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Microsoft Vista voted tech world's top "Fiasco"
Scientific American ^ | 02/28/2009 | By Larry Greenemeier

Posted on 02/28/2009 11:10:45 PM PST by Swordmaker

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To: Mr. Jeeves
I use NeoOffice on the Mac and it’s awfully slow. Unless the Linux OpenOffice version performs better, they’ve still got a little work to do. In the past the problem has always been document archives and formatting - alternate office suites never quite render the tables and headers in those older Word documents correctly, and most businesses consider that a deal-breaker.

I haven't noticed any performance issues, course this new box is a Phenom Quad with 4GB, so who knows? I'm on v3.0.0 build 9358 and I've had zero problems with tables or headers/footers, of which probably 50% of my docs have one or the other. My problems are with usability/features. Like in Word, I often search for non printing characters in the search and replace dialog. Tabs are "^t", para marks are "^p", etc. Writer doesn't allow you to do that. The drag-and-drop is significantly more awkward in Calc than in Excel, as well. Annoying little things like that.

41 posted on 03/01/2009 10:36:48 AM PST by Still Thinking (Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?)
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To: Nateman
I know the feeling. I was so annoyed at Windows95 crashing all the time I tried OS/2". Then I tried to make Linux work on a corrupted Windows98 machine I did'nt have a recovery disk for. Finally I was in the market for a new laptop so I went and bought a Dell with Linux preloaded so I knew it would work!

I found out that I did not have to go to that extreme, they now have Live CD's that boot up Linux without having to touch anything on your hard drive so you can try it without any worries.

So what are the advantages of Linux over Windows? I mean, can it do everything Windows can? Sorry don't really know much about it...

42 posted on 03/01/2009 11:02:16 AM PST by exist
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To: Swordmaker
The lesson, they said: more testing should be done to check reliability and performance before rolling out major product-marketing campaigns.

Kinda says it all, doesn't it? But marketing always takes precedence over technology and Vista is the result.

43 posted on 03/01/2009 11:56:36 AM PST by w1andsodidwe (Jimmy Carter(the Godfather of Terror) allowed radical Islam to get a foothold in Iran.)
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To: Renderofveils
If you ruled out the communications aspect, I’d still say the award for most overhyped and underperforming piece of technology would be the Atari Jaguar. That thing was a $250 paperweight.

Nah! That would have to be the Commodore Plus 4... hyped as a "productivity" computer which would include the best C64 word processing, spreadsheet, database, and graphing apps built into its ROM (the "Plus 4" of the name).

When it was finally released instead of four usable productive apps it had a word processor that was limited to 58 lines, the spread sheet was only 16 x 48 cells, a database that was also limited to 48 items and 16 specifics about the item... and the graphing capabilities was only able to draw graphs using a daisy wheel printer!

Can you say "lead balloon?" The inventory was remaindered very quickly to time share resorts who gave away a "computer system" to people who took a tour and listened to the high pressure sales spiel. That's how I got one to add to my collection of Commodore Computers.

44 posted on 03/01/2009 1:46:12 PM PST by Swordmaker (Remember, the proper pronunciation of IE is "AAAAIIIIIEEEEEEE!)
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To: Still Thinking

I think they meant you must use the same computer to run it every time as it has your persona information on it. They may store some data client side.

Persistent worlds usually save the data server-side so you can play on any computer that has the client installed anywhere in the world as long as you have your account and password names.

They probably did this to cheap out on server space.


45 posted on 03/01/2009 2:21:59 PM PST by this_ol_patriot (I saw manbearpig and all I got was this lousy tagline.)
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To: Swordmaker

I bought some people I know a computer over Christmas with Vista Premium Home Edition. The thing came with 3GB of memory, and cost about $400. No problems whatever. It did everything it was supposed to do, did it quickly, and was nice to look at. The supposed changes to the interface, were minor at didn’t affect usability one iota.

I think this whole Vista fiasco thing is a bunch of FUD and doesn’t reflect what’s really going on. Sure if you install it on a legacy machine, or a new machine with not enough memory, or inadequate video card, it probably will suck, but on a modern, full featured piece of hardware, it’s fine. Don’t believe everything you read. And believe me, I’m not some MS fanboy - quite the opposite.


46 posted on 03/01/2009 2:43:54 PM PST by 2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten
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To: Jaxter

That’s funny.


47 posted on 03/01/2009 2:44:42 PM PST by Mediocrates (Nullius in verba)
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To: Swordmaker

I wouldn’t consider One Laptop per Child to be a fiasco, especially since Microsoft went out of its way to try to sabotage the project (since it used a free and open-source operating system rather than Microsoft Windows), the best example being the immense pressure put on Nigeria to cancel a previously-signed order for a very large quantity of OLPCs. The entire point was that the greater the volume, the greater the volume discounts on hardware components, so MS’s actions helped make it cost more. Many hundreds of thousands of them are out there in those countries that resisted MS blackmail, and the children are using them.


48 posted on 03/01/2009 3:29:08 PM PST by wildandcrazyrussian
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To: Swordmaker

M<ore of the same bullshite form FR resident Apple propagandist. And just like dung on a summer day, the usual Linux/Apple fanatics start buzzing around like flies.

For such a “Fiasco”, it’s odd how it is used everyday by people without problems MORE than OSX and all 1000 distros of Linux COMBINED X 2.

You people have become beyond pathetic in bashing Microsoft at this point for no other reason than they exist.

I’ve got better things to do honestly, but I think maybe I should start posting PC-related stories that actually involve something other than mindless MS bashing, Apple propaganda, and FUD, because this is just getting ridiculous.


49 posted on 03/01/2009 3:52:57 PM PST by VanDeKoik (Conservatives see untapped potential. Liberals see Tapped-out hopelessness.)
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To: 2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten
I bought some people I know a computer over Christmas with Vista Premium Home Edition...

 No problems whatever...

 I think this whole Vista fiasco thing is a bunch of FUD and doesn’t reflect what’s really going on...

Could be.  Or possibly, just possibly mind you, it might have just a tiny bit to do with the fact that Vista was released a full two years ago and has had a bunch of development, polishing and a Service Pack dropped into it by Microsoft by the time you bought it in late 2008. 

Or maybe all the complaints about Vista during its first year of release from users, the tech media, IT departments, game developers, Intel, etc was just people jealous of Bill Gates.

Who knows?

50 posted on 03/01/2009 4:02:08 PM PST by MichiganMan (Look I know you need that big vehicle to...compensate. But dont then whine about the cost to fill it)
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To: VanDeKoik
More of the same bullshite form FR resident Apple propagandist. And just like dung on a summer day, the usual Linux/Apple fanatics start buzzing around like flies.

It is NOT "form" me, Van, it is a news article that is being picked up by various news organizations around the world. Should we ignore it merely because it criticizes YOUR favorite company? I found it humorous.

51 posted on 03/01/2009 4:11:24 PM PST by Swordmaker (Remember, the proper pronunciation of IE is "AAAAIIIIIEEEEEEE!)
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To: Swordmaker

Oh please.

You are likely to post either one of two things:

Some rah rah Apple is so awesome story.

Or “M$ Sucks and here some kooks reason why” article.

This was nothing but an article about a bunch of nobodies that hold a vote for an “award” no one has ever heard of.

And If that award was for something other than something from Microsoft, I can guarantee you you would not have touched it with a ten foot Macbook.

There is never a balance ever. It’s always MS = Bad, Apple = Good.

It’s like MSNBC.


52 posted on 03/01/2009 4:23:21 PM PST by VanDeKoik (Conservatives see untapped potential. Liberals see Tapped-out hopelessness.)
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To: MichiganMan

I suppose anything is possible - but my personal feeling is that this was a marketing disaster - not an engineering disaster. Near as I can tell, Vista does what it’s supposed to do and what it says it does. However, anyway you want to slice it, it’s been a PR disaster.

Which is n sharp contrast to Windows ‘95 which was like a Harry Potter release, with people lining up at midnight to get their copies.

We tend to disparage the marketing types, but probably not rightly so. Steve Jobs was a marketer par excellence. Bill Gates was no slouch either. The clowns they got now have done a terrible job at defining their product, generating buzz, and overcoming the naysayers. That’s how I see it.

And again, I have no dog in this fight. I’m typing this on a windoze box, but immediately to my left is a linux box that I’m doing work on.


53 posted on 03/01/2009 4:59:26 PM PST by 2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten
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To: VanDeKoik
Oh please.

Oh, please, right back at you.

Invariably, and that includes this thread, you enter with insults. Argumentum Ad hominem is not considered a valid debating technique. You use it, you lose.

54 posted on 03/01/2009 5:44:18 PM PST by Swordmaker (Remember, the proper pronunciation of IE is "AAAAIIIIIEEEEEEE!)
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To: Mr. Jeeves

NeoOffice is much slower than open office still not terrible but it works


55 posted on 03/01/2009 6:52:11 PM PST by N3WBI3 (Ah, arrogance and stupidity all in the same package. How efficient of you. -- Londo Mollari)
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To: exist

Well Linux cant do everything windows can do and Windows cant do everything Linux can do but for 99% of people they are pretty interchangeable.

Usually the deal breaker for Linux are a few specific apps.. if you *need* visio you cant use Linux (for example)


56 posted on 03/01/2009 6:53:45 PM PST by N3WBI3 (Ah, arrogance and stupidity all in the same package. How efficient of you. -- Londo Mollari)
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To: exist
So what are the advantages of Linux over Windows? I mean, can it do everything Windows can? Sorry don't really know much about it...

You know, I didn't know if I wanted to respond to your post just because I didn't know if I had the energy to get into another kinda-necessarily-detailed-but-still-user-friendly description of what advantages Linux has over Windows. But then it occurred to me that I could take the easy way out and let Linux sell itself. 

Tell you what, if you have the technical know-how to be able to format and install Windows, you officially have the aptitude it takes to learn Linux.  Its occasionally different than than Windows, but just as easy, and usually less hassle.  Start with downloading, burning and running a Ubuntu Live CD.  The hardest part is you mighthave to tell your BIOS to boot from the CD.  This allows you to test drive Linux without touching your hard drive.  Biggest hassle is that running from a CD is unavoidably slow. 

From there you can get a taste of what a free, fully equipped OS can do for you. 



57 posted on 03/01/2009 8:46:36 PM PST by MichiganMan (Look I know you need that big vehicle to...compensate. But dont then whine about the cost to fill it)
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To: higgmeister
That is exactly what Microsoft said to do.

Some of us are unaccustomed to merely clicking the heels and doing whatever Microsoft says to do.

58 posted on 03/01/2009 8:49:46 PM PST by Petronski (For the next few years, Gethsemane will not be marginal. We will know that garden. -- Cdl. Stafford)
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To: Swordmaker

“Invariably, and that includes this thread, you enter with insults. Argumentum Ad hominem is not considered a valid debating technique. You use it, you lose.”

You post almost nothing but FUD bash articles about PCs or Microsoft. Mostly insulting to people, or at least the intelligence, of who use those products.

What do you think, no one was going to comment to the contrary of this repeated theme?

And spare me the “Argumentum Ad hominem is not considered a valid debating technique” nonsense. Every time on a messageboard you challenge this anti-PC drivel, the person pushing it never shows you how you are supposedly wrong, they just try to dismiss what you say as argumentative or insulting to them.


59 posted on 03/01/2009 9:20:40 PM PST by VanDeKoik (Conservatives see untapped potential. Liberals see Tapped-out hopelessness.)
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To: VanDeKoik; antiRepublicrat; N3WBI3; Richard Kimball
You post almost nothing but FUD bash articles about PCs or Microsoft. Mostly insulting to people, or at least the intelligence, of who use those products.

I challenge you to prove that assertion. If you think that posting articles for the 344 FreeRepublic members (who have REQUESTED to be on the Mac Ping list), most of which have nothing at all to do with Windows or Microsoft, is posting "FUD bash articles about PCs or Microsoft," then you are hopelessly suffering from OS identification syndrome.

How can criticizing a company or an operating system be insulting to people... or their intelligence... unle ss you have your own doubts about your choice in the first place. Or is it YOUR company? Are you actually Ballmer??

Most of the critics of Microsoft Vista are, or have been, USERS of Vista who are relating their own experiences with problems that Vista has caused them. Are all of them misguided, mistaken, or deliberately bashing Microsoft? I doubt it. Where there is this much smoke, there just has to be a lot of fire as well.

Note that I did not PING the Mac Ping list members to this article... and the only comment I made was a tongue-in-cheek statement about Vista now being able to claim to be "award winning."

And spare me the “Argumentum Ad hominem is not considered a valid debating technique” nonsense.

It isn't and you always use it. Your replies are dripping with ad hominem intended to denigrate those who happen to disagree with your position. It indicates you really have no facts to back your position. If you can't attack the facts, then let's attack the person presenting them. Let's look at your first commentary in this thread... I will mark in bold the insults and ad hominem.

More of the same bullshite form FR resident Apple propagandist. And just like dung on a summer day, the usual Linux/Apple fanatics start buzzing around like flies. . . You people have become beyond pathetic in bashing Microsoft at this point for no other reason than they exist. . . mindless MS bashing . . .
Your post contained nothing of substance and was filled with insults and slurs to and about hundreds of people, your fellow Freepers, who have not attacked or insulted YOU. You are nothing if not consistent... and that is truly pathetic.
60 posted on 03/01/2009 10:12:14 PM PST by Swordmaker (Remember, the proper pronunciation of IE is "AAAAIIIIIEEEEEEE!)
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