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Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer: Vista is 'a Work in Progress'

cio.com — While Microsoft recently extended the date when the XP software will be available for low-cost PCs, it doesn't plan to listen to some other complaints, including that Vista is too big. "Vista is bigger than XP and it's gonna stay bigger than XP," Ballmer said. "We have to make sure it doesn't get bigger still."

Who dugg this? Made popular Apr 18, 2008

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  • inactive, on 04/18/2008, -11/+134All operating systems are a work in progress.
  • kipmartin, on 04/18/2008, -7/+84Ballmer is a twit. He's no Bill Gates or Steve Jobs.
  • noahhoward, on 04/18/2008, -17/+88So why was it released?
  • Lou3000, on 04/18/2008, -18/+73Congrats, you paid $300 to be a Beta tester.
  • BryanG412, on 04/18/2008, -6/+56So Windows 7 is coming out when?
  • Quick2822, on 04/18/2008, -30/+78I know Digg is full of Microsoft and Vista hate, but I run Vista x64 on an E8400, with 4GB of RAM and I have no problems, especially since SP1. While Vista does deserve some of the criticisms it gets, it isn't this bloated and slow OS that everyone likes to portray it as.

    From a reboot, Vista takes about 30-35 seconds to fully boot up. Every program that I launch responds almost instantly. I never have issues with drivers, even on an x64. Get Vista on a machine that has power and you won't be disappointed. It's those people who run it on a low powered machine who see the issues. I think a lot of the hate that Vista has is from people who never tried it and just hear things from friends, or people who tried it right when it was released. I know that isn't an excuse as it should be ready upon release, but that's another debate.

    Just my opinion though.
  • kingfoot, on 04/18/2008, -13/+55same reason the 360 was released with a 30% failure rate and a 100% possible defective rate.
  • jer2eydevil88, on 04/18/2008, -20/+61How is Vista less secure than it's predecessor XP? I think you need to stop typing ***** up and read for a change.
  • JTJaskot, on 04/18/2008, -14/+51You do realize that the average consumer isn't going to have a machine that powerful right?
  • frostbyt, on 04/18/2008, -57/+90*sigh* Microsoft had the money, time, and following to really create an OS light, secure, and fast. Instead we get even more bloated, unsecured, and takes 2 gigs of memory, duel core, and 512 meg video card even to run.

    Thanks Microsoft you turned me into an Apple customer.
  • inactive, on 04/18/2008, -19/+50So is he trying to say that it's still in beta? You don't sell beta software, Ballmer.
  • asdfrewq, on 04/18/2008, -1/+29Minesweeper.
  • theaceoffire, on 04/18/2008, -15/+41True, but you normally don't offer beta or alpha level products to your client before testing is done.
  • ThatEvilGuy, on 04/18/2008, -4/+27When it reaches beta state like Vista.
  • wilfordsy, on 04/18/2008, -1/+22I'm constantly amazed that Ballmer is STILL Ceo of Microsoft. They seriously need a new face. One that could cope up with Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.
  • theaceoffire, on 04/18/2008, -3/+23"Bigger than XP"
    ^_^ First time they got to say that!
  • FutureGuy, on 04/18/2008, -6/+25For the same reason as every other OS. Every OS is a work in progress, that applies to XP (SP3 is about to be released), same for OS X, they just patched 90 security holes (http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/ ... and if anyone wants to claim [insert your favorite OS here] is not a work in progress then its already outdated, so don;t blow this out of proportion.
  • morandir, on 04/18/2008, -6/+24I think Microsoft needs to bite the bullet and release an OS that doesn't support legacy apps. It'd certainly help with the whole size thing.
  • goosnargh, on 04/18/2008, -5/+22Why not? Game developers do it all the time :p
  • Aleman360, on 04/18/2008, -8/+25I'm pretty sure every Windows versions was bigger than the previous. It's the natural result of adding features and supporting an ever-increasing amount of old hardware.
  • ism70605, on 04/18/2008, -1/+18I don't remember Google's products having complete control of PCs and being mission critical. That is the difference between MS and Google. We also don't pay Google to use search. We are not the customers of Google we are the product. They sell ad revenue so we click on it. Not have a search so we can use it for free.
  • jftitan, on 04/18/2008, -0/+16Difference is, Google's beta testing is usually free to the masses. Microsoft on the other hand... well they want to charge you $400 for a beta OS. (Ok, prices went down... but who has been suckered into a new PC with high end specs, only to end up downgrading Windows to XP because Vista is a POS to your new hardware?) *I have
  • kipmartin, on 04/18/2008, -13/+28you must be a Vista *****. hows THAT going?
  • inactive, on 04/18/2008, -12/+27No comments here on windows 2008, which of course was a dream to install and set up.
    Definately a step up from the wonderfully stable Windows 2003. By the way Win2k8 is based on Vista and supports Aero and all that.

    Vista isn't as mindblowing as XP was to most (who were used to win98 at the time).
    I think all the haters just need to relax. Yes MS could have delivered something better. They didn't, so get over it. Its not like Vista is any worse than XP (it isn't) and its not a far cry from some of the more favored OSes out there. The only difference is the geek squad is so mobilized against Vista.

    I'm an admin for an extremely large company, and I support all flavors of Unix and Microsoft. Some dating back 20 years. Vista and win2k8 are actually nice in some ways. But you'll never hear the self appointed digg-police/geek squad saying that.

    Most of you have no idea what you are talking about, and those that claim to should put up or shut-up, rather than polluting the tubes, with their collective irrational hate.
  • DanBoodro, on 04/18/2008, -4/+18I'm a power user and Vista isn't working fine for me. I had to upgrade back to XP.
    Though I won't judge Microsoft until I see what Windows 7 has in store. Fair?
  • brstilson, on 04/18/2008, -1/+15I remember back in the day when a Windows installation was 40 MB and the installation files could fit on 8 floppy disks.
  • noahhoward, on 04/18/2008, -4/+18Yes but they are usually released post-beta. You cannot seriously tell me that Vista was a ready-for-live operating system when it was released.
  • mikedoth, on 04/18/2008, -1/+14Do you have to pay for Google's apps?
  • dondara, on 04/18/2008, -5/+18Who reboots?
  • neocr0n, on 04/18/2008, -8/+21Nothing you drop £200+ on should be a work in progress.
  • FKnight, on 04/18/2008, -5/+18You realize that a machine capable of running Vista is the baseline now, right? Nearly every machine the average consumer purchases right now will run Vista.
  • DanBoodro, on 04/18/2008, -1/+14Iraq is still in it's pre-Alpha stage. Give em a few years and service packs.
  • kreatre2007, on 04/18/2008, -0/+12Agreed! Sometimes it's better to start fresh. It would take some transition time though. Apple managed to kill off all of their legacy apps completely with the switch to Intel processors and with the latest release of Mac OS X. As an Apple technician, I was thrilled to see the old classic Mac OS die.
  • tehnico, on 04/18/2008, -6/+18LOLZORS Only FAGS don't know how to reply to the right comment! HAHA LOL!!!1ELEVENTYONE
  • tripzero, on 04/18/2008, -3/+14http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gaming/xbox-360-failure ...
    http://www.ripten.com/2007/07/03/failure-rate-xbox ...
    http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/14/xbox-360-failur ...

    According to those source it could be as low as 16% and as high as 33%. Even at 16%, it is a horrible failure rate.
  • CaptainScarlet, on 04/18/2008, -3/+14What benefit do you receive from upgrading from XP to Vista?? All the software released today works with XP and Vista. So why should someone actual upgrade? Eye Candy?? That is the main reason why I've not pushed for my company to upgrade to Vista. All 415 computers...
  • YodaJones, on 04/18/2008, -8/+19Ballmer is an idiot. He has ZERO technical skills and nothing gets done right under his command. I think he is the main reason Microsoft is doing such crap work for the last few years. I can name one thing he has motivated us (as Microsoft Partners) to do ...move our enterprise clients to open source solutions.

    "It's virtualization time for Microsoft"?
    Can somebody explain to me the real value of virtualization? If we run services on three server boxes and one box fails we loose that service or application. If a virtualized box fails running these same three services or applications fail we loose them all. I don't know many companies that will sacrifice reliability just so they can save a rack space in their data center or in the name or being more "green".
    Besides that, have any of you looked at the cost of a blade server? The empty chassis cost as much as a well equipped medium class server. The blades themselves cost more than a well equipped medium class server and you can't use it without the chassis. WTF?
  • inactive, on 04/18/2008, -3/+14They will.
  • kreatre2007, on 04/18/2008, -1/+12Ha ha... How naive you are! Mac users can be a lot more clingy with their old apps than a lot of Windows users are. When I worked at Apple, I had a lot of customers demand that we make their 10 year old apps work but, there was nothing we could do for them. The Classic Mac OS to Mac OS X transition was huge and because Apple's user base is so loyal to the Apple brand, they stayed with Apple all through the transition. Being a "miniscule" user base has nothing to do with it. It's still hard to make a change when the user base is well established. The real truth is that Apple is just better at making transitions than Microsoft is. Apple is better at showing customers the advantages of upgrading.

    It seems like every time Apple is mentioned on Digg, someone calls them "niche' or "miniscule" or some other dumb thing. Being dismissive toward Apple won't make them go away. Apple is on the rise. They make better products than Microsoft does and the consumers are taking notice. I have upgraded several Macs to the latest Mac OS X without a hitch. Some of these machines were 3-5 years old. They all run perfectly on the new OS. How many people with older PCs were able to upgrade to Vista? Probably a "miniscule" amount.
  • Klowner, on 04/18/2008, -5/+15When did he learn to string 4 words together in a row? *throws chair*
  • tnoy, on 04/18/2008, -0/+10Agreed. They could easily release an new Windows and just run legacy apps in virtualization.
  • ryancalderoni, on 04/18/2008, -5/+15The CEO is catching on to what we've known all along.
  • redfan, on 04/18/2008, -7/+17"Vista doesn't suck as much as many of you make it out to be."
    This is generally true, but it also doesn't improve on XP in any significant way either. And that's the problem with it.
    As someone who uses OS X, Vista, and XP almost daily, I think that while Vista isn't appreciably worse than XP, it isn't any better and the tiny things that annoy experienced users really hurt its usability. Why MS chose the complexity of Vista over the simple elegance of OS X and really of XP too is anyone's guess.
  • kamikaze87, on 04/18/2008, -7/+17*****. I meant to Digg you down but clicked up instead. Do not let it go to your head.
  • MacParrot, on 04/18/2008, -4/+14Well said FutureGuy. The only OS that is not a work in progress is a dead OS
  • jftitan, on 04/18/2008, -2/+12I think personally to me, it comes down to the price tag. Most betas I've ever been involved with didn't charge me a arm and a leg. To this day I swear Vista is a POS. For the VERY limited time it was installed on my new workstation at work, It still lacked compatibility, speed, and caused me more problems that it should have right out of the box. Fortunately, being a full time technician I've learned of the problems with Vista beforehand. That still didn't change the fact that when I got Vista it lived up to its disappointments.
  • noahhoward, on 04/18/2008, -5/+14"90% market share means something,"
    Yeah it means your software is a pack in because you have contracts with leading vendors that force them to offer you operating system. It means 90% of your consumers don't know they have another choice.
  • pixelguru, on 04/18/2008, -4/+13It's been a "work in progress" for the better part of 7 years now, and it still isn't finished.
  • santaliqueur, on 04/18/2008, -1/+10Funny, what operating system do you think powers most of the websites you've ever visited? You get one guess. Hint: It's not Windows.
  • KaiUno, on 04/18/2008, -0/+9I'm a regular *****. Honest to god!
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