__/ [ Richard Rasker ] on Sunday 08 April 2007 10:37 \__
> Now here's a funny thing ... Yesterday, I visited my local friendly
> computershop, to verify this Vista CD/DVD burning issue, i.e. that users
> are tricked into creating discs with a Vista-only format.
Vista-only images, Office 2007-only(ish) documents, Vista-only(ish) static
documents (XPS), Windows-only movies and audio (WMV/WMA), IE-only Web
pages...
It's deliberate. It's a tactic.
,----[ Quote (thanks, Doug) ]
| From: Bill Gates
| Sent Sunday, October 06, 1996 11:54 AM
| To: Bob Muglia
| Cc: Aaron Contorer; Richard Fade; Steven Sinofsky; Paul Maritz; Nathan
| Myhrvold; Brad Silverberg; Adam Bosworth
| Subject: Access, Internet studio, VB and other overlapping products
|
| ..
|
| Why is the difference between Internet studio and Access? I can't detect
| any reasonable difference. Internet studio has taken an approach of
| putting onto HTML pages the most ugly Microsoft garbage ever seen since
| COM/OLE programming in C++ was declared a success in order to block
| language invocation. i am still blown away by seeing all those ugly
| PARAM statements in the HTML totally confusing anyone who tries to do
| anything. If something isn't part of the WYSIWYG output then it should
| be succinct and understandable. This was the opposite of that.
`----
http://edge-op.org/iowa/www.iowaconsumercase.org/011607/2000/PX02563.pdf
> I asked them whether I could have a go at any Vista demo system they'd
> have standing around. Their answer was that they'd be happy to oblige -
> but the problem was that they didn't actually *have* any Vista machines at
> all. "Vista simply isn't good enough for sale yet", they said. These
> people are used to assembling their own systems, and it turned out that
> they had major problems getting Vista to work in a reliable way. The demo
> machine they built, crashed frequently, and lots of popular software
> wouldn't install or run. And, of course, there were the by now familiar
> driver issues.
>
> So they decided to do the decent thing: pull the plug on Vista, at least
> until the worst problems were fixed, and they could actually sell it to
> people with a straight face.
>
> So on to the next shop - also a self-employed system builder. Same story
> there: "No, we don't have any Vista to show you. We'll wait out the bugs
> first."
Smart shop. They should be proud and they should name themselves. Of course,
the danger is the Vole, not the innocent victim... err... customer.
By the way, the major problems will never be fixed, so they can wait for
eternity or consider GNU/Linux-loaded machines. Software compatibility
issues will only be addressed if you run the latest version of some software
or buy it afresh. Security which was promised is just not there and there's
no service pack coming, according to Microsoft (a senior said so last
week... he also said that Vista is "quality out of the gate", but the shops
you visited clearly beg to differ).
> Alas, these two shops don't want to be quoted on this in an identifyable
> manner, because that could bring on trouble with Microsoft. Business is
> business, after all.
>
> The last outfit was a not-so-friendly franchise from a large computer
> retail chain - a "Microsoft Certified Gold Partner", to be precise. And lo
> and behold, these people actually had two Vista systems up and running on
> the counter! But they didn't allow me to touch the machines under any
> circumstances, otherwise "we can't sell them as new any more". So people
> are expected to plonk down hundreds of dollars for something without even
> a five-minute test drive.
> Also, they denied having any problems with Vista whatsoever, and said that
> any problems other people had, was simply due to old hardware and choosing
> the wrong drivers. And no, there have been no dissatisfied Vista buyers at
> all. No problems, all great.
> These people clearly have been "educated" by Microsoft. Still, in the ten
> minutes I spent inside, one of the Vista boxes popped up some warning
> dialog of a kind - but the sales droid clicked it away before I could see
> what it was, so it might have been something innocent after all.
>
> Anyway, I was quite surprised, especially about the two smaller shops not
> actively offering Vista. Apparently, there are still shops who actually
> care for their customers. About the retail chain: they're almost worse
> liars than Microsoft. Unless, of course, they hadn't sold a single Vista
> box (something I forgot to ask), in which case they would have been
> speaking the truth after all :-)
>
>
> Richard Rasker
--
~~ With kind regards
Roy S. Schestowitz | "I regularly SSH to God's brain and reboot"
http://Schestowitz.com | Open Prospects ¦ PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
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