I will blog, despite Vista's best efforts

I was going to blog this evening but Vista, as I shall relate below, had other ideas. Still, I found it an illuminating example that captures much of what is wrong with Microsoft as an operating system vendor.

I had several thoughts that I imagined might be interesting to share: about how, despite all the advances that have generated all the product upgrades from the 'Wintel' duopoly, I have this week discovered that an eight-year old Toshiba laptop with a slow PIII processor and humble Windows XP boots approximately five times faster than my almost brand new Asus Core 2 Duo with Vista Ultimate. Why? Well, despite the Asus having a nice fast SATA hard drive, the Tosh is booting from a Samsung SSD.

Who'd have thought that a simple hard drive could make such a difference.

I thought about blogging about how valuable Windows XP discs are set to become as there is an increasingly widespread opinion that XP is the only Microsoft operating system worth owning because, quite apart from application compatibility issues, it is the only decent Microsoft operating system without the truly obnoxious product key checks and associated penalties that come with Vista. (Indeed, my own observations are that XP discs are regarded as gold dust, and I've never seen people so anxiousy to hang on to copies of an old Microsoft operating system).

I also thought I might blog a little more in-depth about Google Docs, and particularly the formiddable brew that is fermenting in the Google spreadsheet department as that company continues to quietly expand the functions and, as I blogged very briefly about earlier, adds to the gadgets that can be built using spreadsheets.

But Vista had other ideas, and has left me with a salutory tale to tell.

As I fired up Vista on my Asus to a) time accurately how long it takes to boot, and b) take another look at Google Docs and those eye-candied gadgets, Vista informed me that the product key I entered is not valid, indeed the whole operating system is not valid, and that unless I enter a correct product key it will only run with reduced functionality. That essentially means that all I get is a browser, through which of course I can buy a valid product key.

Like hell I will. The copy of Vista that I'm running came with the laptop, so I followed the instructions on screen with the intention of speaking to someone and explaining the situation, hoping to catch a sympathetic ear. Failing that, well, I suppose I could also pull rank and plead with an understanding Microsoft PR. Unfortunately, this being Thursday evening before Easter Friday, everybody is stuck in a traffic jam somewhere as they head off for the weekend. Phone lines are open 8 to 6 on weekdays (and, I imagine, not public holidays).

I'm sure others have found themselves in a similar position. Like them, I suspect, my main problem is not so much being asked to pay to continue to use something that as far as I am concerned I already own. No, my real problem right now is that because of some admin error far off in the ether, my laptop has been locked down.

And yet here I am, happily blogging away, on my Asus running Vista with reduced functionality. I could easily reboot into Ubuntu, and in fact was abot to so so, but something occurred to me.

It occurred to me that even when Vista brings down the shutters and bars me from virtually all my applications but one (Firefox), I can still do some pretty cool stuff. I can type this blog entry in a fully-featured word processor with spell checking and so on. I could if I wish create a pretty slick presentation. Or I could go and create a fairly complicated spreadsheet of the type that generated the widget in my previous post. In fact I could go and create more of those widgets, publish the data for others to edit and collaborate on. Yup, I'm in Google Docs. I appreciate this is pretty obvious, basic stuff, but it illustrates an important point.

The point is that Microsoft's business model relies on making life difficult for me, as a user, and ensuring it extracts every penny that it *thinks* it is due from me. Google on the other hand is firmly in the opposite camp when it comes to my perception as a user: they really are very good at making things exceptionally easy. Granted, Adwords have been known to cause headaches for advertisers, Google news has caused news operations some sleepless nights, and Google Search has turned out to be heroin for many publishers, but thinking purely as a user, I'm bowled over by how easy it is to collaborate on, create and publish some pretty sophisticated content -- despite Microsoft's best efforts.

Microsoft may buy Yahoo. It may bring out another OS upgrade. It may even produce an online version of Office - oh wait, it has, let's go and try that.

"BROWSER OR OPERATING SYSTEM NOT COMPATIBLE

Your Browser or Operating System is not compatible with the Test Drive System. The Test Drive System supports the following:

* Windows 98, 2000 and XP
* Internet Explorer 5.5 and later"

Oops. Well that didn't work very well did it? As I was saying, Microsoft can try all these things, but this is not about acquisitions or about poducts, or even about licences. It's about a company's fundamental philosophy and attitude to its customers. Until Microsoft truly gets that, I'll be sticking Ubuntu - or XP as a backup if I really need to run Windows. Hmm, now where's that old Tosh...