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Windows Vista at 1 year: A computer maker's view

Jon Bach

I've been working for a while on an upcoming story coinciding with Windows Vista's first year on the market, and I've talked with a variety of people who have been using and working with the Microsoft operating system in different ways.

One of the most interesting perspectives came from Jon Bach, president of Puget Systems, a company in Kent, Wash., that makes high-end custom computers. As a preview, I thought it would be worth sharing some excerpts from his comments ...

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On the current demand for Windows XP vs. Windows Vista: "Today, we are seeing still slightly stronger Vista demand than XP, but it's pretty close, maybe 60 percent Vista, 40 percent XP. It was an interesting progression of events following the Vista release, because when Vista first came out, we naturally adopted it very quickly, everyone did, as the next prominent operating system. But we're a custom builder, so we wanted to continue to provide all options, so we kept XP around so that customers who weren't all that excited about upgrading had a choice. So we actually developed a little niche for ourselves there when all the big guys -- Dell, HP -- were going exclusively to Vista. We saw extra-strong XP sales during that time just because we were one of the few people still offering it as an option. But as soon as people realized that Vista had some maturity problems in the code, the big manufacturers promptly added it back. ... We're seeing, you could say 50-50, but it's a little bit swaying toward Vista."

On those 'maturity' problems in the Vista code: "We're definitely still seeing them. The biggest problem we're having is with stand-by -- getting computers to go into stand-by and to come out of stand-by. That's an especially large challenge for us just because we are a custom builder. We can't just qualify one set of hardware and then use it. It's different every single time. And so it's been pretty frustrating. ... We had a customer where it was a deal-breaker to not have stand-by, and it was a very high-end system, and he was very upset that stand-by wasn't working, and so we had to have this conversation of what's possible and what isn't, and how his configuration just was not very happy about going into stand-by with Vista. We actually ended up moving him to XP, and it was kind of a frustrating process for everyone, because to him, XP symbolized taking a step back or settling for old software. But really for him, it was the more appropriate choice, because he was looking for stability and things just working -- things you find in a mature product, not in a newer product."

On whether these kinds of problems are normal in the first year after a Windows release: "When XP came out ... I remember there was a certain level of problems. With XP it was the Windows 98 applications that would no longer work in XP, and so you had a lot of people frustrated with that, and eventually all the software manufacturers released updates and got everything working in XP, but that was different because that was something where Microsoft was changing the architecture and it was up to the software partners to stay on top of it and release updates. In this case (the stand-by issue) it's entirely within Microsoft's code -- that is where the problem lies. It has been frustrating, and I think it has been more rocky than in the past, just from the standpoint of Microsoft and what they're putting out. We have, at least, some hope on the horizon with Service Pack 1 coming out. One of the major things that Service Pack 1 is supposed to tackle is stand-by issues, and so we're hopeful to see some updates there."

The story about Windows Vista's first year is slated to run in Wednesday's newspaper. Among other things, I spent time in the home of a West Seattle man who has been trying, without success, to get Windows Vista to work with his printer. Microsoft has also offered its perspective for the story, citing progress on a number of fronts. After the story appears, I'll link to it and post more excerpts from people I spoke with.

In the meantime, feel free to weigh in below.

Update: Here's the full story, running in Wednesday's newspaper.

Posted by at January 29, 2008 2:51 p.m.
Categories: Windows, Windows Vista at 1 Year

Comments

#91806

Posted by unregistered user at 1/29/08 5:18 p.m.

I have been using Vista Ultimate for almost a year now. I have been afflicted with the slow-file-copy bug--and there are not enough expletives in the English language to express my frustration with that. Other than that--very good. I can't keep my wife away from my laptop. She loves Vista and that laptop. Vista is a hundred little changes. Some, like UAC, are small annoyances that serve little purpose. Others, like HAVING to start a command prompt with administrator priveledge from a configured shortcut, rather than from Start...Run...cmd--are much more annoying, but used less frequently. 3D-flip and the 'breadcrumb' address bar are positive changes. Fast Search integrated into EVERYTHING is the Wow starts NOW. I like Vista. I recommend it. I skipped XP at home altogether and never missed anything that it had to offer over W2K--but I would never consider getting an OEM box with anything but Vista on it. XP simply has no upside at this point in time.

Office 2007...now THAT is a different story.

Nick.

PS for the MAc fanboys sure to post later...ROTFLMAO
The RDF (reality distortion field) doesn't extend to my desk. I've had the misfortune to have to support iMacs, iTunes and iPods. If MS ever DREAMED of pulling the stunts Apple gets away with, somebody would nuke Redmond. The best, most secure PC is a computer with the power plug pulled, but a Mac comes a close second. Pass on that showcase.