On the graphics part, I disagree. Vista is good looking. Mac OS is gorgeous.
-----Original Message----- From: Michael B. Smith [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, May 10, 2008 8:59 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: Why XP is doomed Hah. I blogged on this just yesterday: http://theessentialexchange.com/blogs/michael/archive/2008/05/09/just-fluff- on-vista.aspx And no, I didn't read Cringely... I think it was something Paul Thurrott wrote that was the "straw/camel's back" for me. I dunno, I read too many things every day. Granted, I'm not the average user. Not even the average power user. I've got physical machines that run XP, that run Vista, that run Server 2008, that run Server 2003 - and believe it or not, one that runs Linux. And probably twice as many virtuals as I've got physicals. The market can't have it every way. Since XP was released, Microsoft has been absolutely PUMMELLED by spam, by viruses, by worms, by lack of hardware capabilities, by lack of software capabilities, etc. etc. etc. Microsoft responded to what the market demanded, and Vista is the answer. Graphically, Vista is gorgeous - if you have the graphics horsepower to make it happen. Vista provides software support for technologies that weren't even conceived of when XP was released. The hardware support that Vista provides makes it MUCH easier for the OS to NOT crash when there are driver bugs. Or bugs in any add-on product. And on and on and on. All of those things come at a cost - in memory and in processor. If you want a minimal version of Vista - go install Server 2008. See how lean and mean it is. And how little it can do in the base configuration. Then, start adding the features and roles you require in order to get to a workable desktop machine, and see how those changes impact performance. In some ways, a desktop machine has to be more powerful than a server. It certainly has to have more "fluff". I'm not a Microsoft "rah rah" man. However, I'm well aware of where I make my money - and that's based on Microsoft products. I criticize the Microsoft machine on a daily basis - and I do it in public forums, such as this one, on my blog; and I do it in private forums, for betas (and even alphas) of certain software that I take a particular interest in. Vista _IS_ sucky in some ways. And I've bugged those that affect me. For example, even after SP1, wireless doesn't "just work" like it did in XP. Many users have to reboot when switching wireless connections. For me, I'm tech savvy enough to open a command prompt and do an "ipconfig /renew". It's irritating. But does that mean that Vista is going away? Don't be silly. Even if you hate Vista, it introduces many technologies that are part of the future of computing. You need to learn it. It's the stepping stone to what comes next. Microsoft isn't abandoning Vista. They've made that clear too. Many people have taken the fact that there is so much talk about Windows 7 already to mean that Microsoft is abandoning Vista. The only reason that they can make THAT claim is because they choose to ignore that Microsoft has also stated that "never again" will there be 5+ years between operating system releases. It was simply too long, and Microsoft heard that message too. You don't have to get with the program. But you should. Time marches on. And so does software - and hardware - and Microsoft. Regards, Michael B. Smith MCSE/Exchange MVP http://TheEssentialExchange.com -----Original Message----- From: Martin Blackstone [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, May 10, 2008 10:44 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: Why XP is doomed MS's earnings were disappointing? Welcome to 2008. They can stand in line with the other 80% of companies with the same problems. As for support, XP has been around since 2001 and mainstream support goes until Apr. 2009. That's a damn long life cycle for any software maker. This is the same whining that went on with Windows 98 and Windows 2000. I don't remember the world ending in either case. Think about what other software was released in 2001 and if it's still support. I wonder if Adobe still supports Photoshop 6.0? I'll bet Apple still supports OSX 10.0.0, but Apple seems to be living the rock star life these days. Now Ill also say I'm still a HUGE XP fan. I use XP at home on all my machines. My work machine is Vista and while I don't really dislike it, it really doesn't do much for me either. But eventually the time will come to upgrade, and I'm sure my world won't end either. The "Vista sucks" thing has certainly taken on a life of its own. I would venture to guess that a very large percentage of the people who say it sucks have never tried it. It doesn't totally suck, it's just....slightly sucky. Frankly if they could just get it to perform better, it would be great. -----Original Message----- From: Angus Scott-Fleming [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, May 10, 2008 7:20 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Why XP is doomed Interesting analysis from Cringely. As always, "follow the money" ... ------- Included Stuff Follows ------- I, Cringely . The Pulpit . Wimpy | PBS ... Several readers are concerned about Microsoft's decision to stop selling Windows XP and -- most importantly -- end security updates for the venerable operating system. This has everything to do with business and nothing at all to do with technology. Wearing my business reporter's fedora, then, I'll point you back a week or so to Microsoft's most recent earnings announcement, which disappointed Wall Street. This is significant because it is hard to find a Wall Street analyst who remembers the last time Microsoft's earnings were disappointing. It simply doesn't happen. That's because Microsoft has a myriad of tools for adjusting the numbers to look just right. Because Microsoft has so many tools for fine-tuning its financials (primarily the management of expenses, by the way -- Microsoft makes so much money that it tunes the numbers by throwing cash away), the fact that this last set of numbers disappointed suggests to me that they, too, could have been avoided. Microsoft probably decided to deliberately take an earnings hit precisely so they could play the "we have to get the earnings up" card to justify the final death of XP. Microsoft has been under huge pressure from its hardware OEMs to dump XP, thus forcing millions of customers who have been avoiding Vista and Vista's inevitable hardware upgrade to finally buy new computers. Dumping XP will help Dell and HP AND Microsoft, big-time. It won't do anything for you or me, though, since Vista still sucks, but we obviously don't matter. Those customers who think they'll keep XP going on their own will probably be out of luck, too. With Microsoft abandoning security upgrades, hackers will eat holes in the old OS practically overnight. And if one or more of the security companies like Symantec or McAfee think they can make a business out of defending XP, I simply doubt that customers will pay. --------- Included Stuff Ends --------- Other topics also discussed in his column here: http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2008/pulpit_20080509_004880.html ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm> ~ ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm> ~ ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm> ~ ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm> ~
