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Forbes Says Vista Not People Ready
Diomedes01 writes "Daniel Lyons has an opinion piece up on Forbes.com about a recent press conference held by Microsoft, and the results are anything but flattering."
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Let's take my three sisters. Each has a degree in biology. Each considers me their personal tech support when anything "breaks." It sucks.
I've gotten phone calls from them about the behavior of Windows XP on multiple occasions. Once they thought all their windows kept closing if they opened too many. As it turns out, they had the "grouping" feature enabled for windows of the same type on the toolbar.
*sigh*
Now Vista will have a new 3D effect to window grouping. Sweet Jesus, I am turning my cell phone off. I can imagine it now, "All my windows are turning sideways! Make it stop!"
Aside from "Ease of Use," I don't think any of the advertised features are going to meld well with any of my sisters. The new 'Aero' technology is no match for my sisters' Airhead logic.
I plan to make up some story for them about how Vista is the devil and if you install it, it will slowly begin to ruin your computer. Oh, and if you try to save your biology notes, it especially hates the medical sciences so it will delete them instantly. Not to mention that its new 'AI' abilities allow it to call you names if it perceives you to be an unqualified user. That should stop them from buying it.
The worst part is that Microsoft can smell this potential market in young people who don't know what they need: That's exactly the kind of publicity stunt that would cause all three of my sisters to run out and buy Vista. *shudders* He's an fucking fashion designer! What the fuck would he know about computer software?!?!
And what is with this part of the article: This article brought to you by Forbes Magazine's Daniel Lyons, owner of stock in AAPL.
Thanks, Dan, I was with you there until that last paragraph where your Apple sales pitch kicked in.
My work here is dung.
Vista not People Ready
But, but, but... "When you combine people and technology, you have a very powerful combination." Fashion designer (and part time Microsoft shill) Tommy Hilfiger said so! So it MUST be true! Vista is the future! Viva la Vista!
Seriously, though. A voice command from your cellphone to check email? What are these guys smoking?
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
People reject OpenOffice and reject even Mac, because they don't know any different. They have been "programmed" to use Microsoft Windows, therefore, until they are told different, they will continue to use Microsoft Windows.
We can sit around all we want and say stuff like "when people get tired of (malware|viruses|spyware|whateverelse)" they will switch to (Linux|Mac).
It's just not true. People will switch when they are told to. Nothing else. Until Companies FORCE people to switch, there will be no switching.
FTA: Microsoft execs also talked about "Impacting People," then they dragged out fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger, who seemed very "impacted" as he sang praise for Microsoft programs ...
"When you combine people and technology, you have a very powerful combination." Think about that. Just let it sink in for a minute.
I for one welcome our new Vista powered overlords.
He's a troll, and an inconsistent one at that.
The final paragraph of the linked articleReally explains alot. I presumed this guy (with his anti IBM, Novell & Linux stance) was an MS shill. Turns out he's just another Apple fanboy.
My pics.
> Instead, we got a demo that was about as compelling as a root canal followed by a 15-minute press conference with Ballmer, the Microsoft chief executive who seems incapable of speaking at any level softer than a bellow.
>[...]
>I wonder if Ballmer ever feels like the guy in Groundhog Day, reliving the same press conference, over and over. I know I do.
Developers. Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers.
Gee, I wonder why it feels like Groundhog Day.
(I was in the Virgin Islands once. I met Natalie Portman. We ate hot grits and drank pina coladas from tikis made of petrified wood. At sunset we made love like sea otters. *That* was a pretty good day. Why couldn't I get that day over and over and over...)
As I understand things, many Software Assurance Plans, which were essentially forced on customers with the claim that Longhorn would be available, expire as of 12/31/06.
I wonder if there may be issues with claims salesmen made and this date slippage.
You see, this is an example of where the article goes wrong. Daniel Lyons didn't realize they were talking about this kind of impaction.
----------------------------------- My Other Sig Is Hilarious -----------------------------------
"Windows Vista -- Get The Facts"
"Windows Vista -- A Powerful Combination Of Combined Powers"
"Windows Vista -- Sheep Ready"
"Windows Vista -- Because The Richest Bloke In The World Says So"
"Windows Vista -- Almost Ready"
"Windows Vista -- Or I Hit You With This Chair"
Rich And Stupid is not so bad as Working For Rich And Stupid.
I work for a large biotech company. Upper management uses Windows-based systems, as does manufacturing.
However, I work in research. Until recently the systems were about 50-50 Windows / Mac with the exceptions of bioinformatics (mostly Linux), and cheminformatics (mostly Irix). However, more recently, vendors have been phasing out the use of Windows for instrumentation control in favor of Linux. Nearly all the structural chemistry applications have moved to Linux, and most genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics software is now Linux-based (and, frequently, runs just fine on Macs too). Macs are still pretty popular, but the use of Windows in research is pretty much considered "legacy" at this point.
If you come from an academic environment in contemporary biology, you were probably weened on Mac OS, or Solaris (when I was in grad school). If it's more recent, it's most definitely OS/X or Linux. It's also clear that Linux is rapidly becoming the platform-of-choice for apps in biotech and pharamceutical research, but with a heavy emphasis on WEB-based technologies.
That's not to say that there aren't users that use nothing but Excel and Word, but that's not so common anymore in research (at least were I work and in my previous job). This poses a big problem for our IT department -- they aren't prepared to support Linux desktops and Mac OS/X, yet those are the platforms where most of our applications run.
Biolgists either don't do computers at all (particularly "old school" biologists), or, if they do, Windows is not what they have the most experience with...
Let's take my three sisters. Each has a degree in biology. Each considers me their personal tech support when anything "breaks." It sucks.
OK, you clearly have issues.
What you haven't realized is your hostility towards your sisters is a form of transferance. You are transferring your need to show your mother that you are a competent adult (and thus worthy of regard) onto your sisters, and projecting your own infantile dependency onto them. It is worth noting that while you must constantly demonstrate your expertise and competence in computers to them, they have no compulsion to retern the favor by offering you help in their area of expertise. Likely this difference is due to insecure paternal attachment on your part. Could this be unresolved castration anxiety? Certainly that would explain the difference between you and you sisters. In any case, the underlying assymetry in your relationship reinforces your infantile anxiety, which creates rage, part of which is displaced onto Microsoft, the balance of which is sublimated in the form of further demonstrations of technical competence. Naturally, such heroic (dare I say histrionic?) demonstrations of technical finesse that only exacerabate your problem.
What you need to do is to address the imbalance in your relationship to your sisters. A few concrete suggestions:
* Encourage them to install the beta of Vista. Then when they have problems, throw up your hands and confess you don't know anything about Microsoft operating systems.
* Develop a stock response to technical question and consistently use it for every problem no matter how trivial e.g., "Try reformatting your hard drive and reinstalling the operating system." This will encourage your sisters to be less dependent on you.
* Demand that your sisters provide you with equivalent services in their areas of expertise. For example, why did your last batch of homebrew beer come out sour? What can you do about the crabgrass on your lawn? When you are going out on a date after work, how can you avoid having body odor even if you've showered in the morning (claim you are allergic to deoderant)?
Follow this strategy, and you cannot help but develop a more adult, mutually satisfying relationship with your siblings.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
puts on my laptop. I'm a sheep. Aren't we all?
Right now it's XP and Office 2003.
As long as I can hook it up to a projector and bore the crap out of a room full of people with 83 Powerpoint slides, The Bossman is happy.
I don't see big corporations being first in line for a shiny new OS that practically triples the minimum hardware requirement.
At Home I'll use whatever Valve software tells me to use so I can Play Half-Life 3. Sheep, remember?
But, of course they can! They're a monopoly, and there's nothing that Steve Jobs, the Open Source community or anybody else can do about it (well, the US Justice Dept. tried before Bush stopped 'em).
Unfortunately, Microsoft's customers (i.e. most of the world) are willing to wait a really long time before they give up on the Redmond giant. It's that damned critical mass that they've built up over the years: everything's geared to supporting Windows before anything else, from hardware manufacturers to ISVs to ISPs to media companies, etc. Even Google doesn't support anything but Windows for Google Earth! (okay, there's a Mac beta for it now too, but you get my drift).
Therefore, I figure that Microsoft's monopoly position can only be threatened if one of their next new operating systems turns out to be a total failure. If Microsoft aren't able to dump it and replace it soon enough with something better, only then will significant numbers of their customers begin to loose faith in them and move on to alternative operating systems.
Let's hope Vista turns out to be that dog.
The fact that Microsoft operates under conditions like that is indeed a herculean effort, but such a huge amount of resources is wasted in the process and such amount of overhead generated, that there is no wonder for Vista to be delayed 3 years and its feature list slashed in half and its stability and security (whatever amount there ever been) is going down the drain. I can only imagine that Office is in the same boat.
This is not merely flawed development environment, this is a sign of total disaster in making.
If programs would be read like poetry, most programmers would be Vogons.
Don't read many newspapers, or watch much television, do you?
I'm not tense. I'm just terribly, terribly, alert.
My mind is kind of boggling at any sort of practical demo that could illustrate that difference.
"Yes, and this stuff in my hand is semen, which I will now smear on to a slide - if you will come over and look into this microscope..."
(As an aside, I wonder who was the first guy to look at semen in a microscope? That dude must have been freaked the fuck out, big time!)
Maybe you can help me with this, it gets really confusing now. My sisters are seated at computers. And when they touch them, they turn into toilets full of excrement--not working at all. But as I walk down the line, my mere touch turns them into golden Alienware desktops running at the speed of light. They get on their knees and start to worship me and again I'm laughing maniacly.
I know this sounds kind of gross and I have issues, but what does it all mean, doc?
Ah, yes. Excrement that turns into gold. This a dream motif commonly seen in the anal-expulsive personality type, which as we all know is characterized by high levels of conceit and ambition. This should, I believe, be watched closely. We should consider increasing the frequency of our sessions to twice a week (at the normal rate of course), for is not unusal for these tendencies to grow into an intractable and malignant narcissism.
For a fascinating example of a parallel case in which the same dream motif if found, see the case study of "Bill G." published in a recent Zeitschrift der Analyse von Träumen. The details of this case are an extreme example, it is true, nonetheless it is well that they should give us pause.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.