Angus Kidman
Thursday, 14 June 2007 04:44
Opinion and Analysis
Page 1 of 2
I've learnt two things about Vista recently: even senior citizens think
that it's a rip-off, and its problem-reporting capabilities are yet
another example of its 'lipstick on a pig' approach to life.
First, the senior citizen tale. Queuing in my local Officeworks, I found myself behind two older PC users whose eye had been caught by the display of funky-looking (albeit hard to open) Vista cases near the counter.
$459 dollars was a lot to pay for Home Premium, the man observed. Yes, but Home Basic was cheaper at $199, his female companion replied.
I was about to interject by pointing out the minimal feature set of Home Basic (even calling it a feature set is stretching the friendship, frankly). However, the lady's next comment showed that she wasn't about to be seduced by either shiny packaging or a (relatively) discounted price.
"It's a waste of money anyway -- none of your old programs work with it. What's the point of that?"
Now, I know that this isn't strictly true. There are plenty of existing programs which work perfectly well with Vista -- and even more if you're willing to put up with constant User Account Control queries on perfectly respectable pieces of software.
But that's the general perception of Vista in the marketplace - incompatible and expensive. Quite how Microsoft plans to counter it, I have no idea, but it's pretty clear that marketing campaigns centred around the phrase "the wow starts now" have not helped.
Something else that hasn't helped is Vista's equally well-developed reputation for instability. I received a startling reminder of that the same day when Vista decided to give me an unexpected update on just how many problems it had encountered in the month since I'd installed it. Read on for the unedifying results.
