As Microsoft prepares Windows 7 for release this October, I wanted to take a look back at Windows Vista. Windows Vista is the most stable, most secure, and has the most innovations of any operating system Microsoft has ever made. It is also their second biggest failure(the ill conceived Windows ME holds that distinction). The launch of Windows Vista was a Marketing disaster for Microsoft, and for the next year, it continued to receive bad PR. There are several reasons for this, some of which can be blamed on Microsoft, but the majority of which cannot. Instead of focusing on those points, I am going to focus on the complaints that I have heard over the years about Vista.
1. My Printer, scanner, or [insert other piece of hardware here] doesn’t work in Vista.
This is, in my opinion, one of the top 2 reasons why people complained about Windows Vista. This, however, is something that is only partially Microsof’s fault. Now, without getting too technical, the reason why this happened is that Microsoft changed the architecture for drivers in Windows. Now, a driver is essentially the software that allows your windows to work with the printer, scanner, mouse, iPod, anything. What this meant, was that for a lot of peripherals, the manufacturer, not Microsoft, was responsible for creating that driver. What many companies, printer companies especially, decided to do was not create those drivers for older printers. This was a business decision designed to get consumers to buy a new device.
The overall question though, is that is this a good thing? Again, without getting too technical, the changes that Microsoft made in the way drivers need to work were good changes. They unfortunately come with growing pains. Now, 2.5 years after Windows Vista launched, everything works just fine with it. And Windows 7 uses the same, improved driver model, so essentially everything that works with Windows Vista will also work with Windows 7.
The third party companies that make the hardware are the ones that are responsible for not supporting Windows Vista. Now, I fully admit that for them to support Windows Vista for devices that were, in some cases, 6-7 years old would have cost them a lot of money. They would have to allocate people and resources to create drivers for printers that no one in the company had supported for years. The return on investment for doing that likely would have been too small to justify the cost. However, that did not change the fact that when the average consumer bought a new computer with Windows Vista, and their printer did not work, they were un happy.
Overall, I’m going to call this a draw. Microsoft and the third parties were both justified in their decisions, and in the end, it did affect the customer. An unpleasant, but necessary growing pain for Windows.
2. Vista runs very slowly on my 4 year old computer, or the $800 computer I just bought runs vista very slowly
This issue has largely disappeared recently. Back in 2006, the consumer world had grown accustomed to a $700-$800 PC running Windows XP well. However, in early 2007, when Vista became available to consumers, windows XP was over 5 years old. even low end PC hardware in 2006 was significantly more powerful than what was a high end computer in 2001. Unfortunately, the consumer has been conditioned that they should be able to buy a computer for $700, and have it run well. In 2006, that was simply not the case, nor should it be. Windows Vista is a modern, advanced operating system that offered numerous improvements over XP. That’s not to say it was perfect. It does have problems, even today. But to expect an new operating system to run on either hardware that was 4-5 years old, or on a computer made as cheaply as possible, is not fair to Microsoft.
Both of these reasons are the main contributors as to why Windows Vista received such a bad reputation at launch. There are other reasons, such as Apple’s relentless ads against them, the emergence of netbooks, which Windows Vista does not run well on, and many businesses not moving to Vista. In part 2 of this article, I will discuss why people should be using Vista, and why it is so good.
Stacey
July 24, 2009
Excellent post. All fantastic and dead-on points. Points that I hit every day when asked by customers (or really when they prompt me by bashing Vista). I wish there weren’t so many unrealistic people out there. I wish Microsoft had made a much bigger effort to get across that Vista was big, but the reasons for that are all valid, and that consumers weren’t going to be able to run old devices and software (esp. custom software!!!) with Vista because, a) manufacturers of old devices simply weren’t planning to write new drivers to work with Vista (it’s not Vista or Microsoft’s fault, but the fault of the device manufacturer solely), and b) Vista was programmed at a very high set of code standards that were necessary to not only move the future of software that would work on PCs into a better future for everyone, but to keep up with web 3.0 standards.
Lastly, I really, really wish people would open their eyes and realise Vista isn’t going anywhere. It’s the future of Microsoft and their operating systems, and that Windows 7 is, in fact, Vista Lite. We are all going to have to move forward with the new operating systems because Microsoft is committed to never going backwards. They never have, and never will, revisit old technology. Not matter how many consumers beg. And those that begged for continued support of XP *cough*businesses*cough* should accept that fact now and start saving their pennies for the October 22nd launch.
Stacey
July 24, 2009
(sorry… I had to revise the second comment. too many mistakes in it for anyone trying to follow my train of thought. here is a better version. pls delete the other one. thanks.)
Oh, and I also want to touch on who is really to blame for Vista sucking the big one on laptops. If you guessed laptop manufacturers, you deserve a prize. When Microsoft launched Vista, they allowed manufacturers of new machines (PCs and laptops) to give customers a choice till XP was originally set to be shelved forever. The branders who built their own PCs gave customers the choice while laptop manufacturers did not. They loaded Vista on every level they sold starting at the very bottom where the components were cheap and not meant to translate into any actual CPU muscle support. This meant that your laptop was now running a much bigger operating system that it could ever handle. To make matters worse, laptop manufacturers only put in the bare minimum of RAM needed to run Vista adequately let alone efficiently. No wonder you could have chiselled that email in stone faster! Give Vista the CPU and RAM it needs, and you will never find reason to hate the way it performs.
The inherent problem with Vista on laptops is that it’s not really O/S suited to run at bare minimum, and yet every day we see entry level machines running it. It’s crazy. It’s like putting a Ferrari engine inside a Smart Car. C’mon! Be sensible. And all of the laptop manufacturers did it to cut costs – and on a lot of models that weren’t expandable enough to accommodate any service pack growth as they came down from Microsoft.
Again, not a Microsoft problem. Vista works. It works beautifully on PCs with hardware expansion to grow with the service packs. Vista works but not very well on any of the entry to mid level laptops with even the maximum RAM installed. But, all of this is a moot point since all machines after November or so will come loaded with Windows 7… with, again, the bare minimum of RAM (I’m sure).
Ben Babcock
July 25, 2009
Thank you for vindicating my Vista veneration. It’s good to hear a well-reasoned argument coming from my side.
Unlike the majority of people I know, I actually don’t mind Vista! It’s an improvement from XP, which, while stable, was starting to get stale. I hear all those Vista-related horror stories, but the only problem I’ve ever had was with the dreadful UAC (which I just disabled
).
I’m going to upgrade to Windows 7, mostly to keep my computer up to date, and also based on recommendations from several people who’ve been using the release candidates. I still have this dream of switching to Kubuntu as my primary OS. It’s currently installed on my laptop here along with Vista; I just never have time to use it enough to get comfortable with it.