Recently in Microsoft Follies Category

Again, more bad news for Microsoft. With Apple's market share continuing to explode (Mac OS X approaches 8 percent market share in June), and Linux notching some respectable increases (er, sort of: Linux - Still chasing that elusive 1% market share) , the people at Redmond have to be worried, despite all the "success" they're having with Vista.

Here's the latest round of pain and humiliation:

• Network World's Stiennon on Security offers Top Ten Worst Uses for Windows, and Ten More Stupid Uses for Windows. Some are silly, like the first, "To display a static green arrow over the open TSA security lanes at Detroit Metro.", except when displaying BSODs. But more are frightening, like using Windows for things like running trains, air traffic control systems, medical systems and other seriously mission-critical applications.


• Is Vista really all that? Apparently, there's still plenty of demand for XP: Windows XP a hot item on Amazon.


• Leave it to Wikipedia to publish these lists: Features new to Windows Vista and Features removed from Windows Vista. Number one on the "removed" list? Active Desktop, which back about ten years ago was a really cool feature (kind of like desktop widgets, where you can map live web content onto your desktop). There's lots more, which is scary: what happens in ten years if Microsoft decides to remove support for your mission-critical application from the latest version of Windows?


• This guy is a real hero: How I got a Windows Vista refund from HP. After many hours on the phone with HP support, and lots more time spent documenting the process over months, he tells the story of how he got a refund after deciding the Windows Vista license was too abusive to agree to. I felt the same way when I bought my current PC, but didn't have the patience or perseverance to pursue it (and my recollection was that my license explicitly stated that there would be no refunds from the manufacturer).


• Finally, here's indication that Linux can get some real traction out of the appliance computing market: Linux for housewives. XP for geeks. ZD Net blogger Robin Harris points out that Linux has advantages for the appliance market: it lowers the software cost, but it gives manufacturers more freedom over what software capabilities to build into their products.

What does the future hold? Stay tuned...

Here's a link to a real article in a real newspaper, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

Man gets Windows Vista to work with printer

It's a follow-up to a story, Vista at one year: Progress and pain, that ran back in January and started off telling the story of Charles Walling, a man who just wanted his printer to work with Vista--after all, it worked with Windows XP.

Six months later, and Mr. Walling is a happier man, after:

Tom White, test manager for documents and printing in Microsoft's Windows Experience group, visited the Walling household on multiple occasions, figured out what was wrong, and ultimately got the printer to work.

Turns out, if you're configuring the printer for Vista but using the original printer driver CD provided by the vendor for Windows XP, you could have problems because Vista has problems keeping it all straight. Somehow. Sort of.

Read the whole article for excuses and spin from Microsoftniks.

I'm not sure if this article at Gizmodo is entirely sincere, but it's certainly worth reading if you've got any opinions at all about Vista: Ten Reasons Why Vista Isn't That Bad.

Some of the reasons sound pretty pathetic:

"3. Games work just about as well as under XP." (only a 10% degradation in performance!)
"8. Drivers support isn't as bad as it's made out to be."
"9. It's not any buggier than Windows XP. "

But read the article for the rest of the reasons, the succinct and pungent comments, as well as the link (the first one in the article) to the Youtube video of "lightning bolt, lightning bolt" nerds. Swallow your coffee before you open that one, unless your monitor needs cleaning anyway.

If you're looking for trouble in Redmond, here are a couple more news items to fuel your schadenfreude:

• Closing the Door to Microsoft Vista is a Business Week piece on the problem facing many big business who don't see much point in upgrading to Vista from XP--and who are planning to wait until Microsoft releases Windows 7 (Vista's soon-to-be long-awaited successor). With that worthy package "due in 2010 or 2011", enterprises that choose to sit out Vista just have to wait another four or five years to upgrade. (And yes, I know the math is off.)


• It's not just corporate buyers who are thinking twice (or more) about Vista. Here's a PC World Business Center report that explains the reasons Coders Tell Why They're Avoiding Vista. Apparently, the new features in Vista really aren't compelling to software consumers, and with so many users hesitating over the upgrade, there's not much point to building Vista-only apps (see above).


• Here's a nice little summary about Microsoft's responses to the Vista blahs, from ArsTechnica: Microsoft: "There is no need to wait for Windows 7". From the article: "Microsoft's argument focuses on the fact that Windows 7 will be much closer to Vista than Vista is to XP, and therefore it makes sense for businesses to ease up the transition process for themselves by moving to Vista first." What? Go through the trouble of a dubious, disruptive and expensive upgrade now, so you can repeat the process in just a couple of years? And those total cost of ownership numbers seem kind of iffy to me, too, especially since they don't seem to include the cost of the upgrade itself.

I'm a Microsoft-watcher, and by "Microsoft-watcher" I mean I like to watch for unflattering news and other stories about Microsoft. This year it's been like shooting fish in a barrel; my favorites are those headlines that just stand on their own--the links I don't have to follow to get the gist of the stories.

Like these:

• Windows is 'collapsing,' Gartner analysts warn. From Computerworld's coverage of a Gartner-sponsored conference this April. From the article: "...analysts Michael Silver and Neil MacDonald said Microsoft has not responded to the market, is overburdened by nearly two decades of legacy code and decisions, and faces serious competition on a whole host of fronts that will make Windows moot unless the software developer acts." Tsk, tsk.


• Here's a review of Vista, from Infoworld: Fat, fatter, fattest: Microsoft's kings of bloat. The article sub-title gives the bad news: "Our tests show that Windows Vista and Office 2007 not only smash Redmond's previous records for weight gain, but given the same hardware diet, run at less than half the speed of generation XP". Ouch.


• With the big splash the Asus Eee PC made in its Linux versions, it should surprise no one that Microsoft is putting pressure on hardware manufacturers to combat Linux with big discounts on Microsoft products (rather than, say, making a better product). From PC World: Microsoft to Limit Capabilities of Cheap Laptops. Play nice with Microsoft for up to a $10 discount on the Windows license, per machine (current prices: "...US$26 for Windows XP Home Edition for ULPCs sold in emerging markets such as China and India, and $32 for those sold in developed markets..."). With hardware makers' already razor-thin profit margins, $10 per machine is a big deal. No wonder Asus went along with it.

Stay tuned for more, as they come in. And they will keep coming, I'm sure!

Oh, and let me know if you see any good ones that I've missed.