“Microsoft’s Windows Vista “will launch today with fanfare, parties, hypocrisy, hollow promises and tame reviews. For me, it is something different, it makes me sad. MS will tell you that Vista is the next great thing in every way, it took billions of dollars to develop, millions of man-hours, and undoubtedly will be the best selling OS ever launched. The problem is that Vista brings almost nothing to the table that can’t be described by as three year old as ‘shiny,'” Charlie Demerjian writes for The Inquirer.
Demerjian writes, “Let’s look at it this way, ask yourself what good new features Vista brings to the table. Most will respond that it has Aero Glass, a really pretty UI. How may other things does it bring that are positives? I can’t honestly think of one, and I’ll bet if you ask the next ten people you run into, they won’t be able to tell you any either. Repeat the same exercise in the negative, what bad new things does Vista bring? Massive crushing DRM infections, unacceptable licence terms, bloated hardware requirements, and a list of cut features long enough to paper your bathroom. To be fair, the next ten people you ask probably won’t know that part either.”
MacDailyNews Take: Why do Apple’s Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger’s Aqua GUI features work just fine here on a dusty old 400MHz Blueberry iMac G3 with 192MB of RAM on an ATI Rage 128 graphics card with just 8MB VRAM with a 10GB hard drive with only 400MB free (okay, so Widgets don’t ripple when dropped on the Dashboard, but everything important works), but to run Vista’s Aero GUI it takes at least a 1GHz CPU with a minimum of 1GB RAM with a 40 GB hard drive with at least 15 GB free and a minimum of 128 MB of graphics memory? To run the inefficient and derivative “Flip3D” feature from Vista, it takes that much hardware, but an over 7-year-old iMac G3 we have sitting around can use the superior Mac OS X Exposé with no problem? Just how inefficient is Microsoft’s spaghetti code? Related article: Microsoft botches another copy job: Windows Vista Flip3D vs. Apple Mac OS X Exposé – June 26, 2006
Demerjian continues, “If this is all the billions, man-hours and years brought, what was the point? We get a bloated, DRM infected rights removal tool that advances the state of the art to where Apple was the better part of a decade ago, and we are supposed to call this progress? Puh-leeze.”
“MS is in a rut. The firm has cowered, co-opted or bought all the critics, and any message coming out of the press will be well scripted. Possibly the last big OS ever made is going to be a chrome plated turd, no one has the guts to say it, everyone will pretend it is great because everyone pretends it is great,” Demerjian writes.
Full article, “Vista makes me sad; Five years for a chrome-plated turd,” here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Stoo” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Take: Microsoft should be embarrassed and they probably are, but we likely won’t hear about it until the internal emails are released in some court of law 5-10 years down the road.
Related articles:
Those unfamiliar with Apple’s Mac OS X may be impressed with Windows Vista – January 29, 2007
Digit: ‘Microsoft’s Windows Vista may be the best reason yet to buy an Apple Mac’ – January 29, 2007
Pioneer Press: Windows Vista shows ‘Apple is an innovation engine; Microsoft, not so much’ – January 29, 2007
Windows Vista disappoints, so get a Mac – January 29, 2007
Analyst: Microsoft’s Windows Vista could be an opportunity for Apple – January 26, 2007
CNET Reviews Windows Vista: Is that all? Clunky and not very intuitive vs. Mac OS X; warmed-over XP – January 24, 2007
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
Apple Macs can run more software than Windows PCs – October 30, 2006
Microsoft’s Windows Vista is basically Microsoft’s version of Mac OS 9.3 – October 11, 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
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
Thurrott: many of Windows Vista’s upcoming features appeared first in Apple’s Mac OS X – September 26, 2005
PC World: Microsoft innovation – an oxymoron – September 14, 2005
Dude, you got a Dell? What are you, stupid? Only Apple Macs run both Mac OS X and Windows! – April 05, 2006
Turd.
Served on a silver platter….a chrome-plated turd for Zune Tang!
I don’t know why he feels sad. What did he expect from Microsoft?
Now is the time for jaws to drop. Bring on Leopard….
Tell it brother! Amen and Haleluja!
Time for the Cupertino Cat to take a bite out of the Redmond Cow.
Where’s the fanfare? The long lines and the front door sleep-overs? I have yet to see a single television commercial promoting the “greatest” OS ever developed!
Where is the Microsoft marketing (RDF) machine?
i have it running now
it is a turd
actually it is more of a yawn
thank god i didn’t actually buy it
Lets look at the bright side…today Allchin can go and buy a Mac…don’t let the door hit you on the way out!
Saw Gates on CNN,
Miles was pretty good, said it looks alot like OS10,
Gates went on about the inovation that is far ahead of Apple,
like
” the first OS to have Parental controls”
“Most advanced OS ever”
ppplllleeeeaaaasssssseeeeeeee
This whole situation is weird. It’s like a true, real life version of The Emperor’s New Clothes!
Everyone who’s knowledgeable about computers knows Vista is a pile of shit, but the masses are still gonna buy it.
“Possibly the last big OS ever made is going to be a chrome plated turd”
Yeah baby!!! Thanks for being gentle. . .
Zune Tang is not here…he is out buying a gig of RAM and a new graphics card with 128Vram. This is why you have to BUILD a pc, folks. cha-ching cha-ching…The Mac just got less expensive.
Mac user switches to Vista and then back to Mac
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16873608/
I think MDN should put together a retirement fund for Allchin
I pledge $10.00 ,
we could all chip in and buy the man a Mac
Maybe get him to do a new Mac add!! a before and after , I’m a PC, and now I am a MAC
Vista is giving turds a bad name.
What is it with that giant, ugly clock in Vista? Please tell me that can be changed or eliminated!
It reminds me of watching the school clock waiting for recess or better yet, the end of the day. In other words, it reminds me of the interminable hours and minutes waiting for the fun to start. Hmmmm…
I can’t wait until our IT monkey comes in with Vista under his arm expecting to install it on my HP Inferion (Pavilion).
The man is such a pompous dork, I think I’ll let him install it, then call him five times a day to fix it.
In the meantime, I’ll just continue to use my Mac G4 with Tiger under the hood. With a smile on my face I might add.
Maybe Allchin will have a cameo role in the next “I’m a Mac. I’m a PC.” ads. What a hoot. Imagine the possibilities.
All together now:
“It’s a turd, it’s a turd,
it’s a big fat turd!”
P.S. Don’t you wish somebody would forward these discussions to Bill Gates’ mailbox?
The real question is will Vista be vulnerable to malware? Yes, Macheads can sneer at the steep hardware requirements, crippling DRM and half assed rip offs of Mac OSX, but most people will accept it when they buy their new Dell PC’s from Best Buy on sale next year.
The real test will be if Vista is still easily infected by viruses, adware and spyware like XP is. This morning, spybot found 13 items of spyware on my fiancee’s system after one week of browsing three or four ‘trusted’ web sites using Firefox 2.0! (Don’t worry, her next system will be a Mac.)
If average consumers find out that they can’t browse their favorite websites or read their e-mails without letting the Russian mob own their computers part time, things may change. Likewise, the same will happen when evening news anchors talk about the new computer virus that affected millions of computers, including those with Windows Vista.
They need to have a new apple commercial where the PC comes on stage dressed in the Mac’s hoodie, t-shirt and jeans, announcing that he has just upgraded to Vista. Turning around, he asks the Mac how he likes his ‘new look’.
Mac looks at PC puzzledly and explains that he has had the same look for five years now, and PC denies that he copied him.
PC starts sneezing, and states that despite his new look, he just caught a virus.
A hollywood type with slicked back hair and sharkskin suit then steps on screen and takes pcs glasses off of him, puts them on the floor and stomps on them. He then explains that he has determined PC’s glasses aren’t secure enough to watch high def movies, so he gets to disable them. PC protests that he wasn’t using the glasses to watch movies, but the Hollywood guy explains that Vista allows him to do that, read the contract. PC sighs, and states that he can’t read the contract now, since his glasses just got broken.
On the verge of crying, and still sneezing, PC dejectedly says that he is still hurting from the upgrade surgery, and doesn’t even like the new look. Mac puts his hand on PC’s shoulder and tries to comfort him. Mac then makes Hollywood guy leave the commercial. [end]
I just switched another friend to Mac. I’m almost up to 15 switchers. I think Apple owes me a laptop, or Beatle iPod or something.
They had to get a used one, but at least they are on their way, and the grandmother is thinking of switching next after seeing the grandson’s Mac. The old DP G4 is faster than their infected PC.
I notice that Vista is being sold as an “update’. UPDATE to what? To Vista? But, this is Vista’s first release!! Ah! It must be an update to XP!! So, we really have Windows XP Vista!!
clyde Dell doesn’t sell through Best Buy. OTOH Apple does.
I’m not embarrassed to say it’s a chrome plated TURD!
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I totally agree!
@Tommy Boy
Mea culpa. Edit last post to read “most people will accept it when they buy their new dull PC’s from Best Buy on sale next year.”
Work fer ya?