The Windows Vista Experience, part sloooow

[cdybedahl]

About ten minutes ago, I started unpacking a 127MB zip file. By right-clicking and selecting "Exract all...". At the moment, Windows claims it's got another 15 hours to go before it's done unpacking. This seems a tad on the long side.

Comments

[angharad_gov.livejournal.com]

mayhaps you should get a non-native windows friendly extractor to see if it makes a big diff . i'm curious whether programs not packaged with vista (but still windows friendly) still work as well within the vista environment. have you played with other programs to see whether the OS makes everything (even good programs) run like garbage?

http://www.7-zip.org/

[cdybedahl.livejournal.com]

I'm currently working on the theory that I should use the tools my employers have chosen, so I haven't added anything to Vista (except a couple of non-work things).

The unpacking currently has an estimated time of completion of around 5pm tomorrow.

[angharad_gov.livejournal.com]

ah. i see. but, wow, that unpacking time is insane. :(

[cdybedahl.livejournal.com]

Yes, and since I actually want to get at the contents today I relented and installed 7-zip. Which used about 4.5 minutes to unpack the file.

[angharad_gov.livejournal.com]

so it's official : vista is crap.

[seaya.livejournal.com]

Yep, hopefully his employer will realize that.

Like I said, no one uses it in the states as far as I know. At least not for very long.

[cdybedahl.livejournal.com]

This machine will not run anything older. A coworker got a machine just like mine this Monday, and since one of the applications he needs to do his job doesn't run under Vista he's been trying to sidegrade to Windows XP. All week he's been trying. The theory right now is that it's just not possible; there are no XP-compatible drivers for the onboard disk controller.

The machine in question is from HP, which is as american as it gets, or thereabouts.

I've promised to try it out for a month or so before I ask for someting else.

[seaya.livejournal.com]

That's a sneaky thing for Microsoft to do. I have not heard of a computer like that here. My school system just did a big computer rollout, and ours have stickers on them that say they run Vista or XP...but we're running 2000.

Just because an American company makes the computer, that doesn't indicate what people in the states do. Did you know that Windows employees themselves have been playing games with their internal company rollout queue to avoid being the next person to get Vista? That's a serious indictment if I ever say so.

Also, it really is a bad operating system for serious sound editing because of its overzealous DRM.

I suppose they *could* fix it. But that would take a lot of rewriting.

[cdybedahl.livejournal.com]

I knew there's a lot of resistance to Vista, but I hadn't heard that it's common among Microsoft employees. That is, as you say, pretty bad.

And I find it difficult to believe that HP would design special machines for the non-US market. The general trend in the past 20 years or so has been exactly the opposite, to make the differences as small as possible to get the most out of economies of scale. I find it much easier to believe that Microsoft is using their considerable leverage to get computer manufacturers to shove Vista down their customers' throats. Time will tell, in either case.

And yes, the DRM stuff in Vista is truly atrocious. Although if we're lucky it may actually be the beginning of the end of Microsoft's market dominance.

[seaya.livejournal.com]

I find it much easier to believe that Microsoft is using their considerable leverage to get computer manufacturers to shove Vista down their customers' throats.

I think this is probably the answer.

Although if we're lucky it may actually be the beginning of the end of Microsoft's market dominance.

If only we should be so lucky!

[rodluvan.livejournal.com]

I hate Vista and we have at work no Vista because it it not compatible with all programs yet. I will soon buy a new hard drive but will install XP on it again.

[jthijsen.livejournal.com]

Might I draw your attention to today's userfriendly comic (http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20070901)?