Mr. Nutts--
Your stereotypes are simplistic and far from the mark--much as terms
like "conservatives" and "liberals" as bandied incessantly by the media.
No one is "lurking." Many of us who have criticisms provide prolific
consistent help when we get time.
Not every helper is confined to the few CPP builds. We have been able
to watch changes in several builds over a period of time longer than one
year--long before any CPP dropped. Many criticisms are systemically
deeper than your sterotype below. If you read more closely, they are
there. Many of us have no agenda whatsoever. We aren't in the software
business, and we aren't resellers, and we don't compete in any way,
shape or form with Microsfot nor do we take any pleasure in failures.
We understand that Windows has reshaped the way people think, work, and
play profoundly, and that people like Jim Allchin and hundreds at MSFT
have had a significant and revolutionary impact on how work gets done,
integrated, collaberated, tracked and how goals are set by MSFT software
at a small business, mid-management, or enterprise level.
"The complaints I see here are the same for every new OS release: No
drivers;
Is slower; My XYZ program won't launch; ect"
There are many of us who have and continue to pariticipate in many Beta
programs. Some of us have gotten Vista teams to make direct changes to
Vista in different areas and have the emails or acknowledgements to
proove that we have.
It is not inconsistent or an attack on MSFT to critique components that
can be fixed or to offer constructive, specific suggestions. By the
way, besides an erratic search much improved in Vista, XP nor Vista did
not live up to one promise made with the launch of Windows 95 on August
25, 1995 and that is that Device Manger for XP specific drivers or for
drivers that work on Vista will not accurately tell you a driver is
corrupt when it is, but rather it will say the driver is working in
Device Manager. I have pointed out that the Device related and driver
related team members told me directly in a chat some months ago they
agree with me it exists and it is not going to be fixed in Vista eleven
years later after Device Manger was introduced.
If you can't recognize this
1) You certainly aren't reading comments from many highly skilled
Windows Vista users in Technet or MSDN blogs--because they have been
highly constructive and highly critical. A number of them are MSFT MVPs
and experienced developers or users or authors in a number of Windows
areas in depth.
2) You are choosing to paint people who offer constructive criticism as
a stereotype with a broad brushstroke approach and you are simply wrong.
3) Many of us who do criticize features that should be fixed have
tirelessly been offering help on the Tech Beta groups and on these
public groups for over a year when we have time and when we can and we
take considerable care in trying to provide the best solution we can
when the OP is often not very forthcoming with adequate detail to
provide solutions.
4) There is no agenda in offering constructive criticism. I doubt you
read these blogs but the author fo Windows Vista Inside Out Ed Bott has
been highly critical and constructive of Vista and MSFT's policies as
recently as this week. Many of us realize the potential at Redmond,
and we know scoresw of individuals who work for MSFT and recognized
their backgrounds, accomplishemnts and wide range of expertise. We also
recognize that those who drive the company often sell out to the demands
of the marketplace and compromise what could have been, and will not be
an excellent high quality operating system.
See for example:
http://www.edbott.com/weblog/
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/
Ed Bott is doing a stellar job of tracking problems, analyzing, and
critiquing them and Ed Bott co-authors one of the most complete and
authoritative Windows references for every operating system including
the one that has pre-sold nearly a million copies, "Windows Vista Inside
Out" by Microsoft
Press.
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/9361.asp
Ed Bott's Bookstore
http://www.edbott.com/weblog/?page_id=993
5) I appreciate the intersting syncophantic reptition that this OS is in
Beta--I also knew it was in Beta back in July 2005 and that it was in
Alpha at PDCs prior to that and have that material sitting on my
shelf--and I have a reasonable understanding of what a Beta is.
I also can tell time and know that in about 10 days Vista is going to be
signed into escrow at Redmond and that by October 25 to possibly an
extension on the first week of November, Vista is going to
RTM--so we're not talking about a wide number of bugs being fixed
between now and then that are significant. Rather we're talking about
what the Vista team calls the process of "fit and finish" with
activities largely conducted by the Vista Shell team who now has a blog:
http://shellrevealed.com/
Here are examples from Nick White [MSFT Vista Launch Team]:
"In Build 5728, we got to see examples of the kind of fit-and-finish the
Windows Shell Team is making to Windows Vista as they progress toward
RTM. I'd like to show you a few that I found. I imagine there is quite a
bit more.
In "Computer", you will notice that the "System Properties" and "Map
Network Drive" icons have been changed from RC1.
The "Folder Options" dialog now has new icons instead of the old icons
seen from Windows XP.
And when you access your user profile ("C:Users\<Your Name>") you will
notice new blue-style icons for the important system directories that
are used to organize your data in your profile.
These are just a few examples and more to come as the Windows Shell Team
is really working hard to make Windows Vista look stunning!"
If you're familiar with cars and trucks, they have fit and finish
items--two of them are the hood ornamants and the grill.
6) Many of us recognize, appreciate, and enjoy the features on the
surface and under the hood in Vista and continue to drill it and
discover them and have in every single interim build that you haven't
seen. We spend earnest time gettting to know them so that we can get
the most from Vista, learn the workarounds necessary to make any Windows
OS work more smoothly, and help others with getting their own
opportunity to use and enjoy Vista.
But it is painful for some of us to see items that MSFT has had bugged
for nearly a year that have been ignored. They will get down to 500 or
so bugs before they go to escrow in a few days, and whatever is on that
list, whether some features are designated any bug context or not, they
will not be fixed and should be.
An example is Vista's strongest opportunity for repairing a no boot
usually accompanied by a blue screen stop error, and that is Win RE's
startup repair. It does not work a signficiant percent of the time when
compared with XP's Repair Install, and it has not gotten significantly
better percentage wise in builds for nearly a year. This becomes
important when you realize that a significant number of people will
refuse to image or backup despite the laudable work done by teams in
Vista backup--or some people will not have an updated backup when
catastrophe strikes for one reason or another.
Additionally, you may not realize it but percentage wise the materials
that 300 OEM named partners ship to customers, the Dells, the Sonys, and
the much in the news HP, recovery discs, or recover partitions simply
will not allow these repairs despite Microsoft's protestations to the
contrary.
I have not found one person on a Vista team or one person I know that
will take a challenge where I compete with them in repairing a broken
Vista XP when I have retail CD or DVD and they have what OEM ships them.
Not one. And I have invited them directly and repeatedly.
You also referenced the slow driver production by many 3rd parties. It
is unaccepatble, not the "way it always is" and while most Vista team
members dance around the fact it is at this point inexcusabble, many of
their Technet presenters who have an excellent perspective and deep
command of Windows, the servers, and most of their other software have
called the driver lagging inexcusable openly on MSFT Live Meetings
lately.
I don't know if it's dawned on you that lack of drivers pre-empts many
devices from being tested on the blends of diffrerent builds that are in
the hands of testers--not every higher number means bugs uniformly
fixed--rather as someone explained on this group-- Beta builds are a bit
like the blends of streams empting into a large river.
Lack of devices before the Beta RTMs which is going to be the case in
2-3 weeks, also prevents MSFT internally from testing these devices on
their multiple daily builds.
CH
There are an amazing number of people participating in the CPP
(Customer
Preview Program) which is nothing more than a free download for you to
try
and provide feedback if you choose. There are no requirements on what
you try
and how to try it.
Lurking in these groups I notice people that come in for help with
specific
scenarios and often receive information that helps them resolve their
issues.
These newsgroups are simply peer to peer support meaning that the
people
trying to help are generally other folks in the CPP (and there are some
really smart cookies in here solving people's problems). To them, a big
THANK
YOU!
I also notice a dozen or so that come in with an agenda and endless
issues
that make me realize the price of admission should be more than
registering
an e-mail address to receive an installation key. Many of these people
are
also smart cookies but seem to have decided to focus their energies
working
against the product. Through ignorance or bias they struggle with a
product
my 75 year old mom uses daily without issues.
RC1 and RC2 have handled everything I've thrown at it so far, but my
expectations may be lower than some. I don't expect programs or
hardware that
doesn't have "Windows Vista" in their system requirements to work
flawlessly.
Everything I have is middle of the road equipment and includes RAID,
WiFi,
and a wireless network printer. I remote to my PC at work and burn DVDs
just
like I always have.
The complaints I see here are the same for every new OS release: No
drivers;
Is slower; My XYZ program won't launch; ect.
A suggestion is to test using some kind of methodology so that your
previous
test doesn't skew the results of your next. If you have tweaked a bunch
of
settings, don't be surprised if you have ongoing issues. Try a fresh
install
before the next test. Also, if you ask for help, give as much
information as
you can. Instead of saying, "FireFox doesn't work", it is helpful to
say, "I
upgraded from <RC1> to <RC2> on my <ECS/Dell system> and after
installing
<pc-cillin version X> I tried to <install FireFox> and now when I
<click
something> I get the error message <blah>." Some kind folks will
actually try
to reproduce your results.
I'll quit now. Sorry for the lecture. I sound as fanatical as some
here!
I've always said that XP finally lived up to the promise that started
with
Windows95. Vista goes far beyond that! For those that can't quite get
the
hang of Vista, try to work with it instead of against it. If that
doesn't
work, there are plenty of other choices out there. (Dapper Drake, I'm
looking
at you.)
</rant>
