Letters to Redmond
More on Vista Capable
Readers on Microsoft's sticker lawsuit, suggestions for Microsoft's mobile business, and more.
In regards to the Vista Capable confusion [Nov. 19, 2008, Redmond Report,
"Yang Yanked from Yahoo!" Mailbag: Your Verdicts on 'Vista Capable' Suit], I'm just wondering why no one is using the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor as recommended on Microsoft's Web site. The advisor tells you what version of Vista your computer is "capable" of using and what you need to upgrade to get into a different version. It also tells you what programs will and won't work, and which just need an upgrade to work on Vista.
This seems pretty clear-cut to me. I think this one should go to Microsoft. I also think that the consumer has a duty to get some education about a product before purchasing it. The sticker is just a guideline to show that a computer could use Vista. Microsoft shouldn't have to hold the hand of everyone who wants to buy a computer. Either the consumer should do some research, or they should get a salesperson they trust who knows the difference.
Ethan
Las Vegas
Microsoft advertised Vista capable without any qualifications to a customer base ranging from first-time buyers to expert's experts. This mode of advertising guaranteed that at least some of Microsoft's customers were going to be the victims of a "sin of omission" theft. For Microsoft to now claim it did nothing misleading is dishonest in the extreme. If today's legal system allows Microsoft to get away with this, then today's legal system is contemptible in the extreme.
Dave W.
Los Angeles
Bad Timing for IBM
Regarding Lee Pender's Redmond Report article on the open source client desktop from IBM ["IBM Touts Microsoft-Free Desktop," January 2009], I believe that any company with at least 500 or more employees doesn't have the financial stability to even try to make this switch with the current economic crisis. The hardware and software switch alone would not justify the cost. This does not even include training for end users and the support that would be needed to run these open source clients.
Employee freezes and budget cuts are the No. 1 reason I think that right now is not the time to be looking into a switch. What you save on licensing and software would only give you stress when it came to support.
Michael J. O'Connell
Philadelphia, Pa.
A Vote for Wyse
After reading Tom Valovic's article, "Thin Is Still In" [Redmond Report, January 2009], I'd like to share my own experience with Wyse.
We use Wyse thin clients in several of our offices, with most of them being at least four years old. They have almost no maintenance or support issues; they just work and don't need constant upgrading. Compared to the PCs that we also use-which are on a three-year lifecycle-the cost differences are striking.
We're adding many more of the Wyse terminals in the near future-the newest ones are very nice-so our hardware costs and support costs are about to go down dramatically. I highly recommend them.
Floyd
Washington, D.C.
Windows Mobile Fixes
In her column, Mary Jo Foley offered suggestions for Microsoft's mobile business ["5 Ways Redmond Can Fix Its Mobile Mess," January 2009], and I have a few more.
My customers consistently indicate that the iPhone's UI is vastly superior to Windows Mobile, and that BlackBerry navigation is far better. Microsoft needs to adopt a similar look and feel for the Windows Mobile platform.
The company also needs to chuck free apps like Media Player because they're pathetic at this stage compared to what else is freely available on the Web. Easy access to great Web services-mapping, videos sites tailored for Windows Mobile, better support for GPS, etc.-is also essential.
Johann Blake
Jerusalem, Israel
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