“Fans of the six-year-old operating system set to be pulled off store shelves in June have papered the Internet with blog posts, cartoons and petitions recently. They trumpet its superiority to Windows Vista, Microsoft’s latest PC operating system, whose consumer launch last January was greeted with lukewarm reviews,” Jessica Mintz reports for The Associated Press.
MacDailyNews Take: The only “fans” of Windows are those who’ve not yet tried a Mac.
Mintz continues, “No matter how hard Microsoft works to persuade people to embrace Vista, some just can’t be wowed. They complain about Vista’s hefty hardware requirements, its less-than-peppy performance, occasional incompatibility with other programs and devices and frequent, irritating security pop-up windows. For them, the impending disappearance of XP computers from retailers, and the phased withdrawal of technical support in coming years, is causing a minor panic.”
MacDailyNews Take: Why panic when you can simply get a Mac? You can even slum it with XP until you quickly figure out that you don’t want to boot Windows anymore.
Mintz continues, “Galen Gruman… a longtime technology journalist… started a Save XP Web petition, gathering since January more than 100,000 signatures and thousands of comments, mostly from die-hard XP users who want Microsoft to keep selling it until the next version of Windows is released, currently targeted for 2010.”
MacDailyNews Take: The depth of delusion boggles the mind. When the wheel was invented, do you suppose there were cavemen who just completely ignored its existence for years and instead clamored to “Save the Sled” instead of using the “New, Improved Sled with Spikes” that some Neanderthal had just introduced?
Mintz continues, “Microsoft already extended the XP deadline once, but it shows no signs it will do so again. The company has declined to meet with Gruman to consider the petition.”
More Luddite lunacy here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “MidWest Mac” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Take: The Windows sufferers with their Stockholm Syndrome are just so amusing sometimes! They’re sitting in a leaky, rapidly-listing barge and we’re floating alongside in our gleaming yacht and they just simply refuse to get in. They always yell the same thing, too: “We just need one more patch!” Whatever. We have lobster to eat and champagne to drink.
No, please don’t take my OS X 10.2 away!!!
Oh, wait…
“irritating security pop-up windows”
Microsoft Windows Vista’s security features are irritating by design.
“In a Thursday presentation at RSA 2008 in San Francisco, David Cross, a product unit manager at Microsoft who was part of the team that developed UAC (User Account Control), admitted that Microsoft’s strategy with UAC was to irritate users and ISVs in order to get them to change their behavior.
‘The reason we put UAC into the platform was to annoy users. I’m serious,’ said Cross.
‘We needed to change the ecosystem, and we needed a heavy hammer to do it,’ Cross said.”
(source: http://www.crn.com/software/207100934)
@Ampar:
Now that it has been public for quite sometime, why is no one out there screaming at the top of their lungs about suing MS? This is really crazy in how people view MS. I guess MDN is correct in reference to the Stockholm Syndrome.
last january? i thought it was a year-ago january?
” . . . why is no one out there screaming at the top of their lungs about suing MS?”
Because they have nightmares of being attacked by a scary monster while they sleep?
Today I saw my first Vista BSD. It came when my co-worker plugged in a projector after I unplugged his laptop so I could make presentation with my MB. Don’t laugh too much my MB crashed when when I brought it out of sleep and plugged the projector into my laptop. That was annoying.
What was interesting is the M$ put a reboot timer on BSD’s. So you get this new BSD screen that automatically reboots the machine after x number of seconds….way to fix the BSD!
In an age where technology advances every 6 nanoseconds, it’s purely pathetic that people have a legitimate need for a 7-year-old OS. This is not a slam at users; it’s a slam at Microsoft that Vista isn’t better than XP in every single way.
Yes! Bring back Panther…
Sign right here….
______________________________________
This is like having an ugly wife (because having an OS is like being married) getting her a make over, and then begging her to go back to her old, hideous, buggy, disgusting self.
I just summed up PC users.
“That’s a shame”
-Kel Varnson
See what happens when you put the wrong shade of lipstick on the pig?
FANS?
Prisoners is more apt.
Ampar… Windows “users” are attacked by a scary monster every time they boot up!
Except for companies that keep custom applications in their portfolios I find my self being naive as to why this is such big freaking deal. In other words, if you want to keep using XP keep using it – right? If I want to keep using Tiger or Panther I just keep using them. Obviously I have to live with their respective limitations, but… So what am I missing? Or are religiously Windowed Windows users really the unweaned little teat suckers they seem to be?
With the save XP revolt, the down with Vista campaign, and the Yahooligans stoking the fires in preparations for a Microsoft raid.
Microsoft is looking like it’s backing itself into a very tight corner that I don’t think their going to get out of without loosing a lot of shareholder value and cash.
Ballmer should just go ahead and shave his ass and start walking backward now and not wait for the directors to start looking to extract a few tons of flesh from him after the financial and PR disasters happens.
It’s not the OS they want, it’s the ability to run their apps in a familiar environment. I recently left a large federal organization which put its “upgrade” to Vista on indefinite hold, but didn’t allow one to procure Macs even to replace older computers. So they put themselves into a bind.
BTW, anyone else notice that an OEM copy of Windows XP costs *more* than the business version of Vista?
MDN: There’s no reason for your comments on this topic. These are IT departments and support people. They don’t have the option to go OS X. And they don’t want to support a bloated unnecessary Vista. All they need is XP. There is no compelling reason to “upgrade” to Vista. They can’t run their apps under OS X.
So MDN, STFU. Your comments are beside the point.
Classic case of being caught between a rock and a window.
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I am not gonna upgrade XP->Vista, I will wait until Windows 7 is released.
I have used XP for years and it works ok in my book, no big problems at all over the years.
Mac OS might be better but I am too lazy to switch OS, also.. with XP I have tons more 3d party apps&games;at my disposal.
I don’t think there’s a bad Windows in the bunch and I wish Microsoft made all versions of Windows available for purchase. Sure, some people complain about Windows ME, and others might find Windows 2.0 a little long in the tooth, but they should be available so that Windows fans like myself can relive the joy and excitement of the GUI OS that started it all.
You MAC lemmings might be interested to know where Apple got all of their ideas.
” rel=”nofollow”>Here’s an example of the original MAC OS X dock concept. Awesome!
Your potential. Our passion.™
@raskol,
I was going to let a dead-horse lie, but I have put up with so much utter nonsense from IT depts for the last 25 years that I have to say that, the preliminary phrases, “… I [We] just…”, or, “… all I [We] need to do is…”, should be eradicated from the vocabulary’s of pro IT and support personnel. It’s exactly that minimizing sort of get-by mentality practiced by people who actually know what the score is that has gotten those described in this latest MDN article in the position that they now find themselves.
Remember that in those becoming-less-rare places in the enterprise market place where OS X is beginning or has already been making inroads, change is often due to the common sense voices of the end users – not IT. So if the front-line worker can make or at least initiate change how the hell do IT depts. justify their positions?
In the words of Jodie Foster’s character in the movie Contact, “… funny, I always thought that life is what we make of it…”
@raskol,
Thank you for brining common sense into the discussion. I am fortunate the IT guys where I work wouldn’t think of looking beyond Microsoft solutions. Ever.
Windows forever, MAC never!
Your potential. Our passion.™
Hey…I just loaded Lobster 2.0 and it’s amazingly snappy.
Bring back OS 7! (still better than XP)
Reading the awesome comment about the wheel made my macbook pro snappier!!!
Hey Zune Tang, wanna know where MS learned to ‘innovate’ their GUI? Take a look and weep!
http://www.guidebookgallery.org/screenshots/macos11
“They always yell the same thing, too: “We just need one more patch!” Whatever. We have lobster to eat and champagne to drink.”
This is poetry! I love it! MDN, you could not be more correct.
Vista just arrived and people are *already* saying “I’ll upgrade when Windows 7 comes out.” News to these people: Windows “7” is NOT going to be any better than Vista. So there’s no use in prolonging your agony. Really. This reasoning that they have… it is entirely incomprehensible. I’ve never seen anything like it.
Simply astounding.
–mAc
“I have put up with so much utter nonsense from IT depts for the last 25 years that I have to say that, the preliminary phrases, “… I [We] just…”, or, “… all I [We] need to do is…”, should be eradicated from the vocabulary’s of pro IT and support personnel.”
Those phrases should also be eradicated from the lexicon of Mac users that pretend to be authorities on IT management but yet don’t know a damn thing about enterprise computing. No, we don’t just need to move everything to OSX to make everything wonderful and reduce IT costs and ensure end-user satisfaction. It doesn’t work that way in the real world, and never has.
Separately, the SaveXP imbecility is a great example of the fickleness and idiocy of the buying public, really.
Two of the biggest strikes against XP were/are inherent security problems and cumbersome, problematic and never-ending legacy support. And Vista does away with a great deal of legacy compatibility on the hardware front (totally new driver model) and its overdue security changes destroy software compatibility for legacy run-as-admin applications (privilege elevation). So M$ gives users (especially IT managers) what they’ve demanded for years, and now some of them don’t want it. Morons. They’re basically pissed off that Vista isn’t XP. Dumb. They deserve to be unhappy.
The bigger morons, however, are people expecting Windows 7 to be more like XP than Vista…even though 7 will just be a refined (perhaps smaller) version of Vista.
If only M$ could have cut off legacy support post-W2K the way Apple did in the PowerPC/Intel transition.
Six years old…? Getting closer to SEVEN years.
These current “fans” of XP should not be concerned. “Windows 7” will be Windows XP Service Pack 3
This is another Coke moment. Just rename Wiindows XP as Windows Classic … and ka-ching ka-ching … <g>
@scottschor,
My coke moments tend to be trying to figure out why I am still at a club at 6 am and dancing with a chick with purple hair.
“
These current “fans” of XP should not be concerned. “Windows 7″ will be Windows XP Service Pack 3”
Um, no. SP3 is just the last 92 WinXP updates all rolled into one package with a couple minor networking enhancements, slated for release in Q2 08.
Thanks for playing.
Our company won’t migrate to Vista. And we don’t dare sell our clients Vista PCs because there are too many questions related to graphics performance/stability. Now everyone’s asking if we should switch to Linux or “something else” that shall not be mentioned.
(Mac is kinda treated like Lord Valdimort around here.)
I say cut out XP right this moment and sit back and watch the howling begin….heheheheheh
Serious 2000/XP/Vista question, and I welcome input.
I switched to Macs in 1998 and haven’t looked back. However, there is one single program I need and it’s windows only. I have harangued the manufacturer relentlessly, offering many reasons (Mac’s increasing market share, customer demographics, etc) he should port his software to the Mac or at least cooperate with Codeweavers. They’re just not interested.
I’ve been running WinXP via Virtual PC on my Mac G5 dual 2GHz/4GB RAM but it’s still painfully slow. I’m planning to upgrade to an Intel Mac this year, making Windows via Parallels or Fusion possible. Much as I hate the thought of sullying my Mac with a windows installation, I’m going to have to make a decision about this.
The options are Win2000, XP or Vista.
* I already have an older Win2000 install CD.
* My WinXP is part of the VirtualPC install and I don’t know of any way to get it to install Windows without attempting to install VPC. So I would have to go buy the XP disk before it’s gone.
* Wait and see if Vista gets any better.
The question:
Which of these is the least odious option and why?
thanks
We should all go sing up on the petition to Save XP just to irritate Microsoft!
http://reg.itworld.com/servlet/Frs.frs?Context=LOGENTRY&Source=entdesk&Source_BC=13&Script;=/LP/80276783/reg&
Is it just me, or do the Windows IT guys submitting comments sound a bit arrogant and on edge?
> Um, no. SP3 is just the last 92 WinXP updates all rolled into one package
@Another IT Guy
Since you took my comment so seriously, thanks for the correction… Windows 7 will be Windows XP Service Pack 4.
Copy / Paste / Find / Replace
OpenBSD / NeXTOS Anyone?
Apple’s answer to everything, copy, paste, change the name, put an expensive $ on it…
Think Different feltchers
Taking XP of the market is the only way that Vista is going to sale and actually be used… if you can use the term “used’ and Vista in the same breath!
It’s time XP users stop bitching and starting walking into the nearest Apple Store to buy a iMac with OS X!
Grow up folks Vista is yesterdays product and crap too!
On a personal note, I have recently returned to my former company, one named for a plentiful eco-friendly natural building material. Instead of the StinkPad laptop I was saddled with before, I got a lovely MBP and a Quad Xeon MP for the office. I’ll be getting some sort of Windows box to test PC software, but to my delight I will no longer have to use virtualization to perform certain day-to-day tasks in XP/IE. Sometimes life is just good like that.
Long-time Mac supporter though I am, I have to point out again that switching to the Mac is not the best option for all Windows users. Many computer users are rank amateurs who have managed, over time, to memorize by rote the keystrokes needed to perform simple computer tasks. These people should not switch to the Mac unless they have a source of ongoing support after the switch is made.
The Mac may be easier to use than a Windows machine, but it is still different. Many people are not interested in learning things. Many more are not mentally prepared for the challenge. It does folks like this no good at all to be lured into a decision they may later regret.
Congrats C1. Now you will no longer have to wash your hands at the end of the work day after using your StinkPad with…..yup XP!!!
@Guest51
The options are Win2000, XP or Vista. XP, it’s the most stable and least buggy
* I already have an older Win2000 install CD. Irrelevant, it’s already activated, Microsoft will not allow you to activate it again
* My WinXP is part of the VirtualPC install and I don’t know of any way to get it to install Windows without attempting to install VPC. So I would have to go buy the XP disk before it’s gone. Buy the OEM version at Fry’s or TigerDirect for $90
* Wait and see if Vista gets any better. Enjoy the wait, pay more money, all for just one application??
Chrissy, congrats on leaving Adobe
to Guest51:
I believe there may be a way to clone that VPC drive image and restore it into Fusion/Parallels. If your VPC XP instance is already installed and configured, you may want to create a new one from the original installation CD. If I remember VPC well, it will create an XP image similar to the OEM distributions, which is ready for user configuration and registration. If you can clone that, XP should work with Parallels. You will need BootCamp drivers, though, but they come on the Mac Install DVD anyway.
If it doesn’t work, I would choose between a retail version of XP home or the existing CD of W2k. I would avoid Vista like the plague – no benefit there for running it in emulation.
@ Buster
No kidding. I hated to even take it to meetings, even though everyone else had one, too. Funny, though… this time around, I am noticing a LOT more MBP’s in those meetings.
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To SheepRegister (re: Guest51 question):
Windows 2000 had no activation process. You install the software, punch in the CD key and it works. They introduced the idiotic software activation (of the Adobe CS kind) in XP, and have ‘perfected’ it with Vista…
@Guest51:
Some time ago I was in the exact same position. After giving it some thought, I went with the cheapest solution: I bought VMware Fusion and installed my version of Windows 2000 Professional. As I already owned Win 2000 pro, it was much cheaper than buying XP. None of my Windows programs require any XP features.
So far, things have worked out very well. The Windows programs I am forced to use run better on my Mac than on any genuine Windows computer I have used – much better. They are heavy technical number-crunching programs with some semi-serious graphics interspersed.
Hang on a minute. So, Microsoft roles out it’s biggest-rip-filled-drawn-out-pileofshit ever on the form of Vista. Current Windows users are appalled. So far, this is all normal. But. Then it becomes apparent that the ditch that is Windows is so deep that its users can’t see through the crap, and so the users either run deeper into the shitty ditch or push on, in the hope that there may be something better coming, delusionally place trust in the same company that released Vista to bring out something better? I rode away on my big cat ages ago. Enjoy being stuck in the Windows ditch. Things aren’t going to get better…
I would have bought a mac years ago. But one thing remains for me as an XP user. And that is PC games. And no…I will never buy a console. The PC game will always be superior in terms of power, versatility and control.
Because windows is threatening to destroy pc gaming with its insistence of tying DirectX 10 with vista while vista itself is failing I’m not sure what to do.
I wish Apple would take advantage of this and make a move to make PC games natively work with mac. And no, I’m not talking about the few games that they have.
I want Steve Jobs to seriously pursue making some sort of translator or encouraging the entire PC gaming dev community to start making games in openGL. Or perhaps Apple’s CIDER initiative could gather more steam.
*sigh* At least though I plan on buying the Newton 2.0 or whatever it turns out to be. Hopefully soon.
“We have lobster to eat and champagne to drink.”
Who says Americans are not civilised ? Not me.
Really inane MacDailyNews article author comments.
I work with clients on both Windows and Macintosh. There is no need to try to demonize and blame Windows users. Those who are trying to get XP sales to continue are actually very well-meaning. And for some people, switching to a Mac is not a current option.
My take: Public outcry to continue XP sales and support, and to avoid Vista is sensible and shows how out-of-touch Microsoft’s current operating system development and marketing is.
Suggest, encourage switching, yes, and don’t bash those who don’t.
‘those who live by the sword will die by the sword’
‘those who live by criticizing, demonizing others will have that judgment returned onto themselves’ it’s just the way life works.
A toast to all on the MDN OSX Yacht! *clink*
The difference I’ve noted:
Winduhz users just completely dread and fear system upgrades. Some still using pre-XP stuff.
Mac users can’t wait for the next upgrade. We stand in line for blocks at the store and cheer!
Joe and Jane SixPack deserve whatever flavor of Windows they continue to buy !!!!
Hmmm….
So MS continues to support floppy drives, parallel ports, and DOS in the name of “flexibility” and “choice”.
Yes, the same MS that’s about to force a Windows nobody wants onto their own consumers. The same Windows even MS is already scrambling to deep-six…
Apple, it’s time to gear up a massive ad campaign, and catch everyone who’s finally had it.
@raskol
“MDN: There’s no reason for your comments on this topic. These are IT departments and support people. They don’t have the option to go OS X. And they don’t want to support a bloated unnecessary Vista. All they need is XP. There is no compelling reason to ‘upgrade’ to Vista. They can’t run their apps under OS X.
So MDN, STFU. Your comments are beside the point.”
Raskol you are so blinkered in your reading of MDN’s comments.
How can you say that they don’t have the option to go OS X?
Are you saying that MS has the right to be the only supplier of operating systems to enterprise? Are you saying that the POS backward, upside down, insecure joke of a Windows operating system is in some way more capable than OS X?
OS X can do anything Windows can do only far better, more secure and far easier for the end user. We run out entire web hosting business without the requirement for any Microsoft crap and we don’t need an IT department to keep it all working either. That’s what IT guys are scared of. Becoming Dinosaurs.
However, if you really need to use ‘doze for some of your old software as MDN pointed out. With a Mac, OS X and either VMware fusion or Parallels Desktop you can run a copy of Windows XP to run any legacy apps you want and when you come to upgrade your apps you can get Mac versions or alternatives one at a time. That way you can be free of MS over time and take the pressure off your users by doing it gradually.
Now if you are upgrading your hardware, I can’t see any reason why you couldn’t contact M$ and tell them you want to transfer your license of XP to a new box. You paid for it so you should be able to have it running on a machine for life right? So as long as you give them your assurance that you will wipe the drive on your old dated beige box they should re-activate it. Or just tell them that your hard drive died and you are re-installing it. Either way it’s your copy.
So what’s the problem Raskol?
Telling MDN to STFU on their own website where they have the right to comment however they see fit is a little cheeky no?
What a chump!!!
I want my…
I want my damn XP
I want my…
I want my damn XP
Look at them yo-yos!
That’s the way you do it!
Forget that vista and stick with damn XP
Vista ain’t workin’
That’s the way you do it!
Blow your money on nothing
I thought shit was free
My next door neighbor uses Macintosh OS
It never crashes
The thing is virus free-ee-ee -eee!
I got to install all these damn patches
I got to install security-ee-ee-ee!
MDW friends as in “Friends don’t let friends use windoz!”
@ray
I know of one instance where Apple recommends a power down for hooking up external displays: the 30 inch display. I would guess that the hardware you were trying to hook up might fall into the same category and I believe you now know the reason why.
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@Raskol
STFU yourself:
http://weblogs.jupiterresearch.com/analysts/gartenberg/archives/2008/04/the_myths_of_ap.html