November 26, 2007 1:59 PM PST

Vista makes the list as one of the top-10 worst consumer tech products of all time

by Matt Asay
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I'll admit: I've used Vista once or twice and I didn't think it was all that bad. I didn't run into the horrible nannying that others reported. But CNET's Crave still felt compelled to rank it up (er, down) with products like The Squircle:

Oh, the Squircle. Not only the product with the lowest score on CNET.co.uk, but the one we felt less love for than our televisions editor feels for his PC. This MP3 player, complete with zero megabytes of internal memory and lump-of-dirt design, had the audacity to sit on shelves asking for money.

This MP3 player uses SD cards to store music. Nay-sayers, don't shout just yet. While an MP3 player running on removable media sounds moderately useful, bear in mind it sounds about as pleasant as a baby seal being clubbed to death. Why such a product even exists is utterly beyond our combined comprehension.

So, you can see the kind of company Vista keeps. Crave writes:

Any operating system that provokes a campaign for its predecessor's reintroduction deserves to be classed as terrible technology. Any operating system that quietly has a downgrade-to- previous-edition option introduced for PC makers deserves to be classed as terrible technology. Any operating system that takes six years of development but is instantly hated by hordes of PC professionals and enthusiasts deserves to be classed as terrible technology.

Pretty bad. But top ten of all time? That's mighty impressive. What would you add to Crave's list?

Matt Asay brings a decade of in-the-trenches open-source business and legal experience to The Open Road, with an emphasis on emerging open-source business strategies and opportunities. Matt is vice president of business development at Alfresco, a company that develops open-source software for content management. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. You can follow Matt on Twitter @mjasay.
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10 Worst ?
by fmhv007 November 26, 2007 9:02 AM PST
One of the negative points refered to Vista - you can get back could be also one of the positive points ... A operating system who gives you the choice.
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and other info
by hitsland November 26, 2007 9:23 AM PST
Here?s a lot of talk about the new user account control policy in Vista, and all I can say is: as it is, it annoys the hell out of me and slows down my normal computer usage. Just why, oh why, does it have to flash my video card to a black screen, take 5 seconds and really just make itself a royal pain in the arse?

http://www.pctipsbox.com/speed-vista-turn-off-uac-or-at-least-make-it-less-annoying/
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About The Open Road

Matt Asay brings a decade of in-the-trenches open-source business and legal experience to the Open Road, with an emphasis on emerging open-source business strategies and opportunities. Matt is general manager of the Americas division and vice president of business development at Alfresco, a company that develops open-source software for content management. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.

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