F
Former captain of the Enterprise
http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=378
My comment: Dah.. of course Vista is windows Me II twice as horrid as
windows Me!!!! lol
Is Windows Vista going to be a repeat of the Windows Me marketing and sales
disaster that Microsoft experienced back in 2000?
Over the past few weeks I've come across a number of articles on tech sites
that are putting Windows Vista and Windows Me in the same sentence. Not
good. Others are more blatant and are directly comparing Vista to Me.
That's really bad and not the kind of comparison that is going to fuel
sales.
When Windows Me was released by Microsoft back in 2000 it was a total
debacle. The operating system offered the consumer very little in the way of
new technology (a new interface that looked like Windows 2000 and features
such as System Restore, UPnP and automatic Windows Updates). It was tricky
to install, trickier still to get running, buggy, tough to get hardware
working, even tougher to get legacy hardware running because Microsoft
decided to remove non-PnP drivers from the installation CD, had
compatibility issues with software, and quite often it just didn't want to
shut down properly. It truly deserved its #4 spot in "The 25 Worst Tech
Products of All Time" list. On the plus side . it didn't have any form of
Product Activation.
I was lucky and I managed to avoid spending too much time with Windows Me (I
went from Windows NT 4 to Windows 2000 - both solid operating systems,
although NT 4 was limited by hardware and software support) but I know
people whose lives were plagued by Windows Me problems. It was ugly.
Is Vista another Me? I have to say that I think it's a case of yes and no.
True, Vista is nowhere near as buggy as Windows Me was and it does offer
broad support for hardware. It's also fast, very reliable (certainly in my
experience) and actually quite nice to use (we'll come to whether it's worth
the money in a minute). However, Vista does have trouble with quite a lot of
legacy hardware and software, something which is quite rightly making people
nervous of making the leap. But the area where Windows Vista and Windows Me
are too similar is in what they offer in terms of benefits to the end user.
If I think back to the marketing material for Windows Me and I remember
being told about the new TCP/IP stack, UPnP, System Restore, Image Preview,
a whole lot of new games and so on. Now we have Windows Vista and this OS
has Aero, Windows Sidebar, Instant Search, improved security, Windows Mail,
Media Center support, shadow copy, parental controls and so on. What was the
new killer Me feature? I couldn't see one at the time and if there was one,
it still eludes me. Where's the new killer Vista feature? Hmmm. Again, one
just doesn't stand out.
Microsoft makes a big deal of the new security features present in Vista,
but let's face it, while security is an important aspect of an OS, it's not
very compelling. Security is hardly a "Wow" feature, instead it's just
something we expect from our software nowadays. Pointing out that you've
fixed the flaws in the previous version does nothing to inspire customers to
hand over their money a second time around.
To be fair, Windows Vista does contain improvements that are geared towards
the volume and type of files that users have nowadays. Back when Windows XP
was being developed digital cameras and portable media players weren't as
widespread as they are now and as such the average PC user today has far
more digital photos, music and videos than they did back in 2000. Windows
Vista does make it much easier to navigate through large media collections,
but again, this isn't very "Wow!" is it?
I think there are three issues that are negatively affecting the reception
that Vista is getting.
First, it's been 7 years in the making. After that amount of work people
expect something special and no matter how pleased you are with Vista (and,
overall, I'm pretty pleased with it), it just doesn't blow you away (the
problem here is that Microsoft spent a lot of time working on security, and
while this is a good thing in the long run, it just doesn't blow your hair
back).
Secondly, Vista has an identity crisis. There are too many versions and too
many choices - Home Basic, Home Premium, Ultimate, with Aero, without Aero.
I think that consumers would have been happier if Home Basic had been binned
and there were only two choices (but then again, OEMs wanted a way to sell
low-spec Vista PCs).
Finally, price. I just can't shake the feeling that Vista is too expensive,
especially when it comes to Vista Ultimate.
If Vista is perceived by consumers as "Me II" or just another upgrade that
they can pass up on, then this will certainly have an adverse effect on PC
sales over the next couple of years. If this happens, the upside will be
that we're going to see the PC market become even more cut-throat and
competitive. The downsides will be that there could be OEM casualties.
Thoughts?
My comment: Dont count on people who use vista and actually like the
mostrosity to THINK very much....
My comment: Dah.. of course Vista is windows Me II twice as horrid as
windows Me!!!! lol
Is Windows Vista going to be a repeat of the Windows Me marketing and sales
disaster that Microsoft experienced back in 2000?
Over the past few weeks I've come across a number of articles on tech sites
that are putting Windows Vista and Windows Me in the same sentence. Not
good. Others are more blatant and are directly comparing Vista to Me.
That's really bad and not the kind of comparison that is going to fuel
sales.
When Windows Me was released by Microsoft back in 2000 it was a total
debacle. The operating system offered the consumer very little in the way of
new technology (a new interface that looked like Windows 2000 and features
such as System Restore, UPnP and automatic Windows Updates). It was tricky
to install, trickier still to get running, buggy, tough to get hardware
working, even tougher to get legacy hardware running because Microsoft
decided to remove non-PnP drivers from the installation CD, had
compatibility issues with software, and quite often it just didn't want to
shut down properly. It truly deserved its #4 spot in "The 25 Worst Tech
Products of All Time" list. On the plus side . it didn't have any form of
Product Activation.
I was lucky and I managed to avoid spending too much time with Windows Me (I
went from Windows NT 4 to Windows 2000 - both solid operating systems,
although NT 4 was limited by hardware and software support) but I know
people whose lives were plagued by Windows Me problems. It was ugly.
Is Vista another Me? I have to say that I think it's a case of yes and no.
True, Vista is nowhere near as buggy as Windows Me was and it does offer
broad support for hardware. It's also fast, very reliable (certainly in my
experience) and actually quite nice to use (we'll come to whether it's worth
the money in a minute). However, Vista does have trouble with quite a lot of
legacy hardware and software, something which is quite rightly making people
nervous of making the leap. But the area where Windows Vista and Windows Me
are too similar is in what they offer in terms of benefits to the end user.
If I think back to the marketing material for Windows Me and I remember
being told about the new TCP/IP stack, UPnP, System Restore, Image Preview,
a whole lot of new games and so on. Now we have Windows Vista and this OS
has Aero, Windows Sidebar, Instant Search, improved security, Windows Mail,
Media Center support, shadow copy, parental controls and so on. What was the
new killer Me feature? I couldn't see one at the time and if there was one,
it still eludes me. Where's the new killer Vista feature? Hmmm. Again, one
just doesn't stand out.
Microsoft makes a big deal of the new security features present in Vista,
but let's face it, while security is an important aspect of an OS, it's not
very compelling. Security is hardly a "Wow" feature, instead it's just
something we expect from our software nowadays. Pointing out that you've
fixed the flaws in the previous version does nothing to inspire customers to
hand over their money a second time around.
To be fair, Windows Vista does contain improvements that are geared towards
the volume and type of files that users have nowadays. Back when Windows XP
was being developed digital cameras and portable media players weren't as
widespread as they are now and as such the average PC user today has far
more digital photos, music and videos than they did back in 2000. Windows
Vista does make it much easier to navigate through large media collections,
but again, this isn't very "Wow!" is it?
I think there are three issues that are negatively affecting the reception
that Vista is getting.
First, it's been 7 years in the making. After that amount of work people
expect something special and no matter how pleased you are with Vista (and,
overall, I'm pretty pleased with it), it just doesn't blow you away (the
problem here is that Microsoft spent a lot of time working on security, and
while this is a good thing in the long run, it just doesn't blow your hair
back).
Secondly, Vista has an identity crisis. There are too many versions and too
many choices - Home Basic, Home Premium, Ultimate, with Aero, without Aero.
I think that consumers would have been happier if Home Basic had been binned
and there were only two choices (but then again, OEMs wanted a way to sell
low-spec Vista PCs).
Finally, price. I just can't shake the feeling that Vista is too expensive,
especially when it comes to Vista Ultimate.
If Vista is perceived by consumers as "Me II" or just another upgrade that
they can pass up on, then this will certainly have an adverse effect on PC
sales over the next couple of years. If this happens, the upside will be
that we're going to see the PC market become even more cut-throat and
competitive. The downsides will be that there could be OEM casualties.
Thoughts?
My comment: Dont count on people who use vista and actually like the
mostrosity to THINK very much....
