Linked by David Adams on Wed 23rd Apr 2008 16:31 UTC, submitted by CIozzio
Everyone's been talking for what feels like an eternity about Vista being a major blunder, and everyone has their theories as to why it happened. So why would John C. Dvorak be any different? He's got 11 reasons why the OS was destined to flop.
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Member since:2008-04-23
I use GUI's in Linux, but I also terminal into my boxes. It's nice to be missing nothing of the power of the OS when I access it that way. Modularity, baby! Maybe Windows 7 will rediscover this principle.
I believe MS have already discovered this. I had the pleasure of installing windows 2008 the other day. There you can actually select not to install a GUI at all. Combine this with PowerShell, and you're suddenly well on your way to having a real operating system.
I'm a linux guy, and the "pleasure of installing" part was ironic, but still I think MS is moving in the right direction wit this.
Member since:
2005-07-06
I have a dual-boot machine setup with Vista Business and Ubuntu Hardy Heron. My main issues with Vista:
1. The horrible file copy/unzipping bug. Like many, I was bit with this bug. It took 15 minutes to unzip a 2MB zip file. Say what?? Same with copying a file - EVEN ON THE SAME PARTITION! I thought this was a very strange bug in a released OS.
2. IP6 - also like many, I had the IP6 bug. Basically, if IP6 is enabled on the network interface (which it was by default), then networking would eventually die. Even rebooting did not help. Fortunately, I knew what to do and disabled IP6.
3. The sidebar is pretty, but it tends to crash frequently.
4. Many applications would no longer run. An important one for me was PHP. I use the Komodo IDE for PHP development. Every few seconds a dialog would popup telling me PHP had died. I never solved this one. Fortunately, I just do PHP development with Komodo under Ubuntu.
5. Many of my programs warned me about installing them in "c:\Program Files\". I guess Vista "protects" this directory more than others. Therefore, I have many programs installed in "c:\MyProgramName" instead. It reminds me of the old Dos/Win3.1 days.
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Well, the good news is mostly I was booting into Vista just to play games. All of my development could either be done natively with PHP or Java under Linux. For my .NET development, I just use Parallels with an XP image. Finally, I have Steam working (sound, 3D, and microphone) under Crossover Games. I haven't booted into Vista for over a month. If I can go a few more months without booting into Vista, I'll give it the boot and reclaim the space.
For me, the biggest mistake Microsoft ever made was combining Dos and Windows in Win95. When Windows was just a shell, but the "real" work could be done from Dos, things were better for me. It was more like a real operating system. Think of all the servers over all the years that have been running a desktop. What a waste! I like the UNIX model of the core of the OS being display neutral. I use GUI's in Linux, but I also terminal into my boxes. It's nice to be missing nothing of the power of the OS when I access it that way. Modularity, baby! Maybe Windows 7 will rediscover this principle.
[edit] - spelling
Edited 2008-04-23 18:19 UTC