Microsoft didn't want to have a two-tiered Vista upgrade program with both Vista Capable and Vista Premium Ready logos, but that's exactly what it got after Intel raised a fuss, and now the software maker is facing legal action.
Web sites launch all the time, but they also shut their doors. We highlight 15 that bit the dust this year.
Let the debate begin: Was the iPhone more important than iTunes? Was anything bigger than Google finding a great business model? CNET offers its list of the 10 most important stories of the '00s.
About Apple
At the start of the 21st century, there's no tech outfit more influential than Apple. CNET News' Erica Ogg and other reporters will attempt to make sense of the rumors, hype, products, and people that will shape the future of the company. But Apple's not the only game in town, as the established cell phone companies and others strike back against the iPhone. E-mail Erica at erica.ogg@cnet.com.
Add this feed to your online news reader
Apple topics
You are blaming the messenger because you don't like the
message.
the 945 chipset is criticized. It says:
"Intel has the biggest challenge. Their "945" chipset which is the
baseline Vista set "barely" works right now and is very broadly
used. (...)"
Well, that is a quote from an e-mail written by Steve Sinofsky,
("the former head of Microsoft office development and current
head of Windows and Windows Live development") to Steve
Ballmer.
Now, if news.com is just transcribing what one Microsoft
executive told another in an e-mail, why do you accuse them of
bias?
No, really, WHY do YOU accuse them of bias?
I dare say a 915 chipset based PC with an additional moderately powerful video card would also run Vista Aero.
You have a separate dedicated video card that basically bypasses that chipset and never uses the graphics of it. My computer has similar setup.
Aero doesn't need a super powerful video card, but the card does require newer features built in to the hardware to support Aero.
The problem is they advertised that the chipset could run Vista alone without any help from a dedicated card. Now the debate is if Vista without Aero can really be considered Vista, and if customers were duped into buying a computer they thought could run Aero that couldn't actually run Aero.
In fact, a lot of the quotes shown are directly from Microsoft's own managers and employees. They realized bad decisions were being made, but nobody could (or wanted to) do anything about it, because there is so much corruption in the corporation.
in any case i think the two-tiered upgrade and the support for a few old intel graphics chips are the least of vista's problems...
Why did you even respond to this blog, Microsoft. Your response is, a priori, a lie.
They have NO control and way.
OK, now lets talk about the execs that run the company. They
totally do not care about you and I. They have their millions to
keep them warm. And so what if you are stuck buying their
crappy pushed out the door, sold to the highest bidder junk.
Apple now makes hardware and software that runs everything
including Microsoft software. Buy crap lie to you junk or buy
the best. Its up to you.
PS. If you are a MS fanboy or getting paid by MS to say
conflicting things to confuse people, make your money now. It
does not look like it will last. A Billion here, a billion there, soon
a company can run out of money. :-)
en
If anything the actual implementation of the strategy is to blame, not the idea behind it. What consumer could possibly tell the difference between Vista Capable and Vista Premium Ready? Even a MS executive didn't know the difference. Do you think the kid at BestBuy who sold the laptop knew? No way.
know what's going on, nor does he care... Then these comments
about "my 945/915 runs great and all I did was upgrade my
graphics processor..." Don't respond to articles like these... You
don't even know what they're talking about!
I don't feel sorry for Microsoft... They're still living in the days
when everyone bought their OS as soon as MS released it....
They think we need more... At one time, yeah, we NEEDED
Win3.1... At one time, yeah, we NEEDED Win95... Time have
changed. We don't need a new operating system. We need one
that works. Aero is a joke. It doesn't help anything.
My experience with the junk that is Vista is this: Oh you want
do some networking? great - I challenge you to find where we
hid it... You want to print? Cool! Where do you think we hid
that one? You want to run a remote desktop? Good luck finding
where we put that! And then when you do find what you're
looking for, everything is different and it may or may not work.
Spending time trying to get simple things working is a waste of
time. Nothing wrong with XP in that regard.
The only thing that threw me for a loop in where something was hidden was the change of ADD / REMOVE PROGRAMS... and even then, that just took 10 seconds of looking at the icons and their descriptions in Control Panel.
Vista isn't that much different than XP. Then again, when XP first came out, everyone was like **** what have they done? where is everything??? XP is teh suck!!!11! It happens every time Microsoft puts out a new OS. It will happen again with Windows 7.
I actually enjoy Vista64 minus some driver problems which the only being Microsoft's problem is for their fingerprint reader which has no Vista64 support. My HP 7660 printer has limited Vista64 support using a 5600 series driver.
Even the 965 graphics chipset cannot handle Aero according to numerous other organizations who have tested it..... bluntly, Intel needs to get the **** out of the graphics chipset business and leave it to NVidia, ATi and others who have offerings comparable to those two companies chipsets.
If I bought a defective television I?d take it back to the store.
If I bought a TV that was too big for my living room I?d take it back to the store even if it did work.
How come, when your Vista computer didn?t work you didn?t return it? Technically, you paid for it, and you couldn?t use one of its flagship features. Instead of taking it back you just said, ?Oh well.? I don?t understand that.
Isn?t that kind of like buying a color TV to find out everything comes in as black and white?
basic but usable video for machines that have no need or use for
a full-sized GPU; servers and workstations to be precise.
Incidentally, ATI builds them as well. ;)
Do you even have a clue as to what else the 945 chipset does?
It's the designation for the entire [i]motherboard[/i] chipset,
idiot.
[i]"I turned off Aero on my computer that has the 945 integrated
graphics chipset because it is simply not fast enough to run
Aero no matter what I do to try to make it faster"[/i]
Funny... I have one that runs Linux Desktop Effects very nicely,
and those offer a lot more effects and graphics eye-candy
available than Aero could ever hope to have.
This says plainly that MSFT screwed the pooch, not the other
way around. Bluntly, Microsoft needs to "get the *** out of the
graphics business" and leave it to OSX, Linux, and those who
have offerings and coding skills comparable to those two
products' abilities. ;)
/P
Anyone who purchases a computer and expects to use the Intel graphics chipset for any advanced applications (i.e. Vista) lacks experience and/or knowledge, and is asking for heartache. This has ALWAYS been true (for the entire time I have purchased dozens of computers over the years). They are simply behind the curve. ALWAYS spend the extra $50 or whatever to get the NVidia or ATI upgrade with your computer.
Intel graphics = a bad joke. Microsoft should have known that.
The only difference then and now, is the grand scale this fiasco's reached. So I ask; "Why is it the computer industry is allowed to sell defective products without having to take responsibility or be held accountable?"
I mean this is on a scale that has cost the consumer hundreds, if not thousands in recovery time, that goes beyond the OS or hardware. How much of that data was non-recoverable?
It does not matter whether it was an heirloom picture of your grandchild, or an important contract you wrote to run your business.
It is time to upgrade Consumer Protection Laws and hold there feet to the fire of accountability. Especially when the CEO's response is HoHum!
Microsoft is in need of a big ol` fat piece of humble pie. They need to show more respect for the most important person in there corporation, the consumer. They need to have their actions match their words.
It's time to stand up and voice your concerns in a manner that causes those with the ability to change this dysfunctional pattern, a call to action. I assure you, if enough folks use their voice and direct it to those that count, things will change sooner than later.
Otherwise I feel sorry for you, not them!
I now work on a Mac at the office that I set up myself from scratch WITHOUT having ever owned a Mac or spent a long time working on one in less than an hour. And it's been a year and I haven't even had to or wanted to change a setting since. I haven't had to argue with it, plead for or pray for it, open it or wonder about it. I used to love getting home to my own Windows based machine after school/college/work. Now I FEAR it. I fear what's going to break today, what printer is just going to refuse to print today for no apparant reason, what crucial moment right when i've forgotten to save for 2 hours a mainstream up to date application is going to crash at, and all the other productivity sapping things windows based PC's just do all the time.
The very statement that M$ made this decision, for the benefit of Intel's forecast, should have shot off big red flares with SEC.
As far as the most important person in a corperation, they will even tell you to your face sometimes, that it is the shareholders not the customers. Modern corperations are run for the shareholders, for profit and revenue gains and not just sustained, it has to grow, and grow. Sustaining consistent performance without growth will get you liquidated, spun off, or sold by most BOD's, even though you are making a modest profit. They care little about the business, employees, or customers, they will do whatever it takes to boost the stock, and line their pockets.
HP, who was mentioned in the article, made it to where they are, because the founders, Bill and Dave, rejected this notion, and recognized that a companies commitments are to the business, the employees, the customers, and the communities in which they operate, not just shareholders. If you get the chance, read the book, The HP Way, it still is truly inspiring.
Unfortunately, the fathers of silicon valley have moved on, and the new generation has deviated from their great wisdom. Apple still has a little of the HP Way in them, HP of course retains some, and from the actions of Yahoo protecting employees, against the M$ takeover, I'd say there was some there too. But mostly its disappearing, because of the globalization of greed.
Once a company goes public, it no longer controls its own destiny, the Board of Directors will decide its fate, and their decisions are based upon putting money in their own pockets.
It seems that the author also had some misspellings, omitted words, and typos of her own. Good specimen for testing a proofreading candidate.
When Microsoft drops support for an OS, people are forced to move to the new one (new peripherals will not support older OS, bug fixes, security fixes) whether they need it or not. In the case of Vista they have even been forced to move to an inferior product.
The Justice Department will never "fix" Microsoft until they deal with this problem. For example, since Microsoft claims XP is now obsolete, why not force MS to turn the XP source-code over to the open-source community. I bet they would have no problem upgrading it with eye-candy w/o forcing people to buy a new version.
[why not force MS to turn the XP source-code over to the open-source community]
Maybe because it belong to MSFT and not the users? You think?
[been forced to move to an inferior product]
Inferior? Really? That's news. Prove it.
[are forced to move to the new one ]
[been forced to move to an inferior product]
Forced? Wait why don't they just install Linux, run their software in a VM maybe, it's free? Wait, can't give away free? Why do you think that is?
MS has long been seen as really indifferent to the consumer. Their attitude seems to be, "We're the 'Big Dog' here and they'll take whatever we put out there for them." This is beyond sad. Pathetic is more appropriate. Now you say XP is obsolete. To quote Charlie Brown, "Good Grief!" Will it never end? Apple, please take note and avoid this pathway!!
The vision of the teenager who brought Windows to the world is long gone. What is left, is a software giant whose dominant position makes its leaders think they can play... And you know what? They are right. Do you really expect Microsoft executives to sweat over this story? Their salary, stock options and other financial goodies will keep them warm for a long time. Their accountability will be limited (or inexistent). Shareholders will be happy. The only one suffering the consequences is the consumer.
A reader commented that Vista runs just fine on his "base system", good for him. Google "Vista reviews" and enjoy the ride?
The reality of the situation is that Vista is a shame of a product. We had to wait 6 years after XP to receive a new OS. What a good one! Bloated, slow, still having driver issues one year after its release, software compatibility problems, Vista is THE product you should not get for a friend!
The bottom line is that CONSUMERS WERE TRICKED AND LIED TO when purchasing their computer equipment.
Intel, Microsoft, who is to blame? It might be a shared responsibility. Justice should (will?) be rendered.
Let?s hope that consumer rights will be defended, protected and enhanced.
:)
Apt-get doesn't add or remove viruses/spyware !
Th OS install should ask question after question in order to install the required features in order to streamline operation and functionality. This would take quite a bit longer, I understand, but in the end, the consumer's experience would be improved. Unfortunately, MS is not interested in the user's experience. Steve Jobs has a better grasp on this than Balmer, not a perfect grasp, but a much better one.
The computer OS should not be like the tax code, it should be easier and more intuitive.
I do consider myself something of an AMD fanboy, so I will always go with them first.
- Good grief
- by ivorycruncher February 29, 2008 6:48 AM PST
- I knew there was a reason I always liked AMD more than Intel. I have always and will continue to always hate Intel graphics chipsets. I just hate it when Intel puts names like "Extreme Graphics 2" on its chipsets, because there ain't nothin' extreme about them. They are the cheapest junk video chipsets on the market, and you will find them in pretty much every single low-end PC and laptop on the market. Probably the only reason they still make them is because they're so cheap that the OEMs love them.
- Like this Reply to this comment
-
Showing 1 of 2 pages (96 Comments)Any enthusiast will tell you that motherboards like nVidia's nForce line or the AMD 690G boards have way more powerful graphics than any Intel board. Granted, you won't be running any serious games on them, but they have more than enough horsepower for media center PCs and some basic games and stuff. Any Intel board would barely be able to do much more than run Vista Aero. Anybody who thinks Aero runs just fine on an Intel chipset has obviously not seen it compared side-by-side to a more advanced chipset.
I do agree that Microsoft kinda botched this, but I'm a lot more ticked at Intel this time around. They're almost exhibiting RIAA-like behavior. The RIAA is pressuring the courts to side with them in a battle to keep a failing industry afloat, and Intel pressured Microsoft into compromising their system requirements so Intel didn't have to sweat about ruining their bottom line. If you can't keep up with the latest software, that's your problem. Don't ruin everybody's experience, because it will only come back to bite you, as evidenced by this news. I have been somewhat considering using a Core 2 Duo chip in my next computer, but now I am definitely going to continue using AMD products. I have no interest in supporting a company that treats their customers like this.