Vistagate

Well, it's now all over the Internet, here, here, and here. Long story short: recently revealed Microsoft internal emails show that Windows Vista was not only far from ready when it was released for sale to the public, Microsoft's own executives knew this, and Microsoft's partners (such as Intel, HP, and Dell) also did. Yet despite this, they all pushed Vista with a campaign about "The Wow! starts now." Filthy stinking liars, all of them. No wonder the Vista launch was met with widespread skepticism and sometimes outright disgust. Vista was called a chrome-plated turd, and worse. All those negative reviews? Utterly deserved. Computerworld's Gregg Keizer writes,

Last-minute changes... broke drivers, forcing key hardware vendors to "limp out with issues" when the operating system launched last year, according to a presentation... that was made public this week.

From the same publication, Mike Elgan opines:

Everybody's talking today about "Drivergate" — internal Microsoft e-mails that show senior Microsoft executives personally struggling to use hardware products sporting the "Windows Vista Capable" sticker. The e-mails also show that Microsoft lowered its standard for some hardware compatibility, apparently to help Intel impress Wall Street. This revelation is simply the latest in a long series that add up to one inescapable conclusion: Windows Vista sucks.

Gee, tell us something we don't already know.

PCMag's Lance Ulanoff wrote:

Overall, Microsoft's chief concern during this time appears to be everything but the consumer.

So, not only does Microsoft treat its customers as suspected criminals (with such nonsense as Windows Genuine Advantage and user-hostile product activation), they utterly disregard the interests of their customers in order to maximize their own revenue (e.g. through selling multiple versions). Whoop-dee-do.

Recently, to prop up lackluster retail Vista sales, Microsoft reduced the price. Brian Caulfield's take in Forbes Magazine? Microsoft's Cheaper Vista: Don't Bother.

Exactly.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. I wouldn't bother running Windows Vista even if it was free (as in beer). If I really wanted free, I'd run some flavour of Linux. As it is, MacOS X serves my current needs well, and I'm not even running the latest version.