Vista to stop it's f*cking nonsense with your program.  Getting this thing to work is an utter nightmare.  Best of all you won't get any feedback as you struggle to figure out why/how on god's earth you do this.  Embedding a manifest is incredibly convoluted and error prone.

You honestly get the feeling that there must be some cabal in Microsoft which is trying to bring the company down.  If there is, can you hurry up so we can get something better?

scancode:
What can we do about it?
I agree with you. They fucked up on Vista. Will they change that? NO WAY!
Btw... if you got scared with Vista...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_7
...and of course...
http://www.winsupersite.com/faq/windows_7.asp

My favourite quote from the FAQ: "Microsoft says it might also make a subscription-based version of the OS available to consumers, but that's still in flux."

-- vista me hizo quedar ciego :P

Armando:
Oh my.
I'm not a Linux or Apple fan either, and I do like my XP.
But I've been studying the other OSs very closely because, well... all the vistas I've tried left a bad bad impression. Anyhow.

I guess one important question (but probably easily answered) is : how long can one stay far away from Vista and, using XP, still have access to the latest greatest computer technologies (and software)?
Staying away from Vista is fine, for now, but...

Will "Linux" be ready (for most if not all users) in a few years? I sincerely hope so -- for the health of software industry.
Will it be ready... hummm. Maybe, if virtualization solutions (like vmware and parallel dsktp) continue to make progresses.

J-Mac:
I have posted similar sentiments at other sites and believe it or not I have gotten flamed each time -- either Microsoft has shills out and about or - and this is scary! - there are actually a lot of people who have suddenly become rampant Microsoft "Stepfords"!

Personally, I have seriously thought hard about buying a Mac next. Drastic measures, I know. I once had an Apple IIC and then a IIe way back in ... I think it may have been the late '70s! Yikes!

Then in - I believe - 1982 or so I actually had the Mac forerunner - an Apple Lisa. It was the first personal microcomputer with a purely graphical user interface. Pretty cool, actually! Many have since panned it as a horrible failure, but I liked it, and though I had a brand new MacIntosh the following year - which replaced the Lisa - it did not really improve much on the Lisa except I think it added an internal floppy disk drive. Can't remember for sure  - too damn old - but either that one or a close successor introduced the 3.5" floppy as opposed to the larger 5.25".

BTW, all were purchased for me by an employer and they were used at work, not home. At home I had a TRS-80, Commodore 128, and a home-built IBM-clone PC-XT 286 machine. Of course Apple pretty much died out as a business machine right around then - as soon as IBM capitulated to Gates and for the first allowed others to purchase licenses and build clones of their original "PC". Apple refused to do the same ans that still hurts them today.

I really don't know if I could live with a Mac today. I have become accustomed to hacking away at Windows OS's that it would be either a dream to not do that -- or a nightmare. Not sure yet. But in the meantime, if I decide to get another Windows machine first, I will most definitely purchase a separate retail version of XP Pro, wipe the new machine, and install XP on it. I tried to purchse a copy about a month ago - just in case - but the supplier ran out and emailed me they weren't getting anymore. (Uh-oh!) But I'm sure I can find one, one way or another. But I refuse to get Vista, period. Maybe after a few years, if MS relents and updates the heck out of it to make it more usable. But if not, I'll try to work with whatever else I can find to avoid it.

I have never been a Microsoft-basher. For all the problems we have had over the years, if Microsoft wasn't exactly what they are we would not have all PC-wise that we have today. But when their OS and browser started getting so blasted for security reasons, and Gates committed to making MS the most secure OS on the planet, things started badly an have plummeted ever since. And he doesn't appear to have any intention of letting up on that.

Truly scary!

Jim

TucknDar:
Get mouserOS going!

Seriously though, I'm pretty content with my XP, although I was far more satisfied with 2k, to be honest. But there just came a point where some cool software and features would not work in good old 2k. Vista will not get anywhere near this laptop as long as every piece of software I need and use works with XP (which I'm sure mouser's app will for any foreseeable future 8) ).

Maybe, just maybe ReactOS will someday be a good alternative. That would be awesome, although I won't hold my breath waiting...

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