One chance to make a first impression

So let's start my blog with a post about a product and a company I always (let's put it kindly) mocked at : Microsoft Windows Vista Beta 2.

I've been running Windows XP for almost 2 years and to be honest about it, I'm quite happy with this version of Windows. I left the Microsoft productstack around '95 when I had to reinstall my brand new Windows 95 operating system for the 9th time in a WEEK. So, like every good IT-guy, I have had a love-hate relationship with Microsoft for the last 10 years. Nowadays, when I grow older, have become less extreme in my prejudicides, don't have so much time as in the old days and Microsoft products became better, my relationship with the company formerly called MickeySoft became better.

But no one could have imagined that one day I would be starting my own blog about the latest version of Windows on the latest version of Windows. (Oh dear God, how I betrayed thou).
Downloading was a breeze, it only took me 35 minutes with 3 segmented downloads to download the 3.5 GB image. I however had to install it 2 times, because the first time, it simple refused to load the graphical shell, after the second install, it started perfectly, albeit a bit slow (strange are the ways of computer electrons).

First impression about the product : graphically very nice, but slow as hell. Feels like running a Windows NT on a i386. On the other hand, nihil nove sub sole. I also have my doubts about the stability of the products, but hey it's a beta for a reason. Also installed the Office 2007 beta 2 and Windows Live Messenger beta at the same time. Beta + Beta + Beta = Alpha ?

Reminds me about a story of a friend of mine, while he was working at a computer store. One of the customers came in, raging about something not working on his pc and some idiot completed reinstalled his pc and now it was even worse, so my friend tried to calm him down. After a while the man started to tell his story and it seems, he had bought a brand new pc at a local store a couple of months before, running at that time the latest version of Windows (I think it was Windows ME). A couple of days ago he had bought a Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback 2 Joystick, bundled with Monster Madness (also a Microsoft product). So he installed everything and every 5 minutes the pc compeletly stalled, with the only option to reboot it. The man had gone back to the local store and the shop keeper had told him to return the pc and he would have a look at it. After returning the pc (and of course charging a fee), it seemed that the entire pc had been reinstalled, thus leading in a loss of all data and worst of all, the problem still existed. So the man fed up with his old store, entered the store of my friend, told him the story at which point my friend answered : Oh, I know what the problem is, you're running a Microsoft game on a Microsoft Operating System with a Microsoft Joystick, no wonder it doesn't work. The man left the store and never came back.

We had a good laugh at the time, but this give a nice impression about the love-hate relationship between myself and MS. But now it's time to call it a night and i'm sure i'll enter some more Vista-related posts on this blog in the near future