Mohave, MoVista, MoProblems

Have you seen the television commercial where Microsoft tries to impress an unsuspecting group with their new Mohave operating system? Everyone seems so surprised when they’re told that it’s actually Vista. Well, have you ever heard the expression that “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet”? Rose and sweet are not two words that I would use to describe MS Vista and apparently I’m not the only one that has an opposite description come to mind.

I asked my LinkedIn network if they used Vista and what their opinion was and while the sample size was low the response was overwhelming against Vista. A few of the printable responses are provided below:

• “The issues I have; inefficient use of resources, more stringent hardware requirements, mysterious background processes that impede workflow, etc.”
• “Eats too much memory, slows things down, open to hackers”.
• “It randomly reboots and has resource problems and compatibility problems”.
• “The biggest issue I have with Vista is the interface is needlessly overloaded with junk”.
• “Microsoft = Nothing but problems”.
• “Complicated - Slow and memory hungry”.
• “To sum it up I completely regret getting her Vista”.
• “Vista is a bloated piece of ......... and doesn't offer anything over XP that I can find”.

Doesn’t sound like a rousing endorsement does it? I didn’t think so but it does reflect my opinion.

I upgraded my old Sony laptop with a new whiz bang HP. The HP had it all; great price, fast processor, large hard drive, 17 inch screen, and 2 Gig of RAM. I thought I was ready for some fast, trouble-free computing even though it came with Microsoft Vista.

My first indication that I may be in for long telephone conversations with the folks in Bangalore came when I tried to connect my Lexmark printer, a perfectly good printer I might add, to my new wonder machine. To make a long story short, my Lexmark wasn’t on the approved, Vista PNP list and Lexmark didn’t feel the need to provide a driver. Next came the software that wouldn’t run under Vista, then the unexplained crashes, folders that wouldn’t open and programs that opened but just wouldn’t respond.

Do you think Microsoft knows they’ve dumped junk on their users? You bet they do. Every day comes with an upgrade to fix one thing or another and they aren’t all that small. I’m beginning to worry that my “large hard drive” may have to get larger to hold them all.

With all these problems I thought my computing salvation would come from dumping Vista and reinstalling my legal copy of XP. I had also heard that HP offered the option of downgrading to XP. I could see the gold at the end of the rainbow. Well the HP folks were extremely helpful, they were a lot like Lexmark in they didn’t care about the problems they had already sold the hardware and they offered to void my warranty if I tried to improve things on my own.

Listen to the voice of reason, don’t accept Vista without a fight, there are alternatives. Keep your copy of XP, try Unix or use other open choices. As for me, I think I hear Steve Jobs calling my name. There may be an Apple in my future.