‘Friends Don’t Let Friends Drive Windows Vista Basic’
From PC Magazine’s Lance Ulanoff:
Windows Vista Home Basic could be the most pointless edition of Windows that Microsoft has ever released. Let me be clear: I like Windows Vista. I applaud it, in fact. It’s the smartest, easiest-to-use Windows OS yet. Most of the Vista editions Microsoft is rolling out make good, clean sense—Business, Premium, even Ultimate, though that name does kind of box Microsoft in for future versions (could they ever top Ultimate?).
….. I‘m sorry, but this (Basic) simply perpetuates the myth that there’s such a thing as simple computing needs. The “surfing the Internet” part is my favorite. It’s as if Microsoft’s marketers haven’t been online since 2001. Surfing the Internet these days is about as far from basic as you can get. Web 2.0 has turned many key Web sites into virtual client applications. Yes, these are lighter than, say, true desktop apps, but nowhere near as light and simple as the rudimentary HTML-based pages we recall from the mid-1990s up until, say, 2002.
I have to reluctantly agree with Ulanoff. Even people who are intent on using their computers only for tasks like e-mail and “simple” web surfing are going to get sucked into needing to access advanced features by friends and relatives who send videos, Flash presentations, and the like, and by web sites including more of the same with each passing day. So, in that sense, it’s a disservice to a “basic” user to sell them a machine that will almost certainly lead to a compromised user experience — even if the user doesn’t expect it. This means that, in most cases, you should talk those you know who are considering buying Vista Basic, including yourself, out of it.
