“Microsoft released Windows Vista to the world one year ago with ads likening the new PC operating system to such awe-inspiring moments as the first American spaceflight and the fall of the Berlin Wall,” Todd Bishop reports for The Seattle Post-Intelligencer. “Charles Walling just wants it to work with his printer.”
Bishop reports, “The retired Seattle warehouseman has spent hours on the Dell tech support line, installed all the drivers and, yes, double-checked all the cords and plugs. No luck. The cause of the problem isn’t clear, but Walling knows one thing: The same printer worked with Windows Vista’s predecessor, Windows XP.
“‘You can see the frustration,’ Walling said this week, sitting at his desk after Windows Vista displayed an error message in response to an attempt to print,” Bishop reports.
Bishop reports, “Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates recently called Windows Vista the ‘best new product of the year.'”
Bishop reports, “A year after its glitzy retail launch, Windows Vista has developed a reputation as a source of frustration for others. The effects of that reputation are apparent in the habits of PC buyers. At the computer store Quidnunc in West Seattle, for example, owner Bill Hibler estimates that 40 percent of people ordering computers through his shop still ask for Windows XP.”
Bishop reports, “Walling, the retired Seattle warehouseman, moved to Windows Vista when he bought a new PC last fall. Despite the problems he has experienced, he’s sticking with the operating system, figuring it would be too much hassle to go back at this point. He still hopes to fix his printer compatibility problems. In the meantime, how does he print out his documents? ‘I don’t,’ he said.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Rob” for the heads up.]
