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"The top five reasons why Windows Vista failed"

VileReynard
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"The top five reasons why Windows Vista failed"

See http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=10303&tag=nl.e550
Quote
On Friday, Microsoft gave computer makers a six-month extension for offering Windows XP on newly-shipped PCs. While this doesn’t impact enterprise IT — because volume licensing agreements will allow IT to keep installing Windows XP for many years to come — the move is another symbolic nail in Vista’s coffin.
The public reputation of Windows Vista is in shambles, as Microsoft itself tacitly acknowledged in its Mojave ad campaign.
IT departments are largely ignoring Vista. In June (18 months after Vista’s launch), Forrester Research reported that just 8.8% of enterprise PCs worldwide were running Vista. Meanwhile, Microsoft appears to have put Windows 7 on an accelerated schedule that could see it released in 2010. That will provide IT departments with all the justification they need to simply skip Vista and wait to eventually standardize on Windows 7 as the next OS for business.
So how did Vista get left holding the bag? Let’s look at the five most important reasons why Vista failed.
5. Apple successfully demonized Vista
Apple’s clever I’m a Mac ads have successfully driven home the perception that Windows Vista is buggy, boring, and difficult to use. After taking two years of merciless pummeling from Apple, Microsoft recently responded with it’s I’m a PC campaign in order to defend the honor of Windows. This will likely restore some mojo to the PC and Windows brands overall, but it’s too late to save Vista’s perception as a dud.
4. Windows XP is too entrenched
In 2001, when Windows XP was released, there were about 600 million computers in use worldwide. Over 80% of them were running Windows but it was split between two code bases: Windows 95/98 (65%) and Windows NT/2000 (26%), according to IDC. One of the big goals of Windows XP was to unite the Windows 9x and Windows NT code bases, and it eventually accomplished that.
In 2008, there are now over 1.1 billion PCs in use worldwide and over 70% of them are running Windows XP. That means almost 800 million computers are running XP, which makes it the most widely installed operating system of all time. That’s a lot of inertia to overcome, especially for IT departments that have consolidated their deployments and applications around Windows XP.
And, believe it or not, Windows XP could actually increase its market share over the next couple years. How? Low-cost netbooks and nettops are going to be flooding the market. While these inexpensive machines are powerful enough to provide a solid Internet experience for most users, they don’t have enough resources to run Windows Vista, so they all run either Windows XP or Linux. Intel expects this market to explode in the years ahead. (For more on netbooks and nettops, see this fact sheet and this presentation — both are PDFs from Intel.)
3. Vista is too slow
For years Microsoft has been criticized by developers and IT professionals for “software bloat” — adding so many changes and features to its programs that the code gets huge and unwieldy. However, this never seemed to have enough of an effect to impact software sales. With Windows Vista, software bloat appears to have finally caught up with Microsoft.
Vista has over 50 million lines of code. XP had 35 million when it was released, and since then it has grown to about 40 million.  This software bloat has had the effect of slowing down Windows Vista, especially when it’s running on anything but the latest and fastest hardware. Even then, the latest version of Windows XP soundly outperforms the latest version of Microsoft Vista. No one wants to use a new computer that is slower than their old one.
2. There wasn’t supposed to be a Vista
It’s easy to forget that when Microsoft launched Windows XP it was actually trying to change its OS business model to move away from shrink-wrapped software and convert customers to software subscribers. That’s why it abandoned the naming convention of Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows 2000, and instead chose Windows XP.
The XP stood for “experience” and was part of Microsoft’s .NET Web services strategy at the time. The master plan was to get users and businesses to pay a yearly subscription fee for the Windows experience — XP would essentially be the on-going product name but would include all software upgrades and updates, as long as you paid for your subscription. Of course, it would disable Windows on your PC if you didn’t pay. That’s why product activation was coupled with Windows XP.
Microsoft released Windows XP and Office XP simultaneously in 2001 and both included product activation and the plan to eventually migrate to subscription products. However, by the end of 2001 Microsoft had already abandoned the subscription concept with Office, and quickly returned to the shrink-wrapped business model and the old product development model with both products.
The idea of doing incremental releases and upgrades of its software — rather than a major shrink-wrapped release every 3-5 years — was a good concept. Microsoft just couldn’t figure out how to make the business model work, but instead of figuring out how to get it right, it took the easy route and went back to an old model that was simply not very well suited to the economic and technical realities of today’s IT world.
1. It broke too much stuff
One of the big reasons that Windows XP caught on was because it had the hardware, software, and driver compatibility of the Windows 9x line plus the stability and industrial strength of the Windows NT line. The compatibility issue was huge. Having a single, highly-compatible Windows platform simplified the computing experience for users, IT departments, and software and hardware vendors.
Microsoft either forgot or disregarded that fact when it released Windows Vista, because, despite a long beta period, a lot of existing software and hardware were not compatible with Vista when it was released in January 2007. Since many important programs and peripherals were unusable in Vista, that made it impossible for a lot of IT departments to adopt it. Many of the incompatibilities were the result of tighter security.
After Windows was targeted by a nasty string of viruses, worms, and malware in the early 2000s, Microsoft embarked on the Trustworthy Computing initiative to make its products more secure. One of the results was Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), which won over IT and paved the way for XP to become the world’s mostly widely deployed OS.
The other big piece of Trustworthy Computing was the even-further-locked-down version of Windows that Microsoft released in Vista. This was definitely the most secure OS that Microsoft had ever released but the price was user-hostile features such as UAC, a far more complicated set of security prompts that accompanied many basic tasks, and a host of software incompatibility issues. In other words, Vista broke a lot of the things that users were used to doing in XP.
Bottom line
There are some who argue that Vista is actually more widely adopted than XP was at this stage after its release, and that it’s highly likely that Vista will eventually replace XP in the enterprise. I don’t agree. With XP, there were clear motivations to migrate: bring Windows 9x machines to a more stable and secure OS and bring Windows NT/2000 machines to an OS with much better hardware and software compatibility. And, you also had the advantage of consolidating all of those machines on a single OS in order to simplify support.
With Vista, there are simply no major incentives for IT to use it over XP. Security isn’t even that big of an issue because XP SP2 (and above) are solid and most IT departments have it locked down quite well. As I wrote in the article Prediction: Microsoft will leapfrog Vista, release Windows 7 early, and change its OS business, Microsoft needs to abandon the strategy of releasing a new OS every 3-5 years and simply stick with a single version of Windows and release updates, patches, and new features on a regular basis. Most IT departments are essentially already on a subscription model with Microsoft so the business strategy is already in place for them.
As far as the subscription model goes for small businesses and consumers, instead of disabling Windows on a user’s PC if they don’t renew their subscription, just don’t allow that machine to get any more updates if they don’t renew. Microsoft could also work with OEMs to sell something like a three-year subscription to Windows with every a new PC. Then users would have the choice of renewing on their own after that.

"In The Beginning Was The Word, And The Word Was Aardvark."

44 REPLIES 44
MauriceC
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Re: "The top five reasons why Windows Vista failed"

There is also 3a)
For most IT departments it also required a hardware upgrade and significant investment in retraining just to deploy a new OS that delivered little (if any :-X) business gain.   Couple this with your point 1)  which in many Corporate environments meant at the very least a 'tweak' to the current application base, then it becomes a 'no brainer'  to wait until something actually needs Vista before embarking on the costly upgrade.  It now looks like Windows7  (still a significantly emasculated version of what was originally scheduled to be delivered within the Vista release) that will cause Corporates to move.
Windows 7 now quoted as being available for the late Autumn / Xmas 2009 sales splurge, could well fall in time with  the upturn in World economy and a chance to find more IT budget for a system refresh Cheesy
Maurice

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artificer
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Re: "The top five reasons why Windows Vista failed"

if they won't move to vista, why should they move to windows 7?  presumably their computers are functioning perfectly well with xp and if they continue to do that, then there is no reason to alter a working setup.
HPsauce
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Re: "The top five reasons why Windows Vista failed"

Quote from: axisofevil
On Friday, Microsoft gave computer makers a six-month extension for offering Windows XP on newly-shipped PCs.

What was the old deadline and what is it now?
(Just been helping a retired lady set up her brand new XP PC on her brand new broadband connection...)
VileReynard
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Re: "The top five reasons why Windows Vista failed"

I don't know the deadlines  - it's from a recent zdnet email subscription.
But note that it's a reference to a permission to manufacturers to offer preloaded  XP with a PC.
The reference could be dated - but your old lady sounds like she will be safe.

"In The Beginning Was The Word, And The Word Was Aardvark."

samuria
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Re: "The top five reasons why Windows Vista failed"

The best bit of the report was that more people pirated Xp than Vista which means Vista is so bad no one wanted to pirate it. They tried to claim Vista was harder to pirate but as it was pirated before it even hit the streets that isnt true. Its like record companies MS tries to stop piracy and the pirate crack it in hours so why do they waste their time and effort.
What happens is loads of genuine users get locked out of their systems they paid for
shutter
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Re: "The top five reasons why Windows Vista failed"

Quote

What happens is loads of genuine users get locked out of their systems they paid for

If M$ decides to go that route....
I, for one, will be on my way to LINUX.... have no idea`s about it yet........ but.......
And I think a billion or so others will go the same way too...... so M$ will regret that route pretty quickly...
dvorak
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Re: "The top five reasons why Windows Vista failed"

Quote from: shutter
If M$ decides to go that route....

Please don't you start doing that shutter, using 'M$' is sooo anoying
Anyway I won't be upgrading from XP to anything..
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Alex
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Re: "The top five reasons why Windows Vista failed"

I remember looking at a recent advert from one of the big PC manufacturers (I think it was Dell but I can't remember).
Some of their PC's were advertised as having a 'free XP downgrade disc'.
Made me laugh Smiley
What annoys me is all of the PC mags go on as if it's the best thing since sliced bread, and keep trying to justify why we should buy it.
No, of course they're not keeping MS sweet. I don't suppose they make up a significant proportion of their mag/DVD advertising revenue Roll_eyes
Oldjim
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Re: "The top five reasons why Windows Vista failed"

I upgraded to Vista on my new PC (I could have transferred my XP license from the old PC) because I wanted a 64 bit operating system.
My experience is that everything works (except Paint shop Pro 5 - not entirely surprising considering it's age) but that most things are slower than my old PC running XP including Windows start up.
It is interesting to compare the specs of the 2 systems.
XP computer
CPU AMD 64 3000+ socket 746
Memory 2GB Crucial Ballistix PC4000
Graphics Radeon 9800pro
Sata1 hard drive
Vista computer
CPU Intel Core2duo E6750
Memory 4GB DDR2 667 PC5300
Graphics NVidia 8800GT
Sata2 hard drive
zubel
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Re: "The top five reasons why Windows Vista failed"

mal0z
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Re: "The top five reasons why Windows Vista failed"

Even as long ago as last April - when we looked for a new laptop - it was very hard to find equipment with XP installed - even Dell.
I'm sure there were suppliers online - but it was just easier to go with the flow and have a PC with Vista  Angry
VileReynard
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Re: "The top five reasons why Windows Vista failed"

It's much easier to overwrite Vista with Linux  Smiley
There aren't any EULA's etc to read.

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Lurker
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Registered: ‎23-10-2008

Re: "The top five reasons why Windows Vista failed"

Dell know better than to even attempt to sell Vista into service here.
Every quote I get comes with XP Pro as a standard offering.
The next mission is to roll out Linux to everybody over the next couple of years.
pnf
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Re: "The top five reasons why Windows Vista failed"

Quote from: HPsauce
... What was the old deadline and what is it now? ...

The Microsoft Lifecyle Information for XP Professional is as follows:
Mainstream Support Retired:      14/04/2009
Extended Support Retired:          08/04/2014
see: http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?p1=3223

see: http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/      (General Lifecycle Info)