Blinded by Vista Sales Numbers
Business, Technology August 18th, 2008
This is one of those rare occasions when I can pull up an old post, dust it off, and voila! – I’m done. Yes, I am lazy – but hey, I can’t help, this is one of those “I’ve told you” moments.  Here’s what I wrote last year:
Time for a reality check. Product quality, customer satisfaction and market success have very little to do with each other when you have a monopoly.
The Vista problems are real, they are not fantasies created by bloggers. But how exactly are consumers supposed to revolt? They still need computers, and despite Apple’s respectable growth, they still represent a fraction of the consumer PC market. Try to buy a PC today, it’s hard to NOT end up with Vista (even I got one)
Customer demand for Vista? No, it’s customer demand for computers, in a market with no choice. I’m not “making this up”, Donna. It’s all in Microsoft’s 10-Q:
…Client revenue growth correlates with the growth of purchases of PCs from OEMs that pre-install versions of Windows operating systems because the OEM channel accounts for approximately 80% of total Client revenue. The differences between unit growth rates and revenue growth rates from year to year are affected by changes in the mix of OEM Windows operating systems licensed with premium edition operating systems as a percentage of total …
The increased “demand” for premium versions comes from another well-documented fact, i.e. Microsoft’s new segmentation, castrating Vista Home Basic and essentially making Home Premium the equivalent of XP Home – a hidden price increase, by any measure.
A true measure of “demand” for Vista would be corporate licenses and retail sales, and both are behind. But not for long: eventually, after the release of SP1 corporate IT will give in, too – who wants to be “left behind”, after all.
Today InfoWorld burst the Vista Sales Bubble (if you ask me, there never has been a bubble, but that’s another matter):Â 35 percent of mainly enterprise-class users “downgrade” their Vista systems to XP.
The numbers speak for themselves, let me just add this: next time you look at Vista Sales figures, remember: these customers did not have the choice to buy XP directly, they had to get Vista on their systems, then “downgrade” (upgrade, if you ask me) to XP.   But by then their transaction is booked as a Vista purchase!
Vista sales figures are inflated, these transactions were not real purchases, just ransom paid to the monopolist for the privilege to use the OS that actually works- XP.
Tags: microsoft, microsoft monopoly, oem, vista, vistasucks, windows market share, windows vista, windows xp, xp
MS Money: Old Financial Data May Not Be Accessible on Vista
Personal Productivity, Software June 30th, 2008
You’d think at least Microsoft’s own products are compatible with Vista. Well, sort of. MS Money users who converted from Quicken may be out of luck.
I have a lot of financial data in Microsoft Money and prior to that in Quicken files. Both applications used to recommend you keep the data files small by archiving earlier years. With today’s faster computers archiving is no longer an issue, but if you’re a long-time user like I am, you probably have a few old archive files.
Every time you “upgrade” Money (hardly any new value, but if you use online services, MS forces you to upgrade every 2-3 years) your current data file is upgraded to the new formats, too. But what happens to the archive files?
I decided to convert all my older Quicken files to Money, just in case… after all, Money supports Quicken conversion. Or not: crash. Crash again.. and again. I tried several data files, even rebooted the system, to no avail: Money consistently crashed at all conversion attempts.
This is where Vista’s Problem Reports and Solutions comes handy, and yes, a few days later it shows “solution found”. Hm… if they found it, they certainly are not sharing it. Here’s the user-friendly stuff I found:
<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-16″?>
<DATABASE>
<EXE NAME=”MSMoney.EXE” FILTER=”GRABMI_FILTER_PRIVACY”>
<MATCHING_FILE NAME=”adapt.dll” SIZE=”109360″ CHECKSUM=”0×24BD92C0″ BIN_FILE_VERSION=”16.0.0.1303″ BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION=”16.0.0.1303″ PRODUCT_VERSION=”16.00.1303″ FILE_DESCRIPTION=”MSN Money Adaptation DLL” COMPANY_NAME=”Microsoft(R) Corporation” PRODUCT_NAME=”Microsoft(R) Money” FILE_VERSION=”16.00.1303″ ORIGINAL_FILENAME=”adapt.dll” INTERNAL_NAME=”adaptation” LEGAL_COPYRIGHT=”Copyright © Microsoft Corp. ” VERDATEHI=”0×0″ VERDATELO=”0×0″ VERFILEOS=”0×4″ VERFILETYPE=”0×2″ MODULE_TYPE=”WIN32″ PE_CHECKSUM=”0×25BFE” LINKER_VERSION=”0×60000″ UPTO_BIN_FILE_VERSION=”16.0.0.1303″ UPTO_BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION=”16.0.0.1303″ LINK_DATE=”01/04/2007 07:49:53″ UPTO_LINK_DATE=”01/04/2007 07:49:53″ EXPORT_NAME=”Adapt.DLL” VER_LANGUAGE=”English (United States) [0x409]” />
<MATCHING_FILE NAME=”adaptres.dll” SIZE=”13104″ CHECKSUM=”0xA99DDA54″ BIN_FILE_VERSION=”16.0.0.1303″ BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION=”16.0.0.1303″ PRODUCT_VERSION=”16.00.1303″ FILE_DESCRIPTION=”MSN Money Adaptation DLL” COMPANY_NAME=”Microsoft(R) Corporation” PRODUCT_NAME=”Microsoft(R) Money” FILE_VERSION=”16.00.1303″ ORIGINAL_FILENAME=”adapt.dll” INTERNAL_NAME=”adaptation” LEGAL_COPYRIGHT=”Copyright © Microsoft Corp. ” VERDATEHI=”0×0″ VERDATELO=”0×0″ VERFILEOS=”0×4″ VERFILETYPE=”0×2″ MODULE_TYPE=”WIN32″ PE_CHECKSUM=”0×4855″ LINKER_VERSION=”0×60000″ UPTO_BIN_FILE_VERSION=”16.0.0.1303″ UPTO_BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION=”16.0.0.1303″ LINK_DATE=”01/04/2007 07:00:04″ UPTO_LINK_DATE=”01/04/2007 07:00:04″ VER_LANGUAGE=”English (United States) [0x409]” />
This looks like the problem report sent to Microsoft, not the solution. There’s one hint though: the filename is AppCompat.txt. Perhaps it’s a Vista compatibility issue? Luckily I still have an XP laptop around, the data files are there thanks to Foldershare sync (more on synchronization in the next post), all I have to do is install MS Money on the XP machine and try conversion there.
Voila! Half an hour later I have the Quicken files converted to Money on the XP computer. Money’s import/conversion routine is incompatible with Vista! The whole exercise, including search on the Money Group took me about 2 hours, so dear Microsoft, here’s my invoice for lost productivity:
Oh, wait, we’re in the US, perhaps I should have presented a properly Americanized version. 
My poor experience was with MS Money 2007, but with Money Plus, the 2008 version of the product line Microsoft shows true ignorance to users’ legacy data needs. Money Plus comes in four editions: Essentials, Deluxe, Premium, and Home & Business.
Microsoft offers a nice comparison chart, which neglects to mention a small detail, available only at the footnotes:
* Important note – Microsoft Money Essentials will not be able to open previous Money or Quicken files. If you are upgrading from a previous version of Money or Quicken, Money Plus Deluxe may be the right solution for you.
Not opening Quicken … well, it’s their decision. But not opening data from their very own previous releases? And this is hidden in the small print?
I rest my case.
Tags: compatibility, data conversion, data portability, intuit, legacy data, microsoft, Microsoft Money, money plus, MS Money, ms money plus, quicken, virtualinvoice, vista, vistasucks, Windows, xp, zoho invoice
Sales Pitch: We Remove Vista
Humor, Software January 31st, 2008
Windows XP Twice as Fast as Vista?
Software, Technology November 24th, 2007
Ouch. This hurts. Devil Mountain Software, the outfit that had previously declared Vista SP1 a Performance Dud came to the conclusion that Windows XP SP3 Yields Performance Gains – about 10% compared to XP SP2. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the very same tests show the outgoing operating system, XP twice as fast as Vista, the “flagship” OS. No wonder Forrester Research says Vista’s biggest problem is XP. 
Of course most users won’t notice it. Why? Because very few upgrade their existing computers from XP to Vista. We don’t buy operating systems, we buy computers: try to get one without Vista. (Fact: most of Microsoft’s Vista Revenue comes from the OEM channel.)
The Vista-based new screamer clearly runs a lot faster than the 3-year-old laptop running XP, but in reality it’s running at half-speed – the other half eaten by the Operating System. Which proves my earlier argument abut this being a pointless arms race: buying faster and faster machines only so they can maintain themselves and barely let us use basic applications.
Unless those applications are in the cloud.
Related posts: PC World, Hardware 2.0 and TECH.BLORGE.com
Update (12/14): Coding Sanity has found a solution.
Tags: cloud computing, desktop software, microsoft, vista, vista performance, vistasucks, Web Applications, Windows, windows vista, windows xp, xp
Microsoft: The Live Installer / WDS Invasion was Just the Rehearsal
Personal Productivity, Technology October 25th, 2007
Here’s a quick chronology:
- Under the auspices of installing Live Photo Gallery, Microsoft installs their Desktop Search product on XP systems, without asking for user permission or even bothering to notify users. (for details, see previous posts listed below)
- User uproar follows
- Microsoft updates their Photo Live Gallery, and it no longer requires Windows Desktop Search.
Naive me, I welcome this as proof that Microsoft Listens, after all.
No, they don’t. All the above was just the rehearsal. The Real Invasion is happening now, under the disguise of Window Server Update Services, as reported by the Register:
“The admins at my place were in a flap this morning because Windows Desktop Search 3.01 had suddenly started installing itself on desktops throughout the company,” a Reg reader by the name of Rob informs us. “The trouble is that once installed, the indexer kicks in and slows the machines down.”
“I’m slightly pissed of [sic] at M$ right now,” an admin in charge of 3,000 PCs wrote in a comment to the first aforementioned link. “All the clients have slowed to a crawl, and the file servers are having problems with the load.”
Mea Culpa for my naivety. The Borg does not change.
My previous stories on the invasion (and more):
- Windows Live Installs More than it Tells You
- The Ongoing Windows Desktop Search Controversy
- You Think You Own Your Computer? Think Twice. Microsoft Shows Who’s Boss.
Other Related posts: Sadjad’s space, David and David Arno’s Blog. Of course these are hard to find, TechMeme is full of reporting how the Borg kissed the Berg.
Tags: desktop search, microsoft, wds, windows desktop, windows desktop search, windows live, windows live installer, windows live photo gallery, windows update, winxp, wsus, xp
Angry Mom Spanking Ballmer Over Useless Vista
Software, Technology October 10th, 2007
Well, it’s not the Microsoft CEO’s mother – it’s analyst Yvonne Genovese who interviewed Ballmer at the Gartner Symposium.
“My daughter comes in one day and says, ‘Hey Mom, my friend has Vista, and it has these neat little things called gadgets — I need those.’”
Said Ballmer: “I love your daughter.”
“You’re not going to like her mom in about two minutes,” said Genovese, while the crowd laughed.
She went on to explain that she installed Vista for her daughter — and two days later went right back to using the XP operating system.
That must have been one entertaining session. Read the full story at Computerworld. But first, here’s another quote from Ballmer, clearly on the defensive:
“There is always a tension between the value that end users see — and frankly, that software developers see — and the value that we can deliver to IT.”
Yesss. The key word is IT. As in “expert only”. Perhaps it’s time Microsoft recognize that they failed to serve two “masters”, and in catering strictly for IT, delivering a super-secure (?) system they created a monster quite unusable by individual consumers.
I’ve been ranting about Vista enough here, let me just add another gem to prove my point.
It’s probably fair to assume that a lot of Vista (home) users will have at least one older, XP machine around – and if they do, they want these to see these connected on a Home Network. This should be a piece of cake… or not.
- Your Vista PC won’t see the XP ones on the network at all.
- There’s no documentation whatsoever, but after Googling around you can figure out that you need to patch the XP machines (!) for them to be seen by the Vista. (Incidentally, the patch requires WGA, which fails on one of my perfectly legit computers, but that’s another story)
- When Vista still can’t see the networked machines, back Googling again.
- After some research you’ll discover a well-hidden statement that it may take up to 15 minutes for a Vista PC to see a networked pre-Vista one. Fifteen minutes!!!! in 2007!!!!
This is just one example of the many idiocies crippling Vista. Nothing major, just stupid little things that don’t work and there is no easily accessible info about.
Vista is for the corporate world with IT departments, period. I can hardly think of better promotion for Apple then releasing Vista to the consumer market. Oh, and since a picture is worth a thousand words, here’s one from Princeton University (by way of Espen Antonsen)
Update: It’s not just kids anymore 
Update: Ballmer speaks; Can Microsoft be everything to everyone? at Between the Lines. More on the Computerworld Blogs
Tags: Apple, ballmer, Gartner, microsoft, vista, vistasucks, Windows, windows vista, windows xp, xp
Zoli Erdos
