discardia

I have been asked half a dozen times by people if they should bother with Vista.

The short answer is: No.

The long answer is: Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hell no.

Inevitably, the second question is: Are you running Vista?

My answer: Yes.

That generally puzzles them. But you know what they say… either try to keep up, or fail trying.

Vista is broken out of the box. Yeah, sure, the security for the average user is probably higher, and yes, it is probably a “safer” OS than XP in terms of web surfing and preventing malicious software (malware) from running. But in terms of usability, it is crap.

Number 1: It will make your machine crawl. The interface is pretty, sure, if you have a high end machine that you just purchased that is actually capable of running all the nice stuff.

Number 2: It has DRM built in. I recently read that the Vista DRM has been hacked, and it is relatively simple hack, but nevertheless, DRM sucks balls, and NO ONE SHOULD PAY to have their content locked. Content belongs to you, the user, not the provider. You do not lease your movies, music and books. You buy it… ie, consume it. DRM is a bad idea, in any form.

Number 3: If you are a power user, Vista will annoy you. It asks the user to approve everything. If you run an application, it will ask you if it is ok to run it. You can turn this off, but wouldn’t you know it, you try to install Adobe Reader 8 and it will not run if you don’t have the user protection stuff turned on. Ummm, what the frak?

Number 4: Your current games, software, and hardware is probably not supported. So don’t bother.

Number 5: The licensing is silly. I am a MVLS expert, and I have a hard time understanding the logic behind the Microsoft licensing model for Vista. You have to authenticate your key every 180 days with MS. And if you don’t, the OS essentially shuts down. They call it Reduced Functionality Mode. I call it bullshit.

Number 6: Again, DRM. They (MS, MPAA, RIAA, etc) are punishing all valid users for the sins of a small subset of users that can just defy the shitty DRM anyway. It doesn’t make sense at all how a business model can survive by punishing its customers. And the answer is: it won’t. No matter how many lawyers they hire.

So is Vista worth it? No. Stick with XP. It will be supported for years to come, so you have plenty of time to wait it out. Trust me… wait it out. Vista is nothing special. And I am an enthusiast actually running it.

Blech.