Microsoft admits Vista is a failure


Recommended Posts

I don't think Vista is like Windows ME. Windows ME was a 4.x version of windows released after Windows NT 5 which was clearly superior. Vista isn't that much different from XP like XP was to the previous version of NT, for example. So with some efforts, the least you can expect is vista to work like XP, and it clearly does.

Vista, if anything, has got an amount of bad press that no other mainstream product has got before. Plus, times are changing. In 2007 you can't expect people to spend between 150 and 400 bucks for an operative system when the previous one still kicks ass.

Personally i would never go near comparing Vista to ME. ME was the ultimate OS disaster. Vista is not even half as bad. For starters it works!

I think Microsoft have the ability and resources to create a decent Operating System and IF they truly feel the way they say they do, then Vista Service Pack 1 will come early, it will offer a lot of improvements in plenty of different parts of the Operating System - Vista doesnt have big flaws, it has little or nothing to offer to the first-time or inexperienced user and although its by no means a requirement the average n00b isn't going to feel compelled to waste their time experimenting.

Microsoft need to seriously take a step back and address what people are saying and identify where they went wrong (again...if they did, i quite like Vista, runs alright on a decent machine) in the process from making Longhorn become Vista. I can identify with the people i speak to who could easily mistake them as completely different projects and Operating Systems because the promised features never came.

A mix of issues not entirely Microsoft's fault make Vista not the first solution.

Slow PC's - Lack of features and too much like XP to bother switching for the money

Inexperienced Users - WHOA? WTF was that...

Price Tag - I just coughed up (insert money) for Windows XP, whats the point in BUYING?

What's all this talk about Win Me? For me Me was as stable as 98 was. Until I see Me in operation and do what lots of you claim it does (constant crashing) then I could see but until then I trust ME to be a very stable home OS. Yes, I understand Me wasn't needed as it was replaced by XP a year later.

Okay, many people are not switching to vista, whether vista is said to be superier or fancy, or easier to use because:

- Cost (too expensive) Most people will have bought a computer with Vista Home Premium or demand XP (for reasons below):

- Driver support is very limited at the moment.

- Software and game compatability is limited.

- Requires hardware upgrade in most computers. Most people have only 1GB ram and < P4 cpus

- Again Cost.

So XP is still alive and well. I have informed to my father about Vista on my computer and he says "Don't need it". He is absolutely right. Vista is just XP with Service Pack 3, no much difference. Does the excat same jobs as each other.

The article has raised some valid and some blatantly poor points.

The author refers to Vista as ME ll which in some respects could be seen as that. Vista hasn't lived up to it's 'WOW' image and I can't see how it can apart from Microsoft delivering further features in a SP. Yes Vista looks good and Yes it has some features that make it stand out from XP but the fact that a major manufacturer has decided to continue offering XP pre-installed is a sign that the customer isn't happy with an OS that still has many driver and peripheral issues.

But then the author throws his argument down the drain by linking his ME ll point to a CNet news story that isn't about Vista but XP.

The software maker will offer the $3 Student Innovation Suite to governments that agree to directly purchase PCs for students to use in their schoolwork and at home.
The suite includes XP and Office not Vista.

But then that gets me thinking why offer the XP Starter edition when they can just as easily put in the Vista Starter instead?

The author then goes on to make the following sweeping statements,

What we are seeing is an unprecedented shift of power. It is also an unprecedented admission of failure. And the funniest part about the moves made? They are the wrong things to do. Microsoft is in deep trouble

If he were to leave out 'unprecendented' and 'deep' then he would get my thumbs up for this last part.

Im still thinking when XP has come out in 2001 and it almost the same thing with vista.

Vista have more improvement than xp had so i think we have to let M$ and drivers builder make their job....

The article looks even more stupid after he has edited out Vista being bundled for $3 with the true product of XP for $3, at least before it showed a blatent error and made the author obviously clueless.

We should save articles like this so we can come back in 5 years and poke fun at him.

for all those people screaming look they are selling XP for $3... think about the economics behind this......

You now have a vista starter edition at $25

You want to make more money where people cant afford $25 so you sell an outdated version at a cheaper price, $3

You make them want the most recent version, so they now want the $25 version...

someday they decide to upgrade, spend $25

now you spent $28

XP is an older version, they can sell it for less, because they assume that they eventually will want bigger and better and the $25 vista starter is the next logical move... doesnt mean they will go there, but that is how MS is tempting them... selling XP for $3 doesnt mean vista flopped, that means they dont want to lower the price on the new version when they can throw an older one at them for cheaper

By the way, where does anyone show proof that microsoft said this? I see no citation or reference from anything tracable back to MS

just because you are launching a lower cost version of starter based on older OS's doesn't say "vista was a failure"

you have to remember that this is is the same stupid website that claimed microsoft's SQL Server developer edition mysteriously started with SQL Server 2005 and was made to axe out MySQL... last time I checked there was a developer edition for years and it was always $50... and a developer edition that isnt event set up to be used in production and isnt even licensed for use outside of a single developer isnt going to harm MySQL... and there has always been a free public version also of SQL Server... even before MySQL ever existed... remember the MS SQL desktop edition? MSDE? its now called Express and this stupid site is trying to claim that it just mysteriously poped up after MySQL to ruin MySQL... they need to pull their heads out of the sand

Edited by neufuse
The Inquirer is a fake news site... And ActiveWin has listed them as the news source.. :blink:

The Inq is an edutainment news news. It combines half-truths with rumour and humour.

I personally like them although I realize that many Neowinnians take their tech news deathly serious.

I suppose if you are trying to get information ahead of your buddies so you can appear as the expert that they are not the best source as some of their claims could come back to embarrass you.

man the more I read this the worse the article sounds... I thought it was always bad to start a sentance with "and", what happened to "In addition"

It is also an unprecedented admission of failure. And the funniest part about the moves made? They are the wrong things to do. Microsoft is in deep trouble.

And where does MS officially and literally "admit that Vista is a failure"? Because the impression I got from reading this article is oversensationalization of biased interpretation. Oh right, it's The Inquirer. Nevermind.

This "my Vista user experience sucks so Vista is a failure for everyone" game is getting really boring.

That means no Me II DRM infection lock in...

At that point, it became clear as day that this was nothing more than any poorly constructed rant from an anti-MS zealot. I'd be embarrassed if an article like that was ever posted on the front page of Neowin.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • Qmmp 2.3.3 by Razvan Serea Qmmp (Qt-based MultiMedia Player) is a free, open-source audio player that delivers a classic music listening experience with a modern foundation. Inspired by the legendary Winamp, Qmmp features a familiar, customizable interface that supports both Winamp and XMMS skins, making it instantly recognizable to long-time users. It handles a wide variety of audio formats including MP3, OGG Vorbis, FLAC, WAV, AAC, and many others, ensuring smooth playback across diverse music libraries. In addition to basic playback, Qmmp offers advanced features such as a 10-band equalizer, crossfading, gapless playback, and audio visualization plugins. Users can manage playlists efficiently, create and save multiple lists, and even enable streaming from online sources. Plugin support extends the player’s capabilities, allowing integration of features like lyrics display, ReplayGain, and more. Built with the Qt framework, Qmmp runs smoothly and efficiently, making it ideal even for older systems. 10 great QMMP features you might not know: Global Hotkeys Support – Control playback using customizable system-wide keyboard shortcuts. CUE Sheet Support – Automatically detects and plays tracks from CUE files for full album playback. Last.fm Scrobbling – Integrated support for sending playback data to Last.fm. Audio CD Playback – Play music directly from audio CDs. Command Line Interface – Control Qmmp via command-line options for scripting or automation. System Tray Integration – Minimize to and control playback from the system tray. MPRIS Support – Integration with desktop media player controls via the MPRIS (Media Player Remote Interfacing Specification) interface. Spectrum Analyzer and Oscilloscope – Built-in visualizations for real-time audio feedback. Configurable Notifications – Custom pop-ups for track changes and playback status. Multiple Output Backends – Support for ALSA, PulseAudio, JACK, and more, offering flexible audio routing. Qmmp 2.3.3 changelog: fixed build with PipeWire versions less than 0.3.50; fixed settings dialog layout; fixed default CUE encoding; fixed possible null pointer dereference; fixed tracks order when added using drag and drop (2.3.3 only); fixed uninitialized structure usage; improved sid plugin: added libsidplayfp 3.0 support; added feature to build without residfp engine; fixed memory leak; fixed displaying audio information; updated Japanese translation (2.3.3 only). Download: Qmmp 64-bit | 24.0 MB (Open Source) Download: Qmmp 32-bit | 24.1 MB View: Qmmp Homepage | Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • BATorrent 3.0.3 is out.
    • The current Statcoungter desktop numbers has Google Chrome increasing it's market share this past year and currently commanding 75% share. Everybody else is just making up the numbers with even MS Edge losing 3% this past year and has dipped just below 10% share which is staggering considering it's default on every Windows deviced purchased. If these numbers are correct that terrible Edge number is both devastating and embarrassing for MS especially when you add in the terribly low Bing market share. This leads me to ask a couple of questions as the default browser holding just less than 10% market share seems really weird. It used to be that all Chromium browsers were being counted as Google Chrome in some cases.  Is this still happening? Do these high Google Chrome numbers contains some Edge user numbers?
    • Yeah, all web browsers seem to have some junk in them these days. The regular Brave browser has a lot of unnecessary stuff in it, similar to Microsoft Edge, so I don't see any benefits of using Brave over Microsoft Edge if you already have Microsoft Edge fully set up with ad blockers and that. The cleanest or best free browser outside of 'Microsoft Edge' I’ve tried so far is 'Samsung Browser'. It has very little bloat and is a nice-looking web browser with an inbuilt 'Ad blocker'. I also really like the web browser called 'Floorp' that is based on Firefox. This browser can also install Chrome extensions. I have a system wide Ad blocking program for Windows 11 that doesn't just blocks ads in the web browser, but over the whole system. I don't really need a web browser with an inbuilt ad blocker because of that.
  • Recent Achievements

    • Rookie
      moog19 went up a rank
      Rookie
    • Mentor
      grik went up a rank
      Mentor
    • Dedicated
      JKR earned a badge
      Dedicated
    • One Year In
      CHUNWEI earned a badge
      One Year In
    • Conversation Starter
      FBSPL earned a badge
      Conversation Starter
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      491
    2. 2
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      270
    3. 3
      Skyfrog
      75
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      68
    5. 5
      FloatingFatMan
      63
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!