Comments on: Windows Vista SP1 beta lacks 'wow'

Microsoft downplays the importance of first Windows Vista service pack, urging users to adopt the new operating system now, not later.

[aredo]

Another FAT hack by Microsoft?!

FAT12,FAT16,FAT32,FAT32x ... and now Microsoft is claiming that "exFAT" will be better than NTFS ?!
What happened to "WinFS", which was supposed to be part of Vista and based on SQL then ?!

Not only Microsoft killed DSP audio hardware support with Vista DirectX 10, making DSP equipped sound cards pretty worthless because everything audio related is now done in software, which is pretty insane...DirectX is supposed to be a direct-access API layer to hardware and not a software emulator,which is what Microsoft seems to turn DirectX into now.
Like if all this wasn't enough, after billions US$ spent on R&D they ended up not including WinFS filesystem in Vista. And now they are promoting this new FAT hack called "exFAT" as an Holy Grail... If they had such a superior no-defragmentation needed filesystem in development, why didn't they include it in Vista already? Why wasting money,time and resources on WinFS at all?
I bet it will be such a flawed filesystem compared to NTFS that no one will use it.

[pmfjoe]

exFAT is meant for Mobile devices & Flash cards!!

exFAT is meant only for use on mobile devices and flash memory cards, it is not meant for use on hard drives or as a replacement to NTFS.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExFAT

[frankwick]

MS has said this for weeks

Why is this news? MS has been stating for weeks that SP1 will not include much new functionality. MS reps have said that service packs are no longer what they used to be because of the monthly update cycle. Improvements to the OS are now delivered more granularly than they were before and thus the SP won't be as impactful.

The most interesting part to SP1 is the ability to use any desktop search as the integrated engine. Although I doubt I will switch since the one built in works great.

[RicRoe]

Don't wait for SP1

Microsoft's statement to consumers that they should not wait for SP1 to make their purchase of Vista coupled with their extension of the XP lifecycle says only one thing: Why buy Vista at all?

Microsoft continues to boast that 60 million licenses have been sold, but to date, they have failed to give an accurate figure of how many computers are actually running Vista.

Why not release the number of systems that are actually up and running. Given that Vista is so dependant on calling home, its not like they can't tell consumers how many systems are really up and running.

Those upgrade coupons that consumers have sitting around unused are part of the inflated 60 million figure that Microsoft keeps throwing around. Those licenses sitting in boxes of OEM packages that have not been sold are part of that 60 million figure too.

Microsoft continues to believe that if they keep putting the biggest number out there instead of admitting the real numbers, that businesses and consumers will have confidence and buy into Vista. Horsehockey.

The fact remains that business and home users find Vista to not be worth the price when it comes to upgrading their OS, and business especially does not see the value of being compelled to buy new machines that have more hardware than they will ever use.

Microsoft has released a dog of an operating system in Vista, and that dog just does not hunt.

[theroguex]

ha.

How about you shed some more bias all over the place?

Vista does everything I ask it to do and does it without question. Perhaps the problems are coming not from a bad product, but from a user base that is becoming more and more computer illiterate as more and more people are using computers?

The utter lack of knowledge most people have when it comes to computers is disgusting. For crying out loud... if you're going to drive a car, you have to have a license.. I think you should have to have one to use a computer, too.

[intrepi]

MS really has no way of knowing

MS has no way of knowing from one minute to the next as to how many copies of Vista have been sold. The reason is simple as licenses are sold to HP, Compaq and countless others with the various distros or OEM versions of Vista from basic to everything this side of Ultimate. They can really only approximate to within the limitations they have. I do agree with you on why bother buying Vista at all as MS has already stated they would not wait longer than 5 years to bring out a new version of Windows. With that being said, hang on to XP and wait for the next new version as Xp will be supported for a while yet. I also agree with you on Vista having issues as it isn't worth the price they are asking and the way they market it is nothing more than a scheme to get into your pocket deeper. It's basically another OS which like ME, has little reason to upgrade to and less reason to reach into your pocket for. Simply said it just doesn't have enough WOW to make my short arms reach the cash in my deep pockets.

[evilpaulie]

How can it..

Did Vista have any WOW to start with??

[theroguex]

First time I used Aero..

..I was pretty wow'd. So yes.

[vvvlad81]

YAY! Let's all be Guinea Pigs for MSFT

I love this line:
"That appears to be Microsoft's message with this release: The more you use Windows Vista, the better it gets. So why not get started today?"

So I should shell out the money for an less than perfect (read: inferior) product so that THEY can make it better with time? If they give it to me for free, maybe I'll consider acting like a guinea pig.

Didn't I get it right? Well, let's see: there's two ways you can interpret the statement. Either the version you would be running on your comp would get better with time. Which is plain wrong, because registry bloat, data stored on disk bloat, temp files, caches and user error only drive performance and reliability down. Using cleanup tools and optimizers, help you restore your original performance in the best case scenario, not really go beyond that.

Or, using their op sys you help them fix bugs, improve performance and so on so they can sell many, many more copies and better versions, i.e. make profit. I've been in the industry long enough to know that it's impossible to release a perfect product, at least in a timeline that doesn't make it obsolete by the time it's ready. MSFT and all the others go a bit too far with it and use the less than perfect excuse way too much to release half-backed products relying on their clients to do the testing. I just don't see the advantage to the customers in this anymore. They're the ones paying full price and they're the ones having to deal with inferior products. Seems like they're grabbing to an ever shorter end of the stick. Now if they would pay less in exchange for being guinea pigs and products get more expensive the more thy mature, that would spread some fairness, but that's against economic principles...

[theroguex]

So..

How do you suggest Microsoft go about testing their OS for all these bugs before a release? Giving the Beta out to a billion people?

Of course the software gets better as it gets older. Windows XP is a perfect example of that. It absolutely rocks now, people like it, people want to use it. But when it first came out, wow, it was hated.

If you don't like Vista, don't use it. No one is forcing you to.

[djohnson66434-2082550093674339]

Time to upgrade?

My notebook pc has WinXP Media Center. It came with a free upgrade to Vista Home Premium, but that disc has just been sitting on my desk since February. I'm on the fence about upgrading...not sure what to do.

[Datcyde]

RE: Time to upgrade

I did the upgrade and I really love vista. MCE is great but vista is something new, as I was getting bored of the XP interface after almost 9 years of use. If you connect your notebook at work I say leave it as it is but for personal use, go to vista.

[siiix]

no to vista

i wouldn't, vista is lame, slower and has zip nothing more to offer then xp, in fact i installed it 2x since it came out, and not even after 2 weeks both times i decided to go back to xp, so far DX10 is the only advantage but there might be a "fix" for that later in 2008

[bobmalooga]

I would

As I said in a previous thread, I've been using Vista for about 6 months. It works very well. I don't know why there are so many here who say it doesn't. Yeah, the interface is a little different from XP, but so what? It's basically got a lot of the same stuff. Some things are in different places and have different names, but it doesn't take long to adjust. I think there are a lot of professional Microsoft haters around here.

[intrepi]

If it ain't broke, don't fix it

I've seen a lot of legal Vista copies for sale for the same reason you stated, they have it, don't want it or don't want to use it. Why not hang it on a fence and try and recoup some cash for it along with the others on Craigslist, Kinjiji, want ads, classifieds and other websites out there ? I was once told, if it ain't broke, don't fix it and the reason I learned was sometimes you break it by trying to fix it. If XP works in a way you like, leave it alone and leave the experiments to the happy campers in Vista land.

[cross platform]

I'm Using The Vista Upgrade Right Now

Ok so I decided to take the plunge. I won't kid you or try to gloss this over. It wasn't an easy upgrade like all the upgrades I've done on a Mac ( I used to be an Apple user in case some of you don't know ). But in the end ( that being a week to straighten things out )it works pretty well. Do I like it more than XP? Definately. However it's still a little rough around the edges. Performance being one. I have a 3.2Ghz pentium 4 in my rig that I bought 4 years ago, a Nvidia 7800 GS OC, and 2 Gigs of RAM. Desktop perfomance is pretty good but could be better. So if they sand off some of these rough edges ( like slowish performance that I've even heard affects new machines with multiple cores ) I'll be pleased and going " Wow! ". But for anyone upgrading I suggest you have your ducks in a row. Even then I'd expect something. So I would recomend that MS work on making their installer better and include more of the patches you'll need. The OS looks and works in a cool more modern fashion. It's not OS X but it's a big step in the right direction. That being said the reason I went from Apple to the " Dark Side " is gmaes and software I used at work. However now with Intel mother boards and " Boot Camp " if Vista doesn't continue to improve I might be eyeing a Powermac in a year or 2. Are you listening Microsoft?

[cross platform]

Sorry About The Typo

That's " Games and software that I used at work ".

[intrepi]

Just a note to the speed freaks

Most of the software for Windows Vista is based on 32 bit software, drivers and ignoring everything else that Vista is, huge, bulky, ram gobbling and hardware dependent, this 32 bit limitation will be not enhance speed nor should anyone compare it to a Mac Leopard system running on a 64 bit platform. Now with a Mac, it will run Windows, Linux, Unix and Mac applications using bootcamp, VMware and Parallel which will make Vista far less the versatile choice lacking in wow or any of these abilities. No, I don't own a Mac ! I'm waiting for Friday October 26, 2007 so I can get one with the new Leopard 64 bit OSx

[mfrankis]

Vista 64bit vs. NVidia 8800GTX

Vista 64bit vs. NVidia 8800GTX

Crash city. I'm ok for a few months then, bam. The updates hit. Now I total crash 2-8 times per day. Yea, I have a hotrod with all the latest patches. My system memory tested ok. I'm in process replacing the piece of junk NVidia 8800GTX right now. My current best guess? 15% graphics card hardware, the remainder mixed between lame programing of drivers from either Microsoft 65%, or NVidia 20%.

NVidia surprized me at their lack of ability to help. It was all about it being someone else's fault. Never a reason just it's not us... Prove it to us [within 2 days or the case is closed]

Oh, the support call to Microsoft. Don't get me started. 5 attempts in... Essentially the minute I went off script I was disconnected. The tech didn't know tech. I mean basic stuff. Pure offshore, I worked in the field last week and had a day of training level of understanding. Not even sure some of them could spell their own name.

If the new graphics card doesn't work, I'm going back to XP. Dumping Windows Vista Ultimate 64bit...