"Vista Sucks" Hits #1 at Live.com and #3 at Google

Wow! I’m under siege! When I published Vista Sucks, I was merely sharing my frustration with Vista. But then, all of a sudden, I was receiving 3-4 comments a day from people who I don’t expect to follow an ASP.NET blog, e.g. a Best Buy employee. I got curious what was going on. It turned out my post was #3 in Google and #1 in Live Search under “Vista sucks”! Ouch. Not exactly a cause for celebration. As they would say in a cheesy Hollywood flick, I didn’t want this for either of us.

The saga continues

For the record, I’m on my fourth (!) reinstall. Since my previous post, Vista committed seppuku twice which warranted reinstallation.

My theory is that wicked things happen during shutdown. You shut it down nice and easy, then come back the following day just to find out the registry—the culprit of most Windows problems—got corrupted.

For example, this one time my OneNote 2007 launcher crashed on start-up. I ran Word—it crashed. I ran Excel—it crashed. I went to the Control Panel to reinstall Office. The setup service crashed. Basically, I couldn’t install, un-install, or re-install anything. I had a restore point, but it didn’t help one bit. Format c:, reinstall.

On another occasion, I installed SQL Server 2005 64-bit edition (I’m running Vista 64), and the DTC started crashing immediately. Something else must’ve died because my Control Panel wouldn’t display ANY applications. Format c:, reinstall.

On my fourth installation, I made a copy of the entire C drive anticipating that trouble would find me sooner or later, and it surely did. Twice.

Second impression

As long as Vista runs, I enjoy it. But knowing how unstable it is, I don’t put any critical apps or data on it. I just know one day it will boot up to a blue screen. So I’m running Company of Heroes, Aptana, etc. I noticed installing Visual Studio or SQL Server with all those beta patches messes up the system, so I’m not taking my chances until service packs are solid.

Device drivers

I’d also suggest leaving Vista alone if it has the necessary drivers. If a driver is available through Windows Update, get it. If you go to hardware manufacturers’ sites to download “the latest and greatest” and it wasn’t specifically designed for Vista, you’re really asking for trouble.

This is, perhaps, the biggest predicament. Too many drivers are in still beta, or hardware is not supported at all. This is unfortunate. How long was Vista in the works? Didn’t it give Microsoft enough time to hustle hardware manufacturers to release drivers?

A buddy of mine bought the highest-end gaming box from Dell (Dell totally sucks, btw). Most of his drivers are in beta. He can’t even run Solitaire! No wonder this kind of BS infuriates people. I myself couldn’t download Vista drivers for my Microsoft hardware!

Overpriced

Another shock for me was the price. I get my stuff with the MSDN subscription, so I didn’t realize how badly overpriced Vista was. When I walked into Staples the other day and saw Vista boxes lined up by the door, I couldn’t help thinking, OMG! I will never pay this much for a home operating system!

Carlos de Zayas, a commenter to the previous post, mentioned Xandros Professional. The software looks decent, the price is right and that CrossOver thing (run Windows apps on Linux) sounds promising. I would pay $40/year for the latest stuff. Mac OS Tiger is ~$120. What’s up with Vista’s pricing?

Innovation

A lot of Vista criticism stems from the apparent lack of innovation. The UI is polished, the omnipresent search is snappy, and I do agree with Carl’s list of geeky features. But I don’t see what took so long to develop and why it’s priced so high. And I totally hate the intrusive permission prompts. I can’t delete a damn file without being asked three times! For the record, Mac OS does it too, but it’s not that nagging.

Conclusion

If you’re looking into trying Vista, give it 6 months or put it on a disposable box. If it weren’t for the outstanding development tools we take for granted—Visual Studio, IIS7, .NET itself, SQL Server (technically, not a tool)—there would be no reason to use Vista at all, IMHO.

Holy Moly... it SUCKS HARD! I purchased a top of the line HP pavilion 3 days ago.. Intel Dual Core 6600 2.13 Ghz, 2Gig memory, nvidia 7600GT 256mb. TADA~!!! VISTA fatal errors running ANY loaded application or website: THREAD STUCK IN DEVICE DRIVER... after 4 calls to india.. no solution resolved the problem ...then I read the caveat on nvidia "beta driver" no warranties (basially it really doesnt work yet but we said it was compatible so here it is and you can suck it hard!) 'hmmmm mebbe I will just return it the whole HP nvidia vista bullshit and let HP SUCK MY VISA CARD A LITTLE???? Yeap. Thass it. Then I'll buy an Alienware laptop ...where they have the sense to configure with XP (and upgrade to vista when it WORKS). GAMERS beware... nvidia is waaaaay out of line actually claiming that their drivers are are "optimized" for vista?!?!?! Just read the driver update beta for the vista OS... SUCKING seems to be the state of the art for vista and their braindead partners. DO i sound like i have a bad attitude? Yeap. $1500 later I have more headaches with 2Gig+ vista+256mb geforce 7600GT --- than a week ago running XP on 512mb w/16mb gcard!!!! Does that SUCK or what? Choking in Florida.

No sense deleting your previous 2 months of comments, it provides the web with a great sense of the actual frustration people feel with Microsoft and besides with stored web pages and Google cache, nothing ever really goes away.

Jim

And how many people are searching for these nice search phrases? I'm curious to see when Microsoft will delete your result out of their search results.

Jim: no, I won't remove that post or comments. Didn't even plan on doing it. In fact, I'd like to send Ballmer the link.

Frank: I'm not sure what your point is, but as of today there are 70 posts, and the vast majority of them aren't in favor of Vista. They just keep coming and coming.

Yup.... Vista sucks....well mostly. Let's face it we are all geeks here. We all like shiny new stuff, hence we plump for Vista. I've used it since beta 2. Man I have grown to hate it. I even hate (and I like eye-candy) Aero with all it's crappy ram hogging pointlessness. In fact I think Vista cooked my pc. Since using it, my molex power cable melted to my mobo nearly killing it. After much florid cleaning of pins and a replacement PSU my system lives to tell the tale of Vista heat production. Maybe I'm para. Maybe it was just a iffy PSU. Dunno. Even with a gig of ram and a compliant 256meg GPU it was a slug. Bored, bored, bored. Why, why, why? Do we need this? Strangely enough I'm typing this on Suse 10.2. Ah, I'd forgotten about you my beloved Linux. Six months in a leaky boat. So glad to be back on dry land. Where's that Wine config file again? ;-)

I really apreciate these comments as I am struggling with Vista, I have had my fair share of blue screens and auto shutdowns , my laptop is more than capable of running vista but sometimes its fast most of the time its slow. My harddrive has not stop spinnng and doing stuff since install, when on battery power I should get about 2.5 hours I get more like 1 hour thanks to Vista using my GPU all the flipping time. Flash player simply won't stay installed. I have contacted microsoft technical support who sent unhelpfull advice which resulted in a blue screen and now they ignore my e-mails. I have 450mb of error reports that check for soultion only to say No Soultions are available for over 40 different software/hardware problems. I am really questioning my purchase of vista. I used vista since beta 2 with varing degrees of failure on several machines. When I first heard about Vista I thought given what they promised it would have been a massive change in Interface much like the shift from Windows 3.11 to Windows 95 only to find that the menu bar and the icons have been twicked for better resolution and prettyness and that alot of software drivers arn't supported. The extra security maybe working but I am not confident. Wifi Networking is a disaster I sometime wait 15 minutes after windows starts for Vista to find my network. Where XP on several other system in my home connect instantly. I really regret buying Vista and I wish there were another O/S out there that supported all of software that is designed for XP or Vista. Christopher From England.

I never got beyond the beta version. As a tester I told Microsoft that this OS won't work because nothing is compatable with it.
Microsoft ask for beta testers but then shuned thier advice.
Why did they need beta testers if they weren't going to use the feedback to make a better product?

Vista is awful. Either Dell sends me a Windows XP system CD or I send back my new notebook for a refund. I wasn't even given the option to choose Windows XP. My only choices were different flavors of Vista. Why the heck did I get a brand new notebook? So that it would crawl as slowly as my old machine?!

There's a reason why many techies hate Microsoft.

The Boss is busy at the moment logging on to Vista: can I take a message and have him call you right back:)
I have actually had to do that because I couldn't get Vista sucks to install a driver that is built in to windows!!
Every time I log on: An unidentified program wants to use your computer. ALLOW!
An unidentified program wants to use your computer. ALLOW!
Next is the fun part, if I hit find drivers and point it to a Vista sucks 64 compatible drivers it still will not install it and says no driver found. If I choose don’t show this message because the device is already working Vista sucks will disable the working driver so the only choice I am left with is to click ask me again later so I can continue to use the hardware. VISTA SUCKS has to ask me this on log on for 16 DEViCES IN A ROW whether its a window built in driver or a 3rd party driver!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Windows needs to install driver software for your unknown device:
ASK ME AGAIN LATER!!!!
Windows needs to install driver software for your unknown device:
ASK ME AGAIN LATER!!!!
Windows needs to install driver software for your unknown device:
ASK ME AGAIN LATER!!!!
Windows needs to install driver software for your unknown device:
ASK ME AGAIN LATER!!!! [edited]

Update to most post. I got so fed up with vista I managed to get a full refund from Amazon uk and I have reverted back to xp and I once again enjoying my laptop.
Christopher from England

Just bought a new computer (at least the fifth one I've owned over time) and getting it set up was surprisingly time consuming. Even with it (Vista Basic) pre-loaded it took a couple hours to finally get to the desktop to start installing software and hardware.

The real problem was drivers. I was speecheless when I realized so many major vendors w/o Vista drivers! Like HP; the driver the Vista recommended worked, but I'm afraid to load the printer monitoring software that came with it. My Visioneer scanner - hopeless after an hour of trying. WHY??

Now I'm hearing that certain games won't work; haven't tried it yet. I worry about basic software. My Office 2003 loaded OK and so far seems to work.

This machine is our family PC that is used primarily for internet and email - so I guess it's OK. But I am telling everyone I can to NOT upgrade to Vista at all - even if they get a free copy - and if they have to buy a new computer - look to see how they can get one loaded with XP instead.

I like Windows Defender (though there is no reason that can't be part of XP).

Vista sucks. The constant hard drive spinning is due the the uniterrupted polling going on for the indexing/search feature. Didn't anyone over at Microsoft think that a constant spin up of the disc would result in higher temperatures and lower disc lifetime? Sure you have near instant search results, but at the expense of the hardware and RAM. The constant spinning also results in a noisy box. Vista...don't go near it folks. I am running Windows Vista Business on a high end machine.

Do Steve Balmer or Bill Gates run Vista? Or do they get special versions?

If you like gaming stick with XP Pro...
I play BF2 and BF2142 and both games crash and bsod. Even Flight Simulator X (by Microsoft no less) runs like crap on Vista! Yes, I do have cutting edge hardware, but all of the vendors say its Vista compatible...

I am not trying to flame: But, I also run Ubuntu on a laptop at home (for fun). IMHO Ubuntu Linux is a more stable and much nicer desktop compared to Vista... 02. Everything pretty much works which I can't say for Vista.

5 years + billions $ = Vista?
I really really hope they get it right with service pack 1!

Yes Vista Sucks and Blows...
I have tried installation on 4 different machines now and have ended up reverting all of them back to XP.

I tried Vista Ultimate 64 bit on my XPS 700 (Core2, 2GB, etc...) and after a new Motherboard and 2 new hard drives I am back to XP Pro.

I tried it on my HTPC and after flakey support for xvid and divx, totally crap video scaling and being unable to play DVD's it is now back to XP MCE, I tried both 64 bit and 32bit versions.

I tried it on my two other slightly older but by no means redundant AMD boxes and they are both now running XP again.

If this were a beta release then I would get it but this is the retail version. I cannot believe how crap it is. If I had actually shelled out $1000(AUD) for this then I would be spewing. I get mine through technet so no big deal but as a developer I won't be going anywhere near this dog again for a while.

without a doubt vista is the WORST thing to happen to computers EVER! I hope the designers all burn in programmer hell. Microsoft should be blown off the planet for inflicting this torturously frustrating OS. YOU SUCK YOU SUCK YOU SUCK.

I tried Vista at BestBuy recently and didn't see the point of upgrading. What does it really offer that XP with Yahoo Widgets doesn't already? I know some people that worry about XP becoming hard to find and then being forced to have to use Vista.

Hi everyone, speaking seriously I strongly suggest every PC vendor to stick this on each they sell as they will save a lot of money + they won´t make a bottleneck in the call center tel. line

http://www.xfce-look.org/CONTENT/content-pre1/53228-1.png

cheers everyone

P.S. to my post
When I went to WinXP x64 had to shut off 1T in BIOS. Seems no 1T at 64bit on my board. Was fine at 1T with WinXP 32. Not sure if MS, Gigabyte, or AMD issue. Some people that jump from WinXP x86 to Vista x64 might run into this and mistake it for a Vista issue instead of an x64 issue.

I own and run a computer repair and sales shop . Yes , Vista Sucks . FYI ..........I am running Vista Business Edition On my Dell Precision 530 Dual XEON P4 2.0Ghz ( Theoretically Equivalent to 4.0Ghz ) , with 1Gb of PC800 RDRAM , ( ie. more than adequate for most ) ...........
I also am dual booting this unusual beast to Windows XP Pro . While in XP , it "runs like a dream" , ( okay , it's a metaphor that doesn't make sense , but you know what I mean ) . How does Vista Run ? Like molasses , ( That means SLOW ).
I am going to make A LOT of money off this inferior useless OS. Not by selling it , but by helping the poor saps who become INFECTED with VISTA deal with it's inexcusable , NUMEROUS and yet comical FLAWS . Bring it on Billy and Stevie , I need a new Car.

im one of those guys that gets the latest os from micro crap and
then spends months trying to get it to work right (crap drivers, no drivers) this vista is the same old game. this os really sucks bad right
now but somewhere down the road it may work. for now i dual boot
and play my games and do my audio/video stuff on xp cuz vista aint
letting me do sh!t. theres not a single time i've used vista that something hasnt gone in a big way, no reinstall yet but when its time
to reinstall im putting vista on the shelf for a few months instead, im
fed up and the novalty effect is long gone. VISTA SUCKS......

Everyone said XP sucked when it first came out...I remember. I wait again for the next operating system and the "I'm sticking with Vista" posts will be all over.
I'm far from a Microsoft fan but I have delt with many Vista issues recently and the majority of them are that people don't want to change. All of which have been quickly resolved.
I hope you remember your lack of willingness to change when that end-user calls you up and says "I don't like the new software you put on my machine". You can sympathize and tell her "well I don't like Microsoft's new OS either"

I just installed two Vista Business-based Dell Dual Core laptops with 1 GB of RAM and ATI mobility video cards. The laptops were replacing two PCs - one of them was an XP-based P4 that was old enough to require RAMBUS memory, the other one was an old Celeron running Windows 2000.

Both users have since complained that their new PCs are annoyingly slow.

Nuff Said.

I have been running Vista since the beginning of Feb. My system is:

Pentium C2Duo 6600 OC @ 3.8ghz
nVidia GeForce 8800 GTX OC by BFG
2 Gigs of Corsair PC6400 RAM
nForce 680i SLI mobo
....the rest is irrelevant.

The only problems that I have had with vista are:

1. nVidia Drivers have not been that good..(frequent BF2142 Crashes, not that it only happens in vista hehe) and the Dreamscenes crash my computer everytime i even try to run them.

2. Auto-Spellcheck in the included email client doesnt function at all

3. I have to unplug my Razer Diamondback mouse and plug it back in so that I can use it every time windows starts.

4. I have a creative audigy 2 platinum pro soundcard, which SUCKS! I hate creative, but that is an entirely different post altogether. Anyways, the vista drivers for this card disable digital decoding completely, so I cannot play my PS2 through my computer and my Klipsch Pro-Media surround sound system in Dolby Digital or DTS.

5. Networking my Vista Comp to my XP MCE systems was a pain, but not impossible.

6. File transfer and deletes take FOREVER (fixed by MS...kinda.)

There are a lot of things that I do like about vista, and I think that eventually once they get the bugs worked out it will be THE operating system to use, if your computer is up to the task. For the time being, I use Vista when I do photo editing, word processing, ect. and I use XPMCE (dual boot) for everything else.

Oh one thing that i thought was REALLY cool about Vista is that you can take a 2GB USB flash drive and plug it into a laptop using vista and the OS will turn it into RAM. This is great because some portable devices have limited RAM and using this feature can really boost performance for super cheap.

hope this info was useful!

Peace,
Brice
www.photographyzen.com

Oh I almost forgot, I am running Vista Ultimate OEM

It's MicroShaft, wotcha expect? I for one am very happy
that I have stayed w/ XP ( for the time being anyway )

If there's one thing I've learned.. esp w/ MS.. it's WAIT!
Never buy the 'first' new thing out.. let em work out the bugs :)
They never get it right the first or second time.. d'oh!

Good luck folks :)

Contrary to what I said above I have to close comments because this is getting our of control. Looks like some people treat this discussion as a forum which it isn't.