Anything but Speechless: 100 Things People Are Really Saying About Windows Vista

Inevitable comparisons (or: The grass actually is greener over there)

73. "OS X is better than Vista!"

Information Week says "Mac OS X Shines In Comparison With Windows Vista" – and that was before OS X's fast-selling Leopard upgrade.
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=196800670
Computerworld provides an update: "Leopard spanks Vista, continues OS X's reign of excellence... it's impossible to miss the refinement infused throughout Apple's new operating system, whereas there are compromises in Vista that impinge upon the user experience without giving something back in return. Apple is focused on the user experience, while Microsoft appears to be focused on antipiracy, overengineered security protections, and digital rights management aimed at serving its prospective third-party partners... There's really no contest. Tiger is a better OS than Vista, and there are no long-term downsides to Leopard. Vista doesn't measure up."
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&...
USA Today's tech editor tried Vista – and begged for an iMac at the end.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/andrewkantor/2007-03-02-vista-pro...
And so on.

74. "GNU/Linux is better than Vista!"

Yes, a free operating system is called better than the world's most expensive one. A brief rundown of reasons: Easier hardware requirements, better security, no DRM or other restrictions, no ceding control to Windows Genuine Advantage, and in many cases, better applications.
http://www.itnews.com.au/News/62060,five-ways-linux-is-better-than-vista...
ZD Net opines: "Since the late 90s I've dabbled with Linux, but there have always been compelling reasons to return to, or stick with, Windows. No more, for two reasons: Vista, and Ubuntu [Linux] 7.10."
http://community.zdnet.co.uk/blog/0,1000000567,10006214o-2000331758b,00.htm
"Having used Ubuntu for the best part of a year, I'm a fan... Which leaves my Vista machine... it's not been a good experience. The wireless networking is vastly unreliable when switching between different access points... But mostly: it's slow, it's intrusive, and it's arbitrarily different. It takes minutes to wake up from various sleep states or from a restart; minutes in which parts of the system seem to get going only to lapse into an unresponsive state where you're not at all sure whether your mouse clicks are registering... Elsewhere, it behaves like XP behaves on a 256MB computer, only it's running in 2GB. Everything is just... slow... It boils down to one abiding impression: Ubuntu goes out of its way to get out of your way, even if it doesn't succeed all the time. Vista goes out of its way to be Vista and enforce the Vista way. You must conform regardless of the implications."
http://community.zdnet.co.uk/blog/0,1000000567,10006217o-2000331777b,00.htm
"My advice to [Linux user] whingers: spend 10 days using the latest version of Windows and you'll realise that you are living in a world of relative bliss."
http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/13114/1090/

75. "Vista rips off other OSes!"

Aero? Aqua.
Windows Sidebar? Dashboard.
Instant Search? Spotlight.
A typical online comment: "The best way to sum up Vista is this: go to a store that sells Apple computers (like an Apple store!) and play with OS X. That's basically what Vista is--a knock-off of Mac OSX."
http://reviews.cnet.com/windows/microsoft-vista-home-basic/4864-3672_7-3...
While the web is rife with claims that Vista copies OS X, some see "borrowings" from GNU/Linux as well: "... the updates they’ve made with [A]ero aren’t even vaguely imaginative. In fact, they just seem to be blatant rip-offs of both modern Linux and Apple interfaces."
http://www.vistareview.info/2007/03/06/the-windows-vista-gui-interface-i...

76. "Vista's been leapfrogged by OS X Leopard (10.5)!"

"Tiger fared well against Microsoft's offerings, but Leopard takes a real leap ahead."
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&...
"Leopard makes it far easier to find documents and applications than Windows Vista."
http://reviews.cnet.com/macintosh-os/mac-os-x-10/4505-3673_7-32058772.ht...
"Vista has widgets, but they can't beat Leopard's for ease of use."
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&...

77. "Vista doesn't even match up to OS X Tiger (10.4)!"

"If you were to analyze the most vital elements of a computing platform--security, interface, and performance--Mac OS X Tiger trumps Windows Vista, and is our pick as the superior operating system."
http://www.laptopmag.com/Features/Mac-OS-X-Tiger-vs-Windows-Vista.htm?pa...

78. "Leopard is as bad as Vista!"

Complaints about the Mac OS X Leopard are far, far fewer than diatribes against Vista – but upgrades to Leopard haven't been flawless for everyone, and there are certainly some unhappy souls out there. What's interesting is this: When a disgruntled shopper wants to put down the Mac OS, what curse does he use? He calls it a Vista! "[Leopard] is not better than Vista. Leopard is Vista. And Tiger is better than both of them!"
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2704,2223921,00.asp

Vista sales (or: The birth rate must be declining)

79. "Nobody's buying Vista!"

Vista isn't selling well. "Standalone unit sales of Vista at U.S. retail stores were down 59.7 percent compared with Windows XP, during each product's first six months on store shelves, according to NPD Group... "It's just not doing well," NPD analyst Chris Swenson said of Vista's performance at retail stores..."
http://www.news.com/Running-the-numbers-on-Vista/2100-1016_3-6207375.html
"... there is still no great rush in the corporate world to adopt Vista... Vista has also been slow to catch fire among consumers."
http://seekingalpha.com/article/47615-microsoft-no-one-s-catching-the-vi...
Whether initial sales of Vista were good or not, they drop off sharply: "Microsoft today revealed that it had sold 40 million copies of Windows Vista in the 100 days since its late-January debut... While significant, the sales point to a rapid slowdown in adoption of the new operating system."
http://www.macnn.com/articles/07/05/15/vista.sales.halved/
An update from CES in early 2008: "...[Microsoft's] once dominant grip on the OS market is loosening. Based on Gates' statement, Windows Vista was aboard just 39% of the PC's that shipped in 2007... And Vista, in terms of units shipped, only marginally outperformed first year sales of Windows XP according to Gates' numbers -- despite the fact that the PC market has almost doubled in size since XP launched... The numbers are no doubt troubling for Microsoft, which spent millions of dollars developing and promoting Windows Vista... Despite the efforts, many corporate and individual PC users have turned their backs on Vista -- citing concerns about its resource requirements and compatibility with older applications."
http://www.itnews.com.au/News/67663,majority-of-new-pcs-ship-without-windows-vista-gates-unintentionally-reveals.aspx

80. "Vista isn't spurring new PC sales"

PC manufacturers, and everyone else connected to the industry, hoped Vista would kick sales in the rear. But it's not happening. Says the analyst behind a report on Vista's sales effects: "My view is that, as a motivating factor to go buy a PC, Vista is not enough."
http://www.news.com/Is-Vista-helping-boost-PC-sales/2100-1016_3-6186086....
Fast-growing Acer Computer had sales hopes dashed by Vista: "Acer Inc yesterday revised downward its revenue growth to less than 40 percent, citing a weaker-than-expected impact from the release of Microsoft's Vista operating system."
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2007/06/15/2003365394
Says Gartner analyst George Shiffler: "The release of Microsoft Windows Vista operating system at the end of January has, so far, failed to stimulate the market in the way many hoped."
http://www.informationweek.com/windows/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=20000...

81. "Vista? We're not even going to think about it until SP 1"

"[Corporate technology departments] are waiting for Microsoft to bless [Vista] with a service pack..."
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,289431,00.html
This isn't about little mom-and-pop businesses with no knowledge of technology. Even Microsoft's closest partners, like Intel and Dell, are turning up their noses at Vista until SP 1 comes out. "We knew we would roll out Vista internally faster than any other OS (but) if we are at the SP1 level it is going to be safer."
http://www.news.com/Intel%2C-Dell-hold-off-on-internal-rollout-of-Vista/...
Says a lead analyst at Directions on Microsoft: "We'll almost look back to SP1 as the [Vista] launch date."
http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/vista/vista_one_year_later.html

82. "Microsoft is lying about Vista sales!"

Microsoft claims that Vista sales are good, but not everyone agrees with the reported numbers. "Microsoft has claimed they have sold as many as 20 million copies of Vista... There are not 20 million computers with Vista installed so instead of claiming that, they claim 20 million copies have sold. What they have not said is how many of those copies were sold to retailers to put on store shelves which may or may not have been sold to consumers by now."
http://vista.blorge.com/2007/03/27/vista-sales-not-20-million-strong-as-...
"In February, Microsoft insisted it had already sold more than 20 million copies of Windows Vista. Oh yeah, like there were actually 20 million copies of Vista already out there and running. Pull the other leg, it's got bells on."
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2190228,00.asp
A parting shot (from what is actually one of the more Vista-friendly pages referenced here): "Admittedly, I find myself amused with the latest Vista sales numbers, as they seem to forget how many of those same people are disgusted once they break the seal and want to take Vista back."
http://www.osweekly.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2685&I...

83. "Microsoft is searching for scapegoats!"

"Ballmer admitted to financial analysts that the predictions for Vista had proved 'overly optimistic' and he blamed the pirates in China, India, Brazil, Russia and other emerging markets... Of course he is ignoring the fact that a lot of people are not buying Vista because it does not offer much more than XP and Windows Genuine Advantage makes their lives a misery."
http://www.theinquirer.net/en/inquirer/news/2007/02/19/ballmer-blames-pi...

84. "Why are OS X sales booming since the release of Vista?"

You'll hardly be alone if you suspect a connection. In the Vista era, reports like the following are a daily occurrence:
"Apple is gaining major ground in the war for dominance of the lucrative battleground known as college campuses."
http://mac.blorge.com/2007/10/22/apple-gaining-ground-in-university-camp...
"According to a report issued Monday by market researcher Net Applications, the Mac's worldwide market share among Web users increased to 6.6 percent in September, compared to 4.7 percent a year ago -- a 40 percent increase."
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=010000ZWAKLM
"This year, the [Princeton] University's Student Computer Initiative has sold more Macs than PCs. Students were offered a selection of Dell, IBM and Apple computers, and 60 percent chose Macs, up from 45 percent last year... Vista's sleek new interface — touted as sexy by Microsoft advocates — is almost useless and is so taxing that the system should be sold with additional memory. I mean, why hassle your customers?"
http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2007/10/05/news/18871.shtml
It's enterprise too: "...there are actually really good reasons why investors should wake up to the possibility that XP/Vista/etc. won't be the dominant desktop platform forever, and that Apple could represent a new paradigm in enterprise computing."
http://seekingalpha.com/article/30474-apple-for-enterprise-yes-change-do...
"We expect that much of today's IT infrastructure is going to be turned upside down by the invasion of consumer technologies... Consumerization is going to make IT's job harder, and platforms like the Mac are going to become increasingly common, in many cases in spite of the wishes of management."
http://seekingalpha.com/article/47275-corporate-use-of-macs-on-the-rise?...

Reactions to Vista (or: Humanity united at last)

85. "IT nerds hate Vista!"

Vista problems have even the experts giving up, says this article: "Unless Microsoft pulls a rabbit out of its hat, Vista may go down in history as the software that brought down a mighty empire... [P]eople are not going to lay down their hard-earned money for something that doesn’t work."
http://www.lockergnome.com/nexus/blade/2007/02/28/vista-even-the-experts...
A case in point is this long-term Longhorn/Vista tester's widely-read tale of surrender: "I gave Vista a real chance. I just can’t use it as my primary OS anymore."
http://chris.pirillo.com/2007/02/27/windows-vista-im-breaking-up-with-you/
More advice: "...it seems to make more sense to avoid Vista altogether, keep Windows XP, and just wait until Windows 7."
http://vista.blorge.com/2007/07/27/avoid-vista-keep-xp-and-wait-for-wind...
There's agreement over at eWEEK: "I can't think of a single reason to switch from XP to Vista. I'm not talking a good reason, I really mean any reason."
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2190228,00.asp

86. "Consumers hate Vista!"

The Dutch Consumers' Association wants Microsoft to provide angry Vista purchasers with Windows XP instead. "After a survey conducted by the Consumers’ Association showed that the performance of Microsoft’s latest operating system was very poor, the Association set up a registration centre for complaints about Vista. In less than five weeks 5,000 users filed complaints about the functioning of the system. "The product has many teething problems, it is just not ready," a spokesperson for the association said. Printers and other hardware reportedly failed in combination with Vista, computers crash regularly and the peripherals are very slow."
http://www.expatica.com/actual/article.asp?subchannel_id=1&story_id=44868

87. "Enterprises hate Vista!"

"Yesterday, Michael Silver, vice president of Gartner client computing, gave me the dim view of Microsoft's flagship operating system. 'Vista adoption in the enterprise has been really poor,' he said. 'Enterprises are about a year behind where they told us they'd be a year ago.'... A year ago, Gartner forecast that early Vista deployments would begin in earnest by the fourth quarter of 2007 and reach threshold by the second quarter of 2008. Now, mainstream enterprise adoption is tracking for early 2009, about the time Microsoft is supposed to be wrapping up Vista successor Windows 7."
http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/vista/vista_one_year_later.html
Here's some advice to enterprise procurement managers: "Hey, category managers in charge of IT spend. Want to make yourself a friend of the business for life? I've got a secret for you: don't rubberstamp your CIO's decision to upgrade to Vista or Office 2007. In fact, tack on a big "reject" to the request or the requisition. And don't do it to save money. Do it to save your hide."
http://www.spendmatters.com/index.cfm/2007/2/27/Vista--Outlook-2007-is-a...
Even Rob Enderle, an "analyst" noted for his pro-Microsoft stance, says: "Vista adoption is well below where I thought it would be by now...Corporations aren't even close to being ready for Vista, and many of us have been expecting this move. The biggest issue is that most don't seem to see the value in the product. Right now the majority of the comments I'm getting would indicate the people [who] don't want Vista right now are in the majority."
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2190228,00.asp
"A survey published by InformationWeek [in 2007] revealed that 30% of corporate desktop managers have no plans to upgrade their company's PC's to Vista -- ever."
http://www.itnews.com.au/News/67663,majority-of-new-pcs-ship-without-win...

88. "Even the industry hates Vista!"

Says Gianfranco Lanci, president of PC manufacturer Acer: “The whole industry is disappointed with Windows Vista.”
http://mybroadband.co.za/news/Software/727.html
International Data Corp (IDC) vice president Bob O'Donnell said that Vista had failed to live up to the hype that had excited the market, with a lukewarm reception especially from the commercial sector: "The reality is that people are not buying PCs because of Vista; they buy because they need one."
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2007/06/15/2003365394
Meanwhile developers are also giving The Big V the Big Cold Shoulder: as of mid 2008, only a tenth of developers in one survey were writing apps for Vista, a small fraction on those coding for XP.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-9969231-16.html

89. "Vista? Ban it!"

What do the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the Federal Aviation Administration have in common? They've openly banned Vista, for reasons ranging from software incompatibility to upgrade costs.
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=198000229
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2007/03/14/government-agencies-ban-win...
Some schools, meanwhile, are shunning Vista for reasons ranging from lack of compelling reason for an upgrade to Microsoft's anti-competitive practices.
http://www.neowin.net/news/main/07/10/27/uk-schools-warned-to-avoid-a-mi...
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000000121,39285414,00.htm

90. "Vista? What a joke!"

Literally. Everyone's making fun of it. CRACKED magazine says about Microsoft: "No producer of goods in the history of man has sold so much while caring so little. The combined love and craftsmanship in the every copy of Windows Vista sold in 2007 would roughly equal that put into one toddler's Play-Doh snake. Here was a program with several features, such as a warning box that pops up every five minutes or so to ask you if you're sure you want to do what you're doing, so shamelessly broken that they seemed to have been added on a drunken dare... Nearly everyone hated Vista, in the way that nearly everyone hates being stabbed...Vista is one of those things the future will laugh at us for, in the same way we laugh about old hospitals using leeches."
http://www.cracked.com/article_15773_p4.html

A small sampler if you want more in that vein:
http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20070901&mode=classic
http://www.davesdaily.com/pictures/541-microsoft-windows-vista-humor.htm
http://franksworld.com/blog/archive/2007/01/31/4412.aspx
http://www.joyoftech.com/joyoftech/joyimages/915.gif
http://www.windowsvistaweblog.com/2007/03/24/the-meaning-behind-vista/
http://blip.tv/file/340692/
http://dotnet.org.za/codingsanity/archive/2007/12/14/review-windows-xp.aspx

Goodbye Vista (or: The New Road Ahead)

91. "I won't upgrade to Vista!"

It's a common cry online: "I for one, will not be upgrading to Vista... Microsoft, how about some real innovation before you start wanting us to hand over our hard-earned money for something we don’t really want, but will eventually feel obliged to buy because everyone else is buying it."
http://tech.blorge.com/Structure:%20/2006/11/30/three-reasons-why-i-wont...

92. "I want to upgrade to XP!"

Yes, that's what people are calling the retreat from Vista back to the aged XP: an upgrade. They're weighing in by blog: "I have finally decided to take the plunge. Last night I upgraded my Vista desktop machine to Windows XP."
http://dotnet.org.za/codingsanity/archive/2007/12/14/review-windows-xp.aspx
They're weighing in by video: "Here's why I'm "upgrading" from Windows Vista to Windows XP..."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HELrxLdP85c
As you'd expect, computer manufacturers retreating from Vista prefer to speak of "downgrading" to XP. But they're offering it all the same, in response to customer pleas. One example among many:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/VSTA-DWNGRD.html

93. "Extend my XP support!"

Windows users have spoken loud and clear: We want XP support, because we're not moving to Vista! And Microsoft has been forced to listen: "Microsoft has extended the life of Windows XP because Vista has simply not shown any life in the market."
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2704,2209837,00.asp

94. "I want to buy a computer with XP, not Vista!"

Vista problems have PC makers scrambling to meet a new need: "While Microsoft is still pushing Vista hard, the company is quietly allowing PC makers to offer a "downgrade" option to buyers that get machines with the new operating system but want to switch to Windows XP."
http://www.news.com/The-XP-alternative-for-Vista-PCs/2100-1016_3-6209481...
"“We heard you loud and clear on bringing the Windows XP option back to our Dell consumer PC offerings,” Dell said on its Ideas in Action page, a companion to its IdeaStorm site."
http://vista.blorge.com/2007/04/21/dell-blinks-on-windows-vista-offering/
It's not just computer manufacturers, but resellers too: "VARs and system builders said the Vista issues are so significant that they are simply ripping Vista off most systems. "We are ripping it off systems 99 percent of the time," said Jay Tipton, vice president of Technology Specialists, a Fort Wayne, Ind., Microsoft Gold partner... Glen Coffield, president of Smart Guys Computers, an Orlando, Fla.-based retail chain with six stores in central Florida, said his No. 1 service job right now is wiping Vista off systems and replacing it with Windows XP."
http://www.crn.com/white-box/200900857

95. "Would I install Vista again? No!"

Says the BBC: "Everywhere I look, there are blogs and forums full of people who have problems with software drivers and suffer the poor customer support of the hundreds of hardware and software vendors that make up the Windows ecosystem. So would I do it again? The answer is no."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6407419.stm

96. "How do I uninstall Vista?"

The web's packed with tutorials and advice for those wanting to cleanse their computers of Vista. A small sampling:
http://www.removevista.com/
http://www.vista4beginners.com/How-to-Uninstall-Windows-Vista
http://www.community.probz.com/index.php?showtopic=553
http://www.pctechbytes.com/computer/article-87.html
http://www.chuckegg.com/how-to-remove-microsoft-vista-and-replace-it-wit...
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&...

97. "Goodbye, Vista!"

"...Vista was too painful for words. I said goodbye after 2 days. It took 4 years for XP to get to adequate. Will it take Vista that long or will Microsoft pull a Windows ME and replace Vista with another OS before Vista gets fixed?"
http://chris.pirillo.com/2007/08/30/mac-os-x-leopard-vs-microsoft-window...
"I’ve been a Microsoft loyalist for a long time… but I’m starting to feel like I’m being a bit short-changed with Vista."
http://chris.pirillo.com/2006/09/08/leopard-vs-windows-vista/ (see comments)
"I just filed my divorce papers for Microsoft's Vista. In my case, my relationship with Vista never went through the good life period. I gave up half of my assets to "live" with Vista (memory, CPU, performance, costs). But when I split up with Vista, I got it all back!"
http://blogs.ittoolbox.com/eai/madgreek/archives/dumping-vista-a-divorce...

98. "Goodbye, Windows!"

Not just "Goodbye Vista", but "Goodbye, Windows".
"I recently made the BIG mistake of buying my wife an HP laptop with Vista installed... it runs Vista like a Pig. So one 2GB upgrade later and it still runs vista like a Pig, my wife is about ready to throw the machine out of the window. So I started consider alternatives…. Mac OSX is the future for me."
http://brianballard.wordpress.com/2007/11/30/goodbye-vista-hello-mac/
"Ninety percent of some 961 IT professionals surveyed said they have concerns about migrating to Microsoft's Vista... 44% of respondents have considered non-Windows operating systems, such as Linux and Macintosh, to avoid the Microsoft migration."
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/111607-vista-worries.html
"Contributing to Vista's woes is the fact that new desktop alternatives to the Windows operating system have emerged in recent years -- including Apple's beefed up Leopard OS and open source offerings from Ubuntu and other Linux distributors."
http://www.itnews.com.au/News/67663,majority-of-new-pcs-ship-without-win...

99. "Hello, OS X!"

"Leopard again raises the question of whether to switch from Windows to a Mac. I've found Vista to be a major disappointment that tends to look worse the more I use it... OS X is easier to manage and maintain and I vastly prefer OS X to Windows for Web-browsing, mail, and especially for any task that involves graphics, music, or video... Leopard is the only OS on the planet that works effortlessly and intuitively in today's world of networked computers and peripherals."
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2704,2209107,00.asp
"Even with the performance and stability improvements promised with Vista's first service pack, the tide was turning in Apple's favor even before the launch of Leopard. That's because of Mac OS X' ease of use, lack of crapware, and stronger security. Now that Leopard is here, we predict that many more consumers will be making the jump to Apple."
http://www.laptopmag.com/Features/Leopard-vs-Vista.htm?page=9

100. "Hello, open source!"

Representative news from the Vista era: "The Japanese government wants to go open source... The government has said explicitly it wants to decrease its reliance on Microsoft as a server operating system platform."
http://www.linuxworld.com/newsletters/linux/2007/0507linux2.html
Elsewhere on the globe: "Local chief information officers at a Sydney conference this week were more interested in talking about open source and standards-based software than Microsoft's new operating system... "[Windows Vista] makes absolutely no difference to us whatsoever.""
http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/software/soa/Aussie-CIOs-get-clearer-vista-...
Meanwhile, developers are leaving Windows: "We attribute [the decline] largely to the increase in developers beginning to target Linux and different Linux [distributions]."
http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/07/02/mswindows-share_1.html
Even if Vista were a decent product and not a sinking raft of troubles, it'd be hard-pressed to meet open-source's value proposition. Opines The Economist: "When firms are used to buying $1,000 office PCs running Vista Business Edition and loading each with a $200 copy of Microsoft Office, the attractions of a sub-$500 computer using a free operating system like Linux and a free productivity suite like OpenOffice suddenly become very compelling... And that’s not counting the $20,000 or more needed for Microsoft’s Exchange and SharePoint server software. Again, Linux provides such server software for free..."
http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10410912

The Wrap

While I'm here, let me add a freebie item #101:

101. "Microsoft's list of 100 Vista benefits is really padded!"

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/100reasons.mspx?w...
Take a good, long look at Microsoft's list, and you'll see the same Vista features awkwardly stretched into multiple benefits, again and again and again. (Random thought: Is bologna technically meat any more when it's over 80% extenders and fillers?)

Whew!

What a trip! The list represents only a smattering of the online world's railings against Vista. I've concentrated on comments from recognized media sources, with a sampling of out-takes from lesser-known bloggers and blog comment posters, while eschewing profanity-laden rants and "Vista suxxors!" blatherings. I've also avoided criticisms based on pre-release versions of Vista, except for a few particularly interesting items as noted.

There's no need to pad this article with extraneous content; in fact, I had to consolidate several items to bring the number down to 100. Believe me, when it comes to collecting anti-Vista venom, there's no shortage of first-rate material to work with.

But let's end on a positive note. The Vista experience shows clearly that the days of "you'll take what we give you and you'll like it" are closing. Give people a bad product now and they'll speak up, with the Internet magnifying their voices a hundred-fold.

And then a crowd will step up to the plate to deliver what the people actually want. In this case, the world demands great computers, and the world is getting them – whether self-assured big names think they're coming along for the ride or not. More and more, people are taking the power of choice into their own hands, and that's as positive a story as I can think of.

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