Loving every single word coming out of you two. Keep them coming :D

I agree with you on the subject of Balmer. I think it is a disaster. However, the good news at least we have the likes of ray ozzie and steven sinosky…these are key people in the company at least from a technical directional point of view.

Dunno? M$ DOS? Please keep your replies coming in this site. You are good for laughs (and irrelevant) just like Microsoft.

Mad Hatter – I disagree with you on the driver issue with respect to windows vs. Linux. You state “Microsoft’s products have massive driver problems.” I am sure that you are aware that MS undertook to redesign the device driver model for the betterment of the product. This obviously caused a major hiccup. There are times when a company has to take such decisions for “future proofing” the product and let go backwards compatability. However, for you to make a blanket statement that “it is massive” is wrong and I would just dismiss it. If there are specific cases, I am sure they can be addressed. As far as Linux is concerned it would be unfair for to me a make a comment. The last time I worked on Linux was with SUSE v 9 not that we did not have problems – oh yes we did but then which OS does not have problems.

My comment about driver issues was not about Vista, it was about XP/WIN2K. I cannot recall a single time that I’ve installed either without having to chase after drivers, even when I had the OEM install CD/DVDs. This includes computers built by Gateway, Acer, IBM (pre-Lenovo), HP, Compaq (Pre-HP), and E-Machines. I’ve also had the problem with White Boxes, but there you kind of expect it. I installed Ubuntu 9.04 Alpha 2 on my Acer laptop, and everything including the webcam and wireless card were recognized. I like this level of hardware support, it’s nice, and saved me a lot of time chasing drivers.

With respect to Windows Driver for VISTA we need to be clear that it is NOT Microsoft who supplies the driver – on the contrary it is the manufacturer of the peripheral who has that responsibility.

With Linux it’s the kernel programmers who do most of the drivers. I think that this is an advantage, as the driver programmers have a good understanding of the kernel they are writing the driver for. This should result in an improved driver, and so far I’m delighted with the results.

Besides, Microsoft could have written migration tools, to modify either source or binary driver files to the Vista model. I gather that they didn’t do this, and I’m surprised that they didn’t, it’s such an obvious idea. They could have done this for the 9x to NT switch over as well.

When Windows 95 was released, drivers were a real headache. Plug and Play technology was supposed to automate installation of device drivers, but it didn’t always work and was derided by some as “plug and pray.” Locating drivers was tough. There were no manufacturer websites to check, so you needed a driver disk from the manufacturer.

Ah, yes, I remember those days well. Too well.

Fortunately, finding drivers isn’t the chore it once was. When Microsoft released Windows XP in 2001, it also introduced Windows Update, a website for finding and installing important software and driver updates. With Windows Vista, Microsoft has simplified the process of finding and installing drivers even more.

Actually I’ve found a lot of cases of drivers not being in Windows Update. And of course the other issue is that to use Windows Update you have to have an Internet connection….

By the time Windows 7 will go gold; all the teething problems of VISTA Drivers issues will be history.

That may be true, but what about Trojans, Virii, etc?

Let’s face it – Microsoft has pissed me off so badly, that the only reason I would ever run a Microsoft operating system again, is if it was the only operating system available. Since there is a wide range of choices that aren’t Microsoft, I’ll use them. The free software choices (Mandriva 2009 and Ubuntu 9.04) have excellent hardware support, extremely stable kernel, fantastic eye candy, reduced hardware requirements, a wide selection of great application software, and incredible security. What’s not to like?

And if I buy a Mac, I get OSX, which has all the advantages of the Free Software choices, but is somewhat limited as to the hardware it will run on. Hey, I’m willing to live with that, as the hardware that Apple supplies is better than what I’d get from Acer/HP/Lenovo etc. In fact I’m planing on buying a new Unibody MacBook shortly.

Appleseed:

Even if in some imaginable world that would be the case we are talking here about a commercial product like Microsoft’s solutions competing with FREE products made by some “rebel scums” out there. There is NO excuse about Microsoft NOT being able to AT LEAST top the Open Source solutions.

Actually there is an excuse for Microsoft not being able to top the Open Source solutions. It’s Steve Ballmer. He doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing, and is going to drag the company down with him. He should be fired. At least that’s my opinion.

I agree that any piece of software that is written badly is going to cause a problem with the stability of the OS. A number of times, I have seen the spinning ball of death on my macbook and I wonder at times whether it is the QA team at Cupertino or some third party vendor?

I do not see the point you are trying to make with respect to the number of drivers being available for a specific OS. Does it matter? I do not think so. As to your point about FREE products – nothing is FREE in this world. Whoever makes you believe that Linux is free needs his or her head examined. If indeed Linux was free each and every enterprise should have switched by now from SOLARIS/Windows etc to Linux, but that is not the case. The cost of supporting Linux is enormous – numerous papers and calculations are out on the net that proves this point.

I am very pleased that Microsoft is shoving back IE8 to me, netbook, terminals, zunes, xbox etc as much as Apple has been trying to sell me a 500$ iphone, ipod etc and Sony shoving down my throat a PS3. I do not regret it and I do not think that Microsoft stopped being relevant 4 to 5 years ago. On the contrary Microsoft is more relevant today than it has ever been in its history.

As for people actually wanting Apple OS (really UNIX underpinning) to be relevant is farfetched!. This is wishful thinking and probably very much an American dream just like the way Telco’s were battling CDMA – unfortunately for them the European GSM took control of the world.

There may be more Hackintosh more than Win 7 BETAS – I am not sure. But the reality is that at the end of the day there are more windows users in the world at any point in time compared to Apple OS. So If I am developing a commercial product which OS do you think I will choose first to develop for ?

You can only hope about this and while Windows 7 may be better than Vista in supporting hardware you cannot possibly be assured about it. What Microsoft is spreading around is that IF your hardware is compatible with Vista then it will be with Windows 7. And supposedly we all know by now the drivers fiasco of Vista.

As for that new “technology” for driver support built in Vista and 7, pretty much ANY bad driver can STILL crash those OSes. I guess its too much for Microsoft people to separate the difference of being optimistic and being naive.

One cannot possibly believe for a second that ANY version of Windows has more drivers support than the Linux distros out there. Even if in some imaginable world that would be the case we are talking here about a commercial product like Microsoft’s solutions competing with FREE products made by some “rebel scums” out there. There is NO excuse about Microsoft NOT being able to AT LEAST top the Open Source solutions.

But here we are… Microsoft is trying to shove IE back to our computers. Their OSes back to our NetBooks and terminals. Their Zunes, XBOXes, etc. back into our entertainment. Excuse me for revealing the truth to you and others out there but Microsoft stopped being relevant 4-5 years ago. Its funny actually that more Windows people than ever want Apple’s OS into their lives. If you see Mac people using Windows more than their Mac OS on their Macs, you can surely must be able NOT to miss the abundance of people running Hackintosh solutions. I can safely say that there are more users running Hackintosh than Windows 7 betas as of now.

With the release of Windows Vista, Microsoft introduced an improved architecture for device drivers. In Windows Vista, the Windows Driver Model has evolved to the Windows Driver Foundation. Composed out of a kernel mode driver framework and a user mode driver framework, it intends to address stability issues as well as simplicity and flexibility. In earlier Windows driver models, the complete device driver would run in kernel mode, which would bring your system down if something went wrong. Many blue screen errors and PC hang ups would be the result. Device drivers for most computer hardware are actually created by the hardware manufacturer. Since the operating system should not be so vulnerable to third party programming errors, isolating the drivers in user mode makes a lot of sense.

With respect to Windows Driver for VISTA we need to be clear that it is NOT Microsoft who supplies the driver – on the contrary it is the manufacturer of the peripheral who has that responsibility.

When Windows 95 was released, drivers were a real headache. Plug and Play technology was supposed to automate installation of device drivers, but it didn’t always work and was derided by some as “plug and pray.” Locating drivers was tough. There were no manufacturer websites to check, so you needed a driver disk from the manufacturer.

Fortunately, finding drivers isn’t the chore it once was. When Microsoft released Windows XP in 2001, it also introduced Windows Update, a website for finding and installing important software and driver updates. With Windows Vista, Microsoft has simplified the process of finding and installing drivers even more.

Windows Update is now a fully integrated part of Windows, and Microsoft has worked with hardware manufacturers to make sure plenty of new drivers are available. More than 31,000 updated drivers were ready when Windows Vista was completed—far more than the 12,000 that were available at the completion of Windows XP—and more are becoming available every day through Windows Update.

By the time Windows 7 will go gold; all the teething problems of VISTA Drivers issues will be history.