All Things Patrick - Working Hard to be Lazy!

Ok, it's 2am my time so it's past the time for goofy April Fools' jokes. This was the post I mentioned I'd hold off on. Special thanks to jaeger for unknowingly giving this post a title.

That's right. I've decided I absolutely love Windows Vista (wikipedia entry). I like it even more than Ubuntu (wikipedia entry).

I love Vista because it seems that Microsoft is using it to do what tons of Mac and FOSS developers and users have been failing to do for years. Sure, Mac and FOSS have been converting people, but it has seemed like they've been converting 1 user at a time in a long uphill struggle. Vista, on the other hand, has made computer users, en masse, re-evaluate what they're using...

Even after all this time after it's been released (1.5 years after release) there are still problems driving people away from it.

A lot of people are upgrading back to Windows XP (the previous version).

Others have finally reached a point that they thought they'd never reach before - contemplating going with something other than windows *gasp*.

Somebody in IRC was talking about what they had been doing at the computer show down in the Tulsa area. Apparently they had a stall set up and were having people use Ubuntu. He said the coolest thing was that he had Windows users installing Ubuntu and commenting on how easy it was to install.

Many developers I know have made the move to Mac with 1 of the PowerBooks. So far, many are loving it.

Vista has shown me a trickle down effect that's truly amazing. So many computer geeks are dumping Windows and discussing various Unix platforms that people considering themselves to be computer illiterate are taking notice.

I'm not saying Microsoft or Windows are dead. I'm just saying that if Microsoft doesn't change very quickly that they'll literally become the Wal-Mart brand. Somebody else mentioned that Microsoft has thought about open-sourcing Windows, but apparently Steve Ballmer wants to charge huge amounts of money to give people the privilege of helping Microsoft fix it's own code. Microsoft may have been better off getting rid of chair throwing Steve Ballmer years ago, but now I'm not sure they could... I mean he's the only way they get free advertising... That and all the people complaining about problems they have with Vista.