With Windows Vista’s public perception in shambles and most IT departments stubbornly refusing to adopt it, has the time come for an early post-mortem on Vista? Here are the top five reasons why Vista has failed.
nandemoari writes “The long-running “Vista Capable” lawsuit challenging Microsoft’s marketing of PCs capable of running only the most basic version of the Windows Vista operating system has reportedly lost its class-action status. Federal judge Marsha Pechman decertified the class-action lawsuit, saying that plaintiffs had failed to show that consumers paid more for PCs with the “Vista Capable” label than they would have otherwise.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
CWmike writes “Microsoft has denied that it makes money when users ‘downgrade’ Windows Vista to XP, as a lawsuit filed last week alleges. The lawsuit, submitted last week, stems from the .25 fee that a California woman was charged in mid-2008 when she bought a Lenovo laptop and downgraded from Vista to XP. In fact, it’s computer makers, not Microsoft per se, that charge users the additional fees for downgrading a new PC from Vista to XP at the factory. For example, Dell Inc. adds an extra to the price to downgrade a PC. However, Microsoft may profit from the way it structures downgrade rights.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
crazyeyes writes “Microsoft says it’s ‘optional,’ but they are already planning to slip Internet Explorer 8 into all Windows Vista/XP PCs by March. MS claims that IE8 will offer better performance and security. But what about unwanted stuff like ‘Monetization opportunities (for OEMs)’ and ‘These services will be used (by OEMs) to deliver brand exposure… to the users?'”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
A woman has filed suit against Microsoft over a .25 charge for downgrading her Windows Vista PC to XP.
A number of security flaws have been found in Windows 7’s streamlined UAC—flaws that Windows Vista is immune to—prompting a series of surprising responses from Microsoft. We take a look at what the flaws are, and what’s being done about them.
While much of the media is tripping over itself to mark the Second Coming of Windows (aka the Windows 7 beta), I recall the First Install of Vista. Though I have been running Vista without major incident since January of 2008, the initial switch consigned me immediately to my own private Vista hell. Let’s hope Microsoft makes the upgrade to Windows
mamaphoenix writes “Paul McDougall of InformationWeek reports Computer enthusiasts who want to get their hands on the trial version of Microsoft’s next operating system have just two more weeks to do so. The company says it will end availability of Windows 7 Beta on Feb. 10. There are a couple of loopholes, however. Users who started to download the OS before that date will have until Feb. 12 to complete the process. Also, Microsoft will continue to distribute product keys beyond Feb. 12 to users who have previously downloaded Windows 7 Beta but have yet to obtain a key. ‘We are at a point where we have more than enough beta testers and feedback coming in to meet our engineering needs, so we are beginning to plan the end of general availability for Windows 7 Beta,’ said Brandon LeBlanc, Microsoft’s in-house Windows blogger, in a post Friday. Microsoft will post warnings on its Web site that the download program for Windows 7 is about to end starting Tuesday. A final version of Windows 7, Microsoft’s follow-up to Windows Vista, is expected to be available in late 2009 or early 2010.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
The next major update to Microsoft’s Windows Vista operating system could arrive as late as May or June 2009, months later than originally expected.
snydeq writes “Windows XP, Windows Vista, and (soon) Windows 7 all support SMP out of the box, but as InfoWorld’s Randall Kennedy notes, ‘experience has shown that multiprocessing across discrete CPUs is not the same thing as multiprocessing across integrated cores within the same CPU.’ As such, Kennedy set out to stress the multiprocessing capabilities of Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 in dual-core and quad-core performance tests. The comprehensive, multiprocess workload tests were undertaken to document scalability, execution efficiency, and raw performance of workloads. ‘What I found may surprise you,’ Kennedy writes. ‘Not only does Microsoft have a firm grasp of multicore tuning, but its scalability story promises to keep getting better with time. In other words, Windows Vista and Windows 7 are poised to reap ever greater performance benefits as Intel and AMD extend the number of cores in future editions of their processors.'”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
