Vista didn't ship terrible, Vista shipped as Vista. It didn't change (much), 3rd party software changed, and for many people the hardware they run on has changed. So no, Win7 is not worlds better than Vista was at launch. Yet Win 7 gets great previews while the same authors continue to dump on Vista.

Spin it however you like. All I know is that stuff just works with the Win 7 beta, while I gave up in frustration with nothing working with Vista. I'll leave the why's and the wheretofors for the tech heads to discuss. As an end user, my gage of an OS's quality is simple. Works = good. Doesn't work = crap.

Vista shipped terrible. I haven't toyed with it for a long time, but I'm told it is much better now. But why upgrade to Vista now when Win 7, which in it's pre-release state is already worlds better than Vista was at launch, is so close.

Vista didn't ship terrible, Vista shipped as Vista. It didn't change (much), 3rd party software changed, and for many people the hardware they run on has changed. So no, Win7 is not worlds better than Vista was at launch. Yet Win 7 gets great previews while the same authors continue to dump on Vista.

And it's totally insane for MS to recommend home users running XP to wait for W7. MS wants money, they don't care how they get it. If a user upgrades to Vista, there's a chance they'd get another payment when that user upgrades again to W7. It would be like Apple coming out tomorrow saying "Don't buy the iPhone 3G, we're coming out with iPhone 2.0 in 6 months." You don't kill sales for your current top of the line product unless you have to.

First off, we're not talking about users, we're talking about businesses with hundreds of computers. You don't just send someone around with an upgrade disk when you feel you like updating a program, let alone an OS. In fact, US law (SOX) prevents updating some systems without testing. Many of these companies can spend 1.5 years evaluating a new OS, and many have already purchased the rights through software assurance to use the latest OS as soon as it's available, but haven't upgraded for other reasons.

The original "don't wait for W7" argument wasn't a clear "use Vista" directive, rather a statement saying "W7 is so similar to Vista that you can test using it, and if you decide to go straight W7, all that time you spent making things work under Vista will help you make them work in W7."

Just like this original article isn't saying "Now wait for W7", it's saying "we're close enough that most of you halfway into your evaluation cycle should consider rebooting with W7". The companies they're telling to switch to W7 probably wouldn't even start rolling out Vista before W7 is available.

Does anyone remember when, not too long ago, Ballmer was on his pulpit trying to warn everyone still on XP not to wait for 7 or else doom and gloom would result.

So seeing this article made me laugh.

What I find funny is that nearly everyone agrees Windows 7 is looking to be a great OS while simultaneously saying Vista is terrible

Vista shipped terrible. I haven't toyed with it for a long time, but I'm told it is much better now. But why upgrade to Vista now when Win 7, which in it's pre-release state is already worlds better than Vista was at launch, is so close.

The sensationalism of the Linux Fanboy crap aside, it seems sensible for Microsoft to advise people who haven't upgraded from XP to just forget about Vista and wait for Windows 7.

I think the big story here is how this "a friend of a friend of a friend" reporting link got up here. If you go to the [i]original[/i] online story here, you'll see it's far less sensational.

What I find funny is that nearly everyone agrees Windows 7 is looking to be a great OS while simultaneously saying Vista is terrible, all the while W7 is only an incremental upgrade over Vista.

Vista was the big step up. The reasons people hated it have been worked out (mostly by 3rd party companies finally releasing working software for it). If someone asked me what to get today, I'd say it'd be nice to wait 3-4 months, but if you don't get W7 you're not missing out on much.

people tend to fall back into a mode where they always want parents (or authority) of some kind telling them what is what, how to think and what to do..

Don't think that you alone are immune. It's easy to scoff at the other lemmings as you follow your own group off a cliff.

I'm just amazed at how stable WinXP is now.

Same here. It's kind of ironic that Microsoft's OS business is hurting because it did such a good job with it's OS from 8 years ago - no one wants to upgrade!

Either way, I'm glad I held out and didn't upgrade.

I'm glad I didn't pay full price for Vista. I bought it when my local CompUSA went out of business for a whopping $50 (Home Premium Upgrade). I sent off for the 64bit install disk, but haven't installed it yet. I was planning to build a new system and install it then, but after I upgraded my video card first on my current 3 year old system, and didn't see a need to do a full system build. So my Vista disk sits unopened on the shelf.

I'm also kind of hopeful for Win7. I tried the beta in a virtual machine and liked what I saw. However, I don't know if I can hold off a new system build for the release of Win7 with new games coming out this year.

If I do build a new system before Win7 is released, I've got 3 options, go with trusty XP, use Vista since I have it, or give the Win7 RC a go. I already downloaded the Win7RC iso and have keys for it.

I'm just amazed at how stable WinXP is now. I've used it through 3 system builds, and my current system is over 3 years old and I have not had to do a re-install of the OS since the day I installed it.

While I agree that it is indeed aimed at corporations' IT divisions, it still seems to make for good advice for the individual everyday PC user. And I did read the whole article.

Here is the actual quote from the article that I'm sure nobody here or at LinuxToday bothered to read:

Veghte said, “If you’re just starting your testing of Vista, with the [Windows 7] Release Candidate and the quality of that offering, I would switch over and do your testing on the [Windows 7] Release Candidate, and use that going forward.”

This quote was aimed at enterprise IT managers, testing out operating systems in their company. Of course it makes sense to start testing Win7 now in an enterprise environment instead of using Vista which will just be obsolete soon. But of course sense doesn't stop Linux zealots from saying OMG M$ HATES THEIR OWN PRODUCT ROFL and feeling a sense of smug superiority. I'm no Microsoft apologist but I think Linux zealots are even dumber than Mac zealots.

people tend to fall back into a mode where they always want parents (or authority) of some kind telling them what is what, how to think and what to do.. so they can be rewarded instead of punished

It's definitely a "comfort zone thing - it's safer to rely on what someone else, or rather a lot of "someone elses", tell you rather than making your own judgment and running the risk of being in the minority or wrong.

sheep dont follow orders from dogs, they simply react with fear and move away in a certain direction

so dogs circle the flock and control their movements, by herding

sheep are definately mindless - its pure instinctual reaction, not some kind of conscious choice

people tend to fall back into a mode where they always want parents (or authority) of some kind telling them what is what, how to think and what to do.. so they can be rewarded instead of punished - its why christianity has been so successful

I was reffering to the sheep mentality of sticking together in large groups and generally doing their best to follow the orders of a small barking dog. They arent really mindless.

I think it's a matter of self-conditioning, not mindlessness. Either way, I'm glad I held out and didn't upgrade. Unlike some others, however, I AM eager to switch to Windows 7 barring any disastrous developments.

LoL, I have to say in retrospective this whole Vista story simply shows how the public are by and large sheep, sheep who like shiny and new things but sheep nevertheless.

So instead of saying "Fuck you Microsoft" for the gazilionth time, Im going to say "Fuck you sheep, you made em Big now chew on their corporate feed"

This comment was edited on May 18, 2009, 09:33.