Nearly a year after its official release, Vista is still a mess

You'd think that getting Vista squared away would be job one to hear Microsoft talk. Instead you hear the steady drumbeat of stories about just how sorry Vista is and continues to be. Here's a brief sample of today's tasty selections.

• Vista Ultimate buyers fume over missing Extras - So you spent all that money ($400) and all that extra cash on hardware to run it, and you're upset that those 'Extras' haven't appeared? Is that's what's bothering you, Bunky? Yeah, well, welcome to the wonderful world of Microsoft promises. Always late, never functioning as promised, and costing far more in the end than you budgeted for. See what it's like to live under the thumb of a monopoly?


• Unbundling Microsoft Windows -In which someone, this time in the European Union, woke up to the fact that bundling Microsoft's operating system is a bad thing. Gosh. Who'd of thought, after nearly 15 years of abuse, that we'd one day wake up and realize that bundling the OS with the hardware would lead to a situation where Microsoft's "dominant position both has slowed technical improvements and prevented new alternatives entering from the marketplace?" You think?


• Vista failing to win over the enterprise - They're pining away for Windows XP, they are! Pining for the fjords... oh wait, wrong skit. Best part of this article was from Rob Enderle:
  

  "XP is a much better product than people think it is," Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Ender le Group, told vnunet.com. "People are not screaming to get off of XP, and Vista is not providing a compelling reason to do so."

  Not screaming to get off of XP? Compared to the volume of people screaming to get off Vista, then perhaps you're right.


• PC users still prefer Windows to Vistas - I'm assuming the title is plural Vista to indicate all versions of Vista. Nice to see that the same offer is being made to consumers that Microsoft offered to corporate buyers several months ago. The article offers a few very interesting facts:
1. "Microsoft says it has sold more than 60m Vista licences to date, but hardware sales have disappointed." That means Microsoft has been stuffing the channel. Microsoft will of course get its money, because that's the way contracts are set up. You buy no matter what, and it's up to you to move it.
2. "DSG International, which owns PC World and Currys, said it was forced to discount laptops after a lacklustre response to Vista." And here's one way to do it. Heavy discounting of inventory. So to add insult to injury, you not only lose money on the hardware, but you take a hit on the operating system as well.
3. "Users complain that computers running Vista crash frequently and many of their favourite programmes such as Windows Mobile do not work with the new operating system." Windows Mobile? Excuse me? Windows Mobile??? As in PDAs and smart phones? Golly, I guess Sir Bill's vision of "information at your fingertips" with everything highly connected has grown a bit dim with age. Pardon me while I go off and roll on the floor laughing my you-know-what off.
   

And finally, this little video that sums up what so many of us feel about Vista courtesy Blimp TV.