Gary Wants To Know How We're Going to Handle Windows Vista
I just received my Volume III E-Book CD. It's great. I really
appreciated the unexpected bonus too! It was nice to have volume II and III on
one CD. Thank you! Now my question. I read the other day that Windows
Vista is going to be released in January. I was wondering if you're going to
feature mostly Windows Vista questions and answers (and tips and tricks) or will
you also continue Windows XP questions & answers and tips and tricks? At this
time I do not intend to upgrade to Windows Vista - I will probably wait for
awhile before I do. Thanks for all you do! Gary
Answer
Thanks, Gary. Great question too! We want to assure everyone that we will
not abandoned Windows XP in our newsletters. In fact we will continue to keep
Windows XP installed on at least two of our computers and will feature
questions/answers and tips/tricks as well as "freeware" for Windows XP.
We will gradually begin phasing in Windows Vista tips and tricks
and questions and answers in January 2007. Over time, more and more Vista
tips/tricks and questions/answers will be appearing in InfoAve Premium and
InfoAve Free. But, we have no plans at this time to end our commitment to
Windows XP users.
Here's why we expect to be featuring Windows XP related
tips/tricks and questions/answers for quite some time yet:
We don't feel that current XP users are going to flock to the
stores to buy an upgrade copy of Vista. For one thing, most consumers are not
going to be happy with the "basic" version of Vista (which will cost around
$100). Almost everyone who has experience with Vista is recommending that users
upgrade to the "Professional" version (which will cost around $170). The price
is high and most users are happy with Windows XP. It's stable and works well.
This is not the same as when Windows XP was released, It was replaced two versions of Windows in
general use at that time: Windows 98 and Windows ME. Windows ME was the worst
operating system that Microsoft ever released. Windows 98 was a big improvement
and a great upgrade from Windows 95 (which had many problems), but Windows 98 had its share
of problems too, especially with security and stability.
Windows XP doesn't suffer from the memory issues of the Windows
95/98/ME era. In fact you can run it for weeks without rebooting - something
Windows 95/98/ME users could never do. Windows XP, while not 100% secure, is far
more secure than its predecessors. And, we've got news for you. Vista is not
going to be 100% secure either - no operating system will will be. No software
can ever be 100% secure
unless it is also 100% unusable.
We think Microsoft is going to more difficult time selling the Windows
Vista upgrade than it did selling the Windows XP upgrade. So many features of past versions of Windows that have been carried
forward in the past have completely changed in Vista, that the learning curve
is a lot higher than that it was, for example, moving from Windows 98 to Windows XP.
We imagine in the first few months of the release of Windows
Vista, the majority of its users will either be super-techies who always stay on
the cutting edge of things, or consumers who purchase new computers with Windows
Vista pre-installed. Eventually though, as time passes, most of us using Windows
XP will upgrade. For there will come a time when Microsoft will stop supporting
Windows XP (like they have Windows 95, 98, and Windows ME) and then it will no
longer be safe to use Windows XP. But that day is still a long way off.
After using Windows Vista for several months now, we're not
enamored with it. We think there are a lot of features which will annoy the
average user. We think there was was too much attention to "show" and not enough attention
to "go". The usual Microsoft commitment to
ensure older programs work properly in new versions of Windows is curiously
missing from Vista (at least in the beta versions we've tried). This is going to result in
headaches for developers of software applications as well as for consumers who
have paid
good money for software and may discover it does not work with Windows Vista.
Our final analysis of Windows Vista will have to wait until the
release of Windows Vista. It would not be fair to pass final judgment based on
"beta" versions or "release candidates" of Vista. Sometimes Microsoft's "final"
versions are very different from the beta versions.
It is our feeling that many of the security features of Vista could have been released as a
service pack for Windows XP (and may still be) without rewriting the whole
operating system code. But, then again that wouldn't have made any money for
Microsoft - would it? And, maybe there will be a "service pack 3" for Windows XP
in the near future. We don't know. That's pure speculation. But it would be a
wise move however it may hurt sales of Vista.
All of you who plan on continuing to use Windows XP can rest
assured that we will continue to provide answers to your Windows XP questions as well
freeware that works on Windows XP, and, of course, Windows XP tips and tricks.
We have no plans at this time to abandon Windows XP users when Vista is
released..
