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Microsoft Exec Says, "You'll Miss Vista" 273

Posted by samzenpus from the cold-day-in-hell dept.
Oracle Goddess writes "'Years from now, when you've moved on to Windows 7, you'll look back at Windows Vista fondly. You'll remember its fabulous attributes, not its flaws.' That's the opinion of Steve Guggenheimer, vice president of the OEM division at Microsoft. 'I think people will look back on Vista after the Windows 7 release and realize that there were actually a bunch of good things there,' Guggenheimer said in a recent interview. 'So it'll actually be interesting to see in two years what the perception is of Vista.' A dissenting opinion comes from Bob Nitrio, president of system builder Ranvest Associates, doesn't believe organizations that skipped Vista will ever regret their decision. 'I don't think for a second that people are suddenly going to love Windows 7 so much that they will experience deep pangs of regret for not having adopted Vista,' said Nitrio. If I had to bet, I'd go with Bob's take on it." My first thought was, Steve meant Windows 7 is designed to be virtually unusable as payback for all the complaints about Vista, but I might be biased.

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Microsoft Exec Says, "You'll Miss Vista" More

Microsoft Exec Says, "You'll Miss Vista"

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  • Windows 7 is Vista SP3 (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 24, 2009 @03:46PM (#28812413)

    So you won't have to look far to see Vista...

    • No ones older hardware works anymore.

      pretty sure some of the corrupt companies went along for the ride.

      Thanks HP. My scanjet scanner wont work anymore. have to use the XP live cd.

      Fuck Ballmer. Fuck Gates.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by greatica ( 1586137 )

        Yep, two of my scanners died in Vista. At work we can afford to order new ones. At home, Microsoft lost a customer to Linux.

        A customer who happens to be an IT manager with a newfound respect for FOSS and a dislike for complex licensing.

        • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

          by erroneus ( 253617 )

          The number of people such as yourself is growing in surprising numbers. It is getting to the point, however, that IT pros without some Linux knowledge/experience are viewed as somewhat limited in their scope and skill set. After all. Linux is FREE. Get a book or two, read some forums, install it on a machine somewhere. The knowledge is as free as the software.

      • Why does this guy think people will miss Vista? Because he expects Windows 7 to piss people off worse than Vista?

        The guy sounds like a jilted ex - "You'll miss me when I'm gone!"

        News flash Microsoft - there's a bunch of us that won't miss you if the whole company folds, let alone you phasing out a product that was nothing but an interim money grab to please your stockholders while defrauding your customers.

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by Chabo ( 880571 )

          I have a feeling that the opinion of Vista will stay largely static forever; it may have introduced new features, but it still wasn't that good. This is already how the public feels about WinME -- it added useful features like System Restore, but it wasn't until XP that those features were incorporated in a good OS.

          • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

            by iamhassi ( 659463 )
            "I have a feeling that the opinion of Vista will stay largely static forever; it may have introduced new features, but it still wasn't that good. This is already how the public feels about WinME -- it added useful features like System Restore, but it wasn't until XP that those features were incorporated in a good OS."

            I couldn't say it better myself. Going XP to Vista feels like 98 to ME. ME was absolutely AWFUL. It took Windows 2000 and finally XP before M$ finally got it right (w2k was good but didn'

        • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

          by JoeRobe ( 207552 )

          I suspect that what he means (and I know this'll probably be modded down) is that Vista does have some positive aspects to it, which are totally overwhelmed by the crappy aspects. They're trying to make Windows 7 essentially Vista where they've cut back on the crappiness so that one can (hopefully) appreciate the positive attributes. So they think once we're all happy with Windows 7, we'll look back on Vista and identify all the nice things about it (which are also in Windows 7), magically forgetting that

    • Business schemes of an effective monopoly (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Futurepower(R) ( 558542 ) on Friday July 24, 2009 @04:28PM (#28813133) Homepage
      A profitable business scheme for Microsoft is calling an update to a product by an entirely new name.

      Another profitable scheme is charging the full price for an upgrade, as though it is a totally new product.

      My understanding is that releasing versions of products that aren't finished is also profitable for Microsoft, because then most customers buy new versions immediately. Microsoft Windows Vista, Windows ME, and DOS 3.0 are three examples I think of immediately.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Creepy ( 93888 )

        A profitable business scheme for Microsoft is calling an update to a product
        by an entirely new name.

        like Apple.

        Another profitable scheme is charging the full price for an upgrade,
        as though it is a totally new product.

        like Apple

        My understanding is that releasing versions of products that aren't
        finished is also profitable for Microsoft, because then most customers buy new
        versions immediately. Microsoft Windows Vista, Windows ME, and DOS 3.0 are
        three examples I think of immediately.

        You missed Windows 1.0, Windows 2.0, and Windows 3.0. 3.11 was the first usable version of Windows IMO, and the most people would have skipped 95 if it wasn't a huge improvement (and was). I used DR-DOS and GEM mostly, so I didn't really follow the MS-DOS until 3.11 when it was hard to avoid. NT was always pretty solid, even 3.1 and 3.51. Windows 7 rc1 seems very solid, so I expect the release to be, as well.

        Apple has pissed me off too much hardware-wise to upgrade, especially in g

  • Secretly... (Score:5, Funny)

    by vertinox ( 846076 ) on Friday July 24, 2009 @03:46PM (#28812419)

    I miss Windows ME.

    What? Why is everyone looking at me like that?

  • Do they mean... (Score:5, Funny)

    by FlyByPC ( 841016 ) on Friday July 24, 2009 @03:47PM (#28812437) Homepage
    ...that Windows 7 will be horrific enough to make us miss Vista? Wow.
  • I mean, I guess that's how we all feel about Windows ME. Right? Totally.

  • Miss? (Score:3, Funny)

    by The_church_of_funzie ( 940003 ) on Friday July 24, 2009 @03:49PM (#28812467)
    That will only matter if we don't buy more ammo!

  • We're all going to miss it when we upgrade to windows 7 :)

    I like vista in many ways, but not enough. Its still a poor OS in terms of UI, DRM, memory usage, and features.

    BUT i do like that MS has been able to force hardware makers to supply 64bit and 32bit drivers for their hardware.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tixxit ( 1107127 )
      Unfortunately, they were not able to force software vendors to create Vista-compatible versions. While, I agree, Vista had many useful features, unsupported software is probably what held back most companies. I mean, speed-wise, it didn't matter it was marginally slower, it was being sold on computers that were significantly faster. However, some of the more obscure software used around here (but very important) was not running on Vista correctly until recently. No, its not MS' fault, but sometimes some cra
  • Wait! So, they're saying Windows 7 is actually going to be worse?

  • Threat (Score:5, Funny)

    by gambit3 ( 463693 ) on Friday July 24, 2009 @03:50PM (#28812513) Homepage Journal

    You know, that sounds like a threat to me...

  • I may miss Vista (Score:5, Funny)

    by mcmonkey ( 96054 ) on Friday July 24, 2009 @03:51PM (#28812515) Homepage

    But just give me time to reload.

  • Alas, poor Vista (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymusing ( 1450747 ) on Friday July 24, 2009 @03:53PM (#28812581)

    (holding the empty remains of a Vista Ultimate package)

    Alas, poor Vista! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent eye candy: he hath booted me on his disks a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! My gorge rims at it. Here hung those dialog boxes that I have clicked I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now? your gambols? your MP3s? your flashes of BSOD, that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one now, to mock your own grinning? quite chap-fallen?

    Now get you to Windows 7's chamber, and tell her, let her Photoshop an inch thick, to this favour she must come; make her laugh at that.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by failedtoinit ( 994448 )
      Sigh, I find this after I've already spent all my mod points. Excellent parody, well played!

    • Re:Alas, poor Vista (Score:4, Interesting)

      by gbarules2999 ( 1440265 ) on Friday July 24, 2009 @04:49PM (#28813471)
      This is quite possibly the best Slashdot post I've ever read.

  • Coaster (Score:3, Funny)

    by sgt scrub ( 869860 ) <saintium AT yahoo DOT com> on Friday July 24, 2009 @03:54PM (#28812587)

    Maybe occasionally, but my Vista coasters are used way more often then the WindowsME ones.

  • How? (Score:3, Funny)

    by goober1473 ( 714415 ) on Friday July 24, 2009 @03:54PM (#28812601)
    How exactly will I miss something that I have never used?

  • Title misleading, er, totally wrong (Score:5, Interesting)

    by devleopard ( 317515 ) on Friday July 24, 2009 @03:54PM (#28812603) Homepage

    This proves how incompetent the /. story moderators are. The actual quote says nothing about MISSING Vista. It only says you'll appreciate it. The idea is this: Vista has an overall bad user experience, so all new features of Vista are generally lumped into the "bad" category. With an operating system that corrects those flaws, yet keeps what are supposedly nice innovations, you'll eliminating "guilt by association", and people can appreciate them for what they are.

    • Re:Title misleading, er, totally wrong (Score:4, Informative)

      by recoiledsnake ( 879048 ) on Friday July 24, 2009 @04:43PM (#28813391)
      This is the problem with anti-MS zealotry. There are a LOT of cool improvements in Vista which any geek would appreciate, many of which are not present in Linux. For example, per application volume control, network and disk access priority levels for processes, superfetch etc. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_features_new_to_Windows_Vista [wikipedia.org] All those have been swept under the carpet of twitter style 'lalalala M$' discussion and moderation. This is not really a news for nerds site.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by db32 ( 862117 )
        I am sure there are plenty of great improvements in Vista. That doesn't change the fact that MS behaves like a giant asshole shitting on everyone they can. What you are saying here is that despite their abuses of monopoly power, their strong arming of governments, their "open" standard shenanagins, their treatment of hardware vendors, and pretty much all around bad behavior...they have managed to hire some pretty technically competent people that are able to put together neat things from time to time. How

    • Hear Hear!

      The Win7 RC is more stable and bug-free than Vista, XP, and 2000 were at launch time, and includes a whole lot of very nice features. Unless some very severe security issues pop up (like happened with IE on XP), I'll go as far as to call it the best consumer OS Microsoft have put out since Win95.

      I'm a mac guy, but the shell, file manager, and taskbar on Win7 are all far more functional than their equivalents in OS X.

      Also, quite impressively, Microsoft seem to have finally figured out how to load

  • The only improvement I've found in Vista (Score:3, Interesting)

    by JSBiff ( 87824 ) on Friday July 24, 2009 @03:55PM (#28812617) Journal

    Having used Vista for awhile, there's only 1 improvement I can actually think of: the sound mixer/volume control thing in Vista will let you mute or control volumes of individual applications.

    Not the most earth-shaking thing in the world (most apps have a mechanism built in to do volume control or mute the sound, but not all, so it is nice; and some apps bury sound control in layers of menu that make it a pain to quickly mute them).

    Also, I see no reason why that couldn't have been done in XP, other than MS wanted to have something to tout as an improvement in Vista.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by PuckSR ( 1073464 )

      I hate it when people try to make this argument...

      "There is no reason they couldn't have added that feature to version X, rather than waiting till version Y"
      Of course there is a reason, nobody thought of doing it until version Y!!! The creators of version X lacked either the technology, the vision, or the creativity to add that feature.

      How about we just say: " There is no reason that the ancient Egyptians couldn't have built spaceships"
      They could have built amazing spaceships, if only they had the technol

  • Perhaps some sort of job saving move by this Guggenheimer. If anything I think many will really miss XP, regretfully.

  • "Years from now..." (Score:5, Funny)

    by brennanw ( 5761 ) on Friday July 24, 2009 @03:58PM (#28812679) Homepage Journal

    "Years from now, you'll look back at Vista and realise how horribly you wronged it. If only you'd known! If only you'd seen the truth! But it's too late now, because Vista is dead, it died alone and unloved, spurned by the coldness of your heart and your disdain for it's ungainly sincerity. Now you find yourself wedded to an operating system that is capable but distant, it's caresses mechanical and devoid of warmth. You'll spend your nights lying in its cold embrace and think 'oh! Vista! How I wish I'd stuck with you instead of reaching for the stars!' But it will be too late. Vista is gone, and all that remains is an echo of a memory that could have been."

  • Yes, some will look back fondly (Score:5, Funny)

    by stox ( 131684 ) on Friday July 24, 2009 @03:59PM (#28812705) Homepage

    Vista has done more to promote the use of Linux in the Office than anything yet. We can only hope that Windows 7 continues this fine tradition.

  • I don't have it on any of my machines and haven't really had to use it.

  • SOBs don't get it. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by MarkvW ( 1037596 ) on Friday July 24, 2009 @04:02PM (#28812763)

    As an end user, I don't want to notice my OS at ALL.

  • Sounds like Guggenheimer is betting on nostalgia. It's not uncommon for the mind's eye to view the past with rose-colored glasses. People forget past hardships and latch on to fond memories. Given enough time, I'm sure the same will happen with Vista.

    Which might eventually put Vista on the same footing as The A-Team and Transformers.

    • Sounds like Guggenheimer is betting on nostalgia. It's not uncommon for the mind's eye to view the past with rose-colored glasses. People forget past hardships and latch on to fond memories. Given enough time, I'm sure the same will happen with Vista.

      You mean you'll remember Aero Glass while forgetting all the crashes, hangs, slow booting, bad drivers, incompatible programs, huge memory footprint, extra cost, lower performances, and best of all -- built-in DRM? Yeah, sure.

      • Maybe he means, "you'll remember how good Aero Glass was, compared to the shite we've made of the UI in 7".

        I can't see it working any other way, usually people have a fondness for something bad in their past because they used it a lot and grew accustomed to its flaws. Not all things - no-one looks back at Word crashing and losing their documents with any fondness (in fact, I think that flaw still haunts Office), but things you could work around or deal with in some way. Technically, they'd be remembering th

  • That doesn't mean I loved WinMe. I only had it because I was skint when I came to the UK and had to use a 2nd hand computer that had WinMe. I learned with very careful management it wasn't that bad and it at least looked like Win 98 so I could pretend I had Win 98.

    Vista moved too many things around, tried to look like Mac in a typical PC "too nerdy to get style" way and it was bloated. What's there to like about that?

  • Who cares, even if it came to pass?

    All that matters is that people thought Vista sucked while it was their main OS product. They lost sales and lost brand loyalty and image because Vista sucked while it was on sale. Who cares if people look back on it fondly in the future after its no longer for sale?

    It really goes to show the arrogance of Microsoft. They're still sticking to their belief that Vista was f*cking awesome and we all were just too lame to see it, they think history will prove them correct.

  • I missed it alright. I didn't upgrade to vista, but went from XP to 7. Damn.

  • Miss Vista ?? (Score:3, Informative)

    by Archfeld ( 6757 ) * <treboreel@live.com> on Friday July 24, 2009 @04:09PM (#28812867) Journal

    Yeah I've been shooting at it for like 3 years now and still haven't hit it, so I guess I will just keep on missing it. Seriously I've never even installed it on a system, and have ripped it out of like 30. I really doubt it will be missed anymore than say polio, or whooping cough.

  • Microsoft has finally succeeded at copying the Apple Reality Distortion Field!

  • like I fondly remember Dysentery

  • *sob* You're gona miss me when I'm gone, just wait and see *sniff*

  • I didn't even install it, so how could i miss it? I don't miss WinME either.

    Unless he means that 7 will be so bad it will make Vista look good?

  • ...as my family and friends and employer did, howinhell could we look back on it fondly?

    Wow, talk about losing touch with reality...

  • I got a weird pop-up last night on my Vista box, it greyed out the rest of my screen and read:

    How much will you miss Windows Vista?

    and had two choices:

    "A lot" or "Like Michael Jackson"

  • On Slashdot? Say it ain't so! This is where I come for fair & balanced news for nerds.

  • 99.9999999 percent of all complaints about Vista is actually Office 2007 Vista. People are creatures of habit if we needed any more proof.

  • Well technically Vista is usable now, though I can't see why you'd ever use it instead of just XP or Win7.

    But I had hoped they would realize now that you can't launch with an OS that is so broken that it can't even reliably copy or delete files, and no driver support because you changed the APIs so late in the game. Apparently this marketing d-bag did not learn that lesson.

  • Urm (Score:2)

    by sjames ( 1099 )

    Once you take a bite of the dog turd sandwich you'll be begging me to bring back the fillet of old shoe!

  • I miss Windows ME. I have fond memories of reinstalling it, doing registry backups, carrying around the 13 most common patches on floppy, disabling features that didn't work yet, it's lugubrious performance. Sigh... those were the days. As I approach my eighth year on Windows XP, I still occasionally take my ME media out and caress it.

    C'mon, who are we kidding? ME was a joke, Bob was a joke, Vista was reductio ad absurdum. 95 was very nearly a joke -- I switched to NT 4 the moment it became availabl

  • George W. Bush (Score:5, Insightful)

    by hey ( 83763 ) on Friday July 24, 2009 @04:54PM (#28813521) Journal

    Yes, and history will redeem George W. Bush too.

  • ... not since I got my rifle properly sighted in, that is.

  • I won't.

  • SAVE VISTA! (Score:3, Funny)

    by David Gerard ( 12369 ) <slashdot AT davidgerard DOT co DOT uk> on Friday July 24, 2009 @05:22PM (#28813851) Homepage

    Microsoft has said it may ditch Vista the moment Windows 7 comes out! They've since backtracked - but we need to make sure they know our feelings.

    Windows 7 is CASTRATED APPEASEMENT to soy latte-sipping girly-men who wish they owned a Mac. We want a REAL operating system. An operating system that PERSONIFIES America's INDUSTRIAL MIGHT. That makes you feel AWE at the MAJESTY of the progress of its operation. VISTA is a monument to everything that makes us the country we are!

    Like Chrysler, like Hummer, like Edsel - "Vista" is a name that will be remembered as the greatest operating system in Microsoft's history.

    Just Say "No" To Seven -

    SAVE VISTA!

    Original blog post [today.com] - Facebook group [facebook.com]

    "I fully support this initiative. My computer business employs 200 people; the best possible thing for it is to make sure Vista continues and goes forward." - M. Shuttleworth, London

    "I can't tell you how much Vista has done for my business. So many people depend on it." - S. Jobs, Cupertino

    "Vista is the one thing that will keep people seeking out and using systems that are at the forefront of technology. It's been the best thing for all of us." - L. Torvalds, Portland.

    "I'm ... I'm touched. *sob* I didn't think anyone cared. You guys. Developers! *sob*" - S. Ballmer, Seattle.

  • Is he really saying that Vista is better than Windows 7? That was my first impression of his statement.

    Or maybe he means that all the great Vista features that you'll finally discover in Windows 7 you could have been enjoying in Vista for the last two years. But then why hasn't anybody been able to discover them during these last 2 years and only now will they be magically revealed in Windows 7?

    Conclusion: the guy is either a Microsoft Moron, or a Microsoft Troll--you choose.
  • He knew it was a demon the moment he saw it. He knew it, just as he knew the place was Hell. There was nothing else that either of them could have been.

    [...]

    As the demon raised its arm to deliver the first blow, it said, âoeIn time you will remember even this moment with fondness.â

    "You are a liar."

    "No," said the demon. "The next part," it explained, in the moment it brought down the cat, "is worse."

    Then the tines of the cat landed on the manâ(TM)s back with a crack and a hiss, teari
  • Note: I have one of my four Windows boxes running Vista at present.

    I bought a new machine this spring and accepted Vista. The 64-bit version with updates works very well and I'm happy that I am running Vista as it now exists. A bit irked that I couldn't find a Vista driver for my old office HP printer (no problem -- I gave that printer to the kid who inherited the old XP machine and got a new one for myself which I'd been meaning to do for a while) but nothing horrid. Still, there wasn't a single compell

  • Oh my! (Score:2)

    by BCW2 ( 168187 )
    What is Steve Guggenheimer smoking and why won't he share?
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • You'll end up missing Vista.

  • "I think people will look back on Vista after the Windows 7 release and realize that there were actually a bunch of good things there . . ."
    -
    Q: If an MS exec thinks that there is some goodness in Vista that people will miss, then why would they throw away that goodness?
    A: They're Microsoft.
    -
    I have Vista on my Laptop. I have XP on may main desktops. I just put XP and Linux on my new netbook. All things considered, I think that the overall Vista experience is a smoldering pile of pig droppings. But amon

  • Reality distortion field polarity (Score:5, Insightful)

    by hoggoth ( 414195 ) on Friday July 24, 2009 @09:37PM (#28815659) Journal

    I find it interesting that the Apple reality distortion field works outwardly on others, while the Microsoft reality distortion field works inwardly on themselves.

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