Life is grand

John Collins quotes the following in his Vista article:

Hughes maintains that Vista is ready now and rejects any suggestion that users should hold off on upgrading until issues are addressed. In particular, he stresses the fact that Microsoft had its biggest beta testing programme in place for Vista including 17,000 Irish users. He advises anyone considering upgrading to download the Vista Upgrade Adviser from the Microsoft website which will warn them of any potential hardware or software issues.

I hope Mr. Hughes was misquoted or a bit flummoxed at the time as in that first line he is saying that even though there are issues users shouldn’t wait to upgrade. Upgrade now people and don’t worry that your scanner and fax software that you rely on to do your job don’t work. Don’t worry, it will work in a few months time when new drivers get released and then you can get back to your job. In the meantime be happy with your shiny new Vista.

A typical head-in-sand-out-of-touch-with-reality response from a techy awed by shiny buttons.

I tried Vista. I didn’t like it and reverted to Windows XP. Funnily enough I had no hardware issues (and this on a Macbook Pro, probably not your typical Vista machine) so I can hardly imagine how much more I would have disliked Vista had there been hardware issues.

The next few months are going to be tough for Vista as the millions of new PCs with Vista are sold and people try to connect their existing hardware to it.

As John summarises at the end the main problem is one of expectations. Vista was supposed to be a six, a home-run, a touch down in the end-zone. Instead it is a catch-up and platform for Microsoft’s next move. Sadly that was a miscalculation and their next move has been hobbled. I won’t be trying Vista Version 2 with the same hope I had for Vista.

So Microsoft has listened to the uproar about its Vista licensing and has changed at least one major part:

Microsoft said on Thursday that it will not limit the number of times that retail customers can transfer their Windows Vista license to a different computer.

That is good news however there is still some way to go before the licensing for Vista is good and fair IMO.

Someone needs to point out that with the switch to Intel and the ability to boot Windows, through Apple’s own BootCamp software, that there are in fact now 114007 viruses that can run on an Apple Mac.

They should qualify their advertising by saying Mac OSX, as in the OS and not just their hardware.

I got this ad in my email, sent by Apple.

(Apologies for being pedantic but if you are going to use shit advertising tactics like rubbishing other companies instead of showing off your own worth then you had better be rock solid in your message. Same with politics. Don’t go opening closets if you have skeletons in yours.)

UPDATE: I was just thinking about when the first Windows virus that looks for, and damages, OSX partitions will be released into the wild. Not unthinkable at all.

So all this recent switching from Mac to Linux has me wondering whether a switch from Windows to Mac is right for me. Maybe I too should jump Mac and head straight for Ubuntu from Windows. I’ve used Ubuntu a bit and was really impressed. That it is funded and started by a fellow South African just makes it better.

One point Cory makes is that you can get a small-form Lenovo ThinkPad T60p with a good deal more grunt for less than the MacBook or MacBook Pro I was thinking of getting. I love the design of the MacBook hardware itself rather than the Mac operating system but is it worth the extra pennies? The ThinkPad is a decent looking laptop too and apparently quite brilliant.

What do you reckon. Has Linux desktop’s time come in the form of Ubuntu and is a MacBook worth it?