Windows 8.1 finally takes off -- shows staggering market share growth

Vista was a technology trial for 7, 8/8.1 is a technology trial for 10. Microsoft uses the masses to beta test, but it doesn't mean their test platforms (95/ME/Vista/8.1) are bad operating systems.

 

"Microsoft uses the masses to beta test"

Vista wasn't bad, as in major catastrophe bad, just inherently flawed. I don't know about anyone else, but I resent paying to be a test pilot for Microsoft's Flying Circus! Lol

 

Vista and "8" came to be perceived negatively for very different reasons. For Vista the initial bugs were only part of the problem. There was also the lack of driver support for older hardware and insufficient ram in the first generation of Vista machines. The hardware manufacturers have to share the blame with Microsoft for the failure of Vista in the public perception. On the other hand Windows 8 didn't have any of these problems. Its failure is purely the result of the UI being too great a departure from XP/Vista/7. Personally I think Windows 8 is the greater "botched experiment" and Microsoft has in effect admitted it by restoring functionality to the desktop in Windows 10.

 

Please document the "experimental kernel".

 

I'm only going on what my brother told me. He has degrees in computing and works as a software engineer. I'm an arts graduate, much geek speak is just white noise to me. From what I could gather, the kernel coding or something that was the problem was abandoned for 7. I'm sure some diligent use of a search engine should explain this better. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful. It does sound about right though.

 

I know there were hardware problems. I agree with you about why Win 8 failed, from what I can gather it was quite stable. I think Vista looked beautiful. I liked a lot about it. It was just flawed and a huge disappointment. I think 7 is superb, but Vista has soured me towards Microsoft inter alia.

My newest laptop wasn't preinstalled with Windows. Neither will my next be.

 

Thankfully I got free upgrades to 7 from the Vista boxes I had.

 

Now you make me laugh. Your comments, views, standpoints etc. here were presented in a manner like you're an IT specialist having rich experience with coding, reverse engineering etc. In fact you're a spokesman only.

 

No, you only assumed that I was an IT specialist. That was a subjective ontological conclusion on your part. Which tells me quite a bit really. I stand by everything I've stated. Vista was inherently flawed and released prematurely for financial considerations. That it was and still is so problematic for most is attested to by its usage percentage.

My subjective nonspecialist opinion is that Vista looked beautiful but didn't work properly. I'm guessing my brother is right about this. Even if I don't fully understand his explanation. He makes a good living at what he does.

Plus, making subjunctive ad hominem remarks at my expense is puerile and displays that you never had a cogent argument to begin with.

 

I wish I had!

 

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2853018/surging-windows-81-overtakes-windows-xp-usage.html
Surging Windows 8.1 overtakes Windows XP usage

 

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2854...prompt-upgrades-of-600-million-aging-pcs.html
Windows 10 could prompt upgrades of 600 million aging PCs

 

I understand. It would be interesting to learn more if your brother can add to the conversation. By the way, I completely agree that none of us should find ourselves unwilling beta testers of Windows. As you suggested avoiding early adoption is perhaps the best way to protect ourselves.

 

What are 'degrees' in computing? IT is measured by certifications, less so by education/degrees because most of those courses are irrelevant. We just hired someone with a BA in CE w/Networking, and they have almost no experience we would consider useful, but they clearly don't have the capability from those 'degrees' to get something like a CCNA or NSE. Also IT is being mislabeled. My brother is in 'IT' for a major company, but all he does is run around installing/repairing Office on systems. My neighbor is a big 'IT Guy' (his words), I found out all he does is data entry. The really worrisome guys are the ones with enough knowledge to be dangerous. Like the guy on this forum that thought DNS Resolver 1 and Resolver 2 were both used at the same time, so he could layer different DNS databases for some type of layered scanning. No offense but that kind of stuff can cause more harm than otherwise.

Let's hear about this experimental kernal in Vista. Someone mentioned that around here the moment Kernal comes up, conversations usually end. A leading Windows expert actually said Vista had one of the more stable, and well refined Kernals.. "He went on to say that, "at its core, the kernel, and the components that make up the very core of Vista, is actually pretty streamlined."

 

I'll ask him next time I see him what his qualifications are. He lives in France at the moment. I don't. I know he has graduate and postgraduate qualifications in computing. I don't know what they actually are. I know he's working on installing a computer security system at an airport at the moment. Perhaps you should speak to him.

I'd love to hear more about Vista's experimental kernel. It sounds like a bad experiment that went wrong to me. lol

 

He did try to explain it to me, but alas, I couldn't make sense of it. He's very busy at the moment, but I may try and ask him to email me more info. Right from the beginning he wouldn't touch Vista with a barge pole, and even travelled from France to the UK overland to purchase a laptop with XP at one time, as he couldn't find one in southern France. He's been telling me the same story since Vista was released and even predicted that the next MS OS (Win 7) would be fine. He's worked for big US and European companies and I assume he knows what he's talking about. It does sound right though. Vista was a good idea, but he told me they'd borked it and were releasing it prematurely to get some of their investment back and beta test it. This wasn't common knowledge at the time.

 

Well I just reacted to your posts in this thread where you're trying to persuade everyone that Vista is terrible os. Moreover you do that in quite aggressive manner. Let people to have their own opinions and don't try to manipulate us. I'm too old to be manipulated by anyone. End of story.

 

How you react to my posts is nothing to do with me. How you can deduce or perceive them to be 'quite aggresive' is subjectively up to you. I haven't claimed to be an expert in anything and AFAIK haven't contravened any rules or terms of use on this forum.

I haven't tried to manipulate anyone. Vista's abysmal track record speaks for itself.

Apparently; it isn't quite the end of Vista's story, unfortunately.

 

From what I can dig up, it looks like most experts think Vista had a refined, well rounded Kernal.

I actually enjoyed Vista over 98SE, and was an early adopter of it w/free upgrade to Win7 later. But never had an issue with Vista personally, and found it rather attractive as well.

 

I'm sure my brother said that it was an experimental aspect of the kernel that was at fault, and which MS later abandoned for 7. It was one of the few technical terms I actually recognised.

Vista looked great. It had lots of good ideas. Sometimes I could go for several weeks with it before anything borked.

I ran a laptop that originally had Vista preinstalled with Ubuntu for a couple of months, during that time my USB mouse and memory sticks always worked on any port. At least one in five times they wouldn't on Vista, and this used to happen on a totally different laptop that also ran Vista. Essentially excluding any hardware fault. Running Ubuntu it never failed to connect to the WiFi on first booting. Vista, on both machines, would regularly exhibit this non-connecting behaviour at least once a month. Only rebooting, often several times, seemed to cure this connectivity problem. WiFi drop outs were fairly common, often when the computer was left unattended for a short while on both Vista machines. This didn't happen on either of my Ubuntu computers, nor my Win 7 desktop or Android tablet. Again, essentially excluding hardware problems. The systems tray regularly wouldn't load everything correctly on either Vista computer. This has happened only occasionally on my Win 7 computer, perhaps a handful of times over a period of four years, and is cured by a reboot. I could go on ...

 

Personal experience: Zero difference in performance between Vista SP2 and Windows 7. I used Vista since SP1 era. I was disappointed with Windows 7 because it did not bring the stability or performance changes I had expected. Windows 8 was a true upgrade, being a much more robust and stable OS that was also snappy.

 

I must have just been unlucky with Vista.

 

Me too. Vista seemed slow as molasses in doing almost everything compared to Win 7. I must have just been unlucky as well..

 

Must be a coincidence lol.