[BadVista Advocate] Vista owners

[Michael D. Stemle, Jr.]

On Friday 27 April 2007 22:12:36 Don Hensley wrote:
> 
> Something I'm a bit curious about: Does anyone on this list actually have a 
> Vista box up and running?
> 
> One of the real problems I have, is that as all my systems are GNU/Linux (I 
> left Windows behind quite some time ago), I really am hard pressed to 
> actually get into technical problems with Vista.
> 
> I can read what information is available, and I can see the impossible 
problem 
> presented in the "If you can't open it, you don't own it" aspect of any 
> proprietary software.
> 
> And the underling problems with DRM are apparent as a simple exercise in 
> logic.
> 
> The problem is "How do I explain to a Vista user, or prospective Vista user, 
> exactly what Freedom his software lacks (and what freedoms he is giving up 
by 
> using Vista), when I don't even use it at all?"
> 
> That is a point by point issue that perhaps we could work on getting into a 
> form that might reach "Joe Sixpack", or "Anonymous".
> 
> Every time I get serious about explaining this, I see eyeballs glaze over. 
> Well what can I say, I am an engineer by training, a hacker by inclination  
> (not the hacker the news media has corrupted the honorable title into).
> 
> So how do I reach the average end user?
> 
> I don't believe it's a requirement to reach "Granny", she will come to it on 
> her own, or go with whatever the family geek sets up for her. (I get all my 
> 'old people' because either I am recommended, or they have had such a bad 
> experience with Windows that they are out searching for something better, 
and 
> run across me).
> 
> So long as it's set up for them, they are the easiest bunch I know of to get 
> to be happy GNU/Linux users. Notice that I am in a de facto manner, simply 
> becoming a non evil Redmond for them. I have made it all work, from the 
first 
> time they use it, I hold their hand as long as is needed, and am available 
to 
> help (i.e.; fix it.) when they do have a problem.
> 
> This is not "Joe Sixpack" gets a distro and tries to install it... 
Games????? 
> where are games??? No Second Life! Why!!
> 
> But then gaming is not often a big thing with my clients, maybe poker or 
> solitaire. Frozen Bubble is always a big hit.
> 
> So any suggestions would help. That's what I would like to see, a FAQ that 
is 
> written to show point by point why one not only should, but will benefit 
from 
> using GNU/Linux and why one should not, and will not benefit from using 
> Vista.
> 
> Why giving up some things that Microsoft is using to entice you (and 
> developers) with, is the right thing to do. And why it's going to ultimately 
> benefit them to forgo some of those poisonous things.
> 
> And the FAQ needs to be in easy to understand terms and verbiage.
> 
> As Jacob and I not long ago discovered, what seems obvious to one person (or 
> age group) may not be obvious at all to another. This is one of the things 
> that needs to be considered when creating any sort of "come on over, this is 
> great" sort of page, be it a FAQ or otherwise.
> 
> I await some feedback from all of you.
> 
> As most of you know (I hope) feedback that does not agree with my take is 
fine 
> with me.
> 
> I'll leave you all with this observation about life (at least my life, and 
> I'll bet yours too):
> 
> "I have never, ever, not once, learned anything from someone that agreed 
with 
> me." If he agreed what was there to learn from him?
> 
> Don.

My employer requires me to test web-based software on the latest and greatest 
Windows rubbish (yes, it is rubbish).  So, he went to Dell and bought a copy 
of Vista and it came with a computer free of charge (the computer was roughly 
$200 more than the cost of the version of Vista installed, and he got a $250 
rebate).

As for the things that Joe Schmoe would notice that are broken about it, well, 
let's enumerate shall we?

1) This smartphone (PalmOS) came with a driver and install disc for win32.  
Well, it doesn't work.  I get a GPF whenever I try to install software onto 
the phone using this software.  This is just a Treo 700p from Verizon 
Wireless.  Very common.  Yet, I plugged it into my Kubuntu box and as soon as 
I loaded the visor kernel module, this thing worked pretty well with kpilot.

2) *MANY* programs are 100% incompatible with Vista.  This allSnap program I 
use in order to snap windows to the edge (a feature that most X window 
managers have had for quite some time) won't execute.  Windows "detects 
problems" and is "unable to resolve" them.

3) I picked up a Linksys wireless network extender (let's you plug in ethernet 
and access your wireless network) and tried to configure it, thinking the 
windows install would work the quickest (sorry, I'm lazy sometimes).  Well, 
when I went to run the configuration tool on the CDROM, I got a "windows has 
detected a problem" and it wouldn't run.  I called their (Linksys') support 
number and found out that Vista is not supported.  So I asked what IP and 
port and default authentication information was the default for the device, 
plugged it into my GNU/Linux/KDE box and it only took me 2 minutes to do what 
I'd just wasted more than ten times that trying to do with Vista.

4) This thing hits the 3D for everything.  My machine pumps out a considerable 
amount of heat.  Not overheating, but I can only imagine how much extra juice 
it's burning needlessly.

5) The graphics drivers for Vista are crap.  Both ATI and NVidia are playing 
hell trying to get their drivers to work.  These nvidia drivers on this 
machine now leave yellow lines on the screen during boot, and when the 
screensaver runs I get all sorts of weird artifacts on the screen.  ATI users 
of Vista will have scarier stories on that as ATI doesn't know how to write 
drivers for general computers to save their lives.

6) USB doesn't wake up after resume.  If you have your wireless adapter on 
USB, you have to constantly disconnect and reconnect it when resuming from 
sleep.

7) Everything asks you if you want to send data to Microsoft.  They ask if you 
want to "help improve Microsoft products" for damn-near everything.  These 
options are checked by default, and have "(Recommended)" next to the "Yes" 
radio button.

Well, that's all I feel like typing right now.  I may put up a second edition 
of this later.  Dunno.  I feel better now.

-- 
~ manchicken <><
(A)bort, (R)etry, (I)nfluence with large hammer.
The number of the beast - vi vi vi

-------------------------------------------------------

-- 
~ Michael D. Stemle, Jr. <><
(A)bort, (R)etry, (I)nfluence with large hammer
The number of the beast - vi vi vi