The Vista Debacle

An argument for NOT upgrading your PC’s operating system

windowsvista logoThe Windows Vista operating system, released to consumers this week, is shaping up to be the biggest debacle in the history of personal computing. Microsoft has not only lost its way, but according to many, lost its purpose.

It can only feel like wishful thinking as I write this, but we may see that 2007 and this week’s release of Vista was the tipping point, the proverbial bump in the road whereby computer users realize they’ve had enough of Windows and begin to reject it altogether.

Here, in no particular order, is a list of some of the significant upward trends of desktop communications of this decade since the release of Windows XP in October 2001:

  • Google Search, Adsense and Adwords
  • Web 2.0 business models
  • Blogging
  • Youtube and Flash video
  • Podcasting
  • iPod
  • Flickr and photo sharing
  • Tagging
  • Music download services (iTunes)
  • Bittorrent
  • MySpace
  • Cheap DVD authoring
  • Ever expanding, low-cost storage capacity
  • The Blackberry & wireless culture

Do you see the words “Microsoft” or “Windows” anywhere on this list? Don’t strain your eyes, because they’re not there.

The only real digital success Microsoft can claim is the XBox 360, which still undersells Sony’s PS2, and which Sony would be wiping the floor with if not for the botched Blu-Ray gamble.
Microsoft lost a visionary as its leader, and replaced him with a manager in Steve Ballmer. I’d suggest that the Microsoft CEO should take his several hundred billion dollars of stock options and go for a long walk, but once he goes, what would be left?

Microsoft, thanks to its sheer mass, has permanently lost its ability to innovate; and like automakers Ford and GM it cannot afford to do so. That sounds absurd, but when you create a company around perpetual growth shareholders have little patience for flat or declining quarters. Whereas innovation requires risk, the R word doesn’t appear to be in the company’s vocabulary.

The light-footed re-tooling of its corporate objectives in 1995 (the famous Internet Memo from Bill Gates) cannot be replayed. In fact, Microsoft is an overflowing supertanker that is 5 minutes away from hitting a jagged reef, and its captain is below deck playing cards and sipping rum. The outcome is not going to be pretty.

Search the phrase “boycott vista” today and you get about a thousand page results. Let’s beef this up, shall we? Start your own “Boycott Vista” meme-thingy and let’s get this up to 500,000 pages!
Why am I condemning Microsoft and what I’ve already described as “Bloatware’s Crowning Achievement”? Microsoft may be a very, very large corporation but ultimately it’s people that design and implement product features. To them, I respectfully tip my hat, because I know how hard it is to try and ship software when your boss doesn’t know his ass from a hole in the ground.

If indeed there is an Erin Brockovich-like maverick figure within their ranks who is shouting, “Captain, for the love of god we’re going to crash!!” I can’t imagine he/she is climbing the corporate ladder fast. Even Robert Scoble, who humanized the company as Microsoft’s most famous blogger, has left the building.

CNET just gave Vista a passable review (the rating appears too high after reading the review), but the users are engaged in a heated debate. I’ve read some, but this one from warpete takes the cake. Here is some of what he says:

How many hours do you have to work at your current job to line Microsoft’s wallet with over $400.00? The poster who said that hardware upgrades could cause havoc with your license is correct. I am a systems builder and would require many, many upgrades–often. Microsoft doesn’t trust ANYONE! If you upgrade your system often, be prepared to shell out more money for more licenses. I am switching back to Windows XP Professional. I know the operating system. It has always been stable. If you want the “VISTA” look, then shell programs can be downloaded for FREE to give you the VISTA Aero etc. Let others spend the money and contend with the bugs.

Need more convincing? I’ve discussed earlier the problems with Vista’s UI, but read Paul Thurrott’s excellent and unforgiving analysis of Windows Vista. Describing just one of many ways the Vista GUI is messed up he comments:

What? You don’t see the Back button? Oh, it’s that weird blue thing in the corner. Why does Vista use a graphical browser-like button for Back and an old-fashioned text-based button for Next? I can understand why Back is on the left, and why Next is on the right, but why is Back on the top of the application while Next is on the bottom?

Talking about the useless native DVD authorware that comes with WV:

…This keyboard shortcut is the equivalent of clicking the Burn button for some reason. Instead of changing the menu style again, you just started burning your disc. Or a coaster, since the disc you’re now making isn’t what you wanted.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

But wait, there’s more. Oh there is so much more.

Regrettably, there will be a bunch of consumers who will rush out to get Vista (or not) for the mere sake of having the latest thing. Unlike the freaks who sleep outside the stores waiting for new game systems, it will be hard to sell Vista on Ebay for 4 times its retail price.

I’ll have more to say on the subject of usability soon. For now I want everyone who comes by this blog to consider why they would want to upgrade something like an operating system, when the people who make Vista can’t even come up with a good reason for us to buy it.

I’ll leave you with what has to be some of the most shallow marketing-speak I’ve ever read. I found this on the (local computer seller) London Drugs website today, under the heading “Why Do I Need Vista?”

We live in an age where nearly everything is digital – the documents you create, the photos you take, and the music and videos that you enjoy on your PC. Even your daily correspondence with others through e-mail, faxes, and voice mail is digital. Your life is connected to the digital files stored on your PC.

Windows Vista introduces breakthrough computing experiences that are both visually exciting and intuitively designed, and will positively change the ways in which you use your PC. With the new desktop experience, you can more efficiently organize and find your information. You can “see” your files and applications in a way that makes sense to you so you can confidently focus on what you want to accomplish.

All of the elements of Windows Vista work together to create a new breakthrough computing experience.

If by “positively change the ways in which you use your PC” they mean taking it behind the barn and shooting it, then that might be the real breakthrough.

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