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TechNet Users Revolt Over Vista SP1 Unavailability
I Don't Believe in
Imaginary Property writes "There's a growing revolt among Microsoft TechNet & MSDN subscribers
who are frustrated that they can't yet get Vista SP1 and test their software on
it. This can't be good news for anyone hoping that SP1 will have better
compatibility. While SP1 has been released to manufacturing, and pirate copies are easy to
find, Microsoft is withholding it from subscribers until early March.
According to the article, some frustrated users are upset enough that they plan
to abandon TechNet entirely and turn to piracy." Update: 02/12 17:37
GMT by KD : Sean0michael
writes, "Aaccording to the Technet blog, they have pushed up the date to before the end
of February, though no exact date is mentioned."
MS doesn't want people giving SP1 bad reviews before it is released to the general public. That would damage Vista's reputation even more, and Microsoft most certainly doesn't want that.
Don't mind the extra X. Alex
Given Apple's history of poor Windows software and the convoluted implementation of iTunes on Windows, I'd say its the other way around.
The bad reviews are already out so what is left to gain? Distributing SP1 to developers will confirm the reviews but they are the type that has read about it anyway. Keeping it will not prove the reviews wrong but it will irritate developers who expect things to be bad and expect that much more work before the public gets it.
Business plan:
1. Make a new version that developers will have to support.
2. Send factory-cracked copies to all the pirates.
3. Wait for developers to resort to using the pirated copies.
4. Sue them!
5. Profit!
I'm greatly amused by this.
Another example of Microsoft Genuine Advantage in action.
Remember, pirate software and get the latest support now, pay through the nose and get what you want much much later...
There always can be incompatibility problems. So you release it in the order of people who are most able to find and deal with those. The people who did beta testing should have no problem. If they were willing to run beta code, they are willing to deal with what comes with it. Volume customers are a next logical step. They presumably manage their updates and have a competent systems person so they can test and decide if a rollout is appropriate or if they need to wait for drivers/software to by updated. Then once they are sorted, you look at a public release.
Of course none of that really matters. A sizable crowd at Slashdot has just decided they'll do whatever they can to badmouth Vista, I guess in some hope all their FUD will keep it from succeeding.
Wow Apple software not running properly on a Windows OS, say it isn't so...
Apple's software development for Windows is like a Toyota dealer fixing your Ferrari. It took Apple 10 years to get a QuickTime installer for WIndows that didn't try to lock the UI, because that is how they always did it on Macs, even though Windows users hadn't seen it since the Win3.1 days.
At least when MS develops Apple software, they get real Mac user and real developers and products like Office are some of the most polished applications for Macs. Apple could at least hire a team of 10 people that use or 'get' Windows at the very least, instead of this cross platform inferior designed crap that barely runs.
Well since it seems to have support for about 5% of my apps and about 75% of my hardware, I'm afraid I'm going to have to disagree.
Please cut the crap with the "Just replace Windows with Linux it's better!" thing. This kind of crap will actually hurt Linux adoption overall. Linux is an alternative to Windows that is viable for some people, however it isn't a drop in replacement. If you market it as such, people are going to be pissed when they find out you are lying. Using Linux involves tradeoffs. Now that can be ok for many people, however you need to be up front about them and let people make their own choice. To try and pretend that it is just like Windows but better is rather dishonest, and counterproductive.
Those of us who have TechNet Plus subscriptions also get lots of licenses (i.e. install keys) to run the various Microsoft products, not just download the software. Also, I have been running SP1 RTM since last week, and I downloaded it from Windows Update. Those who participate in the Betas (the connect site) get the ability to test SP1 RTM early. If you want that ability, then participate in the Betas.
Seriously, I downloaded the Safari for Windows beta thing to use as a KHTML test platform for web development but was immediately turned off by the OS X window stylings and behaviors, as well as the extra font smoothing that went beyond the built in smoothing to make everything look really blurry and ugly. From what I've seen, iTunes on Windows is the same way although I have never installed that piece of junk on my computer. In contrast, whenever I've used Office for Mac at school it acts just like any other Mac application, and sometimes I even preferred it over the Windows version. Now, I'm going to conjecture wildly and say it's Apple's arrogance that causes it to completely disregard all Windows GUI conventions. Most of my dislike of Apple stems from this arrogant vibe that everything should be done either their way or not at all.
All your base are belong to Wii.
Easy, sure. But secure?
Well um, I suppose we could run around and find checksums to compare or something, in order to ascertain nothing has been pre-hacked for us in-advance. (Or run linux on the desktop, of course)
You can't be ahead of the curve, if you're stuck in a loop.
It may be because most of the company was hired right out of college and has never worked for anyone else.
There isn't any incentive to work crazy hours, or to do anything cutting edge, since there's no stock options that will go through the roof anymore.
As I understand it, MS managers are promoted from within (a good thing IF they get a lot of manager training), and this means they are managing people who's job they used to do, only "much better." If they didn't get good management training, and never worked anywhere else, they do everything "The Microsoft Way (TM)" and just bitch about the screwed up things that happen instead of trying to change things.
Bureaucracies work great if there's a strong leader pushing things along. I would think that if I worked for MS, I would be a fan of Bill. Now that he's gone, I don't think I would feel the same way about Ballmer.
No tinfoil needed. Just experience working for a large company with little competition.
"Well, good luck finding a judge that doesn't run a bestiality site."
You know, I generally enjoy /. However, every so often one of these stories comes up (it seems to be more frequently these days) that is just complete bullshit (Disclosure: I've been an MSDN subscriber for years). I don't know anyone who is complaining about SP availability. There will always be some who complain, but that's more than likely a very small minority. For those testing compatibility, the betas and RCs have been out for quite a while for the sole purpose of testing applications. I haven't worked with them personally, but a conservative guess would be 95% of functionality can be testing on the RCs.
What gets me though is that over the weekend a much more impactful event occurred: the Windows 2008 RTM. Not only that, but Windows 2008 IS available on MSDN (all English flavors at least, and most likely TechNet as well, but I don't know for sure). Windows 2008 is a much more important release than SP 1, but, alas, that gets no coverage on /.
This claim always kills me...
How many of those 100 million users are part of that statistic because they were forced to be (i.e. could not get XP), and how many of those 100 million have wiped Vista off their machines and reverted back to XP?
That number really just tells you how many copies were sold, I'm sure it would be much less if MS didn't force people to get it on new machines.
They claim that it's as successful as the launch of XP, well no shit! I think they sell more computers now days than they did when XP came out, so take that into consideration.
100 million copies,
75 million disapointed customers
+++ATH0 NO CARRIER
How are they revolting? Are they heading over to the Apple Store and buying MacBooks? If they really wanted to revolt, they would install Linux or FreeBSD or buy a Macintosh and never look back. TechNet users are particularly hard core Windows lovers, masochistic, really. I bet they tough this one out. They are not revolting. They are reveling in their delicious pain.
If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.
I think those are only available for testers.
2K and XP were better in this respect too. Anyway, since you mentioned "laptop" I suspect this is a new dual-core laptop you bought which came with Vista installed - so the improved responsiveness is going to be partly, if not totally, down to the second processor. Unless you haven't got a dual-core machine in which case I'll look like an ass.
The reason people make it sound so bad is because it should be an improvement. The problems it has are pretty unacceptable for a product that represents years (they had what, 5 years?) of development and 'improvement' over XP. If you look at it by itself, it may not be so bad. But compared to its predecessor and competition... well you have to ask some questions.
Daring ploy on MS part now that the competition is getting to be just as good or better than MS.
any brand of *nix doesn't give you MS nagware head aches and Blue screen of death that bring the system to halt.
Nothing like DRM, bad drivers because MS updated something the driver relied on, Bad OS components that purposely disable features in others software make the competitions software dysfunctional (Like the open office on vista using the CONVERT function fails if you downloaded the version with java in it.), and not caring what the home user wants to use but laden them down with BS features they do not want to use.
MS need to evaluate what a customer needs and wants and sell it that way!
No more BS OSes XP is good. AERO sucks it crashes my video card driver just about every time. Back ground processes should not be given normal processing time. windows update should not dominate my network connection if i am on line.
there are other nags i have about Vista but these are my top peeves.
Good luck to anyone still making themselves an MS only house. because your building a house of cards and there is a big gust of wind coming to take them away and that is a bad economy.
They can take their jobs overseas but i guarantee the same results over time will happen to them that has happened to the US auto industry.
no one here will be able to afford you!
keep going ms you will be as well remembered as the auto maker maxwell yet.
tss
Copying files is an atrocity
In 2008, that's enough for me to call it a lemon. Without caveats. Say what you want about all the other fantastic crap and I'd still say it's a lemon if the OS can't copy files correctly or efficiently.
I can't believe there are apologists for this problem. Copying files is pretty fundamental to how computers work. Why on earth would anyone give any company a free pass for getting it wrong? Hell, anything less than 100% perfection is a failure in my book.
I am stupified that we are discussing whether this is "acceptable" or not. It's not. And it hasn't been since, well....around 1985 or so.