Rename Vista to El Diablo!!!!

So I took the plunge and installed Vista on my work computer. We will all eventually use it because Microsoft will stop selling XP. I've been using it all week and so far it's a HUGE pain in the rear-end.

The short list of problems is that I get the BSOD ever 12 hours or so, network connection doesn't happen at every reboot, Konica's Vista drivers don't work so I can't print to the main company printer, some reboots hang for more than 30 minutes, USB Bluetooth dongle drivers completely jacked up the system and I had to fix it in Safe Mode, Outlook is really slow most of the time now, our in-house chat client shows everyone as offline. etc.

The UI is really different from what I am used to but I am "The IT Guy" so I can adapt. However, this will be a HUGE problem for most of the other people who work with me. They are all geologists and scientist who are, for the most part, COMPLETELY lacking basic computer skills. I have to routinely go help people with their volume settings and copy files from laptop to desktop because they don't know how to use a USB drive or computer in general. So for a complete change in functionality in Explorer (for example) to be put in their faces just may cause a complete break down of productivity and morale. As an example of how change is taken here is that no one here wants Office 2007 because the whole "ribbon" format is too daunting. I seem to be the only one here who actually likes the ribbon in Office 2007.

As an IT guy in charge of keeping things running smoothly for over 20 computers and 6 servers it's more than irritating that Microsoft is forcing us all to change to a new OS just because they can. I can understand that they are a company just like other companies and thus are in need of continual income however there has to be a better way. I keep looking at the Apple model and think it's better simply because they keep improving the same OS they've been running for years. Mac users don't need to relearn an entire OS with each new upgrade of the OS. If Microsoft would simply update/upgrade the existing XP OS there would be a larger base of happy Windows users and possibly higher sales of new versions/upgrades. Vista was just released in January of 2007 and there are already screenshots of the next windows version floating all over the internet.

My suggestion to Microsoft is that you simply work out all the bugs in the current version that's being forced on us and continue to make it better through future upgrades instead of rebuilding and entire OS every 3 years. I would also suggest you listen to your target audience. A quick Google search will show you that a majority of the Vista users are not happy with it at all. I'm not and I know others aren't either.

To all the users like me that are forced to use Vista (either now or in the future) you have my sympathy and understanding. If you don't have Vista and are using XP I would suggest that you hold out as long as you can. XP works really well for most users because it's been available for years and there has been major attention given to it so most of the bugs are worked out.