“Windows Vista is Microsoft’s first new operating system in more than five years and the successor to Windows XP. However, it is not worth rushing out to purchase,” Robert Vamosi reports for CNET Reviews.
Vamosi reports, “Windows Vista is not the Apple Mac OS X 10.4 killer one hoped for (or feared).”
“Perhaps we’re spoiled, but after more than five years of development, there’s a definite ‘Is that all?’ feeling about Windows Vista. Like cramming an info-dump into a book report the night before it’s due, there certainly are a lot of individual features within the operating system, but the real value lies in their execution–how the user experiences (or doesn’t experience) these–and like the info-dump, we came away shaking our heads, disappointed,” Vamosi reports.
Vamosi reports, “Compared with Mac OS X 10.4, Windows Vista feels clunky and not very intuitive, almost as though it’s still based on DOS (or at least the internal logic that made up DOS). Despite the addition of a system-wide, built-in search, and various efforts to break away from staidly old directory trees, you still need to drill down one level to even access the search.”
“And there are far too many dependencies on Microsoft products; this is not a very objective operating system, as preference is always given to Microsoft products (of which there are many), from MSN search to RSS feeds only from Internet Explorer. But is Windows Vista a bad operating system? No. It’s just a disappointment for PC users who hoped that Microsoft would deliver something truly exciting to finally leapfrog ahead of Apple. They failed. But stick around; this is just Windows Vista 1.0. Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is due out sometime before the end of the year. Windows Vista SP1 promises to fix what’s known to be wrong within Windows Vista and should offer a few concrete reasons to switch,” Vamosi reports.
Vamosi reports, “The bottom line: Windows Vista is essentially warmed-over Windows XP. If you’re currently happy with Windows XP SP2, we see no compelling reason to upgrade. On the other hand, if you need a new computer right now, Windows Vista is stable enough for everyday use.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “NeverFade” for the heads up.]
“Is that all?” Wow, CNET’s Vamosi better duck as the chairs won’t just be flying from Redmond’s direction, but from CNET’s ad sales department, too. Of course, maybe he’ll be spared as he did stop short of providing the real solution. That’s okay, we’ll do it.
For our Google News visitors attracted by the “Vista” in the headline, here is the real bottom line, totally unaffected by Microsoft ad dollars:
Are you really going to “stick around” waiting for Windows Vista Service Pack 1? Or keep running the ancient XP? Come on already! Microsoft equals unfulfilled promises, derivative thinking, and sloppy execution. If you need a new computer right now, you owe it to yourself to buy an Apple Mac. Take Microsoft’s Windows Vista Chief Allchin’s advice from his now infamous 2004 email in which he wrote that he’d buy a Mac if he didn’t work for Microsoft. You probably don’t work for Microsoft, so nothing’s stopping you. Good God, hop off that mule and take the thoroughbred instead!
Along with Mac OS X, run Windows on your Mac if you must, but it’s time to stop shortchanging yourself. Seriously, are you going to wait a year for a Microsoft Service Pack for a “warmed-over Windows XP” or waste your money on an OS-limited Dell, HP, Toshiba, Lenovo, or some other dime-a-dozen box assembler’s PC in order to run an OS that “feels clunky and not very intuitive” compared to Apple’s soon-to-be-two-years-old Mac OS X Tiger? For what reason?
Find out about the innovative, secure, elegant, and intuitive Mac OS X Tiger here and take a sneak peek at the real future (coming Spring 2007), Apple’s Mac OS X Leopard here.
Macintosh. Because life’s too short.
Related articles:
Security firm: 38-percent of malware already Windows Vista-compatible – January 22, 2007
Mossberg: Microsoft’s Windows Vista offers lesser imitations of Apple’s Mac OS X features – January 18, 2007
Windows Vista disappointment drives longtime ‘Microsoft apologist’ to Apple’s Mac OS X – January 17, 2007
InformationWeek Review: Apple’s Mac OS X shines in comparison with Microsoft’s Windows Vista – January 06, 2007
NY Times’ Pogue reviews Microsoft’s Windows Vista: ‘Looks, Locks, Lacks’ – December 14, 2006
Forbes: Microsoft Windows Vista boss suffers from Mac envy – December 12, 2006
Windows chief Allchin 2004 email: I’d buy a Mac if I didn’t work for Microsoft – December 11, 2006
Unlike Microsoft’s Windows Vista, Apple’s Mac OS X Leopard will create no new jobs – December 12, 2006
15-year Windows vet tries Apple Mac: ‘My God! This is amazing!’ – December 04, 2006
Microsoft’s Windows Vista: obsolete on arrival? – December 04, 2006
InformationWeek: Now that Vista is the past, let’s look at the future: Apple’s Mac OS X Leopard – December 02, 2006
Microsoft’s Windows Vista and Office 2007 releases generate yawns – December 02, 2006
Dave Winer: ‘Microsoft isn’t an innovator, and never was – they are always playing catch-up’ – December 01, 2006
Harvard Medical School CIO picks Mac OS X over Linux and Windows – November 30, 2006
Microsoft’s Windows Vista vulnerable to malware from 2004 – November 30, 2006
Microsoft Windows Vista developers used Apple Macs for inspiration – November 27, 2006
A Windows expert opts for a Mac life – November 06, 2006
Microsoft’s Windows Vista is basically Microsoft’s version of Mac OS 9.3 – October 11, 2006
Embrace and Extinguish in action: TechIQ’s ‘The VAR Guy’ dumps Windows, switches to Mac OS X – September 25, 2006
Top Windows developer dumps Microsoft’s ‘pile of crap’ for Apple’s Mac OS X – September 12, 2006
$399 for Windows Vista Ultimate?! (Hint: Get a Mac) – August 29, 2006
Apple’s Mac OS X Leopard is 64-bit done right, unlike Microsoft’s Windows Vista kludge – August 14, 2006
Microsoft Windows Vista: If you can’t innovate… try to impersonate Apple’s Mac OS X – August 10, 2006
Analyst: Apple’s new Mac OS X Leopard sets new bar, leaves Microsoft’s Vista in the dust – August 08, 2006
Microsoft botches another copy job: Windows Vista Flip3D vs. Apple Mac OS X Exposé – June 26, 2006
Sydney Morning Herald Tech columnist dumps Microsoft Windows, switches to Apple Mac – June 13, 2006
Windows Vista rips-off Mac OS X at great hardware cost (and Apple gains in the end) – June 13, 2006
Computerworld: Microsoft Windows Vista a distant second-best to Apple Mac OS X – June 02, 2006
Thurrott: Microsoft going to get eaten alive over Windows Vista’s resemblance to Apple’s Mac OS X – March 09, 2006
NY Times’ Pogue on Gates’ CES demo: Most of Vista features unadulterated ripoffs from Apple Mac OS X – January 05, 2006
Analyst: Windows Vista may still impress many consumers because they have not seen Apple’s Mac OS X – January 05, 2006
Apple’s talent and innovation vs. Microsoft’s hype – October 25, 2005
Microsoft’s Windows Vista strives to deliver what Apple’s Mac OS X already offers – October 10, 2005
Thurrott: many of Windows Vista’s upcoming features appeared first in Apple’s Mac OS X – September 26, 2005
Microsoft’s Ballmer: It’s true, some of Windows Vista’s features are ‘kissing cousins’ to Mac OS X – September 18, 2005
PC World: Microsoft innovation – an oxymoron – September 14, 2005
As usual, Apple leads, Microsoft tries to follow – June 02, 2005
Bye-Bye Bill: another columnist dumps Windows for Apple Macintosh – January 20, 2005
Orlando Sentinel writer dumps Windows for Mac and writes ‘God bless Apple’ – January 16, 2005
IBM Fellow dumps Microsoft Windows XP, switches to Apple’s Mac OS X – September 02, 2004
I kerfliggit my jiggle kermitant taaarg! Chair! Klickle merfee ofly nickleback in the kerniggite! Flurps! Flurps! May diningle in der Spieglenacht! poof!
Man. I thought Zune Tang had it bad…
“When (if?) Gates and Ballmer finally get around to adding new features to the package to compete with OS X Leopard, it will have to be shipped all over again FOR AN UPGRADE FEE!
BWAAAAAAHAAAAA!”
That’s Apple’s interpretation of SOX, not anybody else’s. Actually it’s just Apple’s excuse to extract some more money from Mac users.
“By the time SP1 for Vista comes out everyone will have forgotten about Vista anyways. Why? Because OSX Leopard will have arrived and Apple will show the world what a truly amazing and great experience an operating system can have.”
Same was said of Tiger.
This article seems to say that if you’re happy with XP the visual niceties of Vista will be of no interest to you. The same would apply to Mac OS X.
Hence why Apple has 2% share worldwide. Windows works. Therefore no more than 2% of the world’s population really cares what Apple does or does not do.
“All about the APPS? Are you on CRACK? If it was, then Macintosh wins HANDS DOWN. Runs ’em ALL. “
Not out of the box it doesn’t. And installing Windows and Boot Camp vs buying a PC with Vista pre-loaded is just too much of a hassle for most people if what they really want to do is run Windows and Windows apps anyway.
But Apple will be pre-loading Vista shortly, so that should eliminate that problem.
Looks like the Winduhs freaks are out in force. They realized they’ve waited 5 yrs for a piece of crap and now are now flaming here as some weird form of therapy. Sad really. They remind me of the right wing fundie types that go thru all sorts of bizzare reasoning to prove that all of modern science is wrong and the Book of Genesis is right. The Cult of Windows is truely a pathetic thing.
The book of Genesis IS right.
Ok, I have Windows Vista RC1 on my iMac via Bootcamp. There were some thing I liked about it :
1: 1st thing I noticed Windows felt liter and faster than OS X, like IE would starting up faster than Safari, Photo Gallery faster than iPhoto( probalby because PG did’nt have 6,000 8 megapixle photos to load on startup like iPhoto.
2: Windows Exeplorer can also do a slideshow of any selected photos like the Finder can but W.E. had multiple ways of showing your slideshow(like in 3d transitions etc)
3.Search was a lot faster than Spotlight .
4. I liked Aero with the glass windows and the glowing buttons
5. Movie Maker was easier to use than iMovie but they didn’t look as near as professianal.
6.Photo Galery had some nice differnt ways to browse your photos(like by camera model)
7. I loved what basiscly is tab exepose in IE 7.
8. Some other minor things.
What I absolutly hated:
1. 3d effects look cheap and are jerky.
2. Flip 3D is fun but its not productive.
3. You can see whats in a minamized windows by hovering your mouse the bar but on the Mac the previews already there, no hovering required.
4. The gadget bar is lame and useless. 3rd party gadgets are horindous!
5. No spring-loaded folders.
6. I had these stupid message ballons poping up every minute for dumb things. “you plugged in a mouse” well duh!
7. There is’nt a chatting client. You have to download the Live Messernger which is loaded with ads and other junk that is’nt IM related. And it does’nt use the Aero interface!
8. The interface is’nt complete. I found a bunch of old icons that looked like they came straight from win95. I saw a lot of the old harsh square buttons.
9. Microsoft makes to many alternatives to its own products:hmm should I use WIndows Mail or Outlook 2007 or Windows Live Mail or the online Live Mail? I saw other cases like that all over.
Note: I was a lot faster at the creating the list that I hated.
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Windows is not as good as Mac
are we up and running
“They remind me of the right wing fundie types that go thru all sorts of bizzare reasoning to prove that all of modern science is wrong and the Book of Genesis is right. “
Whereas Mac users simply want us to believe that 98% of people are wrong, and that the Mac user is right.
People buy what is the most attractive and useful product to them at the price they want to spend. That’s why Mac has 2% of the worldwide PC market.
Clearly iPods provide something people want compared to the competition and Macs don’t.
Whatever Mac users think of Vista the one thing for sure is that it will offer people less reasons to buy a Mac, not more.
Now maybe there’s some magic features not yet announced in Leopard which will make people want to switch, but since Tiger has been singularly ineffective in making any inroads into the XP’s market share, despite Mac users proclaiming it’s superiority, why would you think Leopard would have any better luck against Vista?
Apple got a great boost in sales when they made the systems Windows compatible, and a million customers have downloaded Boot Camp. It’s clear where the future is for Apple, they are positioning themselves to become a maker of sleek, attractive, high end, Windows only machines.
It reminds me of all the left-wing fundie types who spend their lives shooting at strawmen because they are so afraid deep-down that science itself is full of holes, being a set of theories that rely upon imperfect models of the universe. Hello, algebra? Imaginary numbers? Calculus? The limit as a means of approximating a real value? Physics? When you solve problems and get two answers, one positive and one negative? Your tools imperfectly model the world, guys. And we’re not even talking about building up full human skeletons from the tooth of extinct pigs, and other hilarious things in the annals of Darwinian science.
1) The Mac’s marketshare is not 2 percent. You lie.
2) If you think that people buy Windows because it is the most useful to them, you do not understand the psychology of computer buying, which is largely based on fear of being “up-to-date” (not having the latest/greatest), fear of not being like everyone else (“everyone else runs Windows”), fear of the novel (“I’ll do what I’ve always done and just get Windows”), ignorance (“what’s a Mac, anyways?”), Stockholm Syndrome/abused wife syndrome (“The last virus wasn’t that bad”), to mention a few. Only a Windows apologist would consider those factors as comprising utility, or insult the intelligence of buyers in saying that price is the only thing they consider.
3) The Mac is at a similar price point to a Windows machine, especially if you know how to hunt for bargains. Again, you lie.
Trolls, you don’t convince anyone when you have to lie to make your points.
After five long years and the we have to sing the praises of an up coming SP in order to feel good about our choice to use FISTA – Cripes!
Man oh man why do so many windows users come here to troll. Do you have NOTHING better to do?
Former Mac user….I hope you are happy with your selection of a PC. Its all about the apps? Not when you can run all of them on one computer. End of that argument. Ease of use of the OS?…. there are points to argue there but big deal.
Choice of PC…there I have an issue. I appreciate quality. You get what you pay for…in cars, tools, and computers. If you buy a cheap Dell, guess what? I hope you enjoy it when it will inevitably break down on you. I hope you enjoy the strong accent of the foreign tech person when you try to explain the problem (assuming of course you actually get through on the phone).
I don’t care if you used a Mac before. Please stick with the PC because apparently you seem a little too dense to me to be a real Mac user.
Troll.
To. Former Mac User,
You said, “I still use both operating systems, but FYI Windows is what powers the business world – not Mac OS X.”
Greed, crime, hate and politics power the business world too, are you a big fan of those too??
Hey, feel free to love your SUV (while complaining about the milage), and your windoz PC (while patching, plugging, and making do) and go for it.
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Me, I’m lazy and cheap. I like my Mac because it “just works” and does it with so much less effort than my IT supported (just got the e-mail, they are going to support Vista but not until service pack 1 *) pc. But hey, thats just me.
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So now, “Flame bait breath” (:-) ), you can go back over to the PC lovers site and join all the other Apple hating, Zune loving people and join the social (now scheduled for sometime around 2009, maybe LOL ).
* about purchasing, they have to go to Vista cause they bought PCs before and since no one wants to really think (hey, you can get fired for that
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” /> ) once a PC always a PC, and just who is this apple guy anyway?? LOL
HEY, come to think of it, you sound just like my purchasing department, — Sorry about that. LOL
N.
Sheridan,
“PG did’nt have 6,000 8 megapixle photos to load on startup like iPhoto” also applies to search and application opening speed! Load a few thousand files onto the Windows partition and see if any of it still seems as fast as OS X. Install some applications too. A few months worth of Registry bloat and Windows won’t seem so snappy. My two year old G5 still feels fresh and responsive.
Vista is going to be bigger than Bob!
Mark my words!
Jedi Master
Honda makes a much nicer car than Farrari?
Market share does not equal quality, performance, ease of use, elegance, stability, security, beauty or power.
I don’t care how many “comparisons” you read on the web. The real world and the people in it don’t live and die by comparisons done by PC Mag. Anybody who buys a Dell knows that you can get hundreds off the “list” price if you do your research and find the promotional codes and/or coupons
And how that is any different from the 18% discount we (at work) get on Apple products?
What’s the matter ? Can’t you remember the true reason why Microsoft’s operating system is now number one on the planet ? Are you just too dumb to check in a history book or are you pre-pubertal guys who’ve grown with Windows in your diapers ? The unique and only reason Microsoft’s market share is so high today is due to their pharaonic commercial buzz and the impressive amount of money invested in commercial. It has raised it up to 95% market share because of that, not because of it’s superiority against Mac OS X or the public’s interest and that’s the only truth.
As of Vista, I also need to use Windows only apps like ArcGis or my GPS app, which don’t have their equivalent on Mac OS X, that’s why I have an old PC to do it, not connected to the internet, but my primary machine is an iMac Intel do do everything else. Eventually, Photoshop CS3 will run on Intel natively, let’s not be hypocrite on this, with 1,5Go RAM, I don’t see a difference with or without Rosetta.
Jedi Master,
Yeah, there’s a reason why Jessica Simpson sells 20 million records too.
Because the idiot masses don’t know any better.
In many cases, market share means NOTHING. There are probably 10 times as many Ford Focuses on the road than BMWs, but that doesn’t mean the Beamer isn’t up to snuff now, does it?
Microsoft Windows Vista Edition:
Your Potential (for exploitation), Our Passion (for profits).
I’m starting to think that Jedi Master is the star wars kid, hopefully with a better haircut.
just Love the line:
“Windows Vista feels clunky and not very intuitive, almost as though it’s still based on DOS”
I love Apple.
love it.
It’s years ahead of MS and always will be.
I look forward to getting my 4th iPod.
Don’t be hatin’
Opps,
I forgot,
Goodbye to the isolation.