Vista, We Hardly Knew Ye
I remember the great Vista debates. When it shipped a half decade ago, reviewers and users snickered and complained, and the press had a field day.
At first Microsoft denied there was anything wrong. Meanwhile, company insiders privately admitted to problems.
Here at Redmond magazine staffers and contributors had mixed views. Some had horrible experiences. Others felt it was far better than XP and didn't see what the fuss was all about. To me it was all a matter of what software you ran, peripherals you brought along and the machine you placed it on. And a fair bit of chance.
Microsoft also had mixed views, with executives later copping to at least some failings -- even joking about it.
Now we are five years into Vista and the operating system is no longer officially mainstream. I heard about this on Fox & Friends just this morning. It reported that for the next five years Vista will have "lamestream" support or, as Microsoft calls it, "extended support."
This means there will be no warranty claims, no design fixes or improvements. There will, however, be ongoing security fixes.
Is extended support almost as good as mainstream support, and did the "lamestream" joke make you groan louder than Vasili Alekseyev doing a clean and jerk? Be as cruel as you like at [email protected]. Equally welcome are Vista experiences, especially those that don't jive with the traditional view that the thing is awful.
Posted by Doug Barney on 04/11/2012 at 1:19 PM