[MartinBell]

Please do not use "like" in this way. (RE: 3rd paragraph.) I'm in my 20's, imagine the pain you are inflicting on your older readers.

[BillGates]

I am doing a lot switching people from Vista to XP. So
much that I printed business cards and distributed
them to Internet Caf??s and Camera Shops.
All of them, really ALL, are buyers of laptops. Acer, HP,
Panasonic, and Sony, it does not matter. And the
conversion is a real pain because a lot of those new
laptops do not have support for XP, I mean you can't
even download the drivers from the manufacturer's
website.
I read a lot of "Vista is not bad" on news sites, but from
my point of view, from comments I receive from
switchers, and from my own experience, it really sucks.
Most of those computers are 5 to 10 times slower on
Vista than on XP because the manufactuers sell them
below of on the edge of Vista's memory requirements.
And Vista is so ackward to use than people are doing
less with it than they were doing on XP. For my part, I
can't stand it, and I don't have the interest to fight with
it because none of what has been changed makes
sense.
Anyway, continue to defend Vista, but you can't change
the lanslide: ordinary people are switching to XP. This
is going to be the biggest subject discussed over
XMass.

[infoDave]

Ok, I break it down this way:
True Disappointments
1 vista
2 high-def wars
3 yahoo
7 voip
14 municipal wimax
What are you talking about?
5 iphone
8 leopard 10.5
9 office 2007
10 wireless carriers
11 zune
12 internet security
Who cares?
3 facebook beacon
6 broadband
13 social networks
15 amazon unbox
What would you change?

[MacPC]

Why would anyone in his/her right mind would use Microsoft's garbages? Vista Ultimate$399? Is this highway robbery? Mac OSX Leopard is only $129 retail and on sale for $99. It's stable, fast and better looking then Garbagesoft. I use all three major OSes for work, Mac, Linux and Windows, (98, 2k, XP and Vista.) By far Vista is the biggest piece of crap, not to mention, the buggy IE7...

I really admire good old Bill, he's not only a software giant but also a great entomologist, he loves buggy software.

Wake up, Windows users, havn't Garbagesoft abuse you enough?

I say: Hastala Vista, baby, It's time to ditch Windows.

[spencerianstudent]

"Did we learn nothing from VHS vs. Betamax, CD-R vs. CD-RW, DVD-A vs. SACD, and so on down..." I can't see how CD-r and CD-rw are relevant. I would have used the comparison od DVD-r to DVD r ( a little more relevant).

[owolcorp]

Corporations would pay MS big bucks to keep XP alive and viable. MS: think real incremental improvements - not just changes to the UI because you can - VISTA, IE7, OFFICE2007 bring nothing to the party except the expense of upgrades and re-training. We all have better things to do with our time and money.

[sandrino]

The iPhone and Leopard are disappointments?!?! What planet are you people from? I say you are full of horse manure.

[ainow]

My 15 Biggest Tech Disappointments of 2007
From 1 to 10: Vista
From 11 to 15: Microsoft's Access 2007

[boed]

Agreed - as much as I think Vista is horrible, slow and pathetic - I do have one upside like yourself. People are paying me a lot of money to upgrade them from Vista to XP. While my clients are ticked off at MS, it is really nice to be appreciated by them. They give me a lot of praise at how much better their laptops and PCs run after I upgrade them to XP after they suffered Vista. Sony and HP have special websites for downloading the drivers for XP for all the poor bastards who made the mistake of getting their systems with Vista. I just spoke to a Sony support specialist about the Sprint XP drivers and said he gets far more demand for XP drivers than Vista even though the system in question comes with Vista.

[batres]

well, I got my computer with Vista and I am not going back to XP, so I'll include myself in your "poor bastards" category :D

[batres]

well personaly I would add the iphone and leopard to your disappointments list.

the iphone- it's a fine device but the final product didn't deliver half of the stuff it promised. the "mac os" for the phone is nothing compared to the "true" macos and yeah, steve jobs promised an sdk for february, but we talk about the same man that described the iphone as a "very tiny mac that can do the same"

leopard- for an OS that "just works", it shipped with tons of issues and bugs. on windows, your "windows experience" deppends on many things, so while my computer running vista runs just fine, I've met some people that say their vista runs like crap. however, leopard runs exclusively on mac computers and yet there are a lot of mac users complaining about how horrible leopard is an that it feels like a product they rushed to get out of the door.... the first "service pack" for leopard was released like a month after the os shipped...

so the real issue is about companies not delivering what they promised... microsoft did it, and so did apple, end of story.

[batres]

it is ironic to see how people will defend a product, even if it were crap, just because it has an apple printed on the box

[infoDave]

batres, I'm afraid you're a little weak in the facts department. The iPhone has a lot more os x in it than a Windows CE phone device has Windows in it. That's why, Safari, Mail, Calendar and Address Book 'just work' on the iPhone too. I remember reading that Apple's experience porting OS X from PPC to Intel, has helped porting to the ARM chip in the mobile devices.

And while I certainly agree that Leopard has had a higher number of incidents than previous releases, I see the 10.5.1 update as a responsive move on Apple's part, don't you?. I'm afraid your true colors are showing through on this one. And you just got a look at my Mac .

If you are in fact, simply more critical than I am, why isn't Office 2007 with yet another interface, or the day late and dollar short Zune, on your dis-list?

You forgot, right? You can't possibly be serious, can you?

[ChuckEtheridge]

Ive ahd Vista Ultimate and Office 2007 for going on a year now and you couldn't pay me to go back to XP or the old Office. Vista works delightfully well and the ribbons in Office are in my opinion quite wonderful. While its true that my Gateway has 4gb RAM, I don't find Vista to be at all slow. The combination of these two technologies is well worth the upgrade. Sure, it took a week or two to get used to the new formats, but that having been done I am very well pleased with these advances. I can't find anything to dislike about the update in Office 2007, and I don't find anything to complain about relative to the Auto Updates. Windows Live OneCare and Defender haven't let me down at all.

As to HD formats, what sense does it make to opt for a system that is well over the price of the alternative with no improvement in performance. I think that HD DVD ought to come out ahead in the long run. Why not use HD DVD on one side of discs and Blu-Ray on the other like I've seen Netflix do?

[JimmyDahGeek]

Or if it's made by Microsoft...

[batres]

According to that logic, we can see the windows updates (lots and lots of patches), and a service pack comming "some day in february" you could see that as a responsive move on Microsoft's part, I daresay. Vista really sucked when it was released but the system has gradually improved due to all those patches. It's true that vista would have been better if they had took the time to actually put that on the first release, but sending the patches is better than them just sitting in front of their computers working on "windows 7".

So both leopard and vista sucked when they were released but at least they're getting better. However, they both deserve to be on the list due to their initial release. Now some of the leopard's issues have been addressed thanks to that first "service pack" (although mac uses hate them when they call macos "updates" a "service pack") and (supposedly) vista will be faster, more stable and all that when the SP1 is released "somewhere in february".

As for windows ce. I've never used one and I wasn't keeping with the news so I don't know if ballmer or gates described a windows ce device as "your desktop on the palm of your hand" while jobs did. So, as I said, the disappointment for me is people not delivering what they said they would.

As for office 2007. I like it so I don't see why put it on my list, unless I have to base my list on your oppinions.

As for the zune. I remembered that the zune 1 was released a long time ago. I even remember that job's macworld keynote on february mentioned the zune 1, so even if it sucked it's not a "2007 product" hence it's not on my list. as for the zune 2, I've never used one either, but judging of what I've seen on reviews, videos and stuff I find it cool and, in some ways superior to the standard ipods.

So I didn't forget, and I am serious.

[k1mod]

Eeerr..'Gutsy Gibbon',anyone?A way to steer the problems away,without licensing.StarOffice is free and simple.Take it!

[RastaMon]

It's pretty disingenuous to report that Leopard ships with the firewall turned off (as did Tiger) without mentioning that Leopard ships with all ports closed (as did Tiger). If none of the ports are open, what purpose does a firewall serve? I have to ask, if Leopard was a disappointment, what OS sets the bar for satisfaction? Tiger was excellent. Leopard is better. I know a lot of Mac users, and the only issues any of them had were minor issues with software compatibility with v. 5.0. I've read the same complaints about wireless, but they are apparently few and far between in the real world.

The iPhone is a disappointment?!?!?! WTF? What consumer electronic device, with the possible exception of the iPod Nano, has sold anywhere near as well as the iPhone is selling since its release? I can't think of any of those customers that are forced to buy an iPhone. Apple must have done something right.

[infoDave]

Thanks RastaMon, I owe you one.

After reading batres' criticism of my criticism of him, I was speechless. How can I argue with that logic? How do I deal with the continuous flow of misinformation? How can I make sense out of his writing? And what does Windows 7 have to do with anything? I decided not to waste time on the youngster, but you were there to help.

You hit the nail on the head with your comments. And like I said, I owe you one. A big fat one!

[infoDave]

OK batres, I changed my mind. I am going to respond to you, but only on one point. And only because I want to understand your perspective better.

Let's look at your first sentence:

batres said:

According to that logic, we can see the windows updates (lots and lots of patches), and a service pack comming "some day in february" you could see that as a responsive move on Microsoft's part, I daresay.

>
Absolutely! Please explain to me why you don't.

Microsoft invented the current method of software distribution. Apple has had to react to Microsoft's lead on this one. My problem with either solution is that a high-speed Internet connection is required to make it work effectively. That leaves a percentage of their customers (my Dad has dial-up), in an awkward position.

But once you're hooked up, what a high level of service is provided. How can you not call this responsive?

Now, the situation Microsoft found itself in, with viruses, and trojans, and worms and such, forced the new solution. The old user initiated download method could not keep up with (or correctly apply), the barrage of patches necessary plug the holes in the security ship called Windows. But the solution seems to work pretty well. In fact, the first solution was too responsive. Administrators couldn't keep up. Which has led to the monthly cycle we are working with these days. Just a little fine tuning.

Don't ask the user too many questions. Let the system determine proper downloads. System integrity and user experience are both enhanced. This is good stuff. What am I missing here?

We could argue that the content of the patches should have been in the core release, but I don't want to argue. Perhaps responsive turns to cya reactive, when the 'enhancements' are things you expected from the get go. But don't shoot the messenger. Help me understand your thinking.

Sorry to pick on you dude, but I must close with the english lesson for today; coming has one m, February should be capitalized and dare say is two words.