5 Comments on You know your company is on the wrong track when…

Evel on Sun, 31st Dec 2006 2:16 pm


Actually, if MS was producing the hardware as well as the software (like Mac does) no one would buy a Mac.

People buy Mac’s for three reasons: It doesn’t crash, it doesn’t get viruses and its great with the fun stuff (multi-media).

Apple builds the hardware that its OS is on, there is never compatibility issues (the cause of most crashes) because they know what it is going into. With a PC you could have 100 different companies under the hood and each piece of hardware needs a driver to work with the OS.

Mac’s don’t get viruses because, well, no one writes viruses to attack a mac. Viruses go for volume, at this point, it would be just a waste of their time.

And the third? Well, once you see Vista, the third reason will go out the window. And with advanced features of Vista, the other two will be moot as well.

paul on Sun, 31st Dec 2006 3:49 pm


I agree that many Windows crashes are caused by hardware problems, but having Microsoft build their own boxes isn’t the solution – I built my Linux box from all sorts of components and it doesn’t crash. The solution is for MS to fix Windows so that a hardware (or software) problem doesn’t bring the whole lot down – isolate the code (the device drivers) and, if need be, block the offending hardware until the user fixes it.

The fact that I can only buy an Apple from Apple themselves is the main reason I don’t have one – it’s too expensive because there’s no competition.

I agree that there are more kids/vandals trying to attack Windows PCs but again a lot of the problem is down to Windows – it’s built on poor (but improving) security foundations, which then introduces the need for anti-virus software and firewalls, but they’re running on top of Windows and so some holes will remain. Instead of trying to wallpaper over the cracks they should start again from scratch – everyone’s knowledge of security is so much better now that it was when they started Windows, it has to be a better product.

I’ve not seen Vista (we have a pre-release copy in the office but I’ve not had time to play with it) so I’ll wait until it’s been in the hands of real users for a while to see if there’s any substantial improvement rather than just more bells & whistles. I’m also not going to spend $$ to upgrade my PCs’ hardware just because they’ve made it even more bloaty; however, if MS want to give me a fancy Ferrari laptop with Vista on it, I’ll look at it right away

paul on Sun, 31st Dec 2006 3:57 pm


Thanks for your email re: my 43Things question re: blog traffic.
You’re right about consistency – I think one thing I need to work out is what this blog is for – right now it lacks focus, so it’s probably a bit hit-and-miss for readers.

Evel on Sun, 31st Dec 2006 4:45 pm


“isolate the code (the device drivers) and, if need be, block the offending hardware until the user fixes it.”

Just one of the new features of Vista.

Most PC’s will not need any major upgrades. And MS has made it easier to be sure with their Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor. You might be surprised.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/upgradeadvisor/default.mspx

paul on Sun, 31st Dec 2006 7:30 pm


Here’s hoping.

I’m running Win2k on my games PC so the Upgrade Advisor won’t run; we have XP on an old laptop that we’ll be replacing soon so it’ll probably get Vista then anyway … or maybe Linux

Tell me what you're thinking...
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!