Windows XP will be available until Windows 7 comes to the rescue, and Vista will be a brief footnote in the history of desktop computing.

Microsoft knows internally what a disaster the Vista project has been from beginning to end, and a few key people in the company know why.

Jim Allchin was doing a great job managing the development of the project.

Then Ballmer decided to hire a ton of middle managers to make sure that every part of the OS was "properly structured and well thought out."

Jim found it gradually more and more difficult to get anything done, as hoards of pencil pushers put the brakes on every nook and cranny of the code to make sure they each had personally peed on it, so they would have something to show their grand children:

"You know how there are 43 ways to turn off a Vista laptop? Grandpa came up with Way 42!"

Jim complained to Ballmer, but even though Jim had the top responsibility for the OS development, Ballmer supported the bureaucrats because they were his kind.

And the code grew and became unwieldy, and nothing ever got finished.

So the key functionality that provided the justification for upgrade had to be tossed overboard.

What remained was a cosmetic makeover of Win XP, but with huge amounts of overhead.

Will Windows 7 get it right?

I believe so.

If Ballmer gets fired, and the company gets a new chief who understands software development.

Otherwise it will be Vista II, perhaps with 44 ways to turn off the machine, instead of the mere 43 in Vista I (that's a fact!).

Good summation.

Yep. I have yet to hear from a Single one of my many customers, recommending Vista.

Emails I've Never gotten:

"Ken you've gotta get Vista, it's so much better than XP I'm thrilled".
"Vista is the best -- it's like XP on steroids!"
"Wow you need to upgrade to Vista Today!"

Much more like a WinME fiasco, is Vista. :o

I bought another copy of WinXP pro oem from newegg so I've got a spare activation in case I need it, a couple of weeks ago.

-k

And - if we want to use the upcoming Vegas Pro 64-bit version, we are forced to switch to Vista - there is NO other option!!!

Newer could I believe (even in my wildest dreams) that Vegas will be the ONE and ONLY reason why I'm forced to switch to Vista (64bit)... Unnecessary to say how bad this is... Obviously, it is not SCS's fault that Vista is a flop, but anyhow...

Aaarghhh....

Christian

I think Craftech and Coursedesign summed up Vista general problems and history well. I have Vista(32bit) running on a number of high-end boxes, but I prefer XP PRO or linux ;-). Now, I have not any real problems with Vista, but then I avoid using it which is a waste of hardware. I'll edit on a older X2 machine that a Q6600 with Vista. Vista just appears to eatup too much resources, but then thats my past impression about the early days over HD hardware and Vista. Blink seems to be doing fine with Vista 64, so maybe it has a little value? I would think SCS would seriously consider it a problem to build a Vista 64 OS requirement into their new product if the OS was too weak ;-) but then MS probably offered no alternate OS solution.

And - if we want to use the upcoming Vegas Pro 64-bit version, we are forced to switch to Vista - there is NO other option!!!

Well....what will a 64bit version of Vegas offer anyway? A 64 bit version of a program doesn't make it "twice as good". More memory access is possibly about it.

So far - of the true 64 bit audio apps out there that come to mind...Sonar, Nuendo...do not offer anything special in their 64 bit flavours.

VP

Vegas in 64 bit Vista works well. Well after I changed the interface to classic windows then shut off a ton of stuff like DEP, indexing, backup, etc. Then created icons for all the stuff I use like explorer, registry, sounds, control, update, system, etc. It likes to do stuff in the background that you don't know about and accomodates additional softwares like a sponge soaking up water. I believe it uses some kind of "AI" to set up networks. Really scary. If you don't have a network it will make one. Just kidding.
JJK

I understand it all, except why you shut off DEP?

Would Vegas 64 work with XP 64 ?

I thought (not sure) during the flogout that DEP was doing a lot of background activity for about 1/2 hour after bootup. (just like the everready rabit)The auto notify stuff that operates the drives is a huge problem (shut off all of that too but it still blocks everything 4 times during bootup and I mean it stops the boot cold---you can see this on the slider visual as it boots.) It also stops the USB mouse. Did this in XP Pro also. It's just as if you inserted a disc in the burner, shuts everything for about 2 seconds, then recognizes the disc. If I new how to blow that out of the registry I would do it.
JJK

If you have a fairly recent (last two years) CPU from AMD (inventor) or Intel (copycat for this and AMD's 64-bit instruction set), you should have hardware DEP.

I don't see why this should add any delays whatsoever.

It needed to be turned off selectively for some apps that were particularly poorly written, but this is easy to do, and I think most if not all of these have been fixed.

More about it at here.

From ZDNET Fixing Windows Vista, one machine at a time:

[i]If the “Vista sucks” movement has a public face, it’s the Sony Vaio. No one knows that better than my new friend Jeremy Toeman. In May 2007, this 15-year Windows veteran replaced his old, beloved, XP-powered Vaio with a newer Vaio that came with Windows Vista Business installed. Practically overnight, he told me, his experience went from “awesome” to “awful.” The experience was so terrible, in fact, that after several months of struggling he finally surrendered, putting his $2500 Windows notebook in storage and replacing it with a MacBook last summer.

At first glance, Jeremy’s machine is Exhibit A in the case against Windows Vista. As Jeremy documented in a series of posts, this gorgeous machine was ugly in action: slow to start, sluggish when performing everyday tasks, crash-prone, and overloaded with annoying and unwanted software. [...]

After he sent me his Vaio in early March, I [...] set up a pristine copy of Windows Vista Business, with up-to-date drivers and zero crapware. [...] After my makeover, this machine was every bit as fast as its specs said it should have been.

[...] I’ll give you a close-up look at what I had to do to turn Sony’s [Vista] installation into one that was worthy of their excellent hardware and that took full advantage of the new features in Vista. At the end of this post I’ll share some of the lessons I learned about how Sony and its rivals can win their customers back.

[...] Over at his LIVEDigitally blog, Jeremy just posted his impressions [...]: ” At long last, after 11 months, Ed Bott has turned my $2500 Vaio laptop into a usable computer”), along with an accompanying video that is truly must-see TV. His advice to “the PC manufacturers who are failing to deliver consumer-ready products” is spot on.

[...]

I don't care what MS does, I phased it out in 2007.

Just sh*t stirring - I luv Vista 64 with Vegas.