I should mention that if anyone wants some tips on how to score free software upgrades (legally), you can e-mail me. I’m not going to post them on my blog.

I’ll certainly agree that Vista isn’t perfect, and the author raises a couple valid points, but most of the article is just the same old exaggerated or false info that every other blog out there by a Mac or Linux zealot is spewing. How can someone in one sentence say that Vista’s driver situation sucks, only to then say Linux is better? If you want to watch content that is protected with DRM, you can’t with a Mac or Linux, at least Vista offers the OPTION. Don’t like UAC prompts, turn them off. Vista’s deployment is low, of course, large companies are still planning their deployments and waiting for SP1 (a standard practice), check back next summer it will be a different story. For many people XP is fine, and I’d only recommend Vista for a new machine, but that doesn’t mean Vista’s no good. It adds up to a bunch of ‘the world is falling’ FUD, which is getting really old.

BTW, on a completely different topic, I noticed you’re using my JPF Quotes plugin. Very cool!

My work laptop came pre-installed with Vista. It’s a total pig, taking minutes to boot, minutes to login and minutes to shut down. While there are some interesting features in Vista, I rarely use it. I’m a Linux aficionado myself, so I mostly run the thing in Linux, which works well except that there’s no wireless driver for the latest kernels.
When IBM opened up the PC architecture, it shot itself in the foot, but look at the benefits to the world. Where would we be today if the PC were still a wholly proprietary system? (This is my biggest beef with Apple, BTW.)
Someday, Microsoft will unclench and begin honestly releasing software in a competitive manner. At that point, maybe Windows can die and we’ll all be better off. I’m encouraged by recent legal developments in Europe.

I’m a design guy, so I naturally lean toward Mac and I don’t have any PC with Vista. With that disclaimer, all of the people that I know that are currently running Vista and not bothered by it are all PC gurus — none are common, everyday users. What was supposed to be everyone’s new OS has become a niche product. And with PC’s and laptops still being allowed to ship with XP through the upcoming holiday shopping season, it’ll be another year before Microsoft has an opportunity to try to pull out of their Vista nosedive. And by then it may be too late.

I’d rather just spend an extra $1000 on a Mac and have a computer that actually works. I’m funny that way. (Our iBook — a first-gen white — 6 years old and still going strong. Our iMac DV — older even than the iBook — also still going. My 2-year-old G4 Powerbook continues to run like a dream.)

The newer of my two laptops runs on Vista HP Edition (I’ve had it since June ‘07) - it has been trouble almost from day one and so far I’ve had to two complete re-installs. There are still issues with it - even some software that is said to be Vista copmpliant (for example the ‘Word’ part of MS’s own Office suite, the suite that I bought with the machine) does seem to cause unpredictable conflicts from time to time. The other laptop (which I got in Feb ‘06) and a desktop both use XP - it was stable enough before Service Pack 2 came out, and has if anything got better with SP2. XP has the advantage of allowing me to continue using software that worked with ‘98, which of course was a ‘flaky’ system too, just like Vista is proving to be. None of my older software works with Vista and accessing the data (databases and documents, spreadsheets, etc) is pretty uncertain also, even when created by older versions of MS products. Backward-compatibility is important - and Microsoft has failed to consider this adequately, despite its promises.

I really would like to either retrograde by newer laptop to XP SP2, or even buy another new one with XP (if I could find it - but they don’t seem to sell them any more) and dump my Vista machine and write it off as a foul experience. An alternative I must admit I’m seriously thinking about for my next machine is to go with Apple - I’ve never owned one before, but from all I’ve ever heard they seem to be much more stable and less prone to attack by viruses.

Microsoft do seem to have scored an own-goal with Vista.