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"If it ain't broke, don't fix it" is not a motto Microsoft adheres to, or they wouldn't be pushing Vista into the marketplace. Or stopping the sale of their Windows XP operating system as of June 30, 2008. After all, many years, many fixes, and many complaints later, XP finally now actually works.
The problem, from Microsoft's perspective, is that everyone already owns XP. If everyone is peacefully computing away, how can you generate new sales? The answer: make the current product obsolete.
Understandably, consumers are irate. Change in any arena is hard, and when it comes to technology, aside from those who love living on the bleeding edge, many like to gain competence and then simply use the product. After all, a computer is supposed to make your work easier and more efficient. Learning a new operating system seldom tops anyone's list of fun things to do. Microsoft started its Vista campaign at a disadvantage, dragging its users kicking and screaming into what some sales exec invariably dubs "The New Age of Computing."
No one expects the world to freeze in place. Consumers are willing to buy new versions of software with a certain amount of regularity. New features and faster operations quell, or at least offset, the fear of change. And Americans love new toys more than most; we are the land of "New and Improved" marketing ploys.
So how come the only things I've heard about Vista are negative? This Vista Sucks video gives an entertaining summary of Vista's well publicized faults. When the name Vista is mentioned, the word "bloatware" is sure to follow.
Microsoft does, of course, have image problems that go way back. Remember the big antitrust lawsuit when Internet Explorer was bundled in as part of the Windows operating system in the late 90s? Apparently, no one much cares about that sort of thing now. Vista now includes many utilities that used to be covered by separate software. For instance, it organizes your music and pictures. I'm no antitrust lawyer, so I don't have anything in particular against that, but in some basic way, it's like adding an iPod to my car's engine. Neato, perhaps in a James Bond's mechanic kind of way, but not all that helpful. Plus it also potentially impacts poorly on my engine's performance. Maybe no one can stand the thought of another lawsuit with these new tie-ins. But bloatware does seem a rather apt term.
More to the point, does Vista's emergence merit killing off XP? Some folks say no. In fact, they say no so loudly that they have formed a Save XP petition. They dread not just the idea of change, but going through all those headaches for not much in return.
With operating systems, for the vast majority of average users, we have reached a plateau where the productivity gains are minimal versus the massive inconvenience of learning a new version. The software engine we have now rev us up to 100 mph and we don't need to go faster than that to do what we want. Sure Vista adds security in the form of pop-ups that warn you of viruses. This "feature" is essentially the equivalent of noisy car alarms. Now you know it's been compromised; what are you supposed to do? (Hey look, that guy is running away with my car stereo now!)
Realistically, some of us want to keep our cars and operating systems for more than a few years. We want to be able to take them to a mechanic (or customer support) and get them fixed, instead of being told, "we no longer support Hondas or Cadillacs or Windows XP."
Some cars are now sold with 10-year warranties, so why can't continue to have support for our operating system, if it's still working? After all, at this moment in time the view from the technology plateau is pretty good. Certainly better than the Vista on the horizon.
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