What do disgruntled Vista users have in common? The majority of them heard the negative stuff from someone else – from their friends, business associates and the media, before they even used Vista for themselves. How bad is Vista really? With Vista SP1 installed and SP2 on the way, probably not too bad (which is good because Windows 7 is effectively Vista SP3). In fact, I know many Vista users that are happy using that operating system (myself included).
Last night I couldn’t sleep, so I spent a ridiculous amount of time surfing the 'Net. After logging onto Linkedin.com (a professional networking site), an odd question popped in my head. How many degrees from Kevin Bacon, or any famous person for that matter, am I? Well, it turned out 3: I know people, who know people that know Kevin Bacon. Likewise, I am 3 degrees from Barak Obama, Sarah Palin and many other people that will probably never personally do me any good. However, I was close to no one I am really interested in knowing like Clint Eastwood, Warren Buffet or even Jimmy Buffet for that matter. And I have nothing in common with Kevin Bacon: I have none of his money, none of his fame and no where near as slim a waistline.
What’s my point? Simply, that we’re all connected in who we know, what we do, what we talk about and that cascades, better or worse, throughout our society. Vista could solve pestilence, world hunger and global warming, but it still wouldn’t matter as far as consumer perception. Good news travels slowly; bad news arrives before the end of a sentence leaves a person’s mouth.
In the weeks ahead I will be writing more about Vista: What's good about it, what you can do with it and how to get the most out of it - also, what I have done to use it, enjoy it and write about it. Hopefully, any disgruntled Vista users will keep quiet or at least be nice. Remember, I am only the messenger.
I have been using Windows Vista for over a year as well as Windows Live One Care and have had no problems whatsoever with either of the Microsoft products. I really wonder what all the Hoopla about how bad Windows Vista is about. Either people are trying to make it do things it was not designed to do or they need to upgrade their computer to be compatible with Windows Vista.
I too have used Vista for way over a year now, I LOVE IT! and agree as to what all these people’s issues are? Its fast, easy to use, and not buggy at all. Sorry
XP users!
Vista came on my new machine last year and I have been pleasantly surprised at how useful and stable it is. I disabled some of the less useful bells and whistles but the core program is bulletproof and quite utilitarian. I would HATE to know I had to retrograde to that obsolete XP. Yuk.
I quite like my Vista now. Once I added the max amount of memory to my Dell Vostro 200 it performs just fine (a little pokey at times) so I am satisfied.
I don’t like the mindless grumbling either and I had no reason to complain until I purchased Vista. Aside from the noticeable differences in UI between Vista and XP, which were bothersome at first because the experts hadn’t yet published their tips and I’m only a novice at hacking the registry, there are some things that don’t work well, such as search and scheduled tasks. At least on my system. But tweaking the other features presents a welcome challenge, when I’m up for it. I suppose not everyone has the time or inclination to learn how to master it. I don’t miss XP at all now but one thing that is persistent, support and resources targeted to people at my level (nascent power user) for more complicated issues is still buried and requires endless hours of research. This type of support is necessary for people who don’t want to compute mindlessly and rises out of all the dissatisfaction, so I’m thankful for it.
I have used Vista for 1 1/2 years now, switching from Windows 98SE, which I loved. I have gotten used to Vista. How Microsoft RAVED about how wonderful Vista was! Now they will push Windows 7 and tell us how awful Vista is!