All operating systems (OS X, Linux/Unix, Vista/XP) all have their own place and specialties… and flaws. Being a recent Mac convert, I naturally have been drawn to Mac forums and the like, thus I have been exposed to/witnessed more Vista bashings than political commercials (which is saying something). It seems that anytime the opportunity presents itself, a self-proclaimed Mac enthusiast (or Linux user for that matter) is more than willing to dish it out, perhaps in an attempt to make a proud claim of using the more superior OS. I’m not going to lie, I have made comments “poking fun” at Microsoft/Vista when with a certain crowd, mostly to induce a laugh or chuckle. Realistically, though, I try hard – I really do – not to become too terribly biased in the computing world. Microsoft sometimes just makes it terribly difficult to do so. And yes, I am one of those people that opted to “upgrade” back to XP once I gave Vista a whirl.
Photo Courtesy of geckoandfly.com
Yesterday, Microsoft announced price cuts on the Home Premium and Ultimate versions of Vista. According to WIRED’s article (read all about it here), “price cuts will range from 20 percent to 48 percent.” This is only for retail versions (obviously), not for systems that come with it previously installed. I’m not sure whether to look at this as another desperate attempt to attract buyers to Vista, a publicity stunt for Vista Service Pack 1, or something else. Regardless, the results should be interesting.
It seems somewhat odd that Microsoft is offering such a price cut on a product that was released hardly a year ago. Granted these past few OS upgrades (Tiger to Leopard and XP to Vista) are the only ones I’ve ever really paid attention to, Microsoft’s actions seem a bit like an abnormality.
I guess if I hadn’t read this article, I wouldn’t have known that Service Pack 1 was being released this month… that counts for something, right? I’ll definitely be reading into what the consensus is regarding the update. I’d like to think that all Vista user’s problems will be solved by this Service Pack update, but it just doesn’t seem likely. Here’s why:
Reason 1: Vista was apparently released with relatively low standards for proper performance. Recent news is revealing several disagreements among Microsoft’s head officials as to the set “standard” that makes a computer “Vista compatible/friendly.” I have my doubts that a Service Pack update would make up for power/hardware insufficiencies. Walt Mossberg covers some other reasons here.
Reason 2: While I can’t find the article that I was going to put here, I can explain briefly what it was about. Basically third party software developers were expressing concern with Microsoft not presenting them with Service Pack 1 in order to address software compatibility. Either Microsoft’s confident everything will still work or… I don’t know. It seems like the compatibility issues were just kind of getting sorted out from the XP to Vista jump. Let’s hope, for the sake of all Windows users’ sanity, that they don’t have to struggle through more incompatibility problems.
Google “Vista Service Pack 1″ and see what you come up with yourself. It’s just not looking terribly promising for Vista users.
Until next time…
Edit (3/3/08): And here’s yet another reason – Article by MacWorld.
Hahah…they should