To follow up on my last posting – regarding Windows Vista haters – why exactly does Vista have the bad reputation it has? I see several reasons:
- It’s not a great operating system (sorry, Microsoft). Its much bulkier than Windows XP, with no obviously intuitive benefits to offset the increased hardware requirements and learning the new User Interface (UI).
- Apple really does have a great marketing department. While it’s a given that Mac OS has a small faction of the market share in relationship to Windows, Apple is perceived as “cool.” Microsoft is not, the “I’m a PC” campaigns notwithstanding.
- Those individuals who are “Anything But Microsoft” – but they’re not going to use any operating system from Microsoft anyway; they’re using Linux or running a Mac.
- Too many versions. Yep – that is confusing!
- Microsoft’s worst competitor is itself. This isn’t the first time, either.
Windows XP is/was a great operating system. Many people don’t have a compelling reason to get off it – and if the only reason is you need new hardware and the only OS you can get with it is Vista (definitely the case now for retail sales), that’s not really a compelling reason, even if it forces you to use Vista.
When Windows 2000 came out, Microsoft had the darndest time getting people off Windows 98. Sure it wasn’t pure 32 bit, wasn’t as secure, etc. …, but people loved it. Those running Windows NT 4.0 Workstation were easier – since for them Windows 2000 was a big improvement.
Another example of this is the various versions of Office. Office 95 / Office 98 / Office 2000 / Office 2002 / Office XP / Office 2007 – how many of those did you just decide to skip? If the previous version did everything you wanted, and upgrading a bunch of computers seemed like a hassle, were you in a big rush to go with the latest and greatest?
This brings me to Windows 7. While it doesn’t do anything for those who mourn for the XP interface, even the beta is less buggy and more efficient than Vista.
And if anyone wonders if I’m “eating my own dog food” – I’m running Windows XP and Office XP. I do have to use PowerPoint 2007 sometimes, for Microsoft-related presentations. As far as upgrading – I’m trying to hold out for Windows 7. At that point I’ll probably go with Office 2007 or whatever the most current version is at that time … resistance at some point does become futile!
