I was just reading Sam lamenting the fact that Vista had a very disappointing launch. He points to a site claims to give 100 Reasons you’ll be speechless about Vista. Personally, I’ve not seen anything that would cause me to go “ooooo! I need this now.” (I did see reasons for XP, BTW). I decided to grab the list and see what’s there (and I’m sharing it with you). Basically, this article is meant to prove Sam’s point from the view of someone who hasn’t used Vista, but is a techno-geek (BTW, I really want to like Vista).
I guess one more thing to mention to any ‘softies reading this. I’m not bashing. I love you guys. Between your marketers and lawyers, I’m not terribly interested in Windows Vista. (below is what I think of the 100 Reasons marketing)
1) Makes using a PC a breeze – this point mentions the new 3d desktop enhancements and the instant search technology. None of this is compelling to me… I have free search technology I use now with XP, so that doesn’t do it for me. The 3d enhancements sound cool, but window dressing is window dressing (not really a selling point for me)
2) Mentions that you can use a remote with Media Center… and this is different from XP’ Media Center, how?
3) Mentions that this is the safest version of windows. It mentions Windows Defender which I run on XP today. It also mentions anti-spam, phishing filters, and parental controls. It also mentions a bunch of automatic backups, and performance tuning. The only compelling thing here for me is the parental controls and it’s not enough. I have backup software already. The performance tuning scares me since I’ve had windows decide to tune things before and the next thing I know icons are missing, programs don’t work… past history doesn’t convince me that this is a good thing. Anti-spam is built-in to my main email (gmail), so that doesn’t cut it. With IE7, I get phishing filters (and probably the same ones).
4) Mentions the 3d enhancements again… see #1.
5) Mentions the search again… see #1.
6) Mentions the mobility features of Vista (something I don’t know that much about). It talks about keeping my laptop in sync with my calendar, music, etc. It also mentions the TabletPC. Needless to say there is something that intrigues me here, but I’m not “wowed” yet.
7) Mentions Windows Photo Manager. Another feature I don’t know much about, but I wonder how it differs from the many Photo Managers that have been crammed down my throat by Vendors like HP and Adobe (in other words… I’ve got this I think).
8) Mentions the automated maintenance stuff like backups, performance tuning, etc. See #3.
9) Mentions the wireless networking enhancements… the features mentioned are things I use today with XP.
10) Mentions IE7… which I can install on XP.
11) Parental controls… See #3
12) Media Center and TV Guide… See #2.
13) IE7 and Phishing Filter… See #3 and #10.
14) Media Center and Media Center Extenders like the Xbox 360… See #2.
15) Automated Backup… See #3.
[I’m starting to think that we are going to have the same 7 or 8 features the whole way down]
16) Mentions Easy Transfer (a feature that has yet to be mentioned!)… how this differs from XP’s Documents and Settings Transfer is beyond me (and I’m not given anything that it doesn’t already do)
17) Windows Sidebar… Ok, this is a cool feature sort of. I’ve run a number of sidebar enhancements on XP over the last several years… none of which are running on my machine now… I’m over the sidebar as well as Desktop widgets (it’s been done and it’s over).
18) Backup… See #3.
19) Watch Live TV on Windows Media Center… uhh… #2.
20) Easier networking… I guess I thought this was pretty decent in XP.
21) Play games on your TV with Media Center… not compelling… I can do this today with my TabletPC that has TV out.
22) Flip 3D evidently provides a new way of switching between programs and document (in 3d and with a mouse). Uhh… not compelling for me (maybe for you).
23) Not sure about this one… it seems that Vista is a total entertainment center letting me play movies, games, etc. I’m “wowed”… not! Again Windows 95 let me do this.
24) Windows Defender… See #3.
25) It’s compatible with most hardware… uhh, great, so I can run it is what this says… the question is do I want to run it?
26) Quicktabs in IE7… See #10.
27) Mobility Center… See #6.
28) Windows Media Center on the TV (again)… See #2 and #21.
29) Tablet and Touch Technology… While it would be nice to have Tablet improvements… I had a TabletPC… it was fun, but not that much better than a laptop.
30) Restore your PC in an Instant… Ok, I bet a 30gb restore won’t be that instant… See #3.
31) Mentions the background diagnostics and how they can notify you of something being wrong… sounds nice, but the BSOD usually lets me know.. again not quite compelling to me (it’s a nice to have and on top of a couple meaty features this would be icing on the cake).
32) Mentions streamlining group policy and how your users can access data on offline servers… uhh.. that’s amazing! Vista can predict what I will want and cache’s it or does it cache the entire server on every machine… Seriously, I don’t think any of this is all that different from what we have in XP right now.
33) Mentions Backup and Windows DVD Maker… So it comes with a built-in DVD creation… My Nero does that… so does my Roxio (both of which came with my laptops). I realize that Vista might have a better set of tools, but what I have works just fine.
34) Connect to a domain… XP does this.
35) Search… See #1.
36) A better photo editor… uhh… not really that compelling…
37) Drive Data Encryption… I hope this works better than it did in XP.. again I’m not really interested in this.
38) A photo editor that removes red-eye… I have one of those for XP (and it was free).
39) Photo Gallery (again)… See #7.
40) Mentions a myriad of new navigation features to make it easier to get where I want… pure marketing fluff to me… Since I do marketing, I can see right through this. You make statements like this in a marketing document when you have run out of points. Essentially it means, we have a whole bunch of new stuff (that you’ve already read about) that will make your life better… it says nothing.
41) Automated Windows Update… Uhh Windows XP has this…
42) Photo Manager will compress files for easier Email delivery…. I have utilities that will do this… I bet it doesn’t work with gmail though…
43) Parental features… See #3
44) This one intrigues me… too bad it doesn’t explain itself. Windows ReadyBoost will somehow speed up my computer by having me stick in a USB memory stick. Does this mean it’s backing data up to the memory stick? Is it using the memory stick to increase usable memory? This one is a wash… if I only was told something a little more about the feature.
45) Media Center does it all in one box… See #2 and #21.
46) Windows Media Player 11… Hmmm, I think that’s the player I’m using right now from XP.
47) Windows Media Player 11 (again)… See #46.
48) Wireless Networking (again)… See #6.
49) Sync Center/Mobility… See #6.
50) Tabbed IE7 (did we mention that IE7 has tabs)… Yep, I know cause I can use it from XP!
51) Games Explorer (organizes your games)… Hey, that one sounds cool… if I installed a lot of games at once.. which I don’t (but then again I’m getting older, so I play a couple games at a time and uninstall what I am not playing)…
52) Parental controls to control game time… Nice addition if I was worried about this… but there is this cool thing called an Alarm clock that can do the same sort of thing.
53) Meeting Space looks cool. I’ll give that one a thumbs up… (wow… we’re like 53 items in and I have flagged like maybe 3 items as in Vista’s favor)
54) Did we mention that there is a flavor of Media Center… See #2.
55) Another you’ll work better with this… see #40… tired marketers is what I say…
56) IE7 (again!)… See #10 (and one of the other 10 IE7 items in this list)
57) Windows DVD Maker (again)…. See #33.
58) Windows Media Player 11 (again)… See #46. (It does mention some of the cool features of Media Player 11, so points for that).
59) Emailing Photos (again)… see #42.
60) Windows Movie Maker… Already in XP although maybe enhanced for HD (since I don’t have HD…)
61) Windows Firewall… Windows Firewall??!!?? I realize that there are probably some enhancements here, but there aren’t mentioned in this point…
62) Windows Fetch monitors and preloads heavily used apps so they start up faster… Nice, but I think XP has something similar inside of it.
63) The Help System… Are they kidding me??!!?? Do I need to rant… this marketing is awful! and this point almost assumes I’ve never used Windows before…
64) File System Encryption… See #37.
65) Faxing and Scanning… Ok, there can’t be too many enhancements here… must be a tired marketer or an exec who wants 100 points even if there are some lame ones.
66) Shadow Copy is cool… if I accidently delete a file it can recover it… Another good one…
67) Windows Mail with Instant Search… See #1 for search… I think I’ve had mail in Windows for a while now…
68) Windows Calendar… Ok, this is a new feature… not one I’m overly wowed about since I have used Outlook as well as I have a PDA that does a better job of organizing me…
69) Improved printing… again another decent feature that is a positive.
70) New Sleep feature… this smells like Hibernate… which works fine in XP.
71) Instant Search has search folders… for a free built-in feature this does sound cool, but #1 still applies…
72) IE7 and RSS… See #10.
73) new spin on saving your home movies and photos… see #33 and #42.
74) Windows Media Center will play music while browsing photos… Since I don’t use my Media Center PC like a Media Center I have no idea if the current version does this or not (does that make it uncompelling… you bet… at least to me)
75) Printing of Photos… Didn’t we hear that already? Oh yeah #69.
76) Windows Photo Gallery lets you order professional prints of your photos… Hmmm… this sounds like Vista is going to cost me more money in the future… I wonder who paid MS for this one… oops… I mean it’s a feature… and I think I can get stuff of this nature in XP now…
77) Windows Photo Gallery can grab the photos from your camera… uhhh… since my camera mounts as an external drive… not all that difficult… not even for my Dad.
78) Window Media Player 11… See #46.
79) Window Media Player 11… See #46. This does mention buying music which I can do today… <sigh />
80) Multitask burning and watching with Media Center… uhh… See #2 and #21 (for instance)
81) Windows Media Center is a better TV watching experience… hmmm… ever heard of TiVo? No? How about what I use GBPVR? (you probably get the picture)
82) Windows Media Center.. your media hub… See last one… BTW, add TVersity to the mix.
83) Windows DreamScene sounds like a cool screen saver… I’ll give you a point on that one
84) Windows Media Center and a remote… <sigh /> See #2
85) Switch languages without rebooting… not sure… I know I have been able to switch formatting around… but since I speak/read exactly 1 language… doesn’t do me a lot of good…
86) Autmatic Backup… see #3
87) Play the hottest games… then goes on to list 4 games I’ve never heard of… It’s cool that Vista comes with games, but if I was a CEO…
88) DirectX 10… Hey another feature not included or available on XP…
89) Games on the go… this is saying you can load your games anywhere and take them with you… This looks like another point that means nothing… I can load games on my Laptop right now and also on my Desktop PC.
90) Windows Slideshow lets machines with secondary screens notify you of important meetings/emails with the machine not even booted up… OK, another cool feature provided you have the hardware (which I don’t).
91) Sync Center.. See #6… BTW, pocket pcs are mentioned here and I know I can put video on my pocketpc already… I guess this must be an “easier” way to do so… this one is sort of a wash…
92) TabletPCs and snipping… some new features for the TabletPC OS that lets the pen be used to snip/copy pieces of info and paste it elsewhere… very cool I guess.
93) Tablet and Touch… Vista is evidently Touch Screen enabled…. uhh… that’s nice.. someday maybe I’ll have a touch screen on something other than my pocketpc.
94) Wireless Security… now with WPA2… I could swear I had been using WPA2 with my Windows XP Media Centerfor some time now…
95) Better productivity when working offline… this one says that the offline access is smarter and will let you take files/folders with you… that’s cool. Almost “wow.”
96) Remote Desktop… There have definitely been some improvements here (I won’t throw the Windows XP card down on this one).
97) Fax/Scanning devices can be across the network… Ok, I’ll give you that one… although I think I’ve seen this done with WindowsXP.
98) Connect to networked projectors… very nice if you own a networked projector which I imagine some business will invest in.
99) File and Folder sharing has been enhanced… This probably could have used some user-friendliness attached to it, but I’ve never had that much trouble with it.
100) Network Diagnostics… I guess this could be helpful for a newbie…
Again, my post here is not to crap all over Vista… it’s to say that this marketing (and other like it) do nothing to really convince me that I must get Vista (which is what the title of the marketing document implies). I’ve had to write documents like this before and I know from experience I was always happy when it was over… There aren’t 100 good reasons for anything…So quit it…
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