A branch of the British government has advised it's entire educational system from upgrading to Vista or Office 2007, citing high cost with no benefit. It also went as far to say when buying new PC's to purchase without Vista ad to use widely available free options for office applications.
Earlier this year the US D.O.T. outright banned VISTA, prohibiting computers to be upgraded to Vista.

Windows Vista, Office 2007 Expelled From British Schools -- Windows Vista -- InformationWeek

I have heard NOTHING but complaints about Vista. Not one single person I know who has "upgraded" likes it.
Everyone knows Windows has been buggy as hell from day one. But with THIS, has Microsoft thrown QC totally out the window?

Just another reason to use Linux.

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Not a day goes by that I don't see something that reinforces my belief that people are idiots.

I don't think it is necessarily a lack of QC, but a company where profits reign supreme over absolutely everything else, and arrogance is the word of the day - everyday.

Bill Gates is both the luckiest and smartest business man in modern times - his early ability to be "in the right place at the right time" is uncanny, equally his ability to exploit that fortune is flawless.

Most people in this country have never experienced the true arrogance of Microsoft.
Imagine if say Capitol records wanted the right to be able to send people to American homes and see if they have ever copied their product, imagine if they demanded consumers to PROVE they have never done so without any inclination that they have.
Microsoft did just that about 7-8 years ago with it's infamous "compliance or else" letter to businesses all over the country. A letter that simply stated - you must list how many computers are in your building, and provide a license # for all of them running windows, as well as a license for every office copy installed, if you fail to do so - we may send "investigators" to your business.

Unbelievable.

Microsoft Vista is the most stable operating system of the entire windows family, certainly an improvement over XP and way, way more stable than the old stuff (pre-windows NT).

The only thing that bothers me are some compatibility issues with drivers and old 90's software (probably because I'm running x64).

Oh yes and there is that stupid price thing: if you buy the basic version you pay €80, if you buy premium its €90, but if you want to upgrade from basic to premium that's €90 instead of €10 which would be the correct value added.

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Terrornoia: how the propa-ugandists used the omni-territorialization of terror for the fundamen-talismanization of criminal law in a multi-cultus-ritualistic society

That is a premature opinion.
Vista has not been on the market nowhere near long enough to establish whether it is an improvement over XP or not in it's stability or performance.

XP, like Win 2000 is a stable system. Vista remains to be seen.
Vista however has taken the problems of XP to a whole new level - primarily it's demand on hardware - MS can't seem to figure out how to operate a system without hogging most of that system it is only supposed to be a platform for real software.

THis MAC ad hits the nail on the head over MS's arrogance..Apple - Get a Mac - Watch The TV Ads (Click PODIUM)

Look, I'm not a skilled programmer, so all I can speak of is my personal experience, and that is that Vista runs smoother than XP, and it doesn't crash. Maybe their business conduct is arrogant, but I dont notice that personally, nor do the majority of customers.

Plus it can run on far more and cheapers hardware than Mac.

And its not like Mac is "only a platform for real software". They give goodies with it too.

Those Mac ads are pretty arrogant too.

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Terrornoia: how the propa-ugandists used the omni-territorialization of terror for the fundamen-talismanization of criminal law in a multi-cultus-ritualistic society

I agree. The original Idea of Windows was to be basically a DOS overlay. A way to give easy access to the actual programs and then get out of the way. I remember Windows3.0. Although I didn't like it and stuck to command-line DOS, I saw it as a good idea (Much like GEOS for the Commodore 64).
Now, Windows is almost the whole system and has gone much further than its original purpose.

Having said that, I still think the world owes Gates a debt of gratitude for pretty much single-handedly standardizing global PC computing.

Still, Windows has gotten too Big, too resource intensive, too full of unnecessary programs and too expensive. That was tolerable all the way up to XP, but if the Vista system fails so miserably on too many machines it will hurt MS and drive a lot of people away.

Sometimes I think Apple may have a few "double agents" in Microsoft's development department. They stand to gain the most with this debacle. And it won't make Linux fans lose any sleep either.

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Not a day goes by that I don't see something that reinforces my belief that people are idiots.

But it all boils down to how well the product works, and since XP still works for me I don't see myself spending the wad it takes to get Vista just to see if it works or not on my machines.

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Not a day goes by that I don't see something that reinforces my belief that people are idiots.

I’d say he has done the usual, let the public be the beta testers, let them eat and identify the bugs, and they'll patch as they go......deplorable..

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No individual can plan his own existence in their view.

So the state planners must arrogate to themselves the right to manipulate any sector of the economic system if the good of “society” or the “general welfare” is paramount.

Ipso- if the rights of the individual get in the way, the rights of the individual must be sublimated.

The Road to Serfdom
FA Hayek (interpretation)


Mortgage Backed Security survivor

unfortunately this is true.
I have said 1000 times - the public would never except any other product that has been so flawed as Windows has been ever since 3.1 really.
If it wasn't for their monopoly they would have faded away years ago...as they finally are now.

OSX is a better system for the home.
*nix is a better system for business.

Vista is a huge failure and its only gonna be a matter of time before the entire EU starts advising small businesses, schools, hospitals and other public sector services not to upgrade to it. Microsoft has taken numerous blows in European markets lately, this will be another but they will still stand strong as usual.