Early Vista sales fall short of expectations.

[miaplacidus]

Well, considering that the cheapest Vista-capable computer here in Uruguay costs well over 1,000 US dollars (without including Vista itself), this doesn't surprise me at all.

I can't think of spending $400 in something that does the same that Linux and OS X can do since a couple of years ago. And of course, you have to remember that, with Linux, you can make your Pentium II-based computer look as good as Vista without transparencies (well, you can use transparent menus and window decorations... quite an achievement)

Yeah, I said Pentium II.

Please consider that Vista requires a processor running at 1 GHz and 512 MB of RAM even if you choose the "Windows Classic" theme (which makes it look like an enhanced version of Windows 2000, whose GUI was itself an enhanced version of the one found in Windows 95 and NT 4). Most Linux distros will be perfectly happy with your 350 MHz Pentium II and 256 MB of RAM. I know by experience.

You can guess that I won't upgrade to Vista, even while my computer is Vista-capable. It would be against my principles.

 

[star-warrior]

I didn't rate it that greatly when I fiddled around with a computer shop computer the other day. It seems to be graphically driven, and rather unintuitive.

If it's power to repair itself is anything to go by, then great, else, why fix something that's not broken? XP is fine for what I'm doing, and until this computer is on its last dying legs, I won't be opting for a Vista machine any time soon.

 

[psychobandit]

I didn't rate it that greatly when I fiddled around with a computer shop computer the other day. It seems to be graphically driven, and rather unintuitive.

If it's power to repair itself is anything to go by, then great, else, why fix something that's not broken? XP is fine for what I'm doing, and until this computer is on its last dying legs, I won't be opting for a Vista machine any time soon.

I'm totally with you on that. I have heard very little good about Vista. Really am not that impressed with XP either, took me almost a year to get used to it's qwerks (sp?). And I fought like crazy to keep my old computer going which ran Win95, which I loved (sigh).

 

[cellular]

Well i liked XP. I think its the best one microsoft has come up with. Vista is kindof unreasonable in its hardware requirements, so im not going to upgrade ty it anytime soon. Maybe when i get a new computer in a couple of years, then i will go for it.

 

[FabFairy]

Microsoft's stock dropped 2.4% Friday after CEO Steve Ballmer reported that Microsft's projections for the sale of Vista were "overly aggressive". Microsoft refuses to say exactly how badly Vista is doing in the marketplace. Ballmer blamed the poor sales on piracy.

Not surprising that Vista isn't doing well considering the changes you need to make just to use it. Tho it may be believed that everyone one has a pentium 4 sitting on the desk it is far from the truth. As for blaming piracy for poor sales what a crock. More like users don't want an operating system that requires 15 gb of hard drives space but will run all there software they currently have instead of having to go and buy new software.

Microsoft plans to market Vista aggressively in coming weeks, so expect to see a blitz of Vista ads soon."

They had already started here in Australia but you have to know something is wrong considering with previous version of Windows there was only ever little or no advertising at all.

Meanwhile, Linux PC maker Shafetech has raised its 2007 sales projections by 18% for desktops and 14% for laptops. "We firmly believe the launch of Windows Vista will persuade Windows users to make the move to Linux,"

I can believe that Linux will take off and it's best advocate will be Vista because of the price (Hardware and Software).

I've already installed and run Vista and found that it was a load of S**T, it would run only a few programs I have and if you want to run AVG you need to update the operating system but then it had problems Updating to work at all it wanted to use setting that are not compatable with my ISP.

I will be staying with my old operating system for many years to come I think.

 

[lonestar]

Please consider that Vista requires a processor running at 1 GHz and 512 MB of RAM even if you choose the "Windows Classic" theme (which makes it look like an enhanced version of Windows 2000, whose GUI was itself an enhanced version of the one found in Windows 95 and NT 4). Most Linux distros will be perfectly happy with your 350 MHz Pentium II and 256 MB of RAM. I know by experience.

Come on, it's harder to find a 350MHZ Pentium II computer out there, then a Pentium 4. Most people out there who consider upgrading have at least a 1 GHz Machine and if not, they really should stick with whatever OS they have running.

Believe me, Vista is NOT that demanding. At least 1,6 GHz should be common these days. The only thing is the memory needed. You should have 1 GB. But you get 1 GB for around $100.

Vista is not perfect. But Mac OS X is not perfect either. Even if there hasn't been an avalanche of viruses for Mac, there hasn't been one of software either And Linux is mostly for geeks (those more geeky then me). Linux will never be a real rival for Microsoft in the desktop sector.

 

[rotary]

The basic Vista upgrade package is only $129 CAD. That's actually pretty cheap, but it's wasted money for me when you look at the main selling features.

I used XP for years and didn't have much of a security problem. Had a firewall and ran antivirus software once in a while and everything was fine.

I'm not going to spend over a hundred dollars for graphics that are accelerated by a video card instead of the CPU.

Make it a $50 downloadable upgrade and I might consider buying.

 

[Matt1809]

the main points not liked about vista is the inbuilt copyright protection for video and audio and the extra load on computer resources due to the internal system data encryption for audio and video content

Oh for gods sake thats not true, its ONLY activated if you use Blu-Ray or HD-DVD.

Vista isnt selling because many people are still waiting for applications to fix any compatability issues. Along with the fact that people dont like to upgrade their systems. Plus, those who got the upgrade to vista for free from buying a new computer recently have to wait, as many OEMs like dell havent got their shit together to get the drivers out for their systems, and have thus delayed releaseing those copies.

most people were operfectly satisfied with XP and not too many people have $400 just laying around begging to be spent...for no apparent reason.

Uh, Home Premium Upgrade is only $150 which is not lot, especially considering OSX has had $510 worth of updates in the time between XP and Vista.


Now, Office 2007 sales have been booming and have sold more the double that of Office 2003 when it first launched.
http://www.informationweek.com/management/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=197006187

 

[mike_n_herrin]

it doesn't surprise me. no computer magazine that i get (and that covered vista) has said there is any real reason to upgrade to it.

 

[cityboy-stl]

Well I'm not surprized and they shouldn't be either considering you need so many hardware upgrades to make it work right. What does Vista give me that XP doesn't? Nothing that I can see. I'd be willing to try Linux but the problem with Linux is the applications. I need Windows for remote access to the network at my job. I need Windows for several personal applications, Quicken and TurboTax primarily. So until stuff that runs on Windows also runs on Linux, Linux is out.

 

[InvisibleThrills]

I can understand completely why it is failing. Like others have said before the requirements are too high, and only exclusive PC owners can use it. Also, buisnesses are not going to switch yet because they have finally gotten XP to the point in which it can effectively be used in the workplace. I am a Mac user, but I used to be devoted to PCs previously. I will never go back. Vista is just such a blatant rip off of Mac OS X, but Apple is actually smart because when they update their OS they actually account for people who are using slower computers, so they continually optimize the code to which the slower computers will run at the same speed and sometimes even faster.

Another reason why sales have not rocketed is also due to the amount of variations in versions. I have never understood the idea that "Home" users wouldn't want features that "Premium" users have. Shouldn't a company want to give consumers the most amount of opprotunities through their OS?

 

[Jeimuzu]

There are 10 kinds of people in the world when it comes to computers:

Those who understand them

and

Those who don't

Haha someone had to say it!

I get vista for free. Legally. So ner.

 

[Jeimuzu]

Well, I don't have it, but I could if I wanted to, anyway.

 

[gewhite3]

I have Vista Premium, and I think it's cool. It has a lot of new features and I find myself still discovering and I am pleased with the performance.

 

[mike_n_herrin]

Maximum PC magazine has said in a few issues, including last months (i think it was last months...maybe this months also) there is no reason to upgrade to Vista. That is until the first DirectX 10 games come out.

 

[BrandonSBCA]

Maximum PC magazine has said in a few issues, including last months (i think it was last months...maybe this months also) there is no reason to upgrade to Vista. That is until the first DirectX 10 games come out.

Yeah but won't you need a really expensive video card that supports DirectX 10?

Also I just experienced my first blue screen tonight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Lucas07]

As expected! I mean on microsoft's part, It kinda appears like it isn't well thought of... this vista. I mean from the OS itself up to the marketing and what have you, I think it's a mess.

I mean I have a decent P4 3ghz PC that's not old at all, but I have to upgrade some of the hardware just to be able to run Vista. And I won't shell out that much money for my computer hardware just to be able to spend some more on the OS. That's just silly. XP works fine anyway. why go vista? All you get is incompatibility, lotsa problems. A plus could be the GUI but I think it's ugly anyway. Plus the bad reviews (almost all of the reviews are bad) well then what would the consumer do?

So, it's what I expected.

 

[mike_n_herrin]

I've even seen one magazine compare Vista to Microsoft's folly with Windows Me. I personally do NOT have nor have seen or used Vista, so I don't know. But when i read a lot of features that were to be in Vista were pushed back to Vienna...that made me think of Windows Me. So i wasn't surprised to see the comparison.

 

[_AJ_]

As expected! I mean on microsoft's part, It kinda appears like it isn't well thought of... this vista. I mean from the OS itself up to the marketing and what have you, I think it's a mess.

I mean I have a decent P4 3ghz PC that's not old at all, but I have to upgrade some of the hardware just to be able to run Vista. And I won't shell out that much money for my computer hardware just to be able to spend some more on the OS. That's just silly. XP works fine anyway. why go vista? All you get is incompatibility, lotsa problems. A plus could be the GUI but I think it's ugly anyway. Plus the bad reviews (almost all of the reviews are bad) well then what would the consumer do?

So, it's what I expected.

if you have 512mb of ram youre fine and if you dont get some more ram its dirt cheap and will make your pc run much faster even with XP

 

[BrandonSBCA]

I've even seen one magazine compare Vista to Microsoft's folly with Windows Me. I personally do NOT have nor have seen or used Vista, so I don't know. But when i read a lot of features that were to be in Vista were pushed back to Vienna...that made me think of Windows Me. So i wasn't surprised to see the comparison.

I've been on both operating systems, and I can say that with Windows ME it had a huge issue with memory hog. Windows ME had the issue with the memory not freeing up when you closed a program which left you with dangerously low system resources. That was basically the only issue I had, that and the blue screens whenever the system didn't want to work right.

Windows Vista is kind of different, I'm not able to see blue screen of death. The memory is not an issue as when I close a program the memory frees up. But Vista eats up a lot of memory, which is why you should run 1GB of RAM if you want to run smoothly. If you're the type of person to not use huge programs like Adobe Photoshop, gaming then you're likely to not crash and burn. But what do I really know. I'm kind of scared having my first blue screen tonight.

Also it seems someone tried to hack my computer last night.