Vista Was Doomed 6 Years Ago

There is a lot of talk these days about Vista being a miserable failure, and in some ways it is, but that’s not the whole story. The truth is, Vista is a pretty good operating system that includes some good upgrades from Windows XP; Vista’s failure has almost nothing to do with its features, but its compatibility and hardware support. And in that aspect, Vista was already doomed six years ago.

You see, six years ago saw the release of Windows XP. At the time, XP was hyped to be the best version of Windows yet. It would supposedly fix the security issues that were plaguing Windows 98 and 2000, and add a lot of new multimedia features. Microsoft also touted features like Remote Desktop, System Restore, and the new graphical interface. 

Once users got their hands on XP, they quickly realized that most of those features were problematic, unnecessary, or unfulfilled. Remote Desktop didn’t work well in many situations where it would be useful, and it’s such a security risk that it’s better turned off. System Restore was generally a good feature, but it sometimes failed when you needed it most. The multimedia features mostly revolved around Windows Media Player, which was quickly ignored in favor of better media players. Security has always been a continuing problem for Windows, and while XP offered some improvement in this area, the public perceived XP to be just as bad as any other Windows version when it came to security holes and virus and spyware vulnerabilities.

Even though XP’s launch was fairly successful, there were problems. Microsoft had made significant changes under the hood, and as a result, drivers were sometimes hard to find and compatibility issues with software were common. Eventually, things began to stabilize with the release of Service Pack 1, and here we have one of the biggest nails in the coffin for Vista.

Many users who had gone through this transition vowed never again to adopt a new version of Windows until the first Service Pack was released. They had witnessed the problems with XP in its first year. They had witnessed the stability that came with the first Service Pack.

Flash forward to the pre-release period for Vista. Microsoft once again promised an end to the security problems. They promised new multimedia features, and of course, a new graphical interface. For most users, it was starting to sound a lot like 2001 again, and more than a few were already deciding that adopting it early would lead to the same problems they had with XP. Many users were already planning to wait until Service Pack 1.

But then something strange happened. Not only were users adopting a “wait and see” attitude, but so were software developers, and even hardware manufacturers. It seemed that having witnessed the instability of XP, they were waiting for Microsoft to “iron out the bugs” before they bothered to write drivers or release software updates for their products to make them compatible with Vista.

This was a serious problem. Whether Vista lived up to its hype on features or not, users were not pleased about the inability to print, or to use their sound card, or any other number of devices that were incompatible upon release. And while a few incompatibilities might not be a large problem in general, users felt like it was a repeat of what had happened before with XP. Here was the proof that their worst fears had been realized! Everyone began to declare Vista a failure, or a disaster.

So while we sit here today, it’s easy to say that Microsoft really screwed up with Vista, but my opinion is that Vista has been completely doomed since the release of XP. Never again would Microsoft have the trust of its customers. Now when people consider upgrading to Vista, they assume they’re in for a troubling experience.

The really sad part of all this is that Vista is actually a good operating system. Microsoft has fixed many of the problems that should have been resolved years ago. They have added some snazzy features that make life a little easier for users, and while security will always be a problem on Windows, they’ve taken some big steps that should help many users be more secure and have fewer problems. The problem is that you would never know it, because everyone is complaining about the lack of drivers and compatibility problems, and rightfully so. 

Perhaps in a year or so, we’ll get to see more of the real Vista, when it is not plagued by its current compatibility issues. In the meantime, I shudder to think what will happen to the next version of Windows. After two times of being bitten by lackluster Windows upgrades, will there be any users left who are brave enough to be early adopters?