After bowing to pressure from consumer demand and the EU, Microsoft has agreed to extend the lifecycle of Windows XP.
Is this really any surprise? Windows XP is more stable, more compatible, less resource-hungry, more secure, and generally a better OS (although of course it doesn’t have a patch on Linux or OS X).
Computer users are finally seeing the light in the fact that Vista is a completely botched operating system compared to the Longhorn vision that appeared… well… it seems like aeons ago now. And all we have now is a slow, clunky, and generally dreadful OS.
Is this all Microsoft could come up with? It’s no wonder people are staying with XP.
Another point that irks me about Vista is that, instead of getting on with it, Microsoft seemed to try to juggle that with trying to introduce tit-for-tat competition for every product Apple and Google pumped out, desperate to remain the market leader.
The Zune. Windows Live Search. Windows Desktop Search. Windows Live Maps. Windows Onecare. Internet Explorer 7.
Even Vista’s start button looks suspiciously like it was pinched from Aqua, OS X’s interface.
It’s even released a few (practically useless) open-source tools. Why are they useless, you may ask? Not just because of rubbish, clunky functionality, but because of the fact that they need Microsoft’s proprietary code to run!
The only decent software Microsoft has turned out lately is Office 2007, and that works magnificently on XP. So there. All the more reason to dump Vista into its own recycle bin.
(Incidentally, I hear that Vista DVDs make a great light show when microwaved.)
