The problem with Vista
Within 2 weeks, Microsoft's latest and greatest operating system, Vista, will be with us.
It requires a more powerful PC than XP, but anybody who complains about that is just stupid. Of course it does. And guess what? Hardware is now vastly more powerful (and cheaper) than when XP was launched. Either buy a new PC or don't buy Vista. Simple.
Anyway, I was looking forward to the upgrade because it does look jolly nice (assuming my graphics card can cope with the new bits). But then I came across a big problem.
The price.
It costs £149 for the upgrade version. £149! You can buy an OEM install disk for half of this, but then you can't upgrade and have to install from scratch. IT purists (i.e. those who call themselves consultants, but really just fix PC's for their Auntie Nora) will say "No! You can't upgrade and operating system! You have to install from scratch!". To which I say "It's taken me bloody ages to get all the software installed on my PC and I'd rather take a chance on it still being there and working after the upgrade than having to install it all again".
Unless I can persuade Ele to let me buy a new PC, but I doubt I can even pursuade her to buy Vista, at that crazy price tag.
And here is why the price tag is crazy: The XP upgrade cost £79 or so. And it was needed. ME was so bad, that you just had to get XP. And at £79 it was worth it.
But, XP is still good enough. ME was so bad that it crashed frequently. The only thing that worked well was the System Restore function, which was handy, because you had to use it all the time.
XP has none of these problems. It works. It doesn't crash. The security isn't too much of an issue. I've got Norton, I've got a hardware firewall, my wi-fi is encrypted.
So where the upgrade to XP was justified and neccessary in terms of actually being able to use the computer, the upgrade to Vista is, frankly, eye candy only. And £149 is a lot to ask for that.
That will be Microsoft's biggest problem. Their previous product was so good that there is no point in upgrading. And I think (although I am prepared to be proved wrong) that the new look and feel will be ported to XP anyway, thus lessening the reasoning behind the Vista upgrade.
Conspiracy theorists - start wondering about why XP's security has been pondered over the last year more than ever before.
It requires a more powerful PC than XP, but anybody who complains about that is just stupid. Of course it does. And guess what? Hardware is now vastly more powerful (and cheaper) than when XP was launched. Either buy a new PC or don't buy Vista. Simple.
Anyway, I was looking forward to the upgrade because it does look jolly nice (assuming my graphics card can cope with the new bits). But then I came across a big problem.
The price.
It costs £149 for the upgrade version. £149! You can buy an OEM install disk for half of this, but then you can't upgrade and have to install from scratch. IT purists (i.e. those who call themselves consultants, but really just fix PC's for their Auntie Nora) will say "No! You can't upgrade and operating system! You have to install from scratch!". To which I say "It's taken me bloody ages to get all the software installed on my PC and I'd rather take a chance on it still being there and working after the upgrade than having to install it all again".
Unless I can persuade Ele to let me buy a new PC, but I doubt I can even pursuade her to buy Vista, at that crazy price tag.
And here is why the price tag is crazy: The XP upgrade cost £79 or so. And it was needed. ME was so bad, that you just had to get XP. And at £79 it was worth it.
But, XP is still good enough. ME was so bad that it crashed frequently. The only thing that worked well was the System Restore function, which was handy, because you had to use it all the time.
XP has none of these problems. It works. It doesn't crash. The security isn't too much of an issue. I've got Norton, I've got a hardware firewall, my wi-fi is encrypted.
So where the upgrade to XP was justified and neccessary in terms of actually being able to use the computer, the upgrade to Vista is, frankly, eye candy only. And £149 is a lot to ask for that.
That will be Microsoft's biggest problem. Their previous product was so good that there is no point in upgrading. And I think (although I am prepared to be proved wrong) that the new look and feel will be ported to XP anyway, thus lessening the reasoning behind the Vista upgrade.
Conspiracy theorists - start wondering about why XP's security has been pondered over the last year more than ever before.
posted by Nej at
1:42 pm
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