“Vista is a perfectly respectable new iteration of Windows. They’ve even, finally, come up with a decent way to make laptops sleep and wake up again, which XP was never very good at. The fact that it took Microsoft over five years and $6 billion dollars to create Vista is — and I mean this quite seriously — an embarrassment to the good name of American innovation, but it’s perfectly fine,” Lev Grossman reports for TIME Magazine.
Grossman writess, “Two closing thoughts. One, there’s a lot of functionality built into Vista — look at the photo editor, which is integrated with the operating system and which works like a stripped-down version of the already-stripped-down Photoshop Elements. Isn’t that the kind of anti-competitive integration that got Microsoft into anti-trust court last time around? (Not that they ever left: they’re facing hundred-million Euro fines in Europe as we speak.)”
“And two, Vista’s real test won’t be some reviewer checking off features in his lonely office. It will come when millions of Vista users make their way out into the deep waters of the greater Internet ecology, where legions of Internet-based criminals will start banging away on its security features, looking for a way to fool it, break it or hijack it. Translucent borders are all well and good, but out there in the jungle, no one cares how pretty you are,” Grossman reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: “Vista is a perfectly respectable new iteration of Windows.” Nothing like clearing the bar of no expectations, huh? Microsoft and innovation do not mix. Luckily for the good name of “American innovation,” that Apple’s actually doing it – as usual – instead of wasting time and money playing office politics and doing nothing in their cubicles all day except BS’ing and complaining about towels.
Related articles:
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Windows honcho Allchin retires from Microsoft on Vista launch day; now free to buy his Mac – February 01, 2007
No midnight lines for Microsoft’s badly faked Apple Mac OS this time – January 30, 2007
A picture paints a thousand words: Some ‘wow’ for Microsoft’s Windows Vista – January 30, 2007
Bill Gates lists Microsoft ‘innovations’ that Apple has offered Mac users for years – January 30, 2007
Microsoft’s Windows Vista: Five years for a chrome-plated turd – January 30, 2007
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
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$399 for Windows Vista Ultimate?! (Hint: Get a Mac) – August 29, 2006
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6 billion and 5 years could have cured Africa of Aids, given medical insurance to America’s poor or cleaned up Indonesia after the Tsunami. It could even have built Homer Simpson’s dream car – or maybe Ford already did that?!
Zune and Moz..thanks
I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time…
I’ll read your replies to my post after I come back from masturbating to screen shots of Vista.
Our potential, our passion — our porn.
Where the hell is my shipment of new chairs from Ikea?
What am I supposed to throw now?
“Computer: On”
“Computer: throw yourself across the room”
Damn this voice recognition!
The Time Mag article said:
(To assuage the Mac faithful: yes, many of Vista’s features are pilfered directly from Mac OS X, and in general Apple has shown itself to be far more efficient and innovative in the operating systems market. Done.)
Now, if anyone actually reads it….
There is something wonderful about Vista. A non-innovative Vista is going to sell more Macs than Apple could ever pay to advertise themselves. M$ just continues to shoot themselves in the foot, and it seems with an automatic weapon lately rather than just their usual pistol.
Zune (and Zune Tang), Vista, and the mentality thereof are a disgrace in the eyes of the rest of the world. History just may end up remembering M$ only as the maker of the XBox, and even worse…Sony is currently letting that happen.
Zune Tang! BILL INOVATOR? BILL! Gravitator blikinstitrum ballternagsteret! Flicker nicker ina minor folkstoripple.
POOK! POOK! Vie hastayu abadonadad imer?
Chair flicker wogranamator!
Zune Tang inner mai kugglemacker! NOWEN!
Truth Decay,
Spot on…
There’s is no doubt in my mind that what you say is true. In some important ways the only hope MS Windows has at all, in the long run, is that Apple will indeed finally take an unarguable 30-50% of the pc market share over the next 10 years, forcing MS to actually churn out actually improved products rather than, yet another layer of fixes and superficial bamboozalling [sp?].
My guess is that the IT people will start going to Linux becuase the requirements for Vista are so much more than XP. That way they can still have their job
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I tested Vista briefly today. To put it short: A Windows that looks like OS X, but feels quite familiar, ‘windowsy’. Some new stuff with new UI logic is bound to annoy and confuse the unwashed masses. All in all, a little more than just XP SP3, and definitely pretty to look at, but that’s not much.
Don’t forget your towel!
Well at least Zune Tang gives us something to laugh at. A little over the top though. BUt still funny, well a little bit anyway.
Zune Tang my man, I wish I had saved all your comments so far and publish them in a book someday. You ROCK !!!
now i am about to ask this hoping to get a genuine understanding of what the whole MS VS EU thing is about. the way i understand it, EU doesn’t want MS to have internet explorer or windows media player installed in windows. okay… how is that any more anti-competitive than apple installing safari and quicktime in macs? i fail to understand what the problem is. windows users can choose to use firefox or itunes or quicktime or whatever they want. it’s easy to ignore IE. any (non-flaming) insight would be appreciated.
Zune Tang is the Stephen Colbert of Windows fanboys.
I don’t know what you’re all celebrating. The review was pretty good and shows that Microsoft did just enough to hold onto their monopoly. It appears there are three or four sentences, one of which is quoted in MDN’s headline, that appeal to the Mac faithful. Other than that, MS couldn’t have hoped for any better.
Look at the sentence that follows the embarrassment to American innovation line, “but it’s perfectly fine.” It’s PERFECTLY FINE? Then why should I care? No need to worry.
You all clap as if this is the review that finally broke the mold when TIME created excuses for Microsoft just like everyone else.
DRM, product (let’s hope there’s no glitch) activation, the EULA…. No, Vista isn’t fine, it’s a travesty. You’ll find out when there’s a glitch. And when you reinstall – and you will reinstall – and you have problems getting connected, then nothing will work. Your $2,000 system will have turned into a brick.
Nothing respulses me more than the concept of “Live” – a computer shouldn’t need the internet to work. The internet shouldn’t be its center of gravity. Bandwidth isn’t free – most “Unlimited” plans aren’t. My computer should go online because I want it to when I want it tofor whatever purpose I want or allow it to, not because some app wants to check if there’s any update, or because Microsoft decides you need a patch right now (no matter what you happen to be doing) to close some critical vulnerability that is clobbering Vista users all over the world.
Our OS. Our computer. You’re just the mark, sucker.
what it really shows is that behind all bill gate’s nonchalance, is a dark, bitter and twisted fool, who wishes everyday that he was steve jobs.
Hey Bill, black mock turtle-necks arn’t that expensive you know.
Vista looks pretty (i.e. looks conspicuously similar to OS X except in a tacky and crude sort of way).
Vista makes sense, more or less (i.e. after 5 years Microsoft had to release something, anything).
Vista is secure, or at least it’s securer (Let’s not go crazy here with wild exaggerations. We’ll have enough hard data soon by summer 2007).
Vista is expensive and a bit of a resource-hog (i.e. expect to pay big bucks to “enjoy” the “best” that Vista offers then suffer buyer’s remorse after the fact with unmet expectations).
WOW — (invert by innovation) –> MOM = Milk of Magnesia = Another Microsoft turd.
The MDN spin on this story is like throwing meat to hungry lions. Only thing, denial of reality won’t change anything. Vista, with all its faults, problems, and everything bad said around here, means Mac OS growth is doomed to celebrate some less than 1% increase in overall market share.
So, blast away if it makes you feel good, but it won’t change anything.
It really is sad.
The difference is Safari can be uninstalled. IE can’t. You can ignore IE but you can’t get rid of it. Occassionally it will assert itself and override any other browser on your system.
Quicktime Player is what Apple bundles with Macs. It can be uninstalled. WMP can’t. The underlying Quicktime technology which Quicktime Player uses and which cannot be uninstalled can be used by any third party software.
So Apple gives you something with the OS that you can use or not and which doesn’t interfere with third party software doing the same job. Microsoft gives you something tied into the OS in such a way that it cannot be removed without damaging the OS and which interferes with third party software doing the same job. That’s the difference.
@matt try this link
ec.europa.eu/comm/competition/antitrust/cases/
This is part of the European Commission website – click on COMP/37.792 to go straight to the Microsoft case, where press releases are set out by date.
Obviously, not all your questions will be answered here but as the case has been going on for a while i suggest that you also google the case to get an all-round idea about it.
The Europa site can be interesting some times.
Trust those commie, lefty, fascists, black-shirts to go after a trustworthy, reputable and honest company like Microsoft, what are they thinking.
I can’t wait for the ‘adobe sues microsoft over vista’s integration of the image editor being part of the OS’ claim.
Just counting the days when the headline hits the world’s press…
GO ON ADOBE – SUE THE SCAMMER!
Kendal Whitley said:
“Current OSX on the Apple site is $149US for single use, $249US for the ‘family’ pack. Full version. No reduced functionality to confuse consumers. I guess Microsoft forgot to copy that bit!”
Except that it is $129US and $199US for OS X.
Otherwise….