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Is Windows Vista in Trouble?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the shooting-feet dept.

Ken Erfourth writes "The Inquirer.net is running a story about what they consider two powerful indications that Vista is failing in the marketplace. One, Dell has reintroduced PCs running Windows XP on its website due to customer demand. Two, Microsoft is conducting a worldwide firesale on a bundle of Microsoft Office 2007/WindowsXP Starter Edition. According to Inquirer.net, at least, these are signs of serious problems selling Vista. Are we seeing the stumbling of the Microsoft Juggernaught with the slow adoption of Windows Vista?"

8 of 879 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Why Upgrade at all? by dattaway · · Score: 5, Informative

    XP doesn't fully support the latest Vista technology:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Policeware

  2. Re:Why Upgrade at all? by shihonage · · Score: 5, Informative

    Actually XP didn't introduce gaming APIs - Windows 2000 can run all the games XP can, except for those which specifically check for Windows version. XP's innovations over Windows 2K were proper Hyperthreading support and Cleartype.

  3. Re:You got it wrong by fimbulvetr · · Score: 5, Informative

    While you are certainly right about how coke from Mexico has sugar, I think you may be wrong about the corn syrup thing.

    I've always read that it has more to do with the fact that (cane) sugar is substantially cheaper than corn syrup/beat sugar. As such, most places outside of the US use cane sugar. The reason the US uses corn syrup is because we have high tariffs on imported cane sugar - enough so that corn syrup/beat sugar is more economically viable in the states.

    I am willing to be corrected, however.

  4. Re:Now if only... by lessthanjakejohn · · Score: 5, Informative

    The Crap isn't on the windows CD dell gives you... the only change between retail and dell ms cd is drivers and a dell logo for support link

    So you would wipe it with the cd dell gives you...

  5. Re:Why Upgrade at all? by marcosdumay · · Score: 4, Informative

    I don't remember Microsoft gouing back and start licensing 98 again after they released XP and discontinued 98.

    --
    Rethinking email
  6. Re:You got it wrong by Gizzmonic · · Score: 5, Informative

    High fructose corn syrup (and the ethanol boondoggle, for that matter) wouldn't exist without the corn subsidies encouraging farmers to grow corn syrup. The stiff restrictions on sugar imports have something to do with it too.

    But Coca-Cola had already switched most of its bottlers to high fructose corn syrup before the formula changed. So...the conspiracy theory about sugar vs. high fructose corn syrup really doesn't make sense.

    --
    (-1, Raw and Uncut is the only way to read)
  7. Functionality taken away by KingSkippus · · Score: 4, Informative

    Which functionality is taken away? IIRC, the only DRM in Vista is there to enable playback of DRM-enabled media. (I.e. HD-DVD/BluRay) It's not as if it infects all your AVI files with some vicious DRM scheme.

    No, but average consumers don't know that. The "Cost of Vista" article points out some fantastic ways in which functionality is effectively being taken away from consumers. Here's an excerpt close to the front of the article:

    Currently the most common high-end audio output interface is S/PDIF (Sony/Philips Digital Interface Format). Most newer audio cards, for example, feature TOSlink digital optical output for high-quality sound reproduction, and even the latest crop of motherboards with integrated audio provide at least coax (and often optical) digital output. Since S/PDIF doesn't provide any content protection, Vista requires that it be disabled when playing protected content. In other words if you've sunk a pile of money into a high-end audio setup fed from an S/PDIF digital output, you won't be able to use it with protected content. Instead of hearing premium high-definition audio, you get treated to premium high-definition silence.

    In other words, a consumer who has high-end audio setup thinking that they're going to be able to listen to the latest and greatest in A/V home theater technology will be sadly disappointed. The discs aren't broken, the hardware isn't broken, and no AVI files have been infected, but the end result is the same: Functionality that the user has paid for and reasonably expects to work doesn't. It's been taken away.

  8. Re:You got it wrong by Your+Pal+Dave · · Score: 3, Informative

    Don't let the fact that aspartame turns into formaldehyde in your veins hold you back. Again, Snopes