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• Vista: Excitement and Disappointment
  For many years I have operated a modest home music studio based on PC systems. My choice of route was dictated by economic factors. It has been a long, interesting journey, during which I have witnessed and implemented many upgrades in hardware and software as the computer world evolves. From Windows 3.11 to Win95, NT, 98, 2000, XP, and most recently, a hardware failure lead me to a new system with Vista. The switch to Vista was thrilling! The look and feel is truly evolved and provides a pleasant computing experience. The disappointment lies mostly with the lack of good drivers for higher end audio cards, most being in BETA stages if they exist at all. The end result is unacceptable latency and feature deficiencies for these cards. This is not entirely the fault of Microsoft, but they are implicated through their lack of manufacturer co-operation, with the exception of a few that compliment their marketing goals. Vista itself is still refreshing, and I will not turn back to XP. Of all the OS transitions I have experienced, Vista has been the easiest. And yes...I have experimented with Linux alternatives for audio production. The Linux world is moving at a wonderful pace in this field, passing from infancy to adolescence, but configuration is still too time consuming to make this a productive environment for my needs.
  
  For me, the problem is not with Vista itself, but with the compulsion by Microsoft to constantly operate in an obsolete traditional capitalist fashion. (i.e. Last years sales must be exceeded.) The market is seeded with new products before their predecessors have fully propagated and stabilized. I am also a network administrator, and have felt this effect with things like SQL. My request to Microsoft is this: Slow down: The IT world needs stability, not "This years model".
  
  I share other writers frustration with the incessant warnings each time an application is installed. These warnings are presented under the guise of protecting the consumer, when in fact, all they mean is that a vendor has not yet contributed to the needy hands of Microsoft. Microsoft certification is a money grab, not an assurance of safety.
  
  I would also like to address the Mac world mantras "Mac has no viruses...Macs just work". I have been in the IT industry for over 20 years, worked with all the popular systems, including Mac, and can tell you that the whole virus concept started on Apple machines. One company I worked with received software driver disks for some Apple peripherals that where infected in production. Mac users have historically not noticed intrusions or immediate viral effects because so much of the system has been hidden from them early on in the evolution of their operating systems. I agree with the statement "If you are happy with your Mac, then go use it". They are fine machines, despite the extortionate costs, so get back to work and quit picking fights. In reply to: "Why Microsoft must abandon Vista to save itself"

  September 27, 2007

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