[Thinkpad] Windows Vista Questions

[Aryeh Goretsky (home)]

Hello,

In my experience, most people do make changes to their systems to
personalize them.  Most of these tend to be on the cosmetic side,
such as  changes to resolution, typeface, colors, wallpaper or the
shortcuts which appear on the Desktop, but people do tend to modify
their computers.  I guess it is a matter of whether a change from
the default settings is considered a "tweak" or not.  Usability
takes different forms for different people.

Microsoft, Lenovo, IBM and all other companies are businesses and
businesses exist to make money [I've actually heard the term "derive
value for their stakeholders" used, but that generally comes down to
making money.].  I assume companies assign a value to maintaining old
notebooks or operating systems with updates and patches, knowing that
some customers use that as a datum point for future purchases, etc.

 From personal experience, I know that keeping an old version of a program
around for download does incur costs beyond storage and bandwidth.  Even
if clearly labeled as unsupported, people still ask questions about it
and those cost time and money to deal with.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky



At 08:56 AM 12/24/2007, you wrote:

>Message: 2
>Date: Mon, 24 Dec 2007 05:32:47 -0700
>From: Desertech <canyonlands at gmail.com>
>Subject: Re: [Thinkpad] Windows Vista Questions
>To: "Aryeh Goretsky (home)" <goretsky at gmail.com>
>Cc: thinkpad at stderr.org
>Message-ID:
>         <69363c910712240432y69c83ad8nb37a26b5d6a7be2 at mail.gmail.com>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
>I have a lot of respect for what you do, and have learned a great deal
>from your posts over the past few years.  Your suggestions are well
>thought out, and clearly written.
>
>What you say about tweaking is indicative of the problem that concerns
>me with the average user.  The average person should not have to tweak
>his or her system, and most cannot.  They should not be expected to
>spend $85 (the average here) to get tech help in stabilizing their
>system.
>
>The fault lies across the board. VISTA will be a great OS, for those
>machines with adequate memory, video cards, audio systems, and
>screens. But it will take SP1, or perhaps SP2 for it to get there.
>Dell, HP, Gateway, and Sony have done their customers a significant
>disservice by putting VISTA on computers that were not ready, and by
>sending them upgrade discs that caused problems, then not providing
>adequate tech support.
>
>Microsoft confused the issue with too many versions that included a
>basic version that just is not good enough, and an Ultimate version
>that did not fulfull its promises.  They counted on their counterparts
>at Sony, HP, Gateway, and Dell to thoroughly study the OS and prepare
>their systems for it. Perhaps there was not nearly enough
>communication.
>
>On the other side, VISTA has been remarkably trouble-free compared
>with any previous versions.  Memory, hard drives, audio systems,
>networks, and  ethernet connections are astonishingly cheap compared
>to just four years ago... But new computers are much more expensive.
>The total cost of ownership appears to be about the same. The eventual
>usage will be such an improvement that we cannot anticipate what it
>will be like in 2009 or 2010, with the changes in techology of
>hand-held devices, LCD TV's, graphics, gaming and audio systems.
>
>VISTA was not necessary... but that it will be later on.  It was a
>money grab for Microsoft and for the computer manufacturers, but it
>was over prices and poorly supported.  Tech support people in the
>community didn't have a clue.
>
>My prediction is that Microsoft will release the  new OS they are
>already working on... before 2010. Will they call it by a new name, or
>will they call it Service Pack 2 as they did for WXP, which was a
>total rewrite of WXP.
>
>I would be quite happy with whatever Microsoft does with Windows
>VISTA, IF they allow WXP to continue to exist.  VISTA does not replace
>WXP in my mind.  People will continue to require support for WXP for
>years. WXP is too good, and should be sold as an alternative from now
>on.  I thought Microsoft's  dropping of support for W98SE, WME was
>unfair.  Now all the peripheral markets have dropped support as well.
>Millions of people around the world are stranded by this.  You can no
>longer get drivers, or printer downloads for W98, ME,  or W2K.
>Micorosoft clearly could afford to continue support. All their users
>will eventually move upward to WXP, VISTA, and beyond.  Why force the
>change?
>
>Stoopid is as Stoopid does. The business side and the marketers had
>all the clout, and the technical side was ignored.  Now they are
>playing catch-up.  At least, VISTA is not another WMe.  The national
>average for tech support in the home and office is $65 to $85 an hour,
>with a $140 minimum. That cost is too high for a computer that cost
>$500 to $900.  The fact that the computer can be tweaked by a good
>tech is somehow the wrong idea... it should not be required.

[...snip...]