PC Magazine Editor Throws in the Towel on Vista

Slashdot ^ | 8/18/2008

[sionnsar]

MacNN caught this incredible defection and loss of faith by a former Vista booster, PC Magazine editor-in-chief Jim Louderback, as he steps down from his position.

"I've been a big proponent of the new OS over the past few months, even going so far as loading it onto most of my computers and spending hours tweaking and optimizing it. So why, nine months after launch, am I so frustrated? The litany of what doesn't work and what still frustrates me stretches on endlessly. The upshot is that even after nine months, Vista just ain't cutting it. I definitely gave Microsoft too much of a free pass on this operating system: I expected it to get the kinks worked out more quickly. Boy, was I fooled! If Microsoft can't get Vista working, I might just do the unthinkable: I might move to Linux."

[narses]

A youngun. Try a simple question maybe. Like:

ok...I’ll be the one to ask the question of why you are pinging on an article about Windows Vista for the pro-life/Catholic Ping list?

See? No pejoratives at all.

[FlyVet]

I’m lucky I got XP MCE with free upgrade to Vista on my new sytem. XP does everything I want it to do, and is very stable. I won’t even consider loading Vista until they obsolete XP. And by then, there might be a Linux alternative that is as user-friendly as Microsoft’s bloated OS.

[sionnsar]

I have heard of situations such as yours.

As one whose real-estate's value is highly dependent upon Microsoft's success, I hope they fix things soon.

[PogySailor]

There was already a fix posted in the Community Docs. I just need to make time to compile the driver and blacklist the old one. I just took a while to get all the right settings on the old machine (PIII from 1998 with a CardBus NIC). My newer PC wireless NIC ran right out of the box, no problem.

[KoRn]

Wow. It took him this long to figure out what I did in a few days. I’m glad I never actually bought it. I think Vista is the Windows ME of 2007, but possibly with better security. Having said that, some of the “security” it provides makes the OS a big time hassle to use...

[ken21]

it’s an amd 64

1.79 ghz, 384 mb ram

notebook.

15 months old.

[NativeNewYorker]

I have to use Windows for business due to dedicated program issues, but I use Macs at home and for my kids. Anyone who can possibly switch to Macs should do so. They’re not perfect by any stretch, but the frustration factor is about a tenth that of Windows.

[Alouette]

I’m running XP on my desktop and Vista on my laptop. I’m more comfortable with XP but I’m getting to like Vista.

[finnman69]

so happy that when I got a brand new Dell Precision 690 souped up workstation I made sure I got Windows XP Pro, not Vista.

[tgusa]

I have 2 HDs for my Latitude C640 running 2 gig of RAM on a 2 Meg processor, one HD has Vista Business, the other XP. Vista crashes often; XP is very solid. Still looking for some drivers for Vista. I’m running the XP HD as I type this; haven’t bothered with Vista for months now. I tell my friends not to bother with Vista. If it works for some of you out there, more power to ya. I’m sticking with XP until Vista gets the kinks sorted out.

[miele man]

Well, pardon me, you officious twit. I asked a legitimate question and you take the opportunity to show the world your smarts or lack thereof. Congratulations.

[papasmurf]

Guess I’m smarter than he his. I never even looked at it. LOL

[papasmurf]

Actually, that was a downgrade. An upgrade would have been to install Ubuntu Linux. :)

[hiredhand]

I had to use a Windows app today to "stitch" a panoramic photo of "Soap Girl" working in the kitchen making soap today. But I ran it in Windows-XP, courtesy of VM-Ware server running on a Debian 3.x system. We've been Windows free for over four years now with the exception of very minor things such as that software for my camera. But even those things run in Win-XP, in VM-Ware. If I blow up the Windows-XP system, I just copy back the VM-Ware images from my little 100G USB hard disk. :-)

We DO use Win-XP at work, and I do have one desktop machine that runs it. But I've promised that if it gives me grief again, I'll put a copy of Debian Linux on it and run Win-XP out of VM-Ware too! :-)

[redangus]

I have Vista on two computers and my biggest gripe is that so much does not work with it. Yahoo Browser, a number of peripherals, Music Match, Rhapsody etc. It is very frustrating. In retrospect I would probably stay with XP.

[ekwd]

I have three Vista computers networked (two wireless) along with a printer connected to a wireless adapter, all of which work beautifully. I run Ulead Video Studio 11 for video editing and DVD authoring, Adobe Lighroom, Adobe Photoshop Elements 5, Bibble Lite 5.8 and Capture One 3.7 for image editing. I really appreciate Vista's improved handling of photographs. A 5-year old hardware Mpeg encoder works on Vista using a driver that came out in 2002. Two of my computers were originally XP and they networked with Vista just fine.
The author could have opened the Network and Sharing Center by right clicking or double clicking on the monitor icon in the system tray. Also, he wrote that it had been nine months, the article couldn't have been written much more than six months after Vista came out. All this leads me to believe that Revision3, his new employer, is a company to be avoided.
I can personally testify that XP had its own problems when it first came out, and if anyone thinks that OSX did not have its own problems when it first came out can look at the write up of Cheetah, the first version of OSX, here: br>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_OS_X Still, it's a suit yourself kind of world, so suit yourself.

[Redbob]

“Several manufacturers” may be offering XP still, but none of the big retailers are;

try to find an XP machine at Best Buys or Office Depot, etc.

[ekwd]

Typing with bad fingers. That should be Bibble Lite 4.8 and the link is
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_OS_X

[hiredhand]

I forgot to mention...I remember you telling me how pleased you were with Ubuntu on the old beater P.C.

I've got a couple of older Sun Netra T-1 105's at work, along with some E-220, and E-250 servers with multiple CPUs. I installed Debian Linux 4.0 because functionally, they "look and feel" just like our x86 based servers and I can test things in the lab environment.

Oh but good heavens those 64 bit Ultra Sparc driven servers run Linux well! ...and fast too! :-) I used one for a desktop machine for a couple of months after mine went up in smoke and I got spoiled. :-)

[cd jones]

I have 4 machines networked at home. 3 XP pro and an e-machine with Vista home basic. I have no problem with Vista, they all communicate with each other fine. 2 of the machines are wireless (XP and Vista). They all share a inkjet printer, Epson 320. I like Vista, it came with a DL DVD recorder and use it to copy DVDs (unprotected ones of course). I upgraded to 1GB memory and wish I had went to 2GB. Got the machine through tigerdirect.com , refurb, 120GB HD, 1GB, 3MHz, $269 no monitor.