Give Vista a Break…

I had no intention to write this article today, but as always I read too much news and from time to find get offended to the point of writing. Today that happened when I read this article.

Posted on News.com, Don Reisinger gives us his compelling argument on "Why Microsoft must abandon Vista to save itself." The key points that spell the failure and fall of Microsoft are Vista’s price, poor sales figures, and it’s inclusion of DRM technologies.

I have spoken to all of these before, but in case you weren’t listening, let’s catch everyone up.

Vista’s Price Point
I really couldn’t be more tired of people whining about the price of Vista. Of the mass of computer users currently on Windows XP, how many of these users have a sincere need to upgrade to Vista. With the exception of some hardcore gamers wanting the latest Direct X 10 action, I am saying nil. Currently at Dell, I can get an AMD Sempron 3600+, Vista Home Basic, 1 GB 250 GB Hard Disk. Vista Home Basic retails for $209.00 at CDW for a full licensed copy (non-upgrade.) Let’s face it, those people who are really going to get Vista are buying a new machine. Since every major manufacture pays the "Windows Tax" anyway, the license is included in the system.

In Dell’s pricing structure, to upgrade this system to Vista Home Premium, it costs you a whopping $27 over the basic OS install. I hardly call that price gouging for the features that you get included with Premium over Basic. They charge you $89 to go from Premium to Business or $109 for Premium to Ultimate. Let’s quit banging a dead horse. for the majority of users, Vista is not overpriced. You can compare this argument directly with the cell phone pricing schemes. Cell phones are way overpriced too if you buy them without service.

Poor Sales Figures
What is poor? Microsoft’s press release claims 20,000,000 copies in the first month. Kanye West’s album sold 700,000 in it’s first week, Halo 3 expects to sell 4 million copies in October. I have a hard time saying that’s weak. Considering nearly every new computer is shipping with Vista, it’s not slowing down.

Inclusion of DRM
This is the one that really gets my goat. The DRM strategy that everyone is complaining about has not been implemented. If it were to be implemented, everyone who wanted to play HD content on their computers over HDMI connections would be out of luck. Why be upset at Microsoft for future proofing the legal use of media on their operating system. That just seems like a safe bet to me. It’s not like it hinders usage of your system at all, and if you do end up buying media that supports this technology, you will actually be able to use it. Where’s the black op in this transaction? This argument is always carried out by people who want to steal content anyway. If you want to complain about DRM, complain to the media companies embedding it in their product, not the hardware and software that allows you to use it.

Final Word…
I have said this so many times, I want to scream. Don’t upgrade to Vista. Sure there are exceptions, if your box says it’s Vista Certified, you are probably golden, if not, wait until you legitimately need a new computer. There is no significant reason (yet) to upgrade to Vista. Microsoft has a good solid product. Sure, it’s having to dance around it’s status as a spy ware/virus target leaves some users frustrated, but not nearly frustrated as a Windows XP box full of mal ware with a virus infected disk full of ruined data.

Vista is a nice operating system. I have tried several flavors of it and have had no issues except for some driver compatibility issues with some unique audio hardware. I don’t fault Vista for that, I didn’t expect it to support high end audio gear out of the box when the high end sequencers don’t support it yet anyway. So don’t buy into the hype. If I was purchasing a new Windows computer today I would get Vista on it.

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