“The moving train wreck that is Windows Vista finally began to approach its destination last week with the release of another major test version: beta 2. This should mean it is ‘feature complete,’ with only bug fixes, performance tuning and a final polish before it reaches businesses at the end of this year, and consumers at the start of next year,” The Mail & Guardian reports. “For those of us who have been following this particular development from the storage principles that appeared in the 1990s (Cairo) through to the Longhorn ideas that Microsoft showed even before the release of Windows XP, Vista looks a bit of a disaster. If Microsoft had delivered what it promised in, say, 2004, it would have led the market. Instead, it’s offering much less, and delivering it much later — probably after three or even more versions of, say, Mac OS X.”
“But, of course, we’re an insignificant number of people with little money and even less influence. Vista is probably going to ship about 500-million copies in 2007/08, with more than 10 000 PC manufacturers pre-installing it on almost every machine they make, across the four corners of the earth. And paying Microsoft about $25-billion in cash,” The Mail & Guardian reports. ” I suspect most of these naive users will find a lot to like in Vista. They will like the clean interface and the speed of Windows Media Player 11, the extra security and enhanced features of Internet Explorer 7+ (quick tabs, RSS feed detection, page zooming, print-to-fit), and the vastly improved Start menu. They will love the way little screen images pop up from the taskbar, and the way they can mouse-wheel rapidly through screens in Flip 3D mode — with videos still running. Some less jaded users will enjoy the gadgets — clock, slide show, weather information etc — that show in the Vista Sidebar, as per Konfabulator, or on accessory screens.”
Full article here.
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At last, a Vista preview that isn’t slobbering.
Brace yourselves Windows users…this one’s gonna be bumpy!
I reiterate the thougths of those who have said Vista represents an opportunity for Apple – when consumers are faced with buying new hardware and learning a new system (Vista’s interface is diferent enough from XP to warrant some learning) then a percentage of them will travel to the Apple store, gawk at the OS X goodness – and leave with a Mac in hand (and perhaps clutch their Boot Camp security blanket in the other).
I thought the Aero interface wasn’t “final” in the previous betas and we would be seeing the “final” theme in Beta 2, and it would be so cool we’d have to pick our drooling chins up off the floor.
Where is it, boys? Looks the same to me as it has since 2004.
The reviewer is basically right – the masses are a bunch of lemmings and don’t realize that they can get/do better for essentially the same price these days.
Ladies and gentlemen, I travel a lot and I have to tell you that more than 95% of people I meet, have never heard of the Mac. Some say they hav experienced it but found it too hard. I don’t believe them because they lived in countries where mac’s are not sold.
I am called a zealot when I tell my friends all about the Mac and they see my 17″ Powerbook and what it can do. They all have iTunes but don’t associate the software with Apple at all. It’s like iTunes and iPods are some other part of M$ or something!
It will be a long and slow process before they even know what Apple Mac is before they actually buy one.
Let’s just be grateful that we are the enlightened ones.
The final, thudding and ponderous landing of Vista on the computer landscape will sound the death knell of the Evil Empire. That will come when users figure out that all those wondrous features, well-copied though they were, have not released them from the nightmare of malware, spyware and viruses.
At that point, finding themselves pushed deeper into stygian darkness, the legion of users will issue a collective, massive sigh of despair. The release of service pack after service pack will only make things worse. Ballmer will have by then been reduced to a slobbering container of sweat, locked somewhere in a back parking lot.
Other than the scrabble of mice, the only thing audible within twenty feet of that trailer will be a thinly cracking, unpaced warble, punching tiny holes of insanity into the otherwise still night: “Developers… developers…devel…op… ers…”
Tiger’s on-board dictionary states vista as “a mental view of a succession of remembered or anticipated events”.
Very apt!
Every time I read one of these Vista previews I find myself smiling knowing that I made the right choice.
I think this review has probably hit the spot. You just know its going to be a dog…
7 steps to delete a shortcut? I bet there are several one click ways of killing your system though! Apart from clicking on “Install” that is….
SLAVES!
Loud Noises!!!
Making billions leading the sheep to the slaughter.
Apple’s Solution: Finally ADVERTISE LEOPARD!! Create yes even more eye candy to attract the VISTA incompetant imbecile(sp) sheep, and enhance more halo with a true wide screen video iPod and a $99 nano that performs HOME ON IPOD. As bad as I hate Best Buy, the exposure is a good move, no matter how bad employees are there.
“Moving train wreck that is Windows Vista to leave the station in late 2006/early 2007”
Then it should probably tour the US on Amtrak.
“Apple’s Solution: Finally ADVERTISE LEOPARD!!”
A 30 second spot on how to delete a shortcut in OS X should do the trick.
Big pete,
ive never met anyone that associated iTunes to something in anyway, shape or from microsoft.
Ive never met anyone that hasnt atleast ‘heard’ of a mac, seriously.
The people im talking to not only have they heard of apple and macs, but they are BUYING them.
the worlds changing, microsoft, not just vista is a moving train wreck, and it wont be too long before that s.o.b. disintegrates totally.
VISTA is going to be a gangsters charter. The opportunity of a lifetime for virus creators, extortionists, blackmailers thieves and gangsters to hold civilized society to ransome.
MICROSOFT IS EVIL.
“A 30 second spot on how to delete a shortcut in OS X should do the trick.”
What would they do for the other 28.5 seconds?
“What would they do for the other 28.5 seconds?”
The actor could smile and say, “there are no steps two through seven!”
Then a 25 second slow scroll of all of OS X’s attributes like no viruses or spyware.
There is an old saying…
Some people are caterpillars. Some people are butterflies.
In other words: Some people never transcend the old ways for new exciting ways that leads to true freedom.
Vista looks a bit of a disaster. If Microsoft had delivered what it promised in, say, 2004, it would have led the market. Instead, it’s offering much less, and delivering it much later — probably after three or even more versions of, say, Mac OS X.”
Seriously … three more versions of OS X by early 2008? More, if you count the major updates (10.5.1, 10.5.2, 10.5.3, …) but does anyone expect Apple to launch 10.6 less than a year after it launches 10.5? Where’s the incentive? Vista is pretty much on par – feature-wise – with Tiger, or it was a year ago. Leopard was expected to do the usual leap-frog thing to keep Apple a step ahead of MS.
Big Pete said:
I travel a lot and I have to tell you that more than 95% of people I meet have never heard of the Mac.
Now … at best that is an exaggeration. Truth be told, I’d say that about 75% of computer users have no experience with OS X – and two thirds have no real experience with any sort of a Mac. This is part of why the Apple stores are so important – curiosity draws them in and excellent experience sells them. Leopard will have six months to a year to get established before Vista dawns, and another six months to a year going toe-to-toe with it before the next generation comes along for hypes sake.
Where’s Apple’s motivation for piling it on? They have a dilemma waiting when they get to 10.9 – what is the next version to be called? Why rush into it?
One fact in the original article caught my eye. The long available ability to use a disk image of the system in Mac is to be available to VISTA users. Of course, the system image is over 15 GB. I just calulated the size of the System and Library folders on my system and they total 5.14 GB.
talk about bloatware! LOL!
Ampar quoted dennis in this message:
“What would they do for the other 28.5 seconds?”
The actor could smile and say, “there are no steps two through seven!”
No … that isn’t how an advertiser or a script writer would do it.
Mac Dude – “I guess I don’t need this alias any more”
Windows Dude – “No problem, Vista makes getting rid of them easy. (he outlines steps one through seven)
Mac Dude – “click, drag to Trash, drop … is that one step or three?”
PC Dude – <stares> “That’s too easy!”
A few pregnant pauses for effect and some titles and you have your 30 seconds.
How hard is it to type ‘naïve’?
After 4 versions of OSX before this wreck goes public. Only a fool would want to put this on there PC. Most should wait another 3 years before Microsoft actually gets it out of beta with Service Pack 3.
Well, when Vista comes out there will be literally millions of lemmings panting for it. All I can thiink of is to by this poster
<center>Idiocy</center>
and put it in my office…
Realistically Watching:
Thanks for the link! The cynic in my head is laughing his ass off.