“Microsoft Corp. said Monday it sold 20 million consumer copies of the new Windows Vista operating system worldwide in February, but analysts said the data shed little light on the program’s popularity during its first month on the market,” Jessica Mintz reports for The Associated Press.
Mintz reports, “By comparison, Windows XP, Vista’s predecessor, sold 17 million copies in the two months following its 2001 launch, Microsoft said.
“‘It’s a stronger than expected start,’ Bill Mannion, a director of product marketing for Windows, said in an interview,” Mintz reports. “But given that the personal computer market has nearly doubled since XP launched, Vista sales ‘probably should be more,’ said Michael Silver, vice president of research at Gartner, a technology research group.”
“The analyst said 51 million PCs were sold to consumers worldwide in 2002; this year, the research group predicts 96 million consumers will buy a computer,” Mintz reports. “Starting in late October, PC makers included coupons for free or low-cost Vista upgrades that could be used once the software became available at the end of January. Microsoft’s February sales total includes those promised upgrades, in addition to licenses ordered by PC makers to install on new computers, shrink-wrapped copies sold in retail stores and downloads from the Windows Marketplace Web store.”
Mintz reports, “‘That would say that those (Vista sales) numbers aren’t all that great if that includes all that backlog,’ said Silver.”
“Shipments of Vista to U.S. retailers in February lagged XP’s first-month shipments by about 56 percent, according to the NPD Group,” Mintz reports. “NPD analyst Chris Swenson said he thought Microsoft’s advertising strategy, which he said was light on TV commercials, was partly to blame for the drop in retail sales. Microsoft should have more TV ads selling Vista than Apple has criticizing Vista,’ he said.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “The Wzrd” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Microsoft’s Windows Vista racks up negative reviews – March 19, 2007
Network World: Need a new PC for Vista? Switching to Mac may cost less and give you more – March 16, 2007
BusinessWeek: Microsoft’s Windows Vista is ‘slow and dangerous’ – March 15, 2007
Analyst: Microsoft’s Windows Vista is very good for Apple Mac – March 13, 2007
Windows sufferer spends six hours trying to ‘upgrade’ to Vista, says: ‘I should’ve bought a Mac’ – February 07, 2007
Windows Vista woes push BBC News editor to regret never having ‘defected’ to Apple Mac – February 06, 2007
Digit: Don’t buy Vista; Microsoft may be driving millions to stick with XP or move to Apple Mac – February 05, 2007
TIME Magazine: Microsoft’s Windows Vista ‘an embarassment to the good name of American innovation’ – February 02, 2007
Microsoft’s Windows Vista: Five years for a chrome-plated turd – January 30, 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
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
Microsoft’s Windows Vista is basically Microsoft’s version of Mac OS 9.3 – October 11, 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
Windows expert dumps Windows, switches to Apple’s Mac OS X, finds software plentiful – March 12, 2007
InfoWorld: 9,000 people switch to Apple Mac every day (plus testing ‘Embrace and Extinguish’) – February 28, 2007
Netscape founder Marc Andreessen switches to Apple Mac – February 28, 2007
Computerworld: Windows expert dumps Windows, switches to Apple’s Mac OS X – February 08, 2007
Embrace and Extinguish in action: TechIQ’s ‘The VAR Guy’ dumps Windows, switches to Mac OS X – September 25, 2006
Bill Gates unhinged with Apple envy; Microsoft on path to become high profile casualty – February 06, 2007
Apple takes dead aim at Microsoft’s Windows Vista in latest ‘Get a Mac’ ad (with video) – February 06, 2007
Bill Gates has lost his mind: calls Apple liars, copiers; slams Mac OS X security vs. Windows – February 02, 2007
Those unfamiliar with Apple’s Mac OS X may be impressed with Windows Vista – January 29, 2007
Microsoft emails reveal serious Mac OS X Tiger envy – January 26, 2007
A Windows expert opts for a Mac life, finds the experience ‘superb’ – December 07, 2006
15-year Windows vet tries Apple Mac: ‘My God! This is amazing!’ – December 04, 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
A Windows expert opts for a Mac life – November 06, 2006
Apple Macs can run more software than Windows PCs – October 30, 2006
Apple does it again: New Macbook Pros much cheaper than Dell – October 25, 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
$399 for Windows Vista Ultimate?! (Hint: Get a Mac) – August 29, 2006
Thurrott pits Apple Mac Pro vs. similarly configured Dell, figures out the Mac is less expensive – August 18, 2006
Dude, you got a Dell? What are you, stupid? Only Apple Macs run both Mac OS X and Windows! – April 05, 2006
Apple Macintosh simply does more and costs less than Windows PCs – February 14, 2006
Defending Windows over Mac a sign of mental illness – December 20, 2003
What a great line, “Microsoft should have more TV ads selling Vista than Apple has criticizing Vista.”
I laughed so hard I almost pissed myself.
Kegel excercises, egads. They will help prevent those little “accidents.”
Poor Microsoft… Like Hitler, just no killing…. But the same mind screwing.
My friend, a long time PC user, bought a Sony laptop in Feb. with Vista installed. Two words best describe her experience with Vista – “It sucks”.
I don’t watch much TV, but just the same, i have yet to see a Vista ad on TV. The closest i have seen is numerous repeats of Best Buy ads, selling Gateway computers with Vista installed and free GeekSquad help in moving your files to your new computer – in and of itself a backhanded swipe at Vista.
Microsoft, keep up the good work! Seriously! You’re doing a hell of a job (at shooting ypourself in the foot!)
What are kegel exercises?
Yes I have seen those BB ads as well… what I find funny is the Geek Squad guy saying they will “personalize” your PC for you… What?
…anyone else see the stupidity of something being “personalized” by someone other than the end user…
Microsoft is having their chance to advertise slipping by before the Leopard is let loose, but maybe it’s not good idea to make too much noise as a cow when there are already predators around.
So, MS is comparing 4 months of sales of Vista against 2 months of sales of XP, while there is double the market today? In other words, Vista sales are dissappointing by a factor of 4 in comparison to XP.
So what actually exactly did M$ spend the record billions in advertising on?
In any case, it hardly matters, I think any advertising by M$ is a waste of money. People use Windows out of ignorance or alternatives or fear of change, so why do they need to advertise?
The lask of sales, therefore in my mind, can only be explained by a growing awareness of people to the shortcomings of Vista, vis-a-vis XP and the Mac, and therefore they are in no hurry to upgrade until necessary. Advertising Vista aint gonna change that.
Ah, common! If that wasn’t worth a MDN take, then what is!
It won’t mater what their sales are, they will assimilate just by selling new computers. People won’t have a choice.
Well, they’ll have one.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” />
A Kegel exercise, named after Dr. Arnold Kegel, is an exercise designed to strengthen the pubococcygeus muscles. The exercises consist of the regular clenching and unclenching of the muscles which form part of the pelvic floor (sometimes called the “Kegel muscles”).
The aim of Kegel exercises is to restore muscle tone and strength to the pubococcygeus muscles in order to prevent or reduce pelvic floor problems and to increase sexual gratification. Kegel exercises are said to be good for treating vaginal prolapse[1] and preventing uterine prolapse in women.[2]
Kegel exercises may be beneficial in treating urinary incontinence in both men and women.[3] Kegel exercises are also known as pelvic floor exercises, or simply Kegels.
Although Dr. Kegel contemporized and popularized this practice, it is by no means new. The Taoists of ancient China developed a number of different sexual practices to strengthen and tone these same muscles for health, longevity, sexual gratification, and spiritual development.[citation needed] Directly akin to the Kegel exercise is the Taoist practice of the Deer Exercise. The Yogis of India also had a similar practice in Hatha Yoga known as Aswini Mudra (the horse gesture) that is taught and practised till this day.[citation needed]
—————-
from Wikipedia, “Kegel exercise” entry
Ain’t the interweb amazin?
Gates, bought 10 Million Copies, @$300 = $3 Billion
Ballmer, 5 million copies, @300 = $1.5 Billion
Everyone else, 5 million copies.
Me, 1 copy, windows ultimate, @ $0
isohunt.com
20 million copies? That’s about the number of the entire OSX installed base. Not to shabby for a month.
Yo, Morty, se blabla?
Queso, Moriarty! When youse gots the installed base of Microshot, 20 mil ain’t worth a cap in de ass. You capeesh? 17 mil XP is more happenin’ cuz there were fewer pooters. Ya? I woulda thunk they’d sell 50 mil, for what dat’s worth. See? So. Get it?
“Microsoft Corp. said Monday it sold 20 million consumer copies of the new Windows Vista operating system worldwide in February”
There are approximately 20 million users of Mac OS X in different flavors, according to Apple.
Otherwise, MS sold about as many copies of VISTA in a month as Apple has OS X users.
Not trolling, just showing the scale of what Apple is up against in terms of market share.
Forgedaboutit.
Yo, Perspective, dude! How often I gotta go through this, huh? Anyone hang around here for long knows we got something along the lines of 7%-15% installed base o’ de market. So. If we take that 20 mil that you threw out as, say, the 10%, that make the market 200 mil. Which would make the base of Windoze and what all 180 mil. So, Microblow sells 20 mil and it ai’t worth squanto. Apple sells 10 mil, and the cock crows. See? It’s dat easy. Capeesh?
Qka,
I’ve seen the ads and they seem so restrained. You’ll usually see the them during young(er) people’s programing. The ads seem to be lacking something, and if I was to use the Zune marketing they lack the “Wow” factor. Perhaps it’s because of all the copycat stories, the delays, the problems with the OS and the excellent “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC”ads. At all events they’re boring!
However I just went to Microsoft’s website (and I feel sooooo soiled) and there was no in your face link to their advertising vids. If you do a search then you find the video advertising. So unlike Apple.
That’s because Apple has ads to be proud of, of course. I sometimes watch them just for the hell of it. Come, you know you have too! I can’t ever get enough of that Accept or Deny stuff, or the PC making a complete ass of itself with the new Japanese camera. Ore wa chotto nihongo wo hanasemasu. Wakarimashita desu. I probably know more Japanese than he does, lol.
VISTA = DOA
A stillborn ilegitimate child of mixed parentage.
End of story.
When will people realise that having 90% market share in desktop OS means fuck all these days.
Gone are the days when Apple needed market share to compete.
Apple is more than an OS company these days, they are a company that sell a broad range of innovative products.
Microsoft may have 90% global market share, but that means fuck all when everyone using their OS complains about how crap it is everyday.
Microsoft are successful because people have had no choice for such along time and that most people are relatively happy with a mediocre product.
THIS is why Apple makes big headlines in every market they go into – because Apple NEVER make mediocre anything, they make excellent everything.
NEXT APPLE SUCCESS STORY: – Apple iPhone sells 30million handsets in 3 months!
re: So what actually exactly did M$ spend the record billions in advertising on?
—-
ANSWER:
on overpaid marketing companies that know fuck all about marketing, that are only interested in screwing as much cash out of a client as much as possible!
I don’t watch much TV. (PBS get the lion’s share and it would be nice to see Apple do some corporate backing.)
I saw one Vista commercial briefly. All I remember was that it said something like,
“Finally I can do something with all my photos”
or something like that.
Nice to see MS continuing to drop the ball every time they try to copy Apple.
In related news WalMart sold 16 kajillion boxes of laundry soap last month based on the number on coupons printed in newspapers and mail catalogues. Actual sales of laundry soap may vary.
I bought XP for BootCamp last year (for kids’ schoolwork apps) and it came with a Vista coupon, so I am one of their statistics, but there is no way I am upgrading to Vista, mainly since ‘Microsoft Genuine Extortion’ will not let me downgrade back to XP.
—————-
from Wikipedia, “Kegel exercise” entry
Ain’t the interweb amazin?
Yeah, but why spend CO2 travelling on the interweb when you have a great dictionary right in your Tiger Mac? You don’t even need to type the word. No effort at all. Use it!
Vista is already more popular than Mac OS X after a couple of months of public release.
Leopard will now have to be purchased by every Mac owner in existence in it’s first month to be more successful than Vista.
You’d have the ability to say Microsoft’s sales suck when Apple sells 20 million Macs in a month.
R2—– For you, kegel exercises are when put your buddies 2 fingers in your butt hole and you squeeze as hard as you can 10 times.
These stats, pathetic as they are, once again demonstrate the total dishonesty of Microsoft. They are in habit of faking success — sucksess(?) — abusing statistical sampling to make their non valid point(s). They faked it with Zune and now they fake it with Vista. Only now we have the web and people who deconstruct the lies of this mafia gang from Redmond and their echo chamber analyst and pundit whores.
The old lying game doesn’t work anymore. Gates, Ballmer and the rest of the evil empire’s generals make public assholes of themselves every time their lips move.
<b>R2</r>: “what are kegel exercises?”
Stick your probe into that data port and Google it, you stupid trashcan with feet!
@ Sales Force:
AAPL: $95.85
MSFT: $28.22
It seems those who invest money know which has more value…
MW: “table” as in “Let’s table the trolls.”
“The old lying game doesn’t work anymore. Gates, Ballmer and the rest of the evil empire’s generals make public assholes of themselves every time their lips move.”
Dittos on that.
If people had already been computer savvy when Gates started MS there would be no MS. His products, MS-DOS and Windows, have almost no value. Now that people are becoming computer savvy BG has to lie to try to convince them his product is better than the competition. That won’t work for very long.
“AAPL: $95.85
MSFT: $28.22
It seems those who invest money know which has more value…”
I love Apple as much as the next Apple lover but for you to oversimplify a comparison between the two companies by putting their stock price up there is silly.
Here is some light reading for you. Read it, then come back and post.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_capitalization
Since there are six actual (five ostensible) versions of Vista, it would be interesting to know how sales of each version of Microsoft’s turd has changed since Vista release. Anyone have a link to these data?
“In its first month of sales to the general public, Windows Vista sales broke 20 million, making it the fastest selling version of Windows thus far.”
Pretty good for one month´s sales – that´s the entire number of OSX Apple computer owners in the world.
Although we all think Apple is the greatest we must keep it in perspective….out of every 100 computers sold today only 4 will be Apple computers.
Apple just can´t figure out how to convince more people to buy Apple computers.
Instead of sitting on that $10 Billion cash horde maybe Apple should invest in more and better advertising and marketing.
@ Hm…
“AAPL: $95.85
MSFT: $28.22
It seems those who invest money know which has more value…”
Well, “Hm…” you just totally revealed your stock market ignorance (or stupidity) there. That is embarrassing.
For shame, for shame.
So just when is M$ going to admit – that it have a real DOG on it’s hands – it looks like the marketplace all ready has!
Bottom line – this DOG (Vista) isn’t going to hunt!
Ever!
“Yo, Perspective, dude! How often I gotta go through this, huh? Anyone hang around here for long knows we got something along the lines of 7%-15% installed base o’ de market.”
The Macheads are sure foaming at the mouth today! 7-15% installed base? That’s sort of like saying my age is 21-44.
“AAPL: $95.85
MSFT: $28.22
It seems those who invest money know which has more value…”
I’m assuming you’re either trolling or another ignorant Machead. MSFT has more value. Take a look at the market cap for the respective stocks and Microsoft’s record profits last year. Share price comparison between two companies means nothing.
Windows Vista suffers from a bug that causes many machines to stall while deleting, copying and moving files, a flaw that has provoked consternation in online forums. Microsoft has issued a hotfix for the problem, but it has failed to quell the outrage. For one thing, individual users must get Microsoft’s approval before the fix can be downloaded, according to our tipster. And for another, hotfixes are more of a pain to install than patches.
Vista users continue to grumble. “I simply can not believe that I updated to a new computer and put windows Vista on it to find that it’s not even capable of moving and deleting files in an efficient manner.”
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/03/26/vista_copying_bug/
What does the MW: mean at the end of a post?
Sorry, but I’ve been trying to figure this one out for a while now….
Well, here is something Vista could’ve been used for…
http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=829#more-829
Geo
the Magic Word you have to type to submit.
Why the “low” sales of Vista?
We’ve probably ALL seen it. Most Windows users are scared to death of their computers.
They’re afraid of viruses, spy and malware.
They’re afraid to install applications and try different things, because once they manage to get their machines into some stable form, they’re scared to death that ANY little thing will break it.
One example:
My sister complained that when I connected my PowerBook to her cable modem… I shut down her XP box before disconnecting it… that I messed up her connection and it took her several hours to get it running again. And she’s a programmer! I offered to buy her a wireless router, with a firewall and everything. NOPE! It might break something. No more broadband for me at her house! Sheesh
With all the news stories about how Vista messes up your computer and slows down your system and requires an entirely new machine and breaks your current software and pesters you with alerts and requires repeat authorizations to use the damn thing…
Seems like Microsoft has broken things for you already!
@Stockholder & Reality Check
Market cap is not the only reflection of a company’s value. In fact a more accurate measurement is earnings per share, which takes into account the size of a company. Apple is smaller that Micro$haft, duh, but their EPS are 2.76 and 1.17 respectively, making Apple the FAR BETTER VALUE.
In the future, please do own your homework before insulting someone else.
“Sold” means in hands of dealers, not actually sold.This is the way MS operates.
Go back and look at the last 5 years of stock price performance history and it’s easy to see who is doing better between M$FT and AAPL. If you bought one share of each 5 years ago today, here’s where you would be now…
M$FT: Down 6%
AAPL: Up 600%
Screw market cap. As an investor, it doesn’t matter a single squat in the woods. I don’t own the whole damn company, I just own a bit of it for a certain period of time. And if you look at that period of time for AAPL and MSFT, say, the last 6 years, and you look at how the relative value of these two stocks has changed, you will easily see that AAPL is crushing MSFT as an investment. The next question you as yourself as an investor is – who is better positioned going forward? Who has more room to grow?
If you answered MSFT… you might be a redneck.
-c
MW: ‘covered’ (your shorts yet? pity.)
Vista TV ad (from what I can recall)…
Young boy looks out his homes window at large snow fall… quietly exclaims “Wow!”
Man exits house (to go jogging? pick up a newspaper?), sees a reindeer/buck standing on the street in front of him and goes “Wow!”
Woman jogging thru mountains, stops to check her time (wrist watch), looks back at scenery and says “Wow!”
Cut to the only aspect of Vista seemingly being hyped or worthwhile, a screen of the 3-D Flip/Rolodex, and some lame closing words about Vista.
That was about it.
…
Hey, Reality Check, eh? Yeah. 7%-15%. It’s all in who you listen to, ya? Someone says 7. Someone else says 15. I said 10. So I’m right. You gotta problem wit’ dat?
Microsoft has 90% share alright.
Of course that includes at least 20% of users that bought a copy of XP or Vista on a pirated disc for $4 to $10.
Yes that 20% is counted as Microsoft’s market even though Microsoft got squat in revenue for those millions of pirated copies.
Perspective,
You said””Microsoft Corp. said Monday it sold 20 million consumer copies of the new Windows Vista operating system worldwide in February”
There are approximately 20 million users of Mac OS X in different flavors, according to Apple.
Otherwise, MS sold about as many copies of VISTA in a month as Apple has OS X users.
Not trolling, just showing the scale of what Apple is up against in terms of market share.”
There are about 1 million very well-to-do people in the world.
There are about 900 million middle class people in the world.
There are about 6,000 million people living in abject poverty in the world.
By the same reasoning, being very poor is a good thing.
Me, I think that I like to “Think Different”.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” />
ne
“Stick your probe into that data port and Google it, you stupid trashcan with feet!”
*series of droid beeps and a 360 head spin*
Does anybody read Daniel Eran’s comments on marketshare over at Roughly Drafted and look at his graphs on comparisons? Or the sources for such information? Having product in the channel being counted as “Sales” is not a good indicator of use by end-users. Ergo – Zune “sales”. Ergo Vista “sales”.
The datapoints are suspect. So are the so-called “reporters” for such mis-information.
How many unes do you see int eh wold? Or how many copies of Vista do you see running on Non-Mac platforms?
Perhaps a good chunk of those 20 million copies of Vista went to the few Mactel boxes out there running Parallels. I understand at least Vista runs on a Mac.
MN: “full” as in “full if it”.
How do we correct our dyslexic finger fowl-ups?
une-> Zune and int he wold -> in the world
MN: try as in try harder.
Wow – so many stock market geniuses here.
LOL.
Let´s all pick the number or measurment that justifies Apple being the greatest stock buy ever…
LOL.
Be glad your parent´s have jobs and can afford to house and feed you.
This 20 million is a completely inflated number. It is clear that MSFT is reporting sell-in numbers and not sell-through numbers to make Vista look more successful than it really is.
The question is how many copies have actually left the shelves at their retailers. Depending on stock balancing periods, those copies may be coming back to MSFT in the next 30, 60 or 90 days.
Then the other question is how many copies that PC manufacturers have actually been installed on machines already sold verus how many of that number are just volume license numbers for machines still to be sold more than 60-90 days from now.
These are not honest numbers of real people really using Vista on a PC right now…..
Vista is over-hyped, and under acheiving. Period. These sales numbers, are in my opinion inflated, or are downright false. As one member mentioned, Micro$oft probably came up with 20 million from the amount they sold to dealers….not the actual amount which the end users use. Typical Microsoft way of twisting reality and making it look as if everything is well and smooth. I sincerely hope that Vista ends up like Zune…a complete failure. Why? Because not only myself, but I don’t like the fact that anyone has to spend $400 for a shitty operating system thats merely a facelift to Windows XP, and very poorly copied version of OS X, and nothing more.
There is a reason why many of us here believe that these sales numbers are not exactly what they appear to be, and it shows in the operating system for one, and secondly, using past history as an example, its obvious why you shouldn’t believe M$ in the first call.
As for the comments on Windows 20 million copies vs Mac’s 20 million user base in 2 months….IT DOESN’T MATTER…Microsoft could have a user base of 10 billion, and the Mac user base could be 10 million….but when you put them side by side, and ask any individual which is of better quality, customer care, better intuitiveness, ease of use, and just downright looks beautiful….the answer will always be a Mac.
Microsoft is on a slide, and you windows fanboys just don’t want to admit and face the reality of the company you have come to love through cynical brainwashings.
I am a Mac user, and I don’t hate Microsoft because its Microsoft…that would be utter stupidity and just plain wrong. I HATE Microsoft because they choose to make mediocre software the standard, that by default is the option that many individuals actually choose to follow globally.
$400 for bullshit operating system?…please give me a break, Ill gladly in a heartbeat send that money for charity causes worldwide to children and communities who could not even afford the basic necessities in life…knowing that I spent my money for a worthy cause.
20 million (customer purchase) in the first 2 months my ass.
A big factor with the “20 million sales” is that consumers aren’t given a choice between Vista or XP, they’re pretty much all Vista pre-installed. The opinion in the enterprise and government seems uniformly to *not* deploy Vista, but to instead re-image new PCs with XP (a significant number of enterprise machines are *still* win2k for that matter, migration to XP is far from complete). A more realistic number of “sales” would be to count only consumer computer sales (which assumes consumers want Vista, many comments are being heard claiming that isn’t so either). At least
when XP was released 2000 was still available (which may have skewed the 17 million figure…)
” A more realistic number of “sales” would be to count only consumer computer sales (which assumes consumers want Vista, many comments are being heard claiming that isn’t so either)”
Well said, thats what I’m saying too.
I bet that if M$ actually only counted specifically the amount of sales that were the result of customer purchase…the number value would be entirely different and also depressing. I would be bold enough to bet that *that* value would have not exceeded 10 million.
2o million in 2 months….what else did they include, the past failed longhorn beta versions as well into this count?
Re: “I HATE Microsoft because they choose to make mediocre software the standard”
I’ll take issue with that. I doubt any of the Vista bashers on this forum have even used Vista. You just bash it and Microsoft because your little internet support group here can’t handle the real world facts. I’ve been using Windows Vista since December at work, and for the last month on my personal PC’s. I love Vista, and frankly, it makes Mac OS X look rather amateurish and dated.
And before you pop a fuse, yes, I am also a Mac user (AlBook G4 @ 1.67 GHz).
Nah, I’m not going to pop a fuse, infact, I’m trying my best not to sound like a mac fanboy. Im a person who, if I honestly see something that is worth giving credit for, ill gladly do it. Now by no means is Apple perfect, they have their own issues as well, but they’ve been steadly improving in the past 5 years or so, while Microsoft has basically went sideways (meaning Longhorn’s developmental stages which eventually got scrapped), and then a new and much rushed product came out as a result.
I’ve also used Windows Vista, since its Beta 2 stage, up until RC1. From Beta 2 to Pre-Rc1, it was (I admit) a big improvement from performance to stability, but in terms of functionality and featurette, its been the same.
You say that Vista makes Mac OS X look amateurish and dated, and, I have to completely disagree with this. In what way does OS X not look professional? Just because Vista has a new face doesnt mean that it has new capibilities as well. Any person will agree when I say that simplicity (yet powerful) is the key to liking, not complexity (yet flawed).
Also I’m guessing you havent used Windows XP before (becuase you never stated you have), so its natural to assume in your case that Vista’s all great. But if you were a user of Windows XP, as I was (as well as many here), then you would clearly understand that Vista is a mere facelift thats all, and adds no functionality that is radically different from the previous versions.
1. Is it the new Aero Glass that makes you like the operating system? Because there are numerous identical themes like that for Windows XP as well.
2. Is it the “Flip 3D that impresses you? Because there is an identical Flip 3D for Windows XP called “TopDesk”, by Otaku Software. This software came from this small company long before Vista was even conceived, which makes me think that Microsoft saw OS X’s Expose, wanted to come up with a way to copy it, then went to google and searched for ideas, went to this website, saw that they had a familar feature, and becuase the company was rather small, thought what the heck, might as well make this our own…and decided to call it “Flip3D”
3. Is it the new icons that impress you? Becuase Windows XP has huge addons online that allow you to customize its icons, and yes, even the cursor to match exactly that of Vista
Again when you compare Vista’s security with that of OS X….Vista loses. As long as windows has dll’s and the registry library…there will always be viruses for that system, that can do major kernel level damage (yes, even in Vista).
I could basically describe Vista, and OS X in word:
OS X = snappy
Vista = bulky
I could go on and on about how everything you could do on Vista, you could also do on Windows XP. Many of the features that Vista had, such as Volume Shadow Copy (which M$ touted as the greatest thing ever) was already present in Windows XP SP2, but it was disabled, however Windows Server 2003 had that feature enabled.
The only thing that I guess you could partly call an upside, is that Vista runs on Dx10…but then again, unless your willing to spend 500+ dollars on a GeForce 8800GTX currently as the only Dx10 card out…then there is no complete positive side to that.
If you want, I could literally breakdown feature by feature for Windows Vista, and explain to you how it was already in Windows XP, and how it is even better in OS X. I know all three of these operating systems (as well as Linux) to a well enough point to be able to have the unbiased knowledge of being able to differentiate which is the best and which is the worst….incase your still wondering:
1. OS X
2. Windows XP
3. Linux
4. Windows Vista
“As long as windows has dll’s and the registry library…there will always be viruses for that system”
DLLs are the exact equivalent of shared libraries on Unix/Linux, and the registry can be secured to whatever degree you choose. it’s no more or less secure than storing the same data somewhere in the file system.
The biggest problem with Windows is not those features, but customers who run as administrator all the time allowing pretty much unrestricted access to the system by any trojans/viruses that they may pick up. Run as root all the time on Linux and it’s equally “insecure”.
Fortunately Vista makes that a thing of the past.
The Vista kernel has a lot more security features then Mac OS X or Linux.
And as for numbers, Vista’ already well on it’s way to exceeding Mac OS X and Linux’s installed base. That’s not a comment on the relative merits of each OS, just a fact that most consumers make the choice of a machine with Vista, not OS X or Linux.