www.CostaRicaTicas.com

Microsoft wants to discontinue XP and force the world to move to Vista. Sign InfoWorld's petition to save XP.

http://weblog.infoworld.com/save-xp/arc ... ws_xp.html

Screw XP,,nothing wrong with Vista....

Microsoft won't change their mind no matter what. XP will still be supported, just not available to manufactures anymore. I'm not sure when the phase out date for support on XP is but it will likely be 2009 or 2010.

_________________
[url=http://www.amishrakefight.org/gfy/]

Palanx... Vista sucks. Here's why:

Bloatware: Vista, aside from some "kewl" display features really does nothing more than XP...but it sure takes a lot more hard drive space and resources to do it.

2. Being blind, Vista fucks me in the ass. In order to use Vista, I'd need to spend an additional $600.00 on screen reader application software...not an option, as XP is stable and does what it's supposed to do.

3. Microsoft has continually introduced "updated" operating systems since day one... Are we forgetting the Millenium disaster? How about WinBlows '98? Every time they introduce a new operating system, it is rushed to market without enough debugging, effectively forcing millions of users to become unpaid beta testers.

4. You think Vista is the end? Wrong. Windows 7 is about to be released, so we can all choke on that, too.

5. Why should Microsoft continue to sell past versions of their software? Well, one reason might be that many users cannot afford to upgrade their PCs every year or two. For some of us, each new operating system becomes a financial burden.

And while we're on the subject, Microsoft Office 2007 has no menu bar. Keyboard guys like me who cannot use a mouse (blindness) are phucked in the ass from the get-go.

And please, don't mention Narrator.... garbage.

_________________
Pura Vulva! Wandering through the dark, I am El Ciego.

Vista is NOT for everyone, but with Microsoft in control of their own product, you have no choice. Keep your old software or upgrade and move on. You either like it or not. There are many enhancments over XP, no doubt, I know. Just as they say, " You can't please everyone all the time". Almost everyone is going to wine and cry about it, but you will eventually have to move on.

Try running it in XP compatibility mode. Your reader may work.

Sorry K*ds, Palynx is correct in this case. Microsoft won't reverse this decision. They don't make huge money off of desktop OS sales in the first place. Their bread and butter is made in Microsoft Office and server licensing. So for them to continue to support it and offer it to OEMs doesn't make sense for them as a business.

You do always have other options besides Microsoft. The Mac is a strong product that can do everything your PC does or you can load Linux if you are savvy enough to go that way.

_________________
[url=http://www.amishrakefight.org/gfy/]

El Ciego,

While you certainly have some points, it's looking at it from the wrong perspective.

With computers getting cheaper and cheaper, it's hard to NOT justify buying a new computer every 2 or 3 years. Hell, it's been 6 years since XP was released, and there was no requirement to upgrade your computer during that whole time.

You can buy a computer (anywhere besides costa rica that does a hell of a lot for $250 (not counting monitor and printer). 2GB of RAM is $50. A 300GB hard disk is $75. We spend more than that on a single hour of fun.

As for your screen reader issues, that's a valid concern if it costs $600 to upgrade to a vista compatible version. But your arguments regarding Office seem odd to me. My understanding is that Office has it's own Accessibility API that screen reader software uses, and it doesn't do the normal menu reading.

The fact is, Vista is a *LOT* more secure than XP is. Maybe it won't work for you, but most people are just whiners and dislike change.

Gents:

Let's take this discussion to the right place: business and P&L. As everyone should be aware, Microsoft is a SOFTWARE company, and that's where their business starts and ends. Every copy of everything is almost entirely profit. They lose money, conversely, on the Xbox, the Zune, Microsoft Wireless and Keyboard/Mouse/Game controller products. Just that way, in this day and age, I suppose.

The problem is this: due to forces including market competition, global dominance desires (who wouldn't, honestly, like MORE business in MORE countries) and other things which I cannot really understand and thus explain, Microsoft is pushed into a corner to deliver different things on different schedules, and so a stable and steady source of revenue is defined and identified for analysts and investors (another key component of being a publicly traded company) to get excited about.

Apple: Read the WiReD magazine piece about Apple's iPhone push for the 07 MaxExpo. By the way, I absolutely detest the iPhone -- I was doing *EVERYTHING* the iPhone was doing, except for the silly screen tilt (Which, uh, I could do with a single keystroke), in 2000 -- I'll not hijack the thread with that here).

IBM/HPPaq/Dellway/Redhat/[name_your_company]: All need to release something to garner excitement, sales and appreciation of the fact that they're still in the game.

IT'S CALLED COMPETITIVE EDGE, and whoever is poised to deliver something ahead of someone else WINS, even if only temporarily.

Try understanding a bit of history. When Microsoft was the only game in town for business machines (aside from CP/M and the Apple Lisa), it released an OS update every 5-7 years. When Apple gained steam, it reduced to 3-5 years. Now with Linux as a serious contender (don't let Microsoft public statements fool you, it's serious), now they're on a 1.5-3 year schedule.

It's life. You don't HAVE to buy the crap if you don't have a need or don't want to shell out the cash. It is, however, when a company FORCES you to buy the crap that, well, it goes beyond frustration and morphs into loathing. I truly understand this, and from a technical nature, there are MANY reasons why you COULD upgrade to Vista and gain benefits, just like there were for upgrading from Windows 98 to Windows ME (Vista 1.0, heh). It's all a carefully calculated game, folks, and because business users drive a HIGH percentage of the net profits that Microsoft stuffs in it's 12B/yr coffers (pure profit), it can be particularly nauseating to see them go down a road which starts choking out legitimate legacy users.

The complete flip side is that there ARE improvements and you MUST consider the pro's and con's, as with anything. While Vista may not be as BUGGY as previous releases were to market (the RTM versions), it surely doesn't deliver a compelling message to upgrade, either at home or at business.

For some home users such as El Ciggy and others, it does present a whole 'nother ball game in that the dependency for doing mission critical (aka can't-live-without-it) things is hooked to a particular version of Windows, and when that version is going the way of the dinosaurs or is being forced into an early retirement, I understand sentiments.

The saving grace for those that have a technical need to maintain stability, usually ARE technical users themselves and can work a bit more to achieve a balance, either by upgrading and working around issues for compatibility or by remaining on the older version and keeping that one alive as long as possible. Upgrades are a way of life, and until we design a modularized operating system where component, feature and function aren't like to execution and operation, it's going to stay that way.

Plus -- there's always DOS!

We need to ask our resident computer expert VB.

_________________
The difference between a Sea Story and a Fairy Tale is that a Fairy Tale starts out 'Once Upon a Time..' and a Sea Story starts out 'This is no Shit...'

(export version only, some restrictions may apply, some assembly required, not valid where the sun don't shine...

if you live in the states of Poverty, Darkness or anywhere outside of The Blessings of Civilization Trust, Inc...other rules may apply)

I think it is easier than that. You either upgrade or stay right where you are. I know people who are still using WIN311 and WIN95. Why upgrade if you do not need to or want to, no one is saying you either upgrade or never use Windows again,,,,,that easy!!

The problem with staying right were you are is that often it involves staying with the same hardware. When a person goes to bestbuy to get a new PC, it comes with Vista by default. Bill Gates has stated that his goal is to come out with a totally new OS every 3 years and force an upgrade for folks. In effect, you are no longer buying a one time product, you are now continually paying for a service.

Thankfully, he is not the only game in town. I personally detest Vista. I have one PC that runs Vista, and that is only because there are certain applications that have to be run on Windows. Personally, I would recomend anyone who is frustrated with this to at least TRY one of the Linux distrobutions. I'm running Fedora and Suse on two of my computers now and do the bulk of my work on them. I have considered buying a Mac, but as of yet there is nothing that I would want to do on a Mac that i can't do on Linux.

Seriously, if you had a MAC you would never worry about new printers, scanners or other attachments working correctly. Let alone a problem with your updates. The MAC OS-X operating system is flawless. All Required Drivers Self Install, you don't have to go looking for them, only to find out they don't work with your 'new' setup. Mr Gates "Vista" is the biggest SCAM since SPAM was invented. It took them YEARS to bring it to market and it was a FLOP right out of the gate. Fell on it's face. Wasted millions of hours of peoples time trying to set it up. Didn't work. A complete failure. Install the Vista Service Pack and your screen goes Blue, locks up your machine so you now have a very nice expensive paperweight at your desk. It will go down in history as Microsoft's 'EDSEL'. All the new MACs come with a program: "Boot-Camp" that lets you run ALL your PC software & ALL your MAC programs on 1 machine. It is like 2 computers in 1. No problems at all. Put in your treasured copy of XP and your ready for anything PC or MAC. What more could you want?

I had forgotten that I even started this thread.

Two weeks ago I got a great deal on a Dell laptop from their refurb site. It's an Inspiron 1525. It came with Vista and after a co-worker showed me a few things I'm adjusting to it pretty well. It's basically the same as XP with a different format.

Of course you need at least 2GB of RAM to run the damn thing but fortunately my laptop came with 3GB so I'm in good shape.

I resisted buying a new PC for over 6 years but trying to run Firefox and Thunderbird with only 512MB of RAM just wasn't working. It's nice to finally be in the 21st Century.

I read a few days ago that Dell and HP offer "downgrades" on their products. Their licensing agreement with Microsoft gives them the right to install XP on a machine with a Vista license.

Downandup,
I meant to mention that. Thanks for reminding me.

I saw that Dell will load XP on a PC or laptop if you request it. The problems with that I see are twofold:
1. Eventually Microsoft will force you to upgrade to VISTA, that will probably end up costing you money.
2. I have heard that trying to upgrade XP to Vista is almost more trouble than it's worth.

Just some things to think about. Vista really doesn't have all that much that is new. It's mostly just a new format of XP but it does have some nice features. It has all sorts of online documentation so the transition isn't all that drastic.

There is even "Vista for Dummies" if you need a quick reference.