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Pirillo critiques Windows Vista with long lists of mistakes
Tuesday, May 30, 2006 - 08:15 AM EST

"I spent a few hours with Windows Vista last night, per Jim Allchin’s request to send him feedback about what I discovered in terms of discrepancies and oversights. I took that task seriously, and stayed up late to compile this far-from-comprehensive list. I sent it to him at 1am, and I hope he doesn’t have a filter that keeps him from seeing it. I realize this list is lengthy, but… these reasons are exactly why I’m afraid Vista won’t be as polished as originally anticipated. I warn you, this list is long - and it’s only going to get longer, the deeper I dive into Vista Beta 2... If you think this list is long, check out my follow-up list of 65 More Windows Vista Mistakes," Chris Pirillo blogs.

MacDailyNews Note: Chris Pirillo is the founder of Lockergnome. He spent two years hosting the TechTV (now known as G4) television program Call for Help before parting ways from the company. He also hosted the first annual Call-for-Help-a-Thon on TechTV.

Very long list here.
65 More Windows Vista Mistakes here.

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Reader Feedback: ( = registered)

May 30, 06 - 08:28 am Comment from: Moe

Like OS X doesn't have mistakes? Still, at least OS X is shipping, and 5 years ago at that.

May 30, 06 - 08:30 am Comment from: Tommy Boy

Pirillo wrote: "Classic mode in setup screens?"

What, you mean Vista is really OS 9 in disguise?

May 30, 06 - 08:32 am Comment from: Dirty Pierre le Punk

Bill, Bill !!!!! The sky's falling in!!!

May 30, 06 - 08:37 am Comment from: Billy Ash

Nitpicking is stupid

This kind of article is a waste of time.

It's much more powerful to post a handful of really solid problems with Vista, than loads of niggly ones (most of which are personal preferences anyway)

It's like Prince releasesing a 5CD box set "Crystal Ball", with some amazing tracks, but mostly fluff. It had no impact! Now if he released just one CD, with the best tracks, it would be labelled as genius album.


MDN Word "Until"
Until the end of time.. I'll be there for you
You are my heart and mind, I truly adore you.. OS X

May 30, 06 - 08:51 am Comment from: meh

This guy would probably rip Tiger apart too given the opportunity.

May 30, 06 - 08:52 am Comment from: rasmus

Yeah do it more like OS X.


Ever see the screen animations when you drag a Widget out of the OS X “sidebar” and onto the workspace? Why don’t I get any cool effect in Windows when I do the same thing?

When I drag and drop widgets around, why don’t they act like the icons OS X’s menu bar - moving the other widgets/icons out of the way as I maneuver around. Visual feedback is necessary here. If you’re trying to do this already, the animation is failing miserably. Feels more like falling off a bike than riding it.

May 30, 06 - 08:55 am Comment from: DanielN

Both links are broken.

May 30, 06 - 08:57 am Comment from: DakRoland

His site isn't loading anymore. At least *I* can't get to it...

May 30, 06 - 08:57 am Comment from: Too Hot!

References to OS X in the article:

"In the first Windows session (Set Up Windows wizard), the machine seemed to be moving rather slowly - which I could only assume was due to the heavy animation in the background (neat, but the next screen proves that it’s just completely out of place from the rest of the setup-before-you-log-in process). Polish, Jim, polish - setting up OS X is a much more aesthetically pleasing experience."

"Ever see the screen animations when you drag a Widget out of the OS X “sidebar” and onto the workspace? Why don’t I get any cool effect in Windows when I do the same thing?"

"When I drag and drop widgets around, why don’t they act like the icons OS X’s menu bar - moving the other widgets/icons out of the way as I maneuver around. Visual feedback is necessary here. If you’re trying to do this already, the animation is failing miserably. Feels more like falling off a bike than riding it."

"Wow. Your bubbles screen saver is really lame. Really. Really. Lame."

"Ribbons screen saver is rather nifty. Gee, was someone inspired by OS X? smile"

May 30, 06 - 08:58 am Comment from: Someone Else

Maybe he's running his site on Vista Beta 2? It's been down for a while.

May 30, 06 - 09:04 am Comment from: Macaday

The wreck that is VISTA rolls on at 10mph...

..and that light at the end of its tunnel isn't what it seems. It's the OSX Express coming down the tracks at 180mph driven by a Tiger loco that's about to be joined by a Leopard loco...

May 30, 06 - 09:06 am Comment from: Guessing

Yes, nitpicking it might be, but if there are so many issues on the surface that people see, how many more are there under the hood??? It seems obvious that with these problems Vista was rushed out to meet some internal deadline. And this is the "stripped down" version.
Prediction: Vista finally released June 2007- right about when Leopard 10.5.2 is released.

May 30, 06 - 09:07 am Comment from: JOHN

The 65 more problems link isn't working. They shouldn't release this until June of next year if they still have anyone with a brain working at Microsoft.
Still way to many bugs for anyone to seriously want to trust there data with this system.

May 30, 06 - 09:12 am Comment from: Behold the Power

Pirillo's site has been MDNed.

May 30, 06 - 09:14 am Comment from: Librium

Billy Ash: "Until the end of time.. I'll be there for you You are my heart and mind, I truly adore you.. OS X"

Are you for real? You need help. Seriously, It's an operating system. The best one around no doubt....but cmon.

May 30, 06 - 09:37 am Comment from: Sure Am Relived

MDN:

It appears that

http://www.chris.prillo.com should be http://www.chrisprillo.com

even then, the links don't work.

Ah, for want of an automatic, built in, automatic link checker....

May 30, 06 - 09:41 am Comment from: Scarbro

None of the links work.

May 30, 06 - 09:42 am Comment from: Big Al

Prince and genius used in the same sentence from the idiot formerly known as Billy Ash.

May 30, 06 - 09:47 am Comment from: Teflon

Who cares about Vista problems.

As Mac users, we should make a nitpicking list of OSX problems so Apple can fix them before the next release.

I'll start. Why does Show View Options not work when you select This Window Only or All Windows radio button? After typing a file name in a Save As dialog, why doesn't the cursor change back to an arrow for selecting other options or clicking buttons?

Yours...

May 30, 06 - 09:51 am Comment from: My 2 Cents

On my Apple laptop, I like to use an external mouse, but the USB port is on the left, and Apple's mouse cable is to short to use on the right side for right-handed users like me. Why?

May 30, 06 - 09:53 am Comment from: Sure Am not

Here is the site:
http://www.chrispirillo.com/

If you're going to correct something, COPY AND PASTE it from your browser at least! - cool tool, been there for a few years...

May 30, 06 - 10:21 am Comment from: Mistakes don't matter.

All that matters is M$ asking you for money. With Apple, people expect greatness in exchange. But people will throw money at M$ just because it's there. Baaaaa.

May 30, 06 - 10:21 am Comment from: Joe the Farmer

That may be his main site, but his blog as linked to on his main site appears to be:
http://chris.pirillo.com/

And it's down...

May 30, 06 - 10:27 am Comment from: Mike Buonarroti

None of the links work in any form of the URL!

May 30, 06 - 10:42 am Comment from: Hard Hard

I remember his "Call for Help" answer to a Mac user who called with a question: "First thing you want to do is get a Windows based PC". After that I care nothing about what he may have to say.

May 30, 06 - 10:47 am Comment from: bjr

ah...the good old days of TechTV with Help and The Screensavers. Leo and Patrick were great on the Screensavers educating us about technology and occasionly (every day) ripping into microsoft. Now all that is gone and we're left with the mind drool known as "attack of the show".

May 30, 06 - 11:01 am Comment from: Jerry T

I hate the G4 channel. Tech TV was great.

May 30, 06 - 12:04 pm Comment from: LordRobin

I couldn't even read the article. Boring, nitpicky crap. As much as I love OS X, I'm sure I could find just as long a list of "mistakes" if I allowed myself to be that picky. The Finder's far from perfect, for example.

May 30, 06 - 12:14 pm Comment from: neomonkey

I have never understood why Microsoft uses such an ugly font for menus, and what's with the first letter of words being underlined? Stupid, and ugly.

I agree with him about the "Next" business being an unnecessary step. Unfortunately we see this on Macs with software that has been ported from Windows versions. Epson's real bad about this.

May 30, 06 - 12:46 pm Comment from: Sure Am Releived

I take that back, MDN had the right link.

MDN'ing = Slashdot'ing?!

(at least for doze boxes?)

May 30, 06 - 12:49 pm Comment from: Cubert

I read the whole damn thing! Yes, he does nitpick over fonts a lot, but I get the sense that the whole thing is just a mess. No consistency at all throughout the GUI.

May 30, 06 - 01:36 pm Comment from: macman

My fav comment is

"Windows Movie Maker UI needs to be destroyed and rebuilt from scratch"

Gawd i cant wait for this pile of crap to come out so that i can take the piss out of my workmates grin

I managed to talk my boss into getting me an ibook ages ago grin

H

May 30, 06 - 02:08 pm Comment from: NoMacForYou

Its kind of funny how this guy rants about issues with the BETA that im not having any isses with. There are a few in there that kindof resemble what he posted but alot of it is nit-picking bullshit..Uh, dude, maybe your hardware is just shitty.

May 30, 06 - 02:19 pm Comment from: OzzysCross101

"Installing features -> what features?"

This Line Says it all....

MW: Microsoft is a company that outright SUCKS!

May 30, 06 - 04:40 pm Comment from: MacRaven

His statement:
"This isn’t just about fonts and icons, my friends - it’s about something I intend on using as my primary operating system for the next… seven (?) years."

That's HIS misfortune and own choosing. Am I suppose to feel sorry for someone who repeatedly chooses to use Winduhz as their main OS?

MW= "let" as in LET GO M$ minions, let go!

May 30, 06 - 04:43 pm Comment from: strong sell

I get the sense that the whole thing is just a mess. No consistency at all throughout

The product always reflects the creator.

May 30, 06 - 04:53 pm Comment from: lifeboat

it's about something I intend on using as my primary operating system for the next seven (?) years."

Well, Chris, there IS an alternative...

Never hold on stubbornly (or otherwise) to anyone's products. Esp. anyone's as poor as MS's.

When the ship is clearly lost and sinking, jump!

May 30, 06 - 06:13 pm Comment from: Fuzzy Bo

@Cubert - "No consistency at all throughout the GUI"
So nothing's changed then?
http://www.mackido.com/Interface/windows_close.html - "there must be 20 ways to close your windows", with a tip of the hat to Paul Simon wink

May 30, 06 - 06:36 pm Comment from: ©

There are MUCH deeper fundamental problems with Vista than font/surface issues (although everything is important). I keep track on a podcast I listen to (hey, I like to keep up with these sorts of things). First, as I said before it boots up with 15,000 handles as opposed to XPs 3,000 (think of a handle as using resouces - sort of). Also, it boots up with 48 processes running (that's just a clean boot with no startup items or apps running). Yes, OS X has many processes running as well, but it's Unix based (read - more efficient). It's also a HUGE MEMORY HOG and a 32 bit processor can only address 4GB max (from what I've heard you need to do some work-arounds to get the full 4GB. 2GB is no problem). If they think they are going to ship at the begining of next year - forget it. They would have to be done sorting out all these problems by October/November at the latest, because of the release to manufacture time (the time from final version to pressing, packaging, and shipping). It's going to be bad PR for MS for the forseeable future..................and Leopard is on the way! Can't wait.

May 30, 06 - 09:17 pm Comment from: Cubert

I read all of that, too, Fuzzy Bo. Hilarious! Winblows inconsistency, that is.

May 31, 06 - 10:11 am Comment from: meh

"It's also a HUGE MEMORY HOG"
---

Vista caches aggresively, like some Linux distros do. I'm running vista on 768MB of RAM and it runs quite well.

Vista will always use as much memory as possible and it will cache your most frequently used apps. Which it should. 1GB of memory is a waste of money if you are always using only a fraction of it. Its like the people that buy super fast processor so that they can see their PC idle at 1% processor usage. Fools....

May 31, 06 - 11:53 am Comment from: Chuckles

Also, the font folder seems to have the old Control Panel icon from Windows 95 (!) in its properties bar.

Mar 21, 07 - 12:45 am Comment from: Sally Kraus

Cool site.

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