Comments on: Microsoft fights back, but does it have enough ammo?

Microsoft is fighting back and this time, it wants you to know that it's in for a fight. But can all this good Vista PR really solve its problems?

[isykal]

I love how the Mac users come to bash Vista.

Anyway, I had the option to buy my new laptop with XP but decided to go with Vista and I'm not disappointed.

[bleu_tropix]

agreed! my vista machine is running perfectly. no problems or sluggishness whatsoever. seriously.

[ayoung45]

It's all about the hardware. I don't think Vista is that bad, but you can't run it the same as on a XP box. The reason lots of people like XP is because it runs on their older hardware (especially companies that have lots of older computers).

Hopefully, the OS (including Leopard) can be slimmed down so that it can run smoothly on not-so-great hardware.

[ekisom]

Vista is so great?

out of the 40 computers in our office. one computer couldnt print on the new network printer. this computer have to send its files to someone else's computer for printing purposes. this one computer also hangs whenever you open office documents with margin adjustments. this one computer is the latest up-to-specs computer in the office. its a laptop which comes with the greatest operating system in the world. "Vista!" tadah!!!

[AppleSuxLeo]

Way to go MSFT ! Bout time they kicked Job`s sriveled old balls into his throat !

[J Rankin]

Not a bad problem to have is it? People loving your old product so much they don't want to buy your new one. At least they're both your product.

[Tinman52]

1. Great! Vista is the fastest selling OS of all time. Well, the market tends to increase, so how's it compare when weighted vs NT, 2000, XP, or 2003 sales? Sales numbers today aren't directly equal to sales numbers in 1995 much like the dollar today is not equal to the dollar in 1995.
2. I've yet to see a large number of games take advantage of either DX10 or DX10.1. As far as I can tell, the only reason, as a gamer, to upgrade is for DX10/10.1 or if you've gotten free copy through work or a promotion.

[sportsbud1]

I'm a proud user of vista since the month it came out i think it wonderful once one gets to use it you simply realize how awkward and complex xp is for in xp to share printers without adding any third party software you have to go though many steps do back flips etc... while vista has the network and sharing center allowing you to change many important features with one click, and i recognize that people are afraid of the "new" and i like xp also but once i got my hands on vista it surprised my and with 2gigs of ram a vista computer performs just as well if not better than a similar xp machine plus the colors and animations are easier on the eyes to more awkward blues like xp and i realize many of the features of vista can be added to xp by third party software that makes xp slower than vista and highly unstable wile those features come with vista i like xp a lot but don't say vista sucks until u take it home and try it out for 1 month, and you will see my point.(P.S. don't read those old reviews when people hated it for Microsoft released an unfinished product but it has added a lot to it to make it worthwhile(sounds like xp?))

[G_Slade]

I dont think Microsoft has released an OS without everyone hating it to start with. I remember XP getting loads of flack when that was released. Everyone was saying they were going to stick with 98. Now everyone is saying how great it is!
I was sceptical about getting Vista, but i gave up trying to find a laptop at the spec and price that i wanted with XP that i bit the bullet and bought a laptop with vista. Id say vista is the 1st OS that ive loved from day 1. It looks so much better than xp, its easier to use, and if you want you can put it in classic mode anyway.
Id certainly never convert to a MAC as it forces you to use apple everything. Also my opinion of apple is tarnished after the below the belt "im a mac, and im a pc" ad.

[borispmchan]

Vista can't handle NFS Demos, and I wonder how can that happens. It can't run at all, and other softwares feel sluggish.

[nsyncerhj]

Honestly, Windows Vista operates like a next generation remake of Windows XP. Switching for some people is going to be hard, there's no easy way around that. The crazy thing is, the enhancements provide a better experience. Granted, the improvements are very similar to Mac OS X. However, there are benefits to a newer system. You get better pictures, enhanced sound, tighter graphics, a heftier hard drive (in some cases), and a greater understanding of what happens to your computer, when you make significant changes to it. Windows will always be Windows, no matter what Microsoft does to it. I learned that using Vista, and no OS is perfect. For those scaredy cats that are concerned that Vista is going to be HARD to use, there are a few differences. For most who know XP, the majority of the differences lie under the hood.

[nsyncerhj]

Honestly, Windows Vista operates like a next generation remake of Windows XP. Switching for some people is going to be hard, there's no easy way around that. The crazy thing is, the enhancements provide a better experience. Granted, the improvements are very similar to Mac OS X. However, there are benefits to a newer system. You get better pictures, enhanced sound, tighter graphics, a heftier hard drive (in some cases), and a greater understanding of what happens to your computer, when you make significant changes to it. Windows will always be Windows, no matter what Microsoft does to it. I learned that using Vista, and no OS is perfect. For those scaredy cats that are concerned that Vista is going to be HARD to use, there are a few differences. For most who know XP, the majority of the differences lie under the hood.

[Penguinisto]

Actually, not quite.

The one thing I noticed about XP when it first came out is that it actually ran faster and lighter than Windows 2000 did on many computers, either old or new. So far, nobody has made a credible claim of Vista doing anything like that (in fact, it's mostly the opposite).

[rdwalton]

Gee, I wish I could sell 180 million copies of something and people call it a dissappointment. Let's see, Apple sells 80 million plus iPods and it's a success, they sell 1 million iPhones and they're a success, they sell a couple million copies of their OS and they are the best thing since sliced bread....hmmm, something sounds awful fishy here.

Oh, I gorgot, this is a cnet story...I see now.

[Penguinisto]

I wish I could (if I were a corp) count sales of old and new products as if they were new product sales... ;)

[DaveMcLain]

I use Windows XP on all of my computers which totals 5 machines. I like this OS a lot because it works well but also because I'm used to it's logic. My folks have 3 computers and two of them have Windows Vista. This new OS seems to work just fine but it's just a little awkward and some things were changed for no real apparent reason or so it seems. In the end it works fine but it just seems a little strange. I think that in time I'll get used to Vista because underneath it all I think it works well, maybe it just tries to do too much to keep us safe and too much to make itself look cool......

[jonhcox]

A Mac is generally more expensive than a PC. So the argument that MS has sold over 180 million licenses for Vista is stupid. Come on, of course they have. There are $400 laptops running Vista that are more readily affordable than the cheapest Apple laptop. Of course they are going to sell a lot.
I am a graphic designer and a Windows platform makes my job awkward, unreliable and slow. It is what it is. When I go home and game, I game on a XP equipped system, because it just does that better.
I think Vista is nice but I just don't feel secure. Call it a long history of crap and spending too much money on anti-virus software.

[Penguinisto]

Not really - spec for spec, Macs are competitively priced. Now if Apple would sell product specs that sit in the 'sweet spot' of typical PC sales, they'd probably grow faster than even the explosive rates that they've been growing at.

[aztec92154]

>"Now if Apple would sell product specs that sit in the 'sweet spot' of typical PC sales,
> they'd probably grow faster than even the explosive rates that they've been growing at."

I think the Mac Mini (which starts at $599) was targeted at this crowd. For many reasons, they missed the mark. Apple still hasn't been able to crack the market you're talking about. From what I've seen, Apple has never done well in the low-margin market. In fact, the market in general is having a tough time making a profit with low margin PC's. I suggest that Apple stay out of this market. It would be like Lexus coming out with an inexpensive car to target a cost sensitive market. It would be bad the brand. And yes, I agree, spec for spec, Apple products are competitively priced, luxurious, beautiful machines.

[jeyoman]

Many of us are just poor don't see need to change. So I think is a money issue if i have something that works why spend the money, What microsoft should do is a super special offer to XP users that upgrade a few days like a upgrade day and go cheap, very cheap. They allready made money of the XP im running.

[dkriss]

Here are the system requirements for a common PC game:

Minimum System Requirements
OS Windows XP or Windows Vista
Processor 2.8 GHz or faster (XP) or 3.2 GHz or faster (Vista)
Memory 1.0 GB RAM (XP) or 1.5 GB RAM (Vista)

Vista requires a faster CPU and more memory. Vista is a pig!

[stringboy]

MS has made 2 big mistakes with Vista: Too many interface changes and too much system overhead. Corporations were basically told, take a productivity hit (retraining and learning) and a performance hit and be happy about it. New users were told, get over it. MS is a near monopoly making a monopolistic mistake. It will hurt them.

[Rob_Crouch]

I have no opinion regarding the quality of Vista itself. I have run XP for several years, find it perfectly suitable for my computer use and see no reason to spend extra money to simply purchase a new OS. As with most casual users, I'll run XP until it's time to purchase a new computer.

Herein lies Microsoft's problem: when faced with having to purchase a new computer, I've already narrowed my choices to a) Mac or b) a Linux based system. The word of mouth from Apple users usually starts with "I did use an MS based system, but the Mac is just so much..." and the speaker delivers the raves with enthusiasm. Or, I read multiple articles citing the hundreds of dollars I can potentially save by purchasing a Linux based system instead of a Vista system, get the same basic functionality and security, and get a stronger hardware set. This word of mouth on the part of Apple users combined with extremely competitive pricing for open source systems puts MS in a very difficult position for retaining casual customers over the long term. As the Linux systems and open source software options become more widely accepted and supported, businesses looking for a way to save money may begin looking at the same purchasing options as the casual household user. If that ever did happen, then MS would be faced with a very difficult challenge.

The planned advertising onslaught would seem justified given the MS position -- more of a preemptive strike with eyes toward future computer purchasers (both business and casual users) than a direct response to any immediate market concerns.

[lierty147]

Expensive ads wont solve this one. For the first time ever I am seriously looking at Apple alternatives....why? Because MS discontinued XP at a time when they did not offer a satisfactory alternative. Forcing me into an inferior product by discontinuing the sales of stable products does not work. As far as Vista's reputation - its real - we deployed a few Vista machies at my company and they have been universally hated and troublesome. For me its Apple or wait for something new from MS.

[tmoc99]

"'When Windows Vista debuted in January 2007, we declared it the best operating system we had ever made. 'Windows Vista is beautiful,' The New York Times raved. It's humbling that millions of you agree," Microsoft's site says after clicking the ad."

That's just taking it out of context. True, the Times praised the looks, but just read the headline: "Vista wins on looks. As for lacks..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/14/technology/14pogue.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=windows%20vista%20review&st=cse&oref=slogin
David Pogue did not exactly "rave" about Vista. And rightfully so. I'm just so sick of these compatibility issues...

[gouda123]

Review of XP SP3 vs Vista SP1 in performance (gaming and otherwise). Read it, you might be surprised.

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2302527,00.asp

Compatibility may still be an issue but there shouldn't be that many problems for hardware items that aren't considered legacy. I'm actually running Vista Business on a motherboard that Nvidia doesn't even develop new Vista drivers for anymore (an Asus K8N running on a nforce 3 chipset) along with an old Geforce 6600GT. Games like Counter Strike Source don't run nearly as good but I am pretty certain that is because there are no updated drivers and because my hardware is 2-4 years old!

Sure, I was a bit disappointed by that performance drop but everything else works wonderfully on the system. Heck, I plugged in a printer and it installed the drivers without even ASKING me! I was happy about that because I abhor printer installations (especially HP printers).

My point is that you can't expect the same exact results on old hardware that does not have driver updates for it! End of life hardware simply won't be supported. *shrug*

Oh well, I was going to build myself a new computer soon anyways. ;-)