I frequent this so-called social news sites (Digg, Reddit, Slashdot, etc), and the amount of FUD and outright lies posted about Microsoft’s Windows Vista is amazing. These posts seem to clog up the decent and informative Tech articles and it is really starting to annoy me. I would like to take this time to respond to some of the complaints about Vista.
- “Vista is a resource hog!“ — This is true when people compare it to Windows XP, but I was taught that an OS should use all available resources. Why have 2 to 3 gigs of RAM in a machine if the OS is only using a quarter of it. My desktop has 4 GB of RAM, at idle it uses around 1.5 GB if not more. This is because of the new technology Microsoft implemented called SuperFetch. Superfetch actually learns what programs are being run and when, this helps Vista run faster. It also uses RAM, but when you launch a memory intensive program, this fetched content is released.
- “I have to buy new a new computer or upgrade my hardware to run Vista.“ — This is only the case if you are running a computer that is 3 or more years old. My father has a computer that is using 2 to 3 year old hardware and runs Vista with Aero turned on flawlessly. It has a 3.X Ghz Intel P4 (I don’t remember the exact number), 2 GB of DDR RAM (Not DDR2), and an nVidia Geforce 6600 GT. If you computer can’t run Vista, then stick with XP or buy a new one. You won’t be able to run the next version of windows (currently called Windows 7) on that machine either.
- “Vista is Slow!“ — This relates to the above comment. Running Vista, or any OS for that matter, on sub-par hardware will cause it to run slow. Vista will run good with 1 GB of RAM, but 2+ are much better. If you have sub-par hardware run XP or Linux. Included in this are those complaining after running it for a day. It takes a little a few days of use for Superfetch to learn your computer use habits.
- “Vista won’t support my XXXX (some type of out dated peripheral)“ — This is not a fault of Vista or Microsoft. Microsoft has included a large driver base for support of older hardware, but not for everything. Manufacturers had access to Vista almost a year prior to its release to the general public, it is their fault for not releasing drivers in a timely manner. I tend to believe that many of them refuse to support older hardware to force customers into purchasing new hardware.
- “UAC is annoying and intrusive” – Fair enough, it does get in the way. I actually have it turned off on my main system. I used to use the computer with it on, but some stuff is just too frustrating to do with it on. I am a power user, I need to edit certain files which are protected, UAC stops me from doing this easily. For the average user, it can be a good tool. It does not pop up all that often, despite what people try to say (*cough* Apple *cough*). People used to complain that Windows didn’t have any security, so Microsoft implements it and now they complain that it is too annoying with it. A lot of it boils down to idiot programmers having applications access the wrong parts of the system. A word of advice to programmers: Use the users folders and registry keys to write to. I have written an application on Vista that writes to both the registry and the hard drive and not once does UAC pop up. I do like Ubuntu’s security model with having to enter in a password though.
- “Vista Doesn’t run XXXX (Insert Program Here)“ — It had to happen sooner or later. Microsoft had to drop support for legacy applications at some point. Apple did the same thing a while ago and there was a big uproar about that too. Update your software or get an emulator to run you old software.
- “I am not upgrading to Vista until there is an absolute reason to.“ — This other part of this justification is because the person who said this has older hardware and sees no benefit in Vista. He has a fair and just reasoning for not upgrading. There is no appeal to him. He doesn’t have a DirectX 10 card and no games that need or require DX10. Unlike many of the people who have spit out numbers 1 through 6 who have probably never even used Vista.
There are many more reasons people give to claim that Vista is a horrible piece of software. This rabid Apple fan-boys are the main culprits, but they are a whole other post altogether. I will admit I have had 2 issues with Vista. The first is that sometimes after updates it gets stuck in a configuring updates loop that I mentioned in a previous post. This had been remedied in SP1. The second was actually my fault. I blue screened Vista when I unplugged the blue tooth dongle while trying to sync the keyboard to it. That one was more related to a driver issue.
I am not just a Microsoft user though. I have server that runs Ubuntu and it is extremely stable. My main PC runs Vista Home Premium as does Katie’s Desktop, our Laptop and the Media Center PC. I also use Linux, XP, and OSX at work. I have come to one single conclusion, each OS has it’s strengths and weaknesses, but boy am I sick of this stupid OSX vs. Linux vs. Windows war. Unfortunetly most of the FUD about Vista is spread by those who warship Apple or Linux. Me? I use whatever OS fits my needs.
