Microsoft Posts (Then Pulls) Windows Vista Product Guide

"I could go on and on about the features in Vista. So lotamystuff, mwrisner, and bonch, what feature(s), what would you like to see in Vista for it to become a "compelling" reason to upgrade?"

I would like it to be as immune to sypware, malware and viruses as my Mac, and I'd like the same developer support for multimedia applications as are available on the Mac. If those two conditions could be met, I'd move to Vista in a heartbeat.

With the exception of Number One in your list, most of the things listed in the "features" you touted can be boiled down to bug fixes and speed enhancements--something I would expect to take less than 6 years to develop, and could, quite frankly, be rolled into Service Packs. Security may indeed be better, but that's really an unknown until it's in the wild. I truly, honestly hope it's better, but history would tend to indicate otherwise. As I've pointed out, every version of Windows was supposed to be more secure than the one before it, and it's still a nightmare.

That's not an insult, BTW. It's a fact.

"Youu can keep talking about how susceptible Windows is to viruses and spyware and malware. Trust me, if OS X had a 90% market share, you guys too would have experienced the same issues."

I don't care. It doesn't, so it isn't.

Get it?

I'm not "insulting" anyone who runs Windows. If you think that, by pointing out that it's a swiss-cheese-security nightmare that I'm doing anything other than speaking the truth, then you should look up a psychological term called "projection".

As I've noted before, I'm a Windows user myself, although I greatly prefer OS X for many reasons, not the least of which is security. If it's "security through obscurity", then so be it. Just give me enough market share to ensure continued developer interest, and I'm happy. I don't want to convert anyone; it's a PC, not a religion. If you want your compting experience to include a constant paranoia over security, then more power to you. Seriously.

People like Paul have been very good at pointing out the security nightmare posed by Windows and Explorer. It's pointing out those problems that make things better.

I don't give a rat's a** if Windows is attacked because it's popular, because it's inherently insecure, or both. I just want it to get better. Simple as that. Every time a new version of Windows comes out, it's touted as being much more secure than the last version. And yet, Viruses, Spyware and Malware (Oh my!) thrive like never before. Something is wrong here, folks. Let's FIX IT.

"You can keep talking about how susceptible Windows is to viruses and spyware and malware."

Thank you for your persmission. I will.

Arguing whether there is a point to upgrade only proves one thing...that Windows XP is not so bad.
I don't think there is anything earth shattering about it's features, but when you have a thousand little enhancments, from the users perspective, that makes it compelling.

"...and there are reports that 60% of the code may have to be rewritten!"

That report turned out to be false; MS Windows programmers denounced it in their blogs. There is NO WAY 24 million lines of code would be rewritten in less than a year (Windows is estimated to have 40 million lines of code).

I agree that Microsoft needs better advertisements (the dorky dinosaur ads definitely do not help MS's PR!)

"Are you kidding??!! All Microsoft does these days is advertising and marketing."

No. I'm not. I'm talking about quality and not quantity. They may spend millions on advertising, but their ads are not great. The new XP ads are pretty good, though -"Start something."