IPFS Powell Gammill

Fascist Nation

More About: Technology: Software

Why I won't be upgrading to Vista ... ever

Microsoft. People have a love-hate relationship. I just hate.

Six years after Windows XP ushered into the world, Windows Vista has arrived. Great view, little substance. But its piggish requirement for resources will drive the cost of powerful computers down, because everyone will need them. That is the good news.

Microsoft has only “produced” five good operating system versions (IMHO). The rest were generally so terrible that if they had been cars, the state’s attorney generals would have gone after Mr. Gates & crew for fraud.

MS-DOS3.3 tight and fast, but limited [But DR-DOS5 kicked its butt!]. Windows 98SE, feature rich, relatively stable. Windows 2000 and NT3.51 (expensive, not intended for non-commercial use, so I will have to take the word of ITS guys who should know). And finally XP, the first Microsoft operating system I have used that gets bumped up from good to very good. Almost as good as the excellent OS/2 (2.0 through Warp4) I had used over 14 years before. In other words, XP is a an operating system that should have arrived a long, long time ago.

Now we get Vista ... whose appearance with its “aero” option is really cool looking. But I actually dump all of those performance killers as the first steps in tweaking ... so I don’t care. New features ... I see the same ones available with little updating over the past ten years. The only thing that looks like a Vista maker is the DirectX version 10, that will only run on Vista. Nice. Hopefully some hackers will fix this for XP.

I was pretty happy with XP ... still am. But, a couple of years ago, Mr. Gates finally did the last straw. Microsoft Genuine Advantage validation. I own licenses to two copies of XP Pro, two to XP Home and now a copy of XP Media Center. Yet, every time I want to update I have to go through multiple hoops. I don’t begrudge Microsoft its price. I just begrudge a company so arrogant I have to PROVE I bought every copy before I can add or update. If it was transparent great. But instead one must run a current check validation program to get a key code and feed that key back into whatever request you are making. And that key code is only good for that particular transaction. Multiply that by 5 computers and multiple program additions and updates and I hate you so much Mr. Gates.

After about two months of hearing Microsoft promises of dealing with complaints, I decided XP would be my last Microsoft operating system. I am slowly migrating to Linux. In the end, I will not accommodate friends who cannot open Microsoft Office files because Microsoft has tweaked their format yet again so competitor’s software files or conversion files are incompatible. I would rather change friends. As for Microsoft Genuine Advantage, it is worse than when it first rolled out, and is scheduled to be more paranoid. Me, I will not own software that constantly queries my proof of ownership. That would be like my car demanding to prove I own it. Or my house, before letting me in. Long after I paid for it.

No more of my money Mr. Gates, despite the fact that after many iterations your operating system and software has arrived... but, still as bug laden and hackable as ever.

2 Comments in Response to

Comment by Philly Dave
Entered on:

Alright so I bought new laptop yesterday and Powell might just be on to something here.

Comment by Philly Dave
Entered on:
* I will not accommodate friends who cannot open Microsoft Office files because Microsoft has tweaked their format yet again so competitor's software files or conversion files are incompatible. I would rather change friends. *

I just fell off my chair



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