Wow. Your customers must only be spending 3-400 for PCs. Sucks to be them.
We build desktops and haven't sold anything but a dual-core system for over a year.
There's just no excuse now.
Also, on our home user systems, we offered Vista OR XP up until January 31st. You know how many people took me up on XP from last July to Jan 31? Maybe 5. Why? Because we built systems that run Vista the way it's supposed to run. Proper spec's, certified hardware, and no crapware.
What's the result? 1, maybe two customers who had a few issues that we resolved easily, because we're familiar with the hardware AND software (because we took the time to learn Vista properly.)
I've got scores of happy Vista customers out there... what am I doing wrong?
Microsoft is NOT selling XP. They are making available a discontinued product as an additional NO-COST service if you choose to take advantage of it.
While they restrict this no-cost service to only a few versions of their choosing, it's their option because it is a fully discontinued product.
They're not charging extra, and they're not selling it anymore.
Keep tossing out the "convicted monopolist" thing too, as i'm sure that if you look at their current policies and behavior since, they are less monopolistic than other "non-convicted" companies which have monopolistic behavior *coughapplecough* since the government intervened.
I can't speak to the quality of OS/2 Warp's successors, but when even the average user can see that Vista is inferior to XP -- something that didn't even happen during the Win98/ME to XP transition (don't forget that the average user never got their hands on NT or 2000) -- then why would you risk alienating people?
The average user doesn't have a clue. We've sold probably 75% Vista PCs to our HOME users in the past year, and i've heard very very few complaints. Why? Because most of our customers are novices and they trust us to build a PC which runs Vista WELL.
Also, they don't get bombarded with people who think they know better and recommend using an OS which has significantly lower security, lower stability and a limited life-span just because the first 6 months of its release were rocky and they haven't touched it since.
The bottom line is Vista Post-SP1 is good for 99% of home users if they buy a machine that runs it well.
Now, for business users, we sell Lenovo units almost universally pre-downgraded to XP. Why? Because businesses typically have costs involved in adopting a new OS, so Microsoft makes the downgrade option available to ease the transition.
All this lawsuit BS is ridiculous. Research your purchase next time.
No. Very simply, XP retail and OEM is still available in most wholesale tech distributors' stock today. Microsoft has ceased shipping XP to distribution, which means at some unforeseen time in the very near future, the CURRENT stock from distributors will dry up.
Which then means that resellers' stock will dry up, and XP will not be available.
Also, the Windows 7 Start Menu is still slow and stupid just like the Vista one. Too much clicking and scrolling to find what you want. Stacks is better than this solution as well. The only place Stacks fails for this purpose is that when you click on a folder, it opens up a new Finder window. Id' rather see the grid expand in grid-mode or the list fly out horizontally in fan-mode on OSuX.
What... don't know how to type a few feckin' letters? Jeez, man. I don't need a bloody Asian fan show to find my apps, I just need to type 2-3 letters of them on the Start Menu.
Bloody Mac users... always want a 20-minute Hollywood production to do what I can do in two keystrokes.
*shrug* I find that i'm able to do things much quicker and intuitively with the Ribbon once I got used to using it.
I've talked to other long-time (10+ years) office users who think it's the greatest thing since sliced bread.
It's all subjective. Personally, i'd never sacrifice usability and feature-set by going to OpenOffice when Office is a choice.
Anytime i've tried to use Openoffice, i've been frustrated as I routinely put together sales documents and Office can make them look professionally-made very quickly.
For those incapable of following the train of thought, here it is...
There is no such thing as Snow Leopard. This is not a new code base, it is not an overhaul of MacOS framework. Snow Leopard is Leopard Service Pack 2. The Mac bullshit coming out of Apple's propaganda machine is a concerted and direct effort to bury the name Leopard and all the bad press associated with it. That anyone has bought into this crap is astounding. Now we have hordes of people believing that Apple got a new OS out the door in 18 months? Wake up already.
I can sell ANYone a sealed OEM package across the counter with no attached hardware.
In other words, someone comes in and wants a single OEM license of XP Pro, as long as I ordered it as a single and didn't open it, I can sell it across the counter with no requirements.
If I order a 3-pack, I can sell it across the counter IF SEALED with no hardware requirement. However, if I then open that 3-pack, I can't sell the individual licenses one at a time. I then have to sell them with a COMPLETE system, pre-installed.
All Microsoft did was eliminate the partial hardware requirement. It's now a complete system or nothing.
Completely legal (IF THE RESELLER ORDERED IT AS A SINGLE 1-PACK UNIT). MS's current OEM licensing states that parts ordered as a single unit license OEM can be sold with no hardware requirement.
However, if the reseller orders a 3-pk or above qty unit, those licenses must be only sold with a new system and pre-installed.
If you're talking about the non-tech types, they see the Mac commercials... GREAT marketing. Most of the major issues with Vista are ironed out at this point, but non-tech folks don't know that, only what they get from TV and "techie friends."
In the case of Vista, enterprises have stayed away in droves.
If the media, the Slashdot crowd, and Apple's marketing keep repeating this, along with "facts" about how unpopular Vista is compared to XP, then it must be true, right?
Unfortunately, the numbers don't agree. Vista has been out for almost 2 years. According to Gartner, two years after XP's release, it was installed on about 12% of home computers and 10% of business computers, while Vista is currently installed on about 16% of home computers and 13% of business computers.
Agreed. I personally have installed countless Vista machines that i've built and never had a major problem with them. I had one customer who had issues with a game (Battle for Middle-Earth?) because the software didn't support Vista.
Other than that, it's been smooth-sailing with very few issues and a hell of a lot less spyware calls.
Call it anecdotal, but we push through 20-30 PC's a week through our service dept. and build probably 3-5 a week. For 6-8 mos, a majority of the consumer machines have been Vista. No complaints here.
(note: That's with tested and consistent hardware designed to run Vista with proper specs. If you buy crap, expect it to run accordingly.)
It's news because people forget. Remember when it was found out that the mailed anthrax came from the US's own gov labs? People have already forgotten that too. People need to be reminded of the monopolistic software prison they live in. They don't have to use Windows, and there is better software out there.
It never ceases to amaze me the complete obliviousness you mac fanboys show when it comes to your favorite monopolistic company.
I can buy any hardware I want, put largely any software I want, any accessories, upgrades, add-ons, etc. There are literally thousands of companies making products for PCs. I can install Linux, I can install Windows, I can install anything I want on a PC. I guess you can use Boot Camp or parallels, but native install?
#1: Calling MS a monopoly is SO 1999. I'm sure you're one of the first people to jump to Apple's defense by citing Microsoft, Linux, etc. as valid competitors when people talk about Apple's narrow monopoly. Also, Linux has matured to the point where it's almost a valid alternative and has more awareness than its ever had. It's not the "Year of the Linux Desktop" admittedly, but businesses that can take advantage of it are.
#2: There are interviews, articles, various live events, etc. etc. that show Gates and Ballmer can quite capably talk about technology. The fact that you can say that Bill Gates is not interested in technology when just recently it's been stated in various media that he's the driving force in MS behind touchscreen (Surface, etc.) interfaces being advanced in-company shows you are either woefully un-informed or willfully disingenuous. Ballmer? Well, considering he runs a multi-billion dollar technology company and certainly gets out in front of the public talking about such things shows he's at least interested.
What do you want? Their personal blogs where they rave about every gadget out there? Admittedly it would be cool, but not realistic.
You should now have all your active processes listed from the highest CPU usage down to the lowest. If you have a process using 50%-100% of the CPU, it's monopolizing your system and slowing it down. Do the same with the memory column. If you have anything utilizing more than 3-500k of memory, you've got an app with a memory leak or something similar.
I've found that 99% of the time, a slowly performing system with decent specs either has a hardware problem, or a third-party app or driver causing problems. This will give you a basic idea if that's the case.
People who don't understand that the publisher and developer are often completely separate companies shouldn't be doing game reviews (or at least not ones that get posted as articles on prominent websites).
Yes, I did slip up on that little piece of information, and for that, I humbly apologize. Also, i'd like to thank you for pointing that out, as I checked it after I read your comment.:)
However, i've never professed to be an insane videogame freak, just an insane ED freak. I personally was very excited upon playing the game, thought it was something that was worthwhile to write about, figured I would share my enthusiasm, hoped I could be informative and helpful, and somehow decided to toss it to the flamepits here at/.
Anyway, I apologize once again, and would like to thank everyone who's posted constructive comments.
PS: I happen to like the taunt button. I didn't mention in the review, but sometimes when you taunt, it actually can scare Deadites off... kind of helpful when you're getting swamped.
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Wow. Your customers must only be spending 3-400 for PCs. Sucks to be them.
We build desktops and haven't sold anything but a dual-core system for over a year.
There's just no excuse now.
Also, on our home user systems, we offered Vista OR XP up until January 31st. You know how many people took me up on XP from last July to Jan 31? Maybe 5. Why? Because we built systems that run Vista the way it's supposed to run. Proper spec's, certified hardware, and no crapware.
What's the result? 1, maybe two customers who had a few issues that we resolved easily, because we're familiar with the hardware AND software (because we took the time to learn Vista properly.)
I've got scores of happy Vista customers out there... what am I doing wrong?
Yes you can. It just sucks for you that you're not as tech-savvy as I am.
Wiki "whitebooks."
Right. You could go OSX and not be bound to one company's prod--- oh.
You're wrong due to one major point.
Microsoft is NOT selling XP. They are making available a discontinued product as an additional NO-COST service if you choose to take advantage of it.
While they restrict this no-cost service to only a few versions of their choosing, it's their option because it is a fully discontinued product.
They're not charging extra, and they're not selling it anymore.
Keep tossing out the "convicted monopolist" thing too, as i'm sure that if you look at their current policies and behavior since, they are less monopolistic than other "non-convicted" companies which have monopolistic behavior *coughapplecough* since the government intervened.
You're living in the early nineties.
I can't speak to the quality of OS/2 Warp's successors, but when even the average user can see that Vista is inferior to XP -- something that didn't even happen during the Win98/ME to XP transition (don't forget that the average user never got their hands on NT or 2000) -- then why would you risk alienating people?
The average user doesn't have a clue. We've sold probably 75% Vista PCs to our HOME users in the past year, and i've heard very very few complaints. Why? Because most of our customers are novices and they trust us to build a PC which runs Vista WELL.
Also, they don't get bombarded with people who think they know better and recommend using an OS which has significantly lower security, lower stability and a limited life-span just because the first 6 months of its release were rocky and they haven't touched it since.
The bottom line is Vista Post-SP1 is good for 99% of home users if they buy a machine that runs it well.
Now, for business users, we sell Lenovo units almost universally pre-downgraded to XP. Why? Because businesses typically have costs involved in adopting a new OS, so Microsoft makes the downgrade option available to ease the transition.
All this lawsuit BS is ridiculous. Research your purchase next time.
No. Very simply, XP retail and OEM is still available in most wholesale tech distributors' stock today. Microsoft has ceased shipping XP to distribution, which means at some unforeseen time in the very near future, the CURRENT stock from distributors will dry up.
Which then means that resellers' stock will dry up, and XP will not be available.
*shrug*
I just tried your test on my installed Win7.
Clicked the start menu, selected control panel, immediately spotted "all control panel items" in the lower left with the rest of the selections.
Clicked it, found "Mouse."
Two minutes? More like 10 seconds. Need new glasses?
Also, the Windows 7 Start Menu is still slow and stupid just like the Vista one. Too much clicking and scrolling to find what you want. Stacks is better than this solution as well. The only place Stacks fails for this purpose is that when you click on a folder, it opens up a new Finder window. Id' rather see the grid expand in grid-mode or the list fly out horizontally in fan-mode on OSuX.
What... don't know how to type a few feckin' letters? Jeez, man. I don't need a bloody Asian fan show to find my apps, I just need to type 2-3 letters of them on the Start Menu.
Bloody Mac users... always want a 20-minute Hollywood production to do what I can do in two keystrokes.
*shrug* I find that i'm able to do things much quicker and intuitively with the Ribbon once I got used to using it.
I've talked to other long-time (10+ years) office users who think it's the greatest thing since sliced bread.
It's all subjective. Personally, i'd never sacrifice usability and feature-set by going to OpenOffice when Office is a choice.
Anytime i've tried to use Openoffice, i've been frustrated as I routinely put together sales documents and Office can make them look professionally-made very quickly.
What you're saying is that ANYthing else is better than Excel, but that there is no better replacement?
So tell me this, oh genius AC... if there is no better replacement how do you expect people to use said non-existing better replacement?
Sounds a lot like you're criticizing Excel just to criticize Excel and MS. Pretty weak, actually.
There are certainly valid criticisms of Office, but that sure as hell wasn't one of 'em.
For those incapable of following the train of thought, here it is...
There is no such thing as Snow Leopard. This is not a new code base, it is not an overhaul of MacOS framework. Snow Leopard is Leopard Service Pack 2. The Mac bullshit coming out of Apple's propaganda machine is a concerted and direct effort to bury the name Leopard and all the bad press associated with it. That anyone has bought into this crap is astounding. Now we have hordes of people believing that Apple got a new OS out the door in 18 months? Wake up already.
See what I did there?
No, they just clarified it.
I can sell ANYone a sealed OEM package across the counter with no attached hardware.
In other words, someone comes in and wants a single OEM license of XP Pro, as long as I ordered it as a single and didn't open it, I can sell it across the counter with no requirements.
If I order a 3-pack, I can sell it across the counter IF SEALED with no hardware requirement. However, if I then open that 3-pack, I can't sell the individual licenses one at a time. I then have to sell them with a COMPLETE system, pre-installed.
All Microsoft did was eliminate the partial hardware requirement. It's now a complete system or nothing.
Completely legal (IF THE RESELLER ORDERED IT AS A SINGLE 1-PACK UNIT). MS's current OEM licensing states that parts ordered as a single unit license OEM can be sold with no hardware requirement.
However, if the reseller orders a 3-pk or above qty unit, those licenses must be only sold with a new system and pre-installed.
actually they did. You can sell a single (1-pack) OEM license with no attached hardware as long as it is sealed.
The stipulation on hardware still exists, but only on packs above qty 1. (i.e. 3-pk, 30pk)
However, you can't do the single part trick anymore, it's now a complete system or nothing.
To lay it out simply:
1-pk - NO HARDWARE REQUIREMENT
3-pk and above - CAN ONLY BE SOLD WITH COMPLETE SYSTEM AND PRE-INSTALLED WITH ALL OEM REQS.
If you're talking about the non-tech types, they see the Mac commercials... GREAT marketing. Most of the major issues with Vista are ironed out at this point, but non-tech folks don't know that, only what they get from TV and "techie friends."
In the case of Vista, enterprises have stayed away in droves.
If the media, the Slashdot crowd, and Apple's marketing keep repeating this, along with "facts" about how unpopular Vista is compared to XP, then it must be true, right?
Unfortunately, the numbers don't agree. Vista has been out for almost 2 years. According to Gartner, two years after XP's release, it was installed on about 12% of home computers and 10% of business computers, while Vista is currently installed on about 16% of home computers and 13% of business computers.
Agreed. I personally have installed countless Vista machines that i've built and never had a major problem with them. I had one customer who had issues with a game (Battle for Middle-Earth?) because the software didn't support Vista.
Other than that, it's been smooth-sailing with very few issues and a hell of a lot less spyware calls.
Call it anecdotal, but we push through 20-30 PC's a week through our service dept. and build probably 3-5 a week. For 6-8 mos, a majority of the consumer machines have been Vista. No complaints here.
(note: That's with tested and consistent hardware designed to run Vista with proper specs. If you buy crap, expect it to run accordingly.)
Now now, I think Apple has a very valid point criticizing Microsoft for their marketing... er.. budget...
uh.. yeah.
It's news because people forget. Remember when it was found out that the mailed anthrax came from the US's own gov labs? People have already forgotten that too. People need to be reminded of the monopolistic software prison they live in. They don't have to use Windows, and there is better software out there.
It never ceases to amaze me the complete obliviousness you mac fanboys show when it comes to your favorite monopolistic company.
I can buy any hardware I want, put largely any software I want, any accessories, upgrades, add-ons, etc. There are literally thousands of companies making products for PCs. I can install Linux, I can install Windows, I can install anything I want on a PC. I guess you can use Boot Camp or parallels, but native install?
You're the one who's locked down, there, Sparky.
#1: Calling MS a monopoly is SO 1999. I'm sure you're one of the first people to jump to Apple's defense by citing Microsoft, Linux, etc. as valid competitors when people talk about Apple's narrow monopoly. Also, Linux has matured to the point where it's almost a valid alternative and has more awareness than its ever had. It's not the "Year of the Linux Desktop" admittedly, but businesses that can take advantage of it are.
#2: There are interviews, articles, various live events, etc. etc. that show Gates and Ballmer can quite capably talk about technology. The fact that you can say that Bill Gates is not interested in technology when just recently it's been stated in various media that he's the driving force in MS behind touchscreen (Surface, etc.) interfaces being advanced in-company shows you are either woefully un-informed or willfully disingenuous. Ballmer? Well, considering he runs a multi-billion dollar technology company and certainly gets out in front of the public talking about such things shows he's at least interested.
What do you want? Their personal blogs where they rave about every gadget out there? Admittedly it would be cool, but not realistic.
Try this:
CTRL+SHIFT+ESC (opens task manager)
CLICK "PROCESSES" TAB
CLICK "SHOW PROCESSES FROM ALL USERS"
CLICK THE "CPU" COLUMN HEADER ONCE, THEN AGAIN.
You should now have all your active processes listed from the highest CPU usage down to the lowest. If you have a process using 50%-100% of the CPU, it's monopolizing your system and slowing it down. Do the same with the memory column. If you have anything utilizing more than 3-500k of memory, you've got an app with a memory leak or something similar.
I've found that 99% of the time, a slowly performing system with decent specs either has a hardware problem, or a third-party app or driver causing problems. This will give you a basic idea if that's the case.
...that most recent benchmarks on current hardware (with SP1) are pretty close to 1:1.
Most likely because all volume-licenses from MS require an OEM license. Their volume-licenses are upgrades.
Oh yeah, here it is. ;) I hadn't even thought about this account until this thread. weird.
Ah.. damn my non-DVD entertainment system.
;)
I personally lean towards "Good, bad..." It just has so much more style.
Hail to the king, baby!
However, i've never professed to be an insane videogame freak, just an insane ED freak. I personally was very excited upon playing the game, thought it was something that was worthwhile to write about, figured I would share my enthusiasm, hoped I could be informative and helpful, and somehow decided to toss it to the flamepits here at
Anyway, I apologize once again, and would like to thank everyone who's posted constructive comments.
PS: I happen to like the taunt button. I didn't mention in the review, but sometimes when you taunt, it actually can scare Deadites off... kind of helpful when you're getting swamped.
Hail to the King, Baby!