Microsoft aims to quell Vista grumbles
Microsoft plans to release a trio of updates for Windows Vista this week, a move the company said should help ease some of the top complaints leveled against the operating system.
The patches, expected to be issued Tuesday, address core issues like performance, reliability, and stability of the nearly year-old operating system.
One update aims to improve battery life on mobile devices, boost stability of wireless connections, and improve the operating system's response time following a period of inactivity.
A second patch deals with the operating system's interactions with USB ports, in particular when systems wake from sleep or hibernation, issues that cause 1 percent to 2 percent of all reported crashes, Microsoft said.
The final software update deals with the Windows Media Center component of Vista Home Premium and Vista Ultimate, offering fixes for the way the software interacts with an Xbox 360 that is acting as a Media Center extender.
The updates will also be included in the first service pack for Vista, due next year.
During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried has changed beats several times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley. These days, most of her attention is focused on Microsoft. E-mail Ina. 
Or just build on a stable, secure platform like Apple did with OSX.
What MS is doing is like putting a bandaid over a deep jugular cut.
"Vista. Not as bad as you thought."
I've had a Vista powered HP laptop since August and it's been a dream. Vista is just fine!
IBM ported all of their OS/2 software to Linux, take that Commander Spock!
I have computers running *nix, Mac, and Windows. They all have their upside and downside. There is no one OS that is so much better than the other.
Get off your high horse, and stop be CRAZY!!!!
needed because it would either pop up intrusive alerts or just
didn't have the drivers.
And it was slooooooow. Jumped back to XP so I could actually
do something.
As to sales numbers, please. What's the old line about 2 million
flies on a manure truck can't be wrong?
Vista is the joke of the IT industry and the only reason it still
survives is due to the MS monopoly. And don't even try to argue
that it doesn't exist in the face or rising Apple sales, Google,
and Linux. Just ask IT people as to the arm twisting from
Redmond.
The last time I spent money on any OS that was made by Microsoft was when XP came out, that was the last OS.
In Windows Servers, you can't do anything without thinking about licenses, how many, this and that. When I attempted to install MS Server 2003, I just said, to hell with this, and I pressed Cancel and never finished installing the OS. I downloaded Ubuntu and my entire company now runs on that.
I would never allow any MS Jill to come and inspect my companies computers, considering that we do not purchase any MS licenses, don't use any MS OSes, all of our workstations use Linux and OS X (which I am more than happy to pay for the license, since it works very well and all the employees like it).
I wonder how many of the "reported" crashes are really crashes at all or rather people not knowing what they are doing. I have found that the:
ID
10
T
error accounts for a large percentage of issues.
Sour grapes is the main motive for most Microsoft bashers.
For me Vista dosn't work. I'm not alone, but I am in a group that outnumbers the "hey, it just works" crowd. I'd rather be in that just works crowd. My life woult be simpler and I'd be happier.
I'm hoping the Media Center update fixed my problem. But it looks like the update focused on using my Xbox as a media center extender better. Nice, but my media center doesn't work to begin with...For me that would be the wrong problem to fix.
their line of Ubuntu Linux PC's:
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/allReviews.do?
product_id=7754614
Also, check out the reviews - aside from one guy who installed
Windows on his, the rest of the buyers rate it very highly w/
Ubuntu on it.
Meanwhile, at Apple, Macs are selling like hotcakes.
So how's Vista doing again? ;)
/P
By the numbers, vista has outsold all other operating systems combined since the date of release until now. Of course, that's not unusual since the almost all new PC's now are being sold with vista instead of XP. I find it about as interesting as your blurb... not much.
If you want to put things in perspective, why don't you give the big picture. Lets face it. I can trumpet about with "big news" that widget sales have trippled in the last month. But if widget sales went from one to three while acme sales went from 10,000 to 12,000... Does it mean much?
Penguinisto, you're not objective, you only blurt the news that suits you, you lie or exagerate beyond belief and you try to change the subject when caught... I'm not the only one that notices this.
In any event, Walmart only agrees to sell things if there's a clear demand and the items turn around immediately. They don't make money pushing new technology or storing inventory in warehouses.
Also, why would a computer product ever "sell out?" By definition, a PC uses commodity components that can be bought anywhere and everywhere. I think "sold out" means soon to be discontinued in this case. This has a chance if it's widely available around BF, but not if it's all sold out by then. I expect decent $400 Vista Basic laptops to be widely available by then.
It's reply - "What are you, stupid it's Penguinisto"
Poor guy has no life and sits here waiting for someone to say something slightly negative about Apple or his Lord and Savior, Steve Jobs.
Penguinisto owns 1 outfit, and sits in his bedroom giving keynote presentations to his teddy bears wearing a black turtleneck and worn out pair of jeans... get a life Penguinisto...
People and businesses complain about Vista's problems so MSFT releases an update to fix them. I guess MSFT should feel bad that some people don't like MSFT, but then again every success has its naysayers.
Regarding all the bad responses about Vista, I for one, I've been using it since Jan./Feb. without any problems. For example, it didn't freeze during the install due to some hackneyed third party software, that's for sure. I run CAD/CAM software on it and all my devices work great, including tablets from the late 1990's. It's no revolution, but it's a nice update.
Nobody really forced me to use it, too, I saw it demo'ed and liked it. I even upgraded my P4 2 Ghz at the office, but I did upgrade the video card to a GeForce FX make use of the full Aero interface (cost < $40). Later I upgraded my parents' P3 1Ghz when I picked up a copy of Vista Basic for $38.
This morning my work PC had been rebooted after the upgrades overnight and everything works fine. I'm not likely to see any difference since I wasn't having problems to begin with.
I'm nonetheless happy that MSFT continues to refine the OS and trying to get it to work with old and new hardware.
I have onboard sound and I also have a USB headset... a Plantronics GameCom Pro 1. For some reason in Vista, the mic constantly and randomly mutes itself. Never had this problem with XP... it's just when I upgraded to Vista 64 so I could go beyond 4gb of ram did this problem pop up.
It's a problem I can live with because all I have to do is push a button on the cable. It's only a problem when I am gaming and in TeamSpeak and spend 10 mins talking to people with no one responding and I look down to see my mute indicator light is red and I am like DOH! :)
http://www.itworld.com/Comp/2296/071114leopardmauls/index.html
By contrast, only two variants of Vista made it to the top 10: Those two variants of Vista Home were in 5th and 10th place, respectively.
/P
Not to mention total sales of OS's by Linux distributors. Also 0% MSFT. Wow it's all coming into place!
"Apple's new Leopard operating system took a sizable bite of the Japanese retail operating system market during October and accounted for over half of all sales of packaged operating system software despite being on sale for only the last six days of the month."
Catch those key words- "retail operating system market". I can totally believe that. When comparing sales of stand alone retail OS boxes for a period of time that includes the launch of an update that's been delayed and waited for by fans for years, then that's quite understandable.
Before you can really make any claims about it though, look at the same numbers for when Vista was released. If you can find those figures, then I would be impressed and you can fairly compare the two.
Since the article doesn't cover that and is only covering sales during a launch event, then the figures are going to be slanted.
Try this example:
Ford keeps producing the same car for decades and people just get used to buying it. Now Chevrolet releases a new Camero. If you only look at sales figurs during which the Camero was sold, then it will look indeed like it has a huge increase in market share. What does that say? It says there was a marketing blitz, it's the new shiny toy and there is a sales blip. It happens in any industry.
It happened with Vista, it happened with OS X, it happens with new car sales. Is this news? No, not really. Is it spin worthy? It's a good set of numbers to quote that don't have any real substance behind them when looked at realistically.
It's also a good example of only reading what you want in an article instead of the whole thing.
- I love Vista.
- by rmissourimule November 15, 2007 8:46 AM PST
- Frankly, I think all this bellyaching about Vista is nonsense. I have had excellent results but one should get a new machine to run it. Otherwise I have no complaints at all.
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