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Yawn

Entry 466, on 2007-01-31 at 13:34:57 (Rating 2, Computers)

Recently I've been reading multiple reports concerning the launch of Microsoft Vista. The big message seems to be that no one is really very interested. A local report mentioned 16 (I think that was the number) pre-orders for Vista. Wow! I bet Microsoft are planning a party!

The fact is that Vista is nothing. It has very little of any value to most users. It has numerous compatibility issues, and plenty of important software which simply doesn't work at all. The hardware requirements for some components are too great. Security might (or might not) be better, but its still a significant problem (Vista exploits already exist). And there are too many versions which are too expensive.

I've noticed that some pro-Microsoft commentators (there's some really bad ones on CNet and ZDNet) are trying to make a big fuss and point out all the cool stuff Vista has. But their enthusiasm just falls flat. There's just nothing there to get excited about. After all, this is a Microsoft product!

Of course, Vista will "take over the world" anyway, because Microsoft will insist on it being bundled with new PCs, and most people still haven't caught on to the fact that they shouldn't be buying these horrible things. But when was the last time Microsoft created something that was successful in its own right? Well, apart from the Xbox 360, and that was only because of Sony's gross incompetence (what's happened to Sony anyway?) and even then the Wii seems to have created more excitement.

While I'm on the subject of dissing Microsoft, I would also like to mention the new user interface for Office 2007. Apparently its supposed to be much better, tidier, and easier to use than older versions. Based on the screen shots I've seen its actually cluttered, badly designed, and the colour scheme I saw is hideously insipid.

What is the problem with these people? Either they don't want to employ decent designers, or they ignore any design advice they do get, or they deliberately create ugly, hard to use programs. So which is it?

I'm occasionally forced into running Windows on my Intel MacBook Pro, and Windows XP works OK most of the time. When people ask me about upgrading to Vista I usually respond with something like: "Windows Vista? (yawn)."

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