Scot Finnie, Computerworld’s online editorial director, takes readers on a tour of Windows Vista in his article “Visual Tour: 20 Things You Won’t Like About Windows Vista.”
“It boils down to this: The software giant is favoring security and IT controls over end-user productivity. Don’t get me wrong, security and IT manageability are very good things. But some of the people actually using the Beta 2 Vista software describe their experience as akin to that of a rat caught in a maze,” Finnie reports. “Business and home users will be nonplussed by the blizzard of protect-you-from-yourself password-entry and ‘Continue’ boxes required by the User Account Controls feature, for example. Networking functions and settings are scattered all over the place. The same is true of what Windows XP calls Display Properties. By default, the main menus (you know, File, Edit, View, etc.) are turned off on Windows Vista folders, Internet Explorer 7 and several other programs and utilities that come with Vista. Listing 20 things you won’t like about Windows Vista was unfortunately all too easy. The question is: Why couldn’t Microsoft see this coming?”
“Make no mistake, the new Windows lacks a gotta-have-it feature, unless it’s the increased security that protected-mode browsing, built-in spyware protection and the new User Account Controls provide. To my way of thinking, security shouldn’t be something you have to pay for. What’s more, it seems like Microsoft is building some of the most ambitious security components of Windows Vista not for its customers, but for itself,” Finnie reports. “Where does Windows Vista fit among many of the PC-based operating systems of today and the last couple of decades? With Beta 2 running on multiple test units, I feel comfortable predicting that Windows Vista will not outpace Mac OS X Tiger for overall quality and usability. It’s hard to beat Apple’s top-notch GUI design grafted onto an implementation of Unix variant BSD. Mac OS X has excellent reliability, security and usability. That isn’t to say that the user interface wouldn’t gain if Apple adopted some other best ideas of the day, but Apple has the best operating system this year, last year and next year. It’ll be interesting to see what the company delivers in its 10.5 Leopard version of Mac OS X. Meanwhile, I’m placing Windows Vista as a distant second-best to OS X. I see Linux and Windows 2000 as being roughly tied another notch or two below Vista, with XP being only a half step better than Win 2000.”
“So, why is the year-old Mac OS X Tiger so much better than Windows Vista, which Microsoft won’t even ship before January 2007? It isn’t that Apple has put more effort into its operating system; Microsoft has mounted a gargantuan effort on Windows Vista. It’s that the two companies have very different goals. I’ve come to believe that Microsoft has lost touch with its user base,” Finnie writes. “Everywhere you look, Microsoft has copied things that Apple has offered for quite some time in OS X… More than 15 years later, Microsoft is still following Apple in operating system design and bundled materials… I have no problem with Microsoft copying Apple’s or any other company’s best interface designs. We all win when that happens, and I wish Apple would steal the best things Microsoft does right back. What’s really strange is when a company lifts good ideas and makes them worse, not better.”
Finnie writes, “After more than 15 years reviewing Windows operating systems, I didn’t just suddenly begin hating Microsoft or Windows. (Although I have to admit, OS X is looking better and better of late.) Windows Vista has plenty of good aspects to recommend it. In a future article, Computerworld will make plain the many good things about Windows Vista. When the product ships, we’ll also make some final recommendations on the new operating system.”
Make sure you haven’t eaten recently and then go see Finnie’s 20 things users won’t like about Windows Vista here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “vitaboy” and “MacDragon” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Take: Another great review for Microsoft’s latest bloated mess, er… Windows Albatross, sorry… Windows Vista. By the way, Apple’s “so much better than Windows Vista” Mac OS X Tiger is already over a year old right now (released April 29, 2005) and will be over 20-months-old by the time Microsoft currently says they plan to inflict Vista (early 2007). Of course, many expect Apple’s Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard to debut around the same time as Windows Train Wreck, leaving Microsoft’s “new” OS even further behind on the day it finally ships.
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Exqueese me,
Go take your meds. The voices are getting too
loud.
Yeah Spark, excellent idea. And so simple. Email it to Apple.
Second on “Spark’s” idea.
It won’t be anything Apple does that will make users switch it’ll all be down to M$. Eventually many other people will see the light like I did. When you make that switch you are gone for good and there’s absolutley no going back. You just realise what a friggin idiot you’ve been all this time…
Exqueeze me…..you made my day. Not only did you verify that Windows fans are complete morons with you lack of knowledge but to say that MS “Knows what they are doing” is freaking hilarious.
ROTLMAO!!!!!!
Bill Gates: Guys, we need a feature like Apple’s “Expose”.
Programmer: OK boss. How about we pull up all the active apps and just stack them together so that the user has to “again” scroll through them to see them. Cool, don’t you think?
Bill Gates: Brilliant.
Still ROTFLMAO at Exqueese me. I bet he thinks using the name “Exqueese me” is most clever too.
I reckon there’s a new kind of virus…
It’s deep inside Microsoft, and its affecting its programmers. It’s the only possible reason why VISTA is turning into such a mess after 5 years of work.
Either that or they’re working for Apple
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Even if Leopard comes out before Vista, MS is too much of bloated beached whale to react to new features. Look at how long its taking for Vista to appear.
New Leopard features? MS will take another 5years to incorporate them into the next version of Vista while Apple will again pull ahead with even more innovating ideas.
Ever wonder how MS made so much money?
Check your mirror, then vaseline your ass!
Every time I read any of this stuff, I keep thinking of my senior citizen computer-challenged relatives. They just can’t cope with Windoz as it is, so Vista is going to be a disaster!!!!
AARP has GOT to be getting some BIG BUCKS from Microsoft. Why don’t they just tell it like it is and push OSX for the senior-set??
The Vista “project” has all of the appearances of what business theorists call a “death march”. The MS whip cracker leadership just does not get it. Given what this Vista beta shows, the OS design is a conceptual disaster. We are not just talking about bugs here, but that Vista, even functioning as intended, is a catastrophe. That is not a correctable situation. A new start is required. And that includes a new management team, including the firing of Gates and Ballmer by the stockholders. As an AAPL investor, I hope that never happens.
Just looking at 2 screenshoots of ASTA LA VISTA, confirms the tradition of M$ ability to steal ideas from others and …
MAKE THEM LOOK REALLY CRAPPY!
Oh my gawd!
Jake: “Leopard will ship no later than November ’06, and probably more like October.”
I’d doubt it for a couple of reasons.
1. WWDC is later than usual–August–giving developers less time to get their apps “Leopard Ready” if they ship in October or November. And, considering some of the stuff I’m hearing/seeing/guessing, there’s a big change or two coming down the pike.
2. Steve Jobs, at last years WWDC, clearly said Leopard in early 2007–“right around the same time as Vista”, which was scheduled for late 2006.
I’m guessing it will be February 2007–but Steve will show it off at MacWorld SF ’07.
Looks like apple takes care of security from the inside out, M$ is trying to do it from the outside in.
Then again, Steve originally said it would take a year plus to make the changeover from PPC to Intel chips…but announced the first Intel systems 6 months later.
Could be that Leopard will be like the Intel rollout — it’ll handle older programs fine, but newer programs will really sing…
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The latest I’ve heard about dates does not match what some folks have been saying here.
Apple revised its delivery date for Leopard to late December/January after MS announced the Vista shipping delay (to January, earliest).
There has since been a report that Vista will not be delivered until ‘summer’ next year – more than a year distant. Perhaps this means that it will be Mastered by late Dec/January and in hands of OEMs for six months of testing after that.
“Then again, Steve originally said it would take a year plus to make the changeover from PPC to Intel chips”
No. Jobs said that Apple would start shipping Intel machines in 2006 and the change-over would be complete by the end of 2006 (namely, you won’t be able to get PowerPC machines anymore).
So, yes, I expect to see Macintosh Pros shipping in August or September and the store will have a little button that says, “Need a PowerMac? Click here” until December.
“Could be that Leopard will be like the Intel rollout — it’ll handle older programs fine, but newer programs will really sing…”
Certainly, but it will torque off developers.
For example, one of the things that has been mentioned is a resolution-independent interface, which will probably mess up a bunch of applications which assume 72dpi. But if you got the OS in August and only had two months to update your app, you’d be pretty annoyed.
Like I said, I don’t think you’ll see October or November of this year for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. I could see Steve announcing it at MacWorld SF and shipping in early February.
“Sqeeeze Me” may have the dumbest quote I have ever–ever–read on this board.
Your head has to be REALLY buried in the sand not to realize that IF Tiger ever ships
Someone should tell that moron troll that Tiger has been out for over a year.
And if he meant Leopard–it would be nice if the trolls at least did their homework–Apple has released 4 revisions of OS X when Microsoft is still late–and getting later–trying to ship 1.
Facts are such an uncomfortable thing for trolls.
Yet more Vista bashing from the Apple peanut gallery.
You people should grow up.
At least after the release of Vista people will no longer be able to say that PCs are outrightly cheaper than Macs.
When Apple builds an operating system that runs on hundreds of millions of computers worldwide, and supports hundreds of thousands of pieces of software and hardware, and is used by 90%+ of the planet, maybe then Steve Jobs and all his sheep can start crowing about how everyone copies them.
I use Windows, Mac and Linux on a regular basis. They all have their strengths and weaknesses. Vista looks like it will be a significant improvement over XP (and XP is quite good as it is.)
>@Peter:”For example, one of the things that has been mentioned is a resolution-independent interface, which will probably mess up a bunch of applications which assume 72dpi. But if you got the OS in August and only had two months to update your app, you’d be pretty annoyed.”
—->Peter – resolution independence will not screw up ANY apps. Here’s why: OS X uses 72dpi for fonts, right? 72 point type is 1 inch high. We both agree on that. OS X will CONTINUE to use 72dpi (at least from the users perspective). What resolution independence does is take say 14 pt. Lucida Grande and make sure it displays as such on ANY resolution monitor. Right now if you’re using a MBP 15.4″ and you’re looking at 14 pt. LG it is SMALLER than on a 17″ iMac. Why? Because the 15.4″ screen on the MBP has the SAME resolution as the </b>17″</b> iMac screen. In other words, the physical size of the pixels is smaller on the MBP. Resolution independence will make 14pt. always display at it’s proper (real) size no matter how high the resolution of the monitor is. 1900 x 1200? 14pt. IS 14pt. on the screen. So based on the resolution your monitor is, it upscales the type to be the actual point size on the screen factoring in the physical size of the pixels. To the user this will be transparent – you’ll just be selecting a type size. The OS will take care of the rest. It will upscale the other graphical elements as well so type will not be overlapping buttons etc.
BTW: Vista will have this as well. Heard it from Loyd Case on dl.tv episode 65.
Are your lives so disgustingly boring that all you can do is bitch, bullshit and suck your way to superiority. Most of you come her cuz you smell some pussy, but the truth is, youre all a bunch of attention whores who are extremely childish and fanatical about TWO respectable OS’s..People like yourselves are about .0005 percent of the earths population, and unfortunately, the masses will continue to use whats natural…so until OSX has 50 percent marketshare you all can kiss my windows on a mac using ass. OSX is a badass state or the art ****ing OS and Windows XP/Vista are badass state of the art ****ing OS’s. They both have distinct differences that make them uncomparable..Windows is superioir to the mac in some areas – Mac OS X is superioir in others. Big freaking Deal. My Dodge Ram 2500 Turbo tows more than my buddies Chevy 2500HD Turbo, but he’s got amenities that i would enjoy. But you wont see us circle jerking about it…Youre all a bunch of Twinks…When your not rubbing one out on your systems do you still dream about them? Gawd, get clues and/or lives. Go get some Nook or Cranny (pun)
Unspoken, forbidden MDN “Majic Word(s)” ” > O S 9 and Windows NT4 “
real mw – Test as in “testicles”
LLLLLLLLLoosers
“Did you see the version comparison chart? You actually have to purchase the $700 “Windows Vista Ultimate” in order to get “Windows DVD Maker”!
Windows users love taking it up the ass, don’t they?”
I think you’ve been taking something up the ass, too. How else could you pull that $700 price for Vista Ultimate out of it?
Hey Lame,
Good name for yourself, you pathetic, lame, conceited bitch.
You are so cowardly to say these types of things in an online forum.
I may be a Mac user, but I am also one of the best combat practitioners and instructors in the world, and I would certainly enjoy kicking your Windows lubbin’ hinie up and down main street a few times.
But I would certainly never write the self-aggrandising and disrespectful BS that you just did.
It may be worth reflecting, if you even possess that ability, that you just wrote some of the worst stuff I have ever read in an internet forum.
Scumbag.