Robert Peston, BBC’s business editor, has penned an open letter to Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates which reads in part:
Dear Bill Gates,
Give me back my weekend. I bought a new Windows Vista laptop – and that’s when the trouble began.
My dislike of your new user interface you can put down to the conservatism that comes with advancing years. However having loyally stuck by the galumphing, unaesthetic functionality of your operating systems over the past 15 years, while faced with ridicule from pretentious Mac-loving types, I resent your attempt at an elegance transplant.
But what really grates is that your system is incompatible with two of the vital tools of my trade. Vista refuses to load the software for my newish Olympus digital recorder. And here’s what takes the biscuit. Vista rejects my HP IPAQ handheld device – even though the software for that was created by Microsoft!
So in order to put Vista at the centre of what I do, I would have to buy hundreds of pounds of new hardware. Which may be great news for your industry, but makes me regret never having defected to Steve Jobs. Perhaps now’s the time.
Full article, in which Peston writes that the only thing that gives him any comfort is that he is apparently not alone in his Vista-stress, here.
MacDailyNews Take: Why does knowing that others are also suffering similar woes him give comfort? Stockholm Syndrome and Cognitive Dissonance are powerful, insidious maladies, but Peston at least shows signs of rising above them. Now certainly is the time to dump Windows and get a Mac; so was any time during the last 23 years. Better late than never.
Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it. – Helen Keller
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“Vista rejects my HP IPAQ handheld device – even though the software for that was created by Microsoft!”
That is the power of partnering that MS brings to the table, Robert.
Witness the power.
I said WITNESS!
iSync and mark/space (or similar) and HP iPAQ syncs perfectly with Mac OSX.
Robert Peston is a biter. He regularly plagarizes from Cambridge Fitzwilliam Business College professors without attribution. Let him and his ilk suffer the fruits of their own pretentiousness. He isn’t going to switch any time soon. He’s more likely to revert to XP than “defect to Steve Jobs!”
I’ve had more success with Mark/Space than iSync with the treo.
Sad, I’m currently helping another switcher who just bought Vista over the weekend and is so angry over what doesn’t work now he’s going Mac. (can’t believe he’s spending more $$ – but there ya have it.)
Waiting for TowerTone to make an ignorant and offensive remark about Helen Keller (if he know who she is) …
Frank… now why oh why would you “bait” TT like that? ;-p
“But what really grates is that your system is incompatible with two of the vital tools of my trade. Vista refuses to load the software for my newish Olympus digital recorder. And here’s what takes the biscuit. Vista rejects my HP IPAQ handheld device – even though the software for that was created by Microsoft!”
It looks like he’s run into Vista’s draconian DRM:
“In fact so far no-one has been able to identify any Windows system that will actually play HD content in HD quality, in all cases any attempt to do this produced either no output or a message that it was blocked by content protection. While it’s not possible to prove a negative in this manner, it’s certainly an indication that potential buyers may be in for a shock when they try and play premium content on their shiny new Vista PC.
The same issue that affects graphics cards also goes for high-resolution LCD monitors. One of the big news items at CES 2007 was Samsung’s 1920×1200 HD-capable 27″ LCD monitor, the Syncmaster 275T, released at a time when everyone else was still shipping 24″ or 25″ monitors as their high-end product [Note F]. The only problem with this amazing HD monitor is that Vista won’t display HD content on it because it doesn’t consider any of its many input connectors (DVI-D, 15-pin D-Sub, S- Video, and component video) secure enough. So you can do almost anything with this HD monitor except view HD content on it.”
His problem is NOT just an error. Vista is built to do this kind of thing ON PURPOSE!
why did helen keller only masturbate with one hand?
so she could moan with the other…
HA!
Yo Frank…
Helen Keller would have preferred the lickable goodness of Aqua to the glassy-eyed spectre, Vista.
Yeah, “defect to Steve Jobs”. How to respond to THAT? Gimme a break.
Let’s all be frank here.
“The last of the human freedoms is to choose one’s attitudes.”
-Victor Frank.
Looks like the Beeb is trying to find ways to get out of its Microsoft-toadying PR dilemma.
They’ve already been told to go back to the drawing board and re-engineer their Windows-only video distribution system to be platform-neutral, under pressure from UK users.
And they’re getting scalded for their fawning coverage of the Vista rollout.
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=37411
I think it is time Mr. Preston to switch to a Mac and see how things just work. Rather than fight the godzilla which is Microsoft.
Mr. Zune Tang is also a sufferer!
He is in complete denial and will need many years of therapy to get over the shock of realization that he has been duped and brainwashed by a bunch of wankers called M$.
He will feel insecure as a human being for allowing himself to be fooled for so many years and may even feel like ending his miserable life, but, all is not lost Mr. Zune Tang.
If you start now and cast aside the M$ demons you will find it much easier to live with yourself for the rest of your life. leave it any longer and you will be lost forever.
Cfuk the social and get a Mac.
Why were Helen Killer’s legs yellow?
Denny Crane,
Her dog was blind, too.
Misery loves company.
Zeke nails it on Vista and its outrageous DRM war against consumers. Did Steve Jobs put on a cheap Groucho Marx disguise and give advice to Microsoft to do this? You could not invent a more powerful strategy to spawn switchers en masse. It is amazing how utterly tone deaf and lacking in common sense the M$ leaders are. I guess they are so used to treating consumers as their own jail house bitches that they can not get out of that rut – or hole.
The problem is, this guy won’t ever consider switching.
How did Hellen Keller burn her face?
From TT Sub
“How did Hellen Keller burn her face?”
The phone rang and her blind dog handed her the iron?
Denny, Denny Crane
@Dr.Phil
I bet you’re real proud of yourself, aren’t you? Why would I defect to the lost, copycat hippies at Crapple? This doddering old coot at the Beeb has no clue. Simple as that. For every “Vista ruined my weekend” story there’s a million “Wow Vista rocked my weekend!” story—emphasis on “Wow”. Vista’s got animation baby, and a wicked photo organizer. Take that Apple losers! I can customize Vista to work any way I want. Try doing that on your overpriced proprietary pieces of crap. That’s why I hate Apple.
The misery of putting up with your iLife nightmare and the glib “oh look at me, I don’t have any viruses” stupidity you Mac lemmings share is enough to keep me away forever. Vista is freakin’ awesome! Why would I want to leave the great circle of Windows enthusiasts with their positive attitude and open mindedness for the misery that is OS X? Dorks.
Your potential. Our passion.
Oooooh Tang, the court jester has “englightened” us once again…
You’re such a dork!
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HAHAHA!
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Zune Tang,
I’ve drawn a large letter ‘W’ on each of my ass cheeks – if you want, I can show you my ‘WoW’ factor?
Just as you do when Uncle Fester comes around, and you play the ‘touch your toes’/’hide the weener’ game…
…only I’d Zune over you…
@Danny Crane
Nope!
Bobbing for french fries
Zune Tang doesn’t get it.
People are tired of your crap. Its as old as last weeks socks. “freakin awesome’? ….you really are a teenybopper aren’t you? Go to bed before Mom finds you are up and playing with your tiny Zune. Careful….overuse will wear it down to a nub before you are 14.