First, let me make it clear that I make it a rule only to upgrade to a newer major version of Windows (95, 98, 2000, XP, etc.) when absolutely forced. That should put things in the right perspective from the outset.
There are a number of reasons for that rule, including the fact that the first release of a new version of the Windows operating system always seems to be buggy, and it takes at least the x.1 release to make it really usable. As an aside, I’ll remark that this is proof of my contention that Microsoft is a marketing-driven rather than a technology-driven company: fixing the existing bugs never seems to have the same priority as coming out with something new that we have to buy. Hence, the company’s success.
But it’s more than that. Especially now.
Vista, I think, is the full-blown expression of Microsoft’s (read, Bill Gates’s) desire to rule the world. In the name of security and a few other sacred cows, Vista basically won’t let you do anything. The Apple commercial where the actor representing the PC has a security person standing behind him with the “Accept, Confirm, Reject” interruptions was mildly amusing before I’d had my first experience with Vista. Now it’s either totally hilarious or not so funny, depending on whether my current mood is to laugh or to cry.
For surely there is plenty of motivation for both. I really want to love Vista—it has so much to offer in some ways. Yet I must admit I was surprised and mystified when, standing by the Best Buy service counter the other day (the Geek Squad, I’m talking about) a man actually came up and wanted to know how soon they could install Vista on his (apparently older) computer.
“What! Are you crazy?” I wanted to ask, since at that point my experience with Vista was either nonexistent or consisted of one highly frustrated evening trying to install the drivers for a printer I purchased only about six months ago (okay, maybe nine) and which installed totally without incident on my XP laptop. I honestly don’t recall just how far along I was in my Vista journey—whether it was zero days or two—but either way I was horrified at the notion that someone would volunteer to go through the OS upgrade process unbidden, much less demand to know how soon they could be subjected to that process.
“Install Vista? Are you kidding?” I nearly shouted, and had I not maintained my polite silence, I might have saved another soul from unwarranted purgatory. But alas, I didn’t know what I know now…
Seriously, this post has been sitting around unfinished for perhaps a couple of weeks now while I compiled notes intending to compose a thorough report. Since I’m not ready to do that yet, let me just say that you’ve been warned—upgrade to Vista only because you simply have no choice. (We all—as I did—have to buy a new machine now and then.)
But while you’re in the store, check out the older models that might still come with XP. There’s a chance they’ll even be cheaper just because they don’t have Vista installed. You might even pass it by the salesperson: “Say, this doesn’t even have Vista—guess it must be an older machine—how ’bout I take it off your hands for a discount?”
You never know. It might work.
In any case, you’ve been warned.