Chris Pirillo just broke up with Windows Vista, saying, “The shipping version of this OS is late beta, at best.”
Jason Busch did the same: “It’s an absolute travesty that Microsoft would have released such a half-baked product.”
Regarding Pirillo in particular, because I read his feed: There have been lots of lukewarm-to-poor reviews of Vista, and the buzz just isn’t there. In casual conversations with people who know technology the overwhelming sentiment is, “I’m not moving to Vista until I absolutely can’t avoid it.”
All that is bad enough, but when Chris Pirillo denounces MS’ flagship OS and actually rolls back to XP for his production machine, there’s a problem. A big problem. Pirillo is a guy who wants to support Vista and he simply cannot. For MS to have a guy like this fall off the Vista train in such a public way just isn’t good. But it’s not like Pirillo didn’t try to shape Vista in a positive direction a long time ago. At some point along the line, MS has to take all the blame: bad testing, rushed timing, haywire corporate politics — something. Something led Vista to where it is now.
Here’s the hard truth: Vista’s buzz borders on nonexistent. Its launch has not lived up to expectations by any reasonable measure. Sure, you have some cheerleaders out there, but if you look closely enough, you’ll find they make a living supporting and advocating Microsoft’s technologies first and foremost. Vista is not setting the world on fire, and people are actively trying to avoid upgrading. There were no lines out any door at midnight anywhere for Vista.
The “wow” has not started now, even with most people (including me) loving the new Vista TV commercials. They’re good. But that’s where the “wow” for Vista begins and ends for me.
Unfortunately, a high-dollar and well-executed ad campaign do not a good OS launch make.
But let’s fast-forward: Vista will penetrate and come to certain domination through upgrade attrition. Users will upgrade or buy new machines outright, and Vista will come preinstalled. From there, people will be thrust forth — some unwillingly, but too bad — into Vista-land. This process is an absolute certainty and will absolutely lead to market ownership. This isn’t news though: I’ve said it all before.
Regardless, I promise you this — when Apple releases OSX 10.5 Leopard, watch how the community and market receives it. Barring some galactic blunder, it will have tons of positive buzz, users will be excited, lines will be out doors, and first-day sales will be incredible. New Macs will be sold because of it. Leopard will be all over tech headlines from every imaginable source.
Simply put, Leopard’s launch will be exactly what Microsoft wishes Vista’s was. Just like Google is what MS wishes its search and online apps were. And the iPod its music player. And iTunes/ITMS its jukebox and music store.
MS is doing a lot of wishing these days. In the past, it was MS’ competitors wishing they were doing what MS was doing.
The other shoe always drops…eventually.
41 responses so far ↓
TDS // March 6, 2007 at 4:08 pm
I agree with everything you said, except the review of the Vista commercials.
They are identical to the OS/2 Warp commercials from 1994. People standing around saying “Wow”.
They were dumb then, and they are dumb now.
Jeff Ventura // March 6, 2007 at 4:10 pm
TDS: I didn’t see those commercials. I like the Vista campaign — it keeps your attention and has good production value.
Friendly Stranger // March 6, 2007 at 10:10 pm
So like, you’re saying that MS is like….
er… how do you say?…. oh yeah!
BELEAGERED!!
BloggyBoy // March 6, 2007 at 10:16 pm
Life is good for the Mac user these days.
Life is REALLY GOOD!
Vista commercials - I’ve only seen one and it tried to pretend Microsoft Vista was a wow experience. I thought they’re right like wow how did they get that chrome plate and neon to stick to that steaming stinking turd they now call Vista. As you may recall it was previously a vapourware cow pie named Longhorn but when there were no features left to remove from their promises it needed a new name to confuse the people stupid enough to actually use it.
harryitguy // March 6, 2007 at 11:18 pm
I wouldn’t say that the other shoe has dropped. What I would says is that there is no compelling reason to replace XP with Vista and it shows. Vista is XP with an incredibly bloated interface and some rearranged functionality.
Some stranger // March 6, 2007 at 11:48 pm
The link “didn’t try to shape Vista…” is all jacked up.
Otherwise, great post — I kinda feel the same.
Maddan // March 7, 2007 at 1:15 am
What if Microsoft launched a new Windows and everyone was underwhelmed. The Wow starts now!
Anita // March 7, 2007 at 2:29 am
>>They are identical to the OS/2 Warp commercials from 1994. People standing around saying “Wow”.
Anita // March 7, 2007 at 2:31 am
Oh sorry I messed that comment up. What I was trying to say was I can’t tell you how many of those old OS/2 Warp commercials I have on my old Mystery Science Theater 3000 tapes.
Muratsky // March 7, 2007 at 5:44 am
I agree with your analysis and I also do not see any reason to upgrade to Vista. If I have to stay out of the Apple world, I will at least switch to Linux rather than going on with Vista.
Iain MacKinnon // March 7, 2007 at 6:02 am
Seems like it’s a good thing for MS that it has total market dominance at the moment, because any other company could not afford to make such an incredible string of screw-ups without apparently learning any lessons whatsoever. Did they not at least learn something from the launch of the Zune?
Stand back, boys. Levee’s gonna break…
sirpenguin // March 7, 2007 at 6:33 am
Too many people are talking about how people will make the switch to Apple and seem to be forgetting Linux. If people eventually get to the point where they decide that they want to upgrade why would they buy a new computer when they could upgrade their existing one and make it run well again (Linux obviously being much faster than Windows).
My opinion is probably very biast but please note, until about half way through last year I was almost a total mac fanboy, I then got Windows to run my games and other programs and I have now converted to Linux for everything except Counter-Strike :p
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nikster // March 7, 2007 at 10:11 am
I tested Vista Ultimate on my high end laptop - all the features worked flawlessly. All the annoyances, also.
I then proceeded to download Ubuntu, and various other Linux flavors in order to find something to tide me over until I get a new Mac with Leopard.
Sadly, the various Linux flavor didn’t fulfill basic OS criteria I have set - recognizes all hardware without kernel re-compiles, generally works - so I am sticking with XP until then.
I wouldn’t mind if Vista was just a glorified XP with a prettier interface, but its not just that, it’s in many ways a step backwards.
David // March 7, 2007 at 12:01 pm
Not really sure how one can get psyched up over an OS anyway.
Tone // March 7, 2007 at 1:19 pm
All those people who think that Linux will become a mainstream OS in the near future (say next 10 years??) are living in a dreamworld. I could never imagine my parents using Linux as it stands, with it’s lack of support from major companies and lack of recognisable software. Imagining them opening a CLI and changing ownership to root to sort something out. hahaha
I have tried Ubuntu a few times over the past few years in the hope of a revelation, but time and time again I feel forced back to Windows. I have also tried OSX several times and in the end decided on sticking with Windows because of more software choice for Windows, and there are UI quirks with OSX that I just cannot live with I’m afraid. Just personal preference.
OSX is the only real competitior to Vista, and while it is tied to Apple hardware, I can’t see it gaining too much ground just yet.
newyorkmyway // March 7, 2007 at 1:34 pm
If Mac would distribute its OS X to other hardware manufacturers and not only stick with the apple computer, then they would have a chance in beating Microsoft. But, come on… is the apple computer going to beat sales of dell, IBM, Lenovo, Acer, Toshiba, HP etc combined? Never! Vista has the rule all thanks to this one point!
duncannichols // March 7, 2007 at 2:13 pm
Get over it.
vkilla // March 7, 2007 at 3:45 pm
I think these are the top guys in their field. Of course they will nit pick and bitch about everything. It’s here to stay so just deal with it and wait for service packs.
Dave // March 7, 2007 at 4:27 pm
Count me in as one who will be switching back to XP. My wife installed Vista–it was a free upgrade with purchse–on her notebook. It deleted the sound drivers and has been a pain to get them back.
And being that the only way to remove Vista is by doing a clean install of XP, Vista is utterly pointless. Total waste of everything.
Jeff Ventura // March 7, 2007 at 4:46 pm
vkilla: because they’re the top guys in their field, they understand the nuances of technology. They’re more forgiving than the average user and they don’t expect perfection. To have two high-end guys denounce Vista like that isn’t good at all for MS. No, it will not stop Vista’s crawl to domination, but at the same time, it’s not helping Vista get the buzz it so desperately needs.
antifolkhero // March 7, 2007 at 6:17 pm
Save me from Microsoft. Can’t MAC make a PC OS?
Brian Purkiss // March 7, 2007 at 6:20 pm
That doesn’t suprise me about Vista.
But what does suprise me is ‘big’ windows advocates are denouncing Vista. That’s suprising. I didn’t realize it’d be such that MS OS users would switch back to XP…
Simply, Mac is the way to go.
Techweenie // March 7, 2007 at 6:35 pm
[TDS: I didn’t see those commercials. I like the Vista campaign — it keeps your attention and has good production value.]
If you want you can check out OS/2 commercials in YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkfkVme0k8Q
Top Posts « WordPress.com // March 7, 2007 at 6:58 pm
[...] Vista backlash grows; key advocate moves back to XP Chris Pirillo just broke up with Windows Vista, saying, “The shipping version of this OS is late beta, at […] [...]
lyndajoy57 // March 7, 2007 at 9:05 pm
I switched to Mac OS X 100% and love it - no Parallels for me. I went through 2 Vista computers in the transition first, both had major problems that no one knew how to fix - luckily I was within the return period for the computers. I love what Vista should be able to do, but it is half-baked. I hated that half the hardware like printers, cameras, etc. wouldn’t work with it. Gates needs to build a US steel mill.
Island in the Net // March 7, 2007 at 9:52 pm
Wait until some of those XP users head over to Best Buy to get Vista Ultimate and go “Wow!” when they find out how much it costs. Then take it home and install it and go “Wow!” when they realise their hardware can’t do what they saw in the ads. Then head back to Best Buy for system upgrades and go “Wow!” when they find out how much that will cost.
abu ameerah // March 7, 2007 at 11:40 pm
i can kinda see why people are irritated by VISTA. Each day that I come across posts like this…I feel better about sticking with XP.
Damn you Vista! Daaaaaaaaamn Yooouuuuu!
geekrawk // March 7, 2007 at 11:43 pm
your “train in such a public way just isn’t good. But it’s not like Pirillo didn’t try to shape Vista in a positive direction a long time ago” link has an error.
Jeff Ventura // March 8, 2007 at 7:05 am
All: I unborked that link. Thanks for the heads-up.
Dmitri // March 8, 2007 at 8:14 am
I installed Office 2007 on an XP machine recently. It’s pretty bad! The only benefit I noticed is RSS feeds (which free programs such as Thunderbird actually do better, by letting you combine several feeds), but the price I paid is extreme slowness.
I suppose comparing Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007 is a bit like comparing Hotmail and Google Mail in terms of productivity. Can’t imagine why anyone would use Hotmail nowadays…
Jeff Ventura // March 8, 2007 at 10:05 am
Dmitri: I actually like Office 2007 (I run it at work where I’m forced to use Windows XP at gunpoint), but I agree that it’s slow and needs performance/footprint enhancements. I use a Dell Core 2 Duo w/2 GB RAM at the office, and even on that hardware it can bog down.
From what I understand, it’s even slower on Vista. Odd.
James Fryer // March 8, 2007 at 1:35 pm
Vista is just an elaborate marketing ploy by Microsoft to sell XP. I mean really, when was the last time XP got so much good press?
Bill // March 8, 2007 at 4:54 pm
Did you read the anti-Paul T article? It hits the right points.
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/RDM.Tech.Q1.07/592E3270-32C8-4852-975C-162E788749CA.html
Jeff Ventura // March 8, 2007 at 10:04 pm
Bill — Yeah, I read that. I agree with a good portion of it, but not all of it. Overall, I find myself liking Thurrott less and less: he’s a smart guy, and he’s a true tech enthusiast, but he’s too disingenuous when it comes to a great deal of his material. He’s all too transparent when it comes to evangelizing the hand that feeds him.
Brian barbagallo // March 31, 2007 at 5:33 pm
I just got a new Dell with Vista installed. Reading up on things, looke like it’s not a good idea to go from XP pro to Vista Home Premium. I want to use my programs without having to do 24 hours of installs. So I’m contemplating going through the motions of ghosting back to my old XP. Vista really does just look nicer, all the rest you’ve been able to do with plugins that i actually never used anyways. Is there any reason to keep it on my machine? Can XP be upgraded? I’m about to find out.
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