Story: Gartner: Ignore Vista until 2008

Posted by: David Wright (Saturday 12 November 2005, 9:31 AM)

The HDMI requirement, AFAIK, is for digital screens/output only and then only for video. It is basically Macrovision for digital monitors...

The problem here is, I have several thousand Euros worth of perfectly acceptable LCD monitors here that are working flawlessly, so why would I upgrade them to HDMI compliant models just to watch video? If Microsoft or the manufacturers will retrofit the monitors with HDMI for free, then I'll think about upgrading, otherwise the upgrades will have to wait until I need new monitors...

That being said, I use SuSE for my main desktop now anyway, it is faster and, for me, easier to use than Windows. Installing was also a dream, insert the DVD and press a couple of buttons and 1.5 hours later it was fully patched and configured, the nVidia drivers were loaded, it recognised my sound card and lan card, set-up network printing to my JetDirect printers in a few seconds and had also included 2 productivity suites, several development IDE's, half a dozen IM clients, 5+ web browsers, and lots more.

What did Windows make of the same hardware? It complained that there was no hard disk (S-ATA), had to go out and buy a floppy drive for my "legacy free" system, download the driver on my Linux system and copy the files to floppy, then it installed Windows, but it didn't recognise my video card (nVidia FX5900XT, so not something esoteric), it also didn't recognise my network adapter (Marvell Gigabit), so I couldn't even download the drivers, no sound either, evidently Creative Labs sound cards aren't supported by Windows either. So, back to Linux and download and burn a CD with nvidia, Marvell (and for good luck all the Asus drivers for the motherboard), creative labs drivers, HP drivers for the network printer etc. back to Windows and install, then I can start the patching process.

The difference between SuSE install and Windows? SuSE 1.5 hours and 1 reboot, Windows 6 hours+ and over a dozen reboots, and that excludes any software other than Anti-virus and firewall...

What really bugs me with Windows is the updating process, it downloads a library change, I need to reboot, the AV software updates itself, I need to reboot, a service is patched, I need to reboot. Under Linux, the library updates and is re-loaded, the AV service stops itself and restarts, the other services as well, might need to reboot if I update the kernel...

Microsoft have a lot of catching up to do in terms of user friendliness and ease of use compared to most other operating systems on the market at the moment. Let's hope they have had an eye on the competition and can get their act together.

Nothing I've seen in Vista previews so far has grabbaed me as a "must have" feature that will make me go out and upgrade. The spanky 3D desktop features look nice, but the desktop is slow enough at the moment without adding 3D to it, and, sorry, but isn't the OS and desktop supposed to be there hidden in the background to make it easier for me to use the applications that I need to do my job?

If the desktop is so intrusive that I can marvell at its appearance and workings, then it is doing something seriously wrong! If it is just sitting passively in the background, passing me the information I need and allowing me to do my job quickly and easily, then it succeeded.

If I switch instantly from app to app, that is good design, if the desktop goes through animations and rotating 3D interpretations of windows, then that is bad, might look pretty, but it is slow and reduces my productivity...