What's the biggest disappointment of 2007?

12-17-07, 11:10 AM

According to PC World the biggest disappointment of 2007 was.... VISTA!

It's just that Vista isn't all that good. Many of the innovations the operating system was supposed to bring--like more efficient file and communications systems--got tossed overboard as Microsoft struggled to get the OS out the door, some three years after it was first promised. Despite its hefty hardware requirements, Vista is slower than XP.

To be fair, that's something that you should normally expect from any new Operating System. If you keep adding new more complex objects and animations into the OS it will become slower at some point. But that's not the main issue here. The complains come from the fact that Vista is 5 or more times slower than XP.

Now, that's the first disappointment of 2007 according to PC World - a magazine that I do not like too much, I should add. I'm gonna tell you now the 2nd big disappointment of 2007 according to me. It's..... ta da da... Zune Software! I never have seen a 2nd version with less features than the previous one. In my mind, I have embedded something that says that a Second Version of any software is or should be better and keep the features that everybody likes from the first version. Well, that's not the case with Zune software where everything that was useful and popular from the first version was removed in the second one.

View Original Blog Post

12-17-07, 11:19 AM

I've see a lot of complaints on Vista, but honestly I'm satisfied with it. We bought a new desktop running Vista home premium about six months ago and so far so good. I'm using it primarily for email, internet and some of the kids' homeschooling curriculum. Hubby watches some TV on it, but that's about it. I was sure the biggest disappointment would be the iphone

Box · 12-17-07, 11:22 AM

I'm far from happy with Vista.
Slow, incompatible with many of the programs I use, can't find anything, overly complicated simplification, too many security pop ups I could go on and on.....
Don't have a Zune though, so that's ok.

12-17-07, 11:29 AM

Originally Posted by Box

I'm far from happy with Vista.
Slow, incompatible with many of the programs I use, can't find anything, overly complicated simplification, too many security pop ups I could go on and on.....
Don't have a Zune though, so that's ok.

I haven't tried to load any of our old programs on it. Some of the new programs I have installed I've had to change the compatiblity to XP. I wanted to load quicken on it, but hubby said to wait until we get the newer version of that. (We're hoping to get a deal on that when we get turbo tax :approve:) I will say I have not had much luck syncing my axim to it, but I'm not sure if that is a vista problem or not. I can sync it, but then I lose the ability to check off tasks in pocket breeze.

12-17-07, 11:45 AM

Well, I'm using Vista in my Q1 and I wont back to XP on that device ever. But that does not stop me from seen that it's slow in many simple task like for example, copying files. In some cases, the HDD start to go crazy like doing something in the background and everything becomes slow like hell. And I have everything optimized in my Q1 to make it faster. Believe me.

CodeBubba · 12-17-07, 11:48 AM

Yeah, I'd say Vista is a bit of a disappointment. Fortunately, though, when I bought my E520 last year I declined the free upgrade to Vista and the box has been running happily under XP Pro ever since then. I played with Vista some here at the office and decided that it wasn't worth retooling an existing XP system over. If the new development box coming down the pike has it pre-installed I'll use it but it just isn't worth upgrading any existing systems to it. I played with it for months ... and have yet to see anything about it that grabbed my attention and said "gotta get it".

As for the Zune ... I had one of those for a little while just to tinker with it. Figured I'd play with it awhile and give it to one of the kids for XMAS. Agreed, the software upgrade seemed really dumbed down.

-CB :D

12-17-07, 11:54 AM

I do agree with CB..I would not upgrade my XP to Vista. I just don't see the need to spend the extra $$$. But since it was free with the new computer, that works for me.

My XP laptop is considerably slower than my Vista desktop, but that probably has something to do with all the stuff installed on the laptop. After the new year, I may take the plunge and wipe the laptop clean and start over.

Jogga · 12-17-07, 12:55 PM

Mmmmm...

I had Vista put on Baby Jogga's new laptop and, I must say, I'm very happy so far. It's been reasonably painless (with the exception of some printer drivers for my trusty Photosmart) to integrate the machine into the home network and it does seem very stable.

It is slow compared to XP, but I confess that I didn't go mad on the laptop specs (I mean, how much processing power does a thirteen year old need?

) - however, when I bought my new Inspiron this year, I did over-spec it just in case I fancied upgrading :)

frankenbike · 12-17-07, 02:11 PM

1. Vista came on my Velocity Micro laptop. I found out at a conference that it wouldn't run with plugins for a particular app that I wrote and those plugins couldn't be recompiled to work on Vista. Changing the compatibility settings didn't work. I had to scorch the Vista install, installed XP, and had a hell of a time getting all the drivers for the VM laptop that would work with the hardware. VM wasn't too helpful on that.

My sister in law, hardly a geek with an axe to grind, also had to backgrade her laptop, and I had to help her.

All I can say is, I've always hated those "Mac/PC" Apple commercials. But the entire series savaging Vista was right on based on my experience.

2. My second biggest disappointment was my Sprint Mogul. It's functional enough and does what I need, but the GPS was disabled out of the box, a lot of stuff that works on the stupidest phone like sending and receiving pictures through SMS/MMS and watching YouTube, doesn't work without a ridiculous amount of effort. The absurdly low 64mb of RAM (my Axim had that in what? 2003?) isn't too slick either. But at least you can find software that addresses some of that, and maybe the rest will have a fix eventually anyway. Except the 64mb. Stupid choice for HTC, and if battery life was an issue, why do the Tilt and Touch have 128mb?

3. Third on my list is Windows Mobile 6. PIE hasn't changed since my old Axim days, and it was crude and out of date even then. It's like buying a new car with the old style 2 speed windshield wipers and an 8-track deck. ActiveSync is even less functional than it used to be, now we can't use WiFi for syncing, the X button still doesn't have a "shut the damn program down" mode, and you still can't force a locked program to shut down without a soft reset. At least there are lots of programs you can add to fix the X Button problem.

4. You'd think with the iPhone pretty much showing how to make things user and finger friendly, that pretty much everyone would have stopped what they were doing and come up with a mid season release with finger scrolling on every piece of software out there. Not so. They're waiting for the next release whenever that is, so they can charge extra for something you just bought a few months ago for the feature. Assuming they're even putting in the effort. Kudos to PocketCM for getting something so cool out so fast, and immediately getting with the program. SPB Pocket Plus too, but I'm not ponying up $30 just yet. I'd do it if I knew that the finger scrolling would work with all my software fer shure, and it needs zooming to complete the package.

5. All current WM browsers suck. Picsel kind of has some nice features, and if all you want to do is display a page it's as near Safari as anything. And now, you can't even get it anyway. But it doesn't open or even acknowledge most of the links on the fancier pages. Opera's close, but doesn't have proper zooming except for text, and pretty much every browser I've tried on my PPC Phone has some major, and blatantly obvious flaw that tells me they didn't try very hard to test it and step up to the plate based on user feedback. Opera Mini has nice finger scrolling, regular Opera does not: it lacks acceleration of follow through, and if you accidentally touch the part of the screen where there's a link, it goes away from the page you were scrolling to the link. And zooming is essential. Stoopid.

With all the PPC experience out there, how on earth could the iPhone come up with better ways of doing almost everything right out of the box?

spunker88 · 12-17-07, 07:52 PM

Sure, newer oses may seem slower, but usually the added stability and speed along with newer technology released fixed that.

XP was a sucess b/c it was the first home os built on the stable nt platform. If ur pc met the reccomended, and exceeded the min reqs, xp would probably run faster once some things are turned off.

If xp was still dos based, i would be on my 98 machine right now, and wouldnt own a xp. But the stability of this os helped it sell.

Now, what about vista. Its on nt too, and so is the system i got already. All the xp systems around the world, will stay stable for a long time, and prolly wont go obsolete, b/c there will still be many users using it when ms calls it unsupported, so they will have to extend support.

Almost everything u have in vista can be achieved in xp by 3rd party software. Now the same could be said about 2000 vs xp. But, 2000 was only sold to businesses from 99-01. That means few of us bought it, and most business tend to upgrade sooner anyway.

The point is, microsoft better fix vista, or put out a good sucessor, maybe something that is 64bit. They have to do something or this 6yr old os, may live on forever...

AKAJohnDoe · 12-18-07, 12:30 AM

I've been running Vista exclusively since June of 2007 and have to say that the biggest disappointment is the lack of vendor support.

AntiVirus, HIPS, AntiSpyWare, FireWalls, ... they all have been pokey, lacking, and quite honestly, impotent and ineffectual.

The drivers for devices have caught up.

Most of the mainstream applications, such as browsers, email clients, image editing, and so forth have been right on target.

Even older applications are up to speed. I run Quicken 2001 without problems.

Perhaps even a bigger disappointment than the security applications is Microsoft's own Windows Mobile Device Center (WMDC), which has yet to get out of alpha, much less beta status.

edge777 · 12-18-07, 03:27 AM

I bought a new high-end HP notebook about 6 months ago that came with Vista. Sure, it looked pretty, but it didn't take me long to figure out that this new fast computer was running slower than my old one, plus there were still a number devices that did not yet work.

I contemplated downgrading to XP, but then did what I should have done before buying the new HP notebook - I bought a new Macbook!!! And no, I didn't do it because of the hype or the commercials (although they are funny) - I made the switch after doing a lot of research, and hearing many happy happy stories from friends who made the switch (not one was disappointed). I gotta say, I love my new Macbook, it's fast, stable, and really user friendly. And oh ya, for those few Windows programs I still run, I've loaded XP into Bootcamp, and yep, my Mac is the fastest Windows computer I've ever had, lol.

My next purchase - a new iPhone to sync nicely with my new Mac (course, being in Canada, I'll wait until it comes up here, or until I can software unlock the new model).

BLT · 12-18-07, 01:57 PM

My biggest disappointment of 2007 is no legitimate/legal WM6 for my Axim X51V.

I would pay for one, if it actually worked.

stevenator65 · 12-18-07, 03:28 PM

I agree completely with PC World. I wrote about it here. However, MobilitySite beat PC World to the punch. That's the problem with a printed magazine, they're too slow with the news. Read the 2007 10 Biggest Failures in Tech.