I don’t normally take one post and turn it into another one via the comments, but I am making an exception today. The reason for the departure in usual tack is that I wrote a joking post back in February of 2006 about Windows Vista. The crazy thing is that today it is ranked extremely high for the search term “problems with windows vista” (#2 in Google at this writing). Bingo. Jackpot. The post sat idle for almost a year until Microsoft released Vista and then, what do you know, it now is one of the biggest traffic magnets at this site.

The crazy thing is that since I don’t usually talk about Windows Vista, or Operating System stuff in general, the conversation surrounding Vista stays isolated to that post. And the truth is, regular readers never see the post – even though there’s quite the lively conversation going on over there.

So I’m taking the comments that really have nothing to do with the post, summarizing them here in this post, and turning all of you loose so more people can participate in the dialog. (Spelling and typos corrected)

To start with, commenter “Vandal” comments:

Last time I checked, Mac is the only OS that ever shows up in movies. In any case, Windows Vista is a “œWholly Crap! NIGHTMARE!” “¦ You talk about wanting my $256 back really bad right about now. I could send you a boatload of error “œsnippets” that I’ve taken in Vista Home Premium in the past couple of hellish days since buying it. I’m almost in tears it’s so freakin’ bad. I have a nice clean version”¦still in the plastic”¦of WIN 95. I think I’m going to install it on a dual boot just so I can use my computer again.

Reader “ash” states:

I have a dual core AMD and 2 gigs of ram, at times it runs great. But 3 quarters of the time the system resources are such a hog that it is like i am running on a p3 with 256 mb of ram. Vista is crap right now and i hope for everyones sake Microsoft addresses this issue in the near future, otherwise Mac may be the way of the future. That would be most unfortunate cause all our computers would then look like a little childs computer.Don’t believe the hype of an OS that has been put out 4 years before it was actually ready.

Vizagg adds:

CD burnt on Vista are having problem recognizing in Windows XP. It says file is corrupted, etc. .. Ha Ha.. wasted two CDs.. They really need to think again.

Cruise says:

I have to laugh at some of the comments given about Vista, and i feel for those of you that took the jump to purchase Vista. Bad move. Whats more i can see that more than half of you are computer and OS saavy,so i sit here scratching my head wondering why you would buy it. Take a tip reformat your computers and reinstall Win XP, save yourselves the stress lol.

Keith Brooks makes the comment:

I purchased Vista Home Premium and it truly suck’s . Windows Update takes 8 or more times downloading updates to actually install them.

It has downloaded definition updates for Windows Defender and failed to install them for over 2 weeks.
The Free 3 Month’s of Tech Support that come’s with Vista is a joke. I e-mailed them last Sunday and still haven’t recieved any real answer’s or solutions for the numerous problem’s this o.s. has caused.

I ran the Upgrade Advisor at Microsoft’s website before Christmas and it said my p.c. could handle Vista Ultimate , if I removed X.P.’s Power Toys and updated my Video Card driver.

Now , I get error message’s when I try to use my Lexmark X7170 Printer ,
One Touch 2 portable H.D. and it also doesn’t recognize my T.V. tuner / F.M. radio card.

It recognized all this and said everything I just listed was compatible.

Did Microsoft change the Vista compatibilities since before Christmas when I ran there Upgrade Advisor at there Web Site for it .

What a joke and nightmare rolled into one.

P.S. If your considering Vista repeatedly rethink about it as Aero , User Account / Parental Control’s and Media Center aren’t worth the headache’s for the price any version of Vista cost’s.

Be very careful in your decision making , when it com’s to Vista as it could be another 5 years for the next version from Redmond .

RyanDigitalArtist came up with the latest diatribe:

WINDOWS VISTA IS NOT CRAP, its just a long way from finished, what they seemed to have done was release the beta in the form of a final copy. AND WHAT THE HELL PEOPLE ““> dont you remember when xp came out, it had a million more problems than vista has now. Never forget the past, wait a year then buy it, they should have the major bugs fixed by then and then all will be good.

To which David Nick responded:

Say RyanDigitalArtist?

If all we had in this country to drive were Ford Escorts or Yugo’s and you didn’t own a Yugo because it wasn’t well known, so Escorts were your thing, and then because of the lack of diversity you were forced to endure malfunctions, driving along at highway speeds when suddenly your car craps out on you, and each 5 years you waited for a new version of an escort only to see the same damn thing happen”¦.tell me”¦how long you’d defend Ford because their last Escort had the same problems and it only took them 5 years to work the kinks out?

Seems to me your are defending the indefensible. There is no reason to release Vista when it’s obviously flawed while they have XP and in its current state seems to work. Why not focus on fixing the problems and security with the current one rather than force us to swallow yet another mega-blunder?

Strange eh?

I think it’s best to carry the conversation here? What do you think?