I think that only good way to compare them would be compare Vista now to XP in the beginning of 2003, and then adjust result for number of the copies of either. More popular systems with longer history tend to have more viruses and spyware designed to work on them.
This IS a serious issue, And It’s all about greed. Isn’t someone involved in a lawsuit about this?
Sure, because no matter how much security we build into software and hardware, the weak link is in the wetware.
That seems to be a perennial problem. For as long as I can remember, I have advised casual (i.e., non-power) computer users when buying a new computer to get the absolute minimum system configuration available, EXCEPT increase the RAM to as much as you can afford.
Ummm… every single digital camera made in 2008 works just fine with Vista and anyone who claims otherwise is a deliberate liar? That’s a pretty big statement to make.
It might be reaching, yes. But let’s put it to a test.
Name one camera made in the past 5 years or so that won’t work with vista BUT that will work with XP.
This is correct. Our decision-making executives want the upgrade because they want the shiny-blinky-flashy. They don’t know anything about the technology, they just like the fancy interface. Our adoption review committee is made up of hardcore technologists. They establish an evaluation environment in a segregated lab and do top-to-bottom regression testing whenever a major change is contemplated. They came out of this review with a bottom-line statement: Installing Vista will break X, Y, and Z, which will cost $N to replace, and A, B, and C, which cannot be replaced. Conclusion, deployment was rejected by disappointed suits.
Sigma SD-10, launched late 2003 I think. Only just squeezes under the 5-year limit, but that’s a pretty high-end camera from good manufacturer, listed explicitly as being incompatible.
Man, can I borrow that report (I’ll change the names, obviously)? I can feel the non-tech suits here getting more and more restless about us still using XP, because they’ve seen Vista on other suits’ PCs and, ooh, shiny…
I always hear this and I don’t believe it. Part of the job of an OS is to provide the interface between applications and hardware, not just the CPU. Every other OS out there writes their own drivers for just about every piece of hardware expected to be used with their machines.
Microsoft has been the beneficiary of 25 years worth of hardware vendors doing part of their work for them. Microsoft hasn’t needed to write drivers for decades. If now the hardware manufacturers aren’t writing the necessary drivers for Vista, it is perfectly reasonable to blame Microsoft for not picking up the slack and making sure their OS will actually work on their customer’s machines. They just aren’t used to doing it is all; they would rather point the finger.
That sucks, and they not only say they won’t release a firmware update, but then pimp out the latest version.
OK, you’ve proved me wrong, Some moderately recent, high end cameras might indeed not be compatible.
Are you serious? You expect Microsoft to write drivers for every piece of hardware that has come out for windows since when, 5 years, 10 years ago? Do you really think this is an even remotely reasonable expectation?
Base drivers for standardized buses/networks, yes, and Vista does this beautifully. But every piece of hardware since time memoriable? Are you nuts?
No, this is definitely up to hardware vendors. They need to have an update for compatibility. It’s not Like Vista came out of the blue. They knew it was coming, and it’s been 2 years now since it went retail. If they don’t want to make their hardware compatible is because they want to pimp out the newer models and make more money or because the hardware itself is the limitation.
Expecting Microsoft to fix all of this would basically mean no New OS’s would be possible.
Also, what are you talking about with “Every other OS out there does this”? Have you tried installing hardware on a linux machine? And Mac, has a lot of control over the type of hardware that can eb used with It’s systems, coupled with 5% market share, and I’m sure that job is a heck of a lot more manageable.
What will you do when you can’t buy XP anymore? I’m going to have to bite the bullet and start using it this Summer.
They do it for Linux, and they do it for free. It can’t be as hard as you make it out to be. I’ll admit, though, I have no experience writing drivers. I’m under the impression that it takes a good understanding of the hardware and the OS and how they are supposed to interact, but is basically just a few lines of simple code once you know what you’re doing.
Yes. For the most part, Linux recognizes the hardware for you and installs the drivers automatically. Occasionally there are proprietary drivers that need special attention, and out of date stuff (like dial-up modems) is kind of a pain, but it almost always works eventually.
Mac is basically a hardware company. Easy or not, of course they write drivers for everything their software is supposed to run on.
Is Microsoft supposed to be the exception just because they have a huge market share? That’s the way it has always been, and it has worked fine so far. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t blame Microsoft at all when hardware vendors don’t write drivers for Vista.
Use the downgrade rights conferred by Vista Business or Ultimate or whatever they’re called. Unusually, even the OEM versions confer downgrade rights, I understand, unlike other OEM software.
Mind you, it can be tricky getting an activation code if you don’t want to cheat. You call Microsoft and they say “speak to the OEM”. The OEM says “sorry, can’t give out codes, ask Microsoft”. Grrr.
Our standard configuration specifies no operating system. After the hardware arrives it’s loaded with a custom image of XP.
(And my experience was much the same as Cervaise’s, though on a smaller [business unit] scale. With one exception, none of our web-based applications would run properly on a Vista workstation, and the cost of making them compatible was prohibitive. This was the experience of other business units as well. So there’s more than one large organization that has a strict “no-Vista” policy.)
Can you buy downgrade licenses?
Vista Business and Vista Ultimate come with a ‘use XP Professional instead’ option. It’s how e.g. Dell are continuing to offer preinstalled XP.
For me Vista sucks balls because it’s not compatible with my wife’s fairly new HP printer/scanner/fax. I’m sick of always having to tell it it’s OK to run programs. IE sucks ass, and is part of the OS (wasn’t there a lawsuit saying MS couldn’t do that?).
It’s slower than XP was. It’s more difficult, in my opinion, to configure network stuff. Plus the learning curve of figuring out how everything is different is a HUGE pain in the ass.