Hurry up and Get Ready!

UPDATE: Microsoft has updated its Get Ready page, which is now legible ....



... in Firefox on Linux. This does nothing to change whether I will buy MS Windows Vista for my own consumption. In case you were wondering, I will not. I can't help but wonder whether it was this post that made them change it ;)

This article tells about Microsoft's campaign to help MS Windows Users Get Ready. Strangely, It seems Microsoft doesn't want Linux users to "Get Ready", because the "Get Ready" page does not render legibly in Firefox under Linux:



Bork for the course, I guess...

But what gets me is this (from the article):

"There's really no reason to wait until the launch of Windows Vista to start shopping for a PC that can deliver a great Windows Vista experience or to start thinking about upgrading your current PC to windows Vista," product manager Greg Amrofell said in a telephone interview.

What?! So I can buy a PC now with an OEM MS Windows License, then, in a year, buy another copy of MS Windows?! Um... How about, "No."?

I don't know.... We got into a little religious skirmish at work today... Yet another scuffle in the smouldering browser war. A colleague of mine, who favors Microsoft products in his IT decisions, decided to leap on this Firefox vulnerability as a chance to show me that Open Source software is not perfect... which I already knew. There were some barbs tossed back and forth among others, then I lobbed this little honey into the fray:

All --

[person] makes an important point. The fact that he placed it below the
sign-off, reducing the likelihood that it would be read, does not
diminish its validity:

We must all make a point of employing safe computing practices.

What is "safe" and what is not (and, for that matter, what is "practical"
and what is not) is debatable, and, in many cases, subjective. In our
"common" computing environment, we must have some practices in place to
help ensure the resources we all use are as available as possible. Most
of these things are regarded by many people to be "common sense"...
but... still need occasional reinforcement.

[person] makes another excellent point:

No software is perfect.

This does not mean, however, that all software is of the same quality,
offers the same value or presents the same risks. Quality, value and
risk are statistically quantifiable, but statistics are malleable, and
normally used only to prop-up or assail the "personal value judgments"
made by one person or another.


For the record, the Web browser I prefer to use is Mozilla, not Firefox.
Both are multiplatform browsers, and, generally, of good quality
(irrespective of whether they are open-source or commercial offerings).
Of the two, I find the maturity of the Mozilla code base to be a
positive. Mozilla lacks some of the fancier "bell and whistle" features
of Firefox, but it handles browsing (and mail) well, with comparatively
low risk and is, in my experience, substantially more stable.


...and now, an evangelical rant:

The fact that a commercially-marketed "Internet-ready" Operating System
and its inextricably interwoven Web Browser are not "Internet-Safe" as-sold
12 years after the "Internet Explosion"; that the producer of such
an Operating System actually tells its customers not to use its product
on the Internet without having downloaded the latest updates from the
Internet and purchased an additional hundred-dollars-or-so worth of
commercial software... is telling. That there is still a market for
such a product 12 years on is simply depressing.


Thanks and have a sunshiny day!

Me

The thread died with that.

This "Get Ready" thing is just another in a long procession of "We own the market so fuck the rest of you" gestures from Microsoft. I'm sure there are plenty of MS Windows users out there who are skirting the shoals of usability in Windows XP, who will buy into this sham and buy a machine now with MS Windows XP on it, then buy the Vista "upgrade", only to be disappointed in the performance.

This is addressed (sort of) in the article:

Kevin Johnson, head of the business unit that includes Windows, said in an interview with CNET News.com this week that Microsoft is likely to have some kind of discount or upgrade program to help those who buy a PC this holiday season upgrade to Vista.

"Yeah, there's likely to be something," Johnson said, without giving specifics.

"Yeah, there's likely to be something"?!

*sigh*

You poor, poor MS Windows users.