Don't believe the negative hype about Vista

[Flash]

Thanks Jimmy!

I'll give this a go when I get back home. I'm up at the in-laws place for the weekend.

Blueton, I'm going to give Jimmy's coaching a try, but I believe some of it I've done before. Lulu's laptop is PLENTY beefy, not a low end model. But this is why I get frustrated. Instead of being able to enjoy what my machine SHOULD be able to do, I'm on this board ranting about all of my problems with a machine that is IMO not as user friendly as it should be. O woe is me...

And Mike, ditto...

[roni]

Business PC buyers are still overwhelmingly opting for XP, computer giant HP has revealed.

HP's revelation, made at the launch of a new range of business notebooks, flies in the face of Microsoft's persistent PR claims that Vista has sold tens of millions of copies — and is selling at a faster rate than XP ever did.

However, HP explained how Microsoft is coming up with these "Vista" sales figures.

"From the 30th of June, we have no longer been able to ship a PC with a XP licence," said Jane Bradburn, Market Development Manager, Commercial Notebooks for HP Australia.

"However, what we have been able to do with Microsoft is ship PCs with a Vista Business licence but with XP pre-loaded. That is still the majority of business computers we are selling today."

So, in other words, Microsoft counts a sale for Vista, even though the computer manufacturer has really sold XP.

[ryberg]

Don't know if this is good or bad news, on balance, for Microsoft and Vista hopes, but at the least it shows the lengths to which they've had to go to counter all the bad press.

The Mojave Experiment

Steve

[roni]

Vista security gutted by new web exploit

Electronista | Vista security gutted by new web exploit

Many of the security measures Microsoft has implemented and touted for Windows Vista have been compromised through a single exploit, a presentation made at this week's Black Hat hacking conference claims. IBM Information Security Systems' Mark Dowd and VMware's Alexander Sotirov have found a method that uses scripting systems such as Java and elements of the .NET framework in Windows-based web browsers to arbitrarily run code on Vista systems. Internet Explorer is particularly vulnerable due to its use of ActiveX.

The malicious code not only negates the effectiveness of Vista's Address Space Layout Randomization and Data Execution Prevention technologies, which respectively randomize the location of some code in memory and prevent executing code from outside a certain memory space, but specifically abuses their behavior to ensure an attack gets through.

Microsoft is also unlikely to have any way of patching against the approach, since it can be reused whenever another vulnerability is found in a web browser. Such programs are also often the one Internet-based program that is often unblocked by security software and would thus thwart simple defense mechanisms such as blocking network ports or program permissions.

[eggman]

Originally Posted by ryberg

Don't know if this is good or bad news, on balance, for Microsoft and Vista hopes, but at the least it shows the lengths to which they've had to go to counter all the bad press.

The Mojave Experiment

Steve

A news story on the mojave experiment containing some quotes both positive and negative can he found here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/04/te...crosoft&st=cse

[ryberg]

Originally Posted by eggman

A news story on the mojave experiment containing some quotes both positive and negative can he found here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/04/te...crosoft&st=cse

Ha!

Whoops!

the Mojave Experiment is “a clever test that demonstrates nothing,” said Bob Garfield, a columnist for Advertising Age magazine and host of “On the Media” on NPR.

If a product has a bad reputation, it is not because of faulty perceptions, Mr. Garfield said. It is because of a faulty product. Vista, halfway through its planned three-year life cycle, has drawn more scorn than most major software products do. People have found it hard to set up. Users have complained that it saps memory and that installing drivers or applications is too difficult.

Microsoft executives have been telling reporters in recent weeks of how much Vista has improved. The company says that with 140 million copies sold, it is Microsoft’s fastest-selling operating system. According to Microsoft’s internal research, 89 percent of users say they are “very satisfied” or “somewhat satisfied” with the product. Nevertheless, many bloggers had problems with how the Mojave Experiment was conducted. The main complaint was: is 10 minutes of watching an expert demonstrate Vista a valid basis on which to assess it?

One problem with the videos is that many of Vista’s glitches have involved setting it up and installing drivers and applications. But in the Mojave Experiment, the software was preloaded, so that aspect of Vista was not tested at all. The site showed “no videos of connecting new devices, attempting to get on a Wi-Fi network, or tunneling into work’s V.P.N.,” or virtual private network, noted Adam DuVander of Webmonkey, a developers’ site...

Yikes.

Glad I don't have to try to sell that thing!

Steve

[JimmyMN]

Where the hell is the vomit icon!!!

[roni]