Even Softies get the Vista installation blues

Story: Don't wait for Vista SP1, pleads MicrosoftTotal Replies: 12
Author Content
henke54

Jun 22, 2007
8:44 AM EDT
Quoting:This is one for all of you readers who’ve had trouble installing Windows Vista. Don’t feel bad. Even some Microsoft developers — who have the Vista team on premise — can’t manage to upgrade to Vista.

Microsoft developer Andy Pennell wanted to install Vista at home. (Pennell is a developer on HDi, the interactivity layer for HD DVD.)

He bought a copy of Vista Ultimate. And then all hell broke loose —
http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=531

;-P
tqk

Jun 22, 2007
12:40 PM EDT
Pretty sad. He even had trouble just getting the box open. Isn't that sort of thing what beta testing's for? Microsoft can't even design usable packaging, much less software.

I'm surprised they don't get a copy free as a job perq. I'd have thought a 'Softie employee would make the ultimate, frontline beta tester.

Maybe he's new.
jdixon

Jun 22, 2007
12:47 PM EDT
OK, who wants to email him the link to get a free Ubuntu CD mailed to him? :)
dinotrac

Jun 22, 2007
12:51 PM EDT
tqk -

Maybe the package is one of those new Vista security features. You can't attack what you can't install.
NoDough

Jun 22, 2007
1:00 PM EDT
Quoting:I'm surprised they don't get a copy free as a job perq.


Nope, but they do get a significant discount. Microsoft has stores just for their employees, and each employee can purchase up to a certain amount at those stores. (No, I'm not, nor have I ever been a Microsoft employee. Yes, I've been to one of their stores.)
number6x

Jun 22, 2007
1:00 PM EDT
The new EULA probably states that even attempting to open this package implies acceptance of all terms of the EULA.
bigg

Jun 22, 2007
2:01 PM EDT
> Maybe the package is one of those new Vista security features. You can't attack what you can't install.

Hey, that kind of makes sense. Security is the reason they don't want you to install inside of VMWare. They're just admitting the obvious, that it's too insecure to install on any machine, virtual or otherwise.
dcparris

Jun 22, 2007
5:01 PM EDT
Interestingly, I had one IT guy at work inform me about an article he'd seen claiming Vista was more secure than GNU/Linux or Mac. Not 2 seconds later, another guy came out and informed me of their Vista upgrade woes. No wonder Vista is so secure - it can't be upgraded.
montezuma

Jun 23, 2007
6:47 AM EDT
Reads like a lego manual. With linux you can decipher kernel messages up to the panic. It sounds as if at least part of the problem was bad 64bit driver support under Vista. I read somewhere that this is a potential big advantage for linux since there many 64bit drivers are already up to scratch. Interesting...
Sander_Marechal

Jun 26, 2007
2:33 AM EDT
Quoting:I read somewhere that this is a potential big advantage for linux since there many 64bit drivers are already up to scratch.


What do you think ESR's World Domination 201 is all about (http://catb.org/~esr/writings/world-domination/world-dominat...). You may or may not agree with the way ESR hopes to achieve world domination, but it is without question that the 32bit to 64bit changeover is a grand opportunity for Linux to make huge inroads and maybe even come out at #1. It's mainly a matter of waiting for that 64bit killer application that makes everyone switch from 32bit to 64bit.
ABCC

Jun 26, 2007
5:27 PM EDT
One of the things that has been holding 64bit back is the lack of some of those proprietary blobs such as Flash. As much as I despise it, not having it can be even more annoying. I have encountered a few other rough edges over the years when I've decided to give 64bit a go, but the hassle involved with getting things like Flash to work always bring me back to 32bit. If one had been available 2 years ago I think many more people would be using the 64bit version of their distro of choice today.
Bob_Robertson

Jun 26, 2007
7:33 PM EDT
I installed Debian Etch-64 on a machine for my Mom a month ago, but finally went back to Etch-32 and finally Unstable-32, because of Google Earth.

It's just such a wonderfully useful program, I decided it was worth the minor performance hit.
ABCC

Jun 27, 2007
6:51 AM EDT
That's another one that may come in useful and one that fits the mould of 'programmes holding back 64bit' . Perhaps I should have been more explicit in my previous post: the #1 reason 64bit isn't more popular is that the proprietary companies that 'talk the talk' when it comes to linux are really a bunch of knuckle draggers.

Even on 32bit it's not all rosy coloured, Flash still regularly crashes my browser or hangs Alsa, nvidia at times seem to take forever to catch up to Xorg, for years Javas 'do you reagree to this license' nag screen gave me fits when updating gentoo (I now simply refuse to use it) etc etc.

I appreciate their interest in providing software for Linux, perhaps they may have some difficulties compiling for 64bit. But it has to be said that if these programmes were community maintained we would have seen 64bit versions a long long time ago.

Posting in this forum is limited to members of the group: [ForumMods, SITEADMINS, MEMBERS.]

Becoming a member of LXer is easy and free. Join Us!