XP vs. Vista - revisited

After some months of writing Aufero (it's for Windows Vista only) I must say that I will not upgrade any desktop-machines at home to Vista. They will stay Windows XP. Luckily there is more to a machine than just on the desktop: Vista Media Center is great, the computer Aufero is running on will stay Vista. It will also stay hooked up to the television set in the living room.


Why not on the desktop?
Quite frankly, I have no real big beef with Vista except the teething problems of some software. There is just no reason for me to [up?]grade. Oh sure, it looks pretty and the architecture of the OS is steps in the right direction. But if I were to believe the ad-campaign of Vista: the biggest feature is ... wait for it ... a pseudo-3D task-switcher (?!)

I don't know, I guess that is just the thing... The whole Wow is a big pile of Meh. If I really want something, there is money for it. But Vista? I simply cannot afford it on the desktops.

There are a few annoyances in Vista Media Center as well, at least on my hardware. Whenever I change the volume it throws out some very disturbing noise through the speakers. The extra services that came in "more programs" at launch here in Netherlands are disappointing as hell, in fact it makes me hope that they had to pay very good money to be there. It really does not do Media Center justice. In my book they might as well have waited with releasing any of that crap to end-users. And another, probably hardware/configuration related issue: I seem to have lost an inch or two of my TV! There are a few things like that which I need to look into when I get time.

But Vista Media Center? To put it in the immortal words of online-gamers these days: GIEF.


On a different note
I am a switcher... I used Linux on my desktop for quite some time. At home, Linux just serves as a "Linux Home Server" at the moment and I must say I had a good chuckle when I bumped into Ian Dixon's blog the other day:

"My Windows Home Server is still going great, I haven't had a monitor plugged in to it for weeks and I haven't touched remote desktop either. The box just runs and I use the Windows Home Server Console to get at the features I need."

Maybe we really do need a Windows Home Server out there. Or just more awareness? Six months ago I had to put in a new power supply in My Linux Home Server, but since then it has been serving me with media, backup, source-code repository, mail, web-service, well, you name it. Without a monitor or a keyboard plugged in, no less! Six months uptime, that is. The reboot before that was probably two years ago.

I know that Ian probably meant well when writing that, but it says a lot about the state of things in the Microsoft world.

And alright, alright, my Linux Home Server is just a vanilla Debian box. But still!

Oh well. The Linux folks call me a Microsoftie. The Windows folks call me a Linux fanboi. It ain't easy.


The truth...
Earlier I said "I will not upgrade any desktop-machines at home to Vista". There will come software to Vista that is "Vista only" and I can probably live without that. But XP will inevitably be completely phased out and then I'll sit there as well. If it is the best desktop alternative.

But... I can tell you I won't switch to AppleTV in the livingroom.