[olug] Vista is AMAZING!!!!

[Sean Kelly]

I'm very confused here. You seem to be blaming all of this on Vista. I
assume this based on the Subject of your message and the conclusion of your
e-mail. However, most of the things you outline are in fact not Vista's
fault, but HP/Compaq's.

See inline for more.

On Thu, Jul 12, 2007 at 09:12:08PM -0700, Aaron Grothe wrote:
...
> Dual Core AMD 3800+ CPU

Not that there is anything wrong with AMD, but why would you go AMD right
now? The Core 2 Duo creams any offering by AMD right now.

> 1 Gigabyte of Ram

Not a lot, especially for Vista. I even recommend 2GB for OS X.

> o - No install discs, not even the classic system image CDs

Not Vista's fault that your OEM didn't provide them.

> o - Pretty straightfoward, except for no parallel printer port or
> serial ports

There is this crazy thing we have now called USB. The Apple world has
embraced it. It is about time for these old x86 interfaces to die off. But
again, not Vista's fault that your specific chunk of hardware doesn't have
a specific interface port type on it. I'm sure Vista supports them.

> o - After cutting my own system image restore discs, which I can only
> do ONCE I let Norton activation and the system updates fight it out
> for a while

Norton activation and system image disks are not Vista. I don't really
recommend Norton products to anyone, except maybe the Corporate/Enterprise
versions of AV. All the home products have so much overhead that it is
insane to run them. Try something like AVG.

> o - With no apps running I'm already up to 780Mb used!!!

You're talking about memory? If so, understand that Vista uses memory
differently than you may be used to in the Windows world. Just like in the
Unix world, Vista now uses all of your memory for caching and optimization.
What you see as used and what are actually active application pages may be
very different.

> o - I fire up Internet explorer to discover that Compaq has sold my
> toolbar space to Yahoo and anybody else who will pay for it

And you seem to acknowledge that it is Compaq at work here, and not Vista.

> o - With the raw amount of adware/spyware/bloatware on this machine. 
> I'm surprised they aren't able to give it away for free

They can't give it away for free, but it is partly how the OEM has lower
costs to the end user.

> o - I decide to uninstall some of the software such as AOL and the
> like.  Guess what they're not in the program listing.  Ha! Ha! Ha!
> You can delete the Icon, but the love is always going to be there. 
> Unless you use msiinv to work get real access to the underlying
> packages if they actually used a package

Not Vista.

> o - If you're like me and I know I am.

I never had any question that you were, indeed, like you. If you weren't
like you, then there would be a serious logic problem on our hands.

> You probably have an html file you have on your desktop with links you
> hit frequently.  Well know you're going to go to allow/deny every time
> you hit one, because they are in different zones

Yes, IE is not my favorite either. Install Firefox.
Also, I use del.icio.us for bookmarks. http://del.icio.us/smkelly

> o - When Vista is the only Microsoft Windows Option for OEMs you will
> begin to see an adoption of Linux that is higher than ever

Maybe, but I have some problem believing that. The world isn't going to
drop Windows over night in favor of Linux. If anything, you'll see
Microsoft extend the availability of XP to OEMs if they saw that as a
threat.

> o - Vista is the single largest step back I've ever seen Microsoft
> take, largely because you have no choice.  ME was a choice, this
> really isn't

I don't follow. All Microsoft operating systems have a end of life. There
was adoption of Windows 98, 2000, XP and now Vista by the OEMs as Microsoft
pushed them. Further, Miccrosoft ends support for operating systems.

> o - If this is Premium I shudder to think what the poor bastards who
> got Vista basic are going through

Well, since a good chunk of your complaints were about the way the OEM
setup the hardware, I'd imagine very similar things.

> o - If you have to dual boot, hang onto Windows XP for as long as you
> can.   

http://apcmag.com/5046/how_to_dual_boot_vista_with_linux_vista_installed_first

-- 
Sean Kelly          | PGP KeyID: D2E5E296
smkelly at smkelly.org | http://www.smkelly.org