A Windows Vista reality check for Microsoft

“Judging by the grief that Microsoft is getting over delays in the release of Windows Vista, and the buzz surrounding the price it plans to charge for the next generation operating system, you’d think we were all hankering to get our hands on this hot new piece of software,” Owen Thomas writes for Business 2.0.

Thomas writes, “Don’t believe the hype: There won’t be lines around the block at midnight when Vista hits store shelves early next year, analysts say. ‘I don’t expect anyone’s going to be camping out at Best Buy waiting for this product,’ says Citigroup equity research analyst Brent Thill. ‘I think the pace of adoption will be slower than the market expects.'”

“‘Consumers perceive what they have as good enough,’ says Joe Wilcox, an analyst at JupiterResearch. ‘A pattern we saw with Windows XP is that people would buy an XP machine and keep the older machine with the older operating system. They don’t see the benefit of upgrading the older machine.'”

MacDailyNews Take: Good enough? Some people have really low expectations. That’s sad.

Thomas continues, “The modest expectations for Vista do give rise to a radical question: How many tens of thousands of engineers might Microsoft have fired, and how many billions of dollars might it have saved if it had just not bothered to develop Vista in the first place? Most of us would have kept buying Windows anyway.”

MacDailyNews Takje That’s even sadder, but don’t bank on people continuing to buy Windows anyway. Apple has other plans. Embrace first, then extinguish. Most people think they need Windows. People who buy a MacBook or iMac now because it will allow them to run Windows will quickly find out what every Mac user already knows; they’ll find themselves booting Windows less and less out of preference for Mac OS X.

Thomas continues, “Microsoft’s at long last trying to leverage its monopoly power by raising prices. Of course, it’s doing it in a subtle way. The Basic version of Vista is priced similarly to the last version of Windows XP at $199 for a retail license. But Microsoft is betting that PC makers will want to push higher-end machines that run Windows Vista Premium. Microsoft won’t comment on the prices it charges PC makers for Windows, but analysts believe Microsoft will charge them about $40 more for that version of Vista as well.”

“The end result: The average price of Windows will go up, even as most other components that go into a PC drop in price,” Thomas writes. “Will Vista Premium be worth the extra cost? Essentially, the features you get with the more expensive version are better security, a prettier user interface, and the audio-video software formerly found in Microsoft’s Media Center edition of Windows XP. That doesn’t seem like a lot for five years’ work, or for $40 extra.”

“So here’s a modest proposal: Boycott Vista. Keep your old Windows XP PC around. Don’t buy a new one. That’s the only way we have to let Microsoft know Vista is an overhyped, late, and pointless update to XP – a perfectly fine operating system,” Thomas writes.

Full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Tom S.” for the heads up.]

MacDailyNews Take: One tiny clarification: Windows XP is a “perfectly fine” operating system if you don’t know any better and/or you’re a masochist. Somebody send Owen Thomas a Mac, so he can see how silly he sounds. We have a better proposal: Get a Mac.

For our Windows-only visitors via Google News and elsewhere: Are you really going to spend that kind of money on an operating system that is trying so desperately to be Apple’s Mac OS X? Most likely, you’re going to need a new computer to run Vista anyway. Why not use that money toward a new Mac instead? Install your current copy of Windows XP on it via Apple’s free Boot Camp or Parallels US$79.99 Desktop for Mac. From what we see, you won’t be missing out on much by ignoring Windows Vista (some call it “Windows XP SP3”) and you’ll be gaining so much more with Apple’s virus-free Mac OS X and iLife applications running on elegant and inexpensive Intel-powered Apple hardware.

See:
$399 for Windows Vista Ultimate?! (Hint: Get a Mac) – August 29, 2006
Development approaches of Mac OS X Leopard vs. Windows Vista yield very different results – August 15, 2006
Analyst: Apple’s new Mac OS X Leopard sets new bar, leaves Microsoft’s Vista in the dust – August 08, 2006
Symantec researcher: At this time, there are no file-infecting viruses that can infect Mac OS X – July 13, 2006
Sophos: Apple Mac OS X’s security record unscathed; Windows Vista malware just a matter of time – July 07, 2006
Computerworld: Microsoft Windows Vista a distant second-best to Apple Mac OS X – June 02, 2006
Analyst: Windows Vista may still impress many consumers because they have not seen Apple’s Mac OS X – January 05, 2006

Now is the perfect time to consider trying something new (and you can still run your Windows applications, too)! At some point in your life, you’ve probably told someone, “You don’t know what you’re missing,” right? Well, we’re saying that to you today. Get a Mac! You deserve it. And the Mac community will be here to support your new adventure every step of the way. Why do we care what you use? Do it and you’ll find yourself telling people to “Get a Mac,” too. Switching from Windows PC to Mac really is a revelation.

Find out more about Mac OS X Tiger here: http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/
And Apple’s Mac OS X Leopard (coming spring 2007) here: http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/

Apple’s Intel-powered MacBook starts at just $1099. And, Apple’s Intel-powered iMac starts at only $1299.. Apple’s Mac mini starts at just $599 (For $200 more than a box of Vista Ultimate, you get a Mac, Mac OS X, iLife, and so much more)!

Don’t just take our word for it (we are MacDailyNews, after all). Check out the related articles below and see what independent reviewers have to say about the Mac and Mac OS X:

Related MacDailyNews articles:

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Chicago Tribune: Apple’s new Intel-based Mac mini might make you switch from Windows – March 07, 2006
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Thurrott: ‘I highly recommend Apple’s new Intel-based iMac’ – January 31, 2006
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Computerworld: Apple’s MacBook Pro ‘fast, really fast – looks like a real winner’ – January 28, 2006
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36 Comments

  1. toonie,

    Nothing a little self-righteousness won’t cure, eh?

    Well personally, I do need to bash, and I’m gonna bash, cause I can bash. But all bashing aside, Windows needs to go away, if not completely, at least a long ways away. You know it – and so does everyone else on this thread.

    But have a great day.

    MDN: “could” – As in Can and Will

  2. Mr. Peabody makes an excellent point.

    (On the other hand, we Mac users don’t make it real easy for Windows users hauling around that kind of dogma, to switch. We tend to give the impression that we’re looking over the fence taunting them to switch…).

    I, for one, (being USUALLY Right), have toned it WAY down, when I caught myself straight up, mid-sentence, speaking in a condescending fashion to a frustrated Windows user (much in the the manner which you would expect from someone who’s moniker used to be ALWAYS right!)

    ” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” />

    It’s true, you catch mor bees w/ honey, than with vinegar.
    (Unfortunately, I am allergic to the fuckers.)

    Actually, the view is quite nice down here (off of my high horse).
    Since I’ve stopped preaching and baiting, coupla’ friends have even APPROACHED ME, especially, I believe, because they noticed that I didn’t jump all over every chance to point out thier stupidity for using winbloze at every opportunity that arose.

  3. MS-DOS 6.22

    It runs the venerable WordPerfect (far superior to MS Word), Lotus 1-2-3 for spreadsheets, QBasic for quick proogramming tasks, great games like SimCity 2000, and so much more!

    Who needs this fancy Windows stuff.

    Just configure your autoexec.bat and config.sys and you’re ready for the Big Leagues!

  4. It didn’t sound to me like Thomas was saying “XP is good enough” so much as he was saying “people SEE XP as being good enough”. And it’s certainly true. Most folk don’t know any better, have never experienced anything better, and have been warned repeatedly about TRYING anything better – malware, y’know.

    IT shops don’t want to upgrade the entire user base because that means they will have to upgrade their own skill set in order to answer every fool question some pointy-haired manager comes up with. Jane/Joe Sixpack doesn’t follow the industry, s/he goes out and buys whatever is on sale that meets his/her budget and sounds like it might possibly be reliable. Joe is more likely to ‘shop features’ than Jane, but 90% of either doesn’t know the difference between an OS and an app. And that 10% that do? Hard-core gamers.

    Lay off Thomas. He’s merely reporting the pitiful situation.

  5. Sparks: MDN advice: “Install your current copy of Windows XP on it via Apple’s free Boot Camp or Parallels US$79.99 Desktop for Mac.”

    My experience with some OEM versions of Windows is that will only install on the OEM’s hardware. Will the OEM version of Windows XP that came with–say a DELL– install on Mac?

    All I know is I switched late July, using Parallels, i have been running my HP version of XP, in 6 weeks I have never had to reboot, or has it crashed, it “just works” better on my Imac, XP works better on my Imac, than it ever did on my HP.

    REF: MacDailyNews Takje That’s even sadder, but don’t bank on people continuing to buy Windows anyway. Apple has other plans. Embrace first, then extinguish. Most people think they need Windows. People who buy a MacBook or iMac now because it will allow them to run Windows will quickly find out what every Mac user already knows; they’ll find themselves booting Windows less and less out of preference for Mac OS

    HOW TRUE YOU ARE!!!! I have completly converted to Mac applications, I wasnt sure about MS officee after reading reviews of it not being “universal” but I cant notice any differance , and it “JUST LOOKS BETTER ” on my Imac, the only window app. I now use is a work data base!!!

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