Guest Strip by David Stanworth

[pierski]

A lot of you never saw this guest strip that David Stanworth did for the outer circle last year. But I felt it was relevant.

I already mentioned it yesterday in the news section, but someone modified my Hello, I'm Linux comic and it's now the modified version is getting a decent amount of visibility on the net. I think the modified version is funny. I still think the Mac/PC/Linux version works better. I just find it humorous that I'm getting credit for something I didn't do. Or that I did but at the same time didn't do. You know what I mean?


Regular webcomicking will resume on Thursday as scheduled.

[Greiver]

Agreed all the way...stupid vista

Furst !!!

[The Anarchyz]

Like i need more reasons to hate M$

As a TOC reader i watched that comic the time it was posted, but is valid now as it was valid last year... And this time M$ had to add a kernel change to SP1... what were they doing the last 6 years??? and they wonder why Leopard and Ubuntu are rising...

[rio_uk]

Vista isn't perfect. Or very good for that matter, but would you really rather get a mac?

P.S. I'm assuming linux is out of the question seeing as I know one person who has it, and he's an arsehole.

[freakdood]

Short, but sweet indeed.

Nice one David.

[Pirotechnix]

I see that the Vista bashing, even a year later, is still the fad.

(Throws himself out to the wolves with this opinion)

Seriously, Vista, for everything that it isn't, is not as bad as people make it out to be. It has significant improvements that have been posted in place after place, and even though some of the security settings are annoying (but alas! can be toggled on and off), it still remains as a very stable, secure OS, which is more than can be said for Macs and to some extent Linux, who are relying an awful lot on security through obscurity. SP1 will solve a few problems, to be sure, and all of this bashing follows the curious pattern of computer users who refused to use XP soon after it came out for similar "problems".

Now, I'm not absolving Microsoft of all guilt, since i'm not a fan of their money grubbing tactics anyway, but I won't use a Mac for sheer cost-to-content ratio (admit it, Mac fans -- for all the "good", Macs cost a bit too much for what they offer, and lacking true gaming capacity is bg) They definitely fumbled the ball on trying to cram it on new systems that don't have the power to properly use it.

I'd go on, but I gotta get to class

[dannylam4]

Thaaaaaaat's where the comic came from! I've been looking for this to throw at my friend since he got vista for sooo long x.x and now my search is over... I can die happy...

[Valentine]

quite a nice change from game jokes

[maniacs r us]

Its funny because it sounds like Vista is an STD

[The Anarchyz]

I see that the Vista bashing, even a year later, is still the fad.

(Throws himself out to the wolves with this opinion)

Seriously, Vista, for everything that it isn't, is not as bad as people make it out to be. It has significant improvements that have been posted in place after place, and even though some of the security settings are annoying (but alas! can be toggled on and off), it still remains as a very stable, secure OS, which is more than can be said for Macs and to some extent Linux, who are relying an awful lot on security through obscurity. SP1 will solve a few problems, to be sure, and all of this bashing follows the curious pattern of computer users who refused to use XP soon after it came out for similar "problems".

The annoying security settings and the graphic add-ons that eat the shite out the graphics card can be turned on and off, but if they're turned off then Vista will look and feel like Windows XP, only with slow transfer and incompatibilty issues...

It's true that Vista bashing comes in part from the same XP bashing people, but i've seen the figures, Vista is not selling well, they had to force it in laptops eliminating the XP drivers, and even then (like the TOSHIBA ones) almost everyone of the users are "upgrading" to XP getting the drivers from everywhere... At least XP when it came out was selling well among regular consumers, now even they are looking for people to change their OS...

XP's SP1 and SP2 didn't have a kernel change, why Vista's SP1 does??? i rest my case...

[Pirotechnix]

The annoying security settings and the graphic add-ons that eat the shite out the graphics card can be turned on and off, but if they're turned off then Vista will look and feel like Windows XP, only with slow transfer and incompatibilty issues...

Except that turning off the graphic-addons actually isn't doing you any good, since that's part of what makes the Aero GUI work so well with your computer. One point people seem to ignore is that A) if your graphics card is of any decent value it isn't eating it at all and B) the amount of inherent memory used upon startup is actually a GOOD thing for your computer. And overall, that's basic technology intelligence - you don't load something newer into an older system or a system that can't support it, and Vista is, unfortunately or otherwise, building to the future.

It's true that Vista bashing comes in part from the same XP bashing people, but i've seen the figures, Vista is not selling well, they had to force it in laptops eliminating the XP drivers, and even then (like the TOSHIBA ones) almost everyone of the users are "upgrading" to XP getting the drivers from everywhere... At least XP when it came out was selling well among regular consumers, now even they are looking for people to change their OS...

XP's SP1 and SP2 didn't have a kernel change, why Vista's SP1 does??? i rest my case...

See, this is exactly it. I'm not saying this as a fan of Microsoft, as I'd have to be a blind fanboy if I didn't recognize and accept some of Vista's flaws, even with the things that Vista has that are significant improvements over XP SP2.

As I mentioned, Microsoft fumbled the ball in more ways than one -- one of their biggest mistakes was underestimating the intelligence of their general user. Some people may be idiots when it comes to computers, but you add a bloated feature that makes you feel like you're being guided by a doting mother, you'd get insulted and pissed off as well, especially since people are considerably more computer savvy than they were even when XP was a new thing. The compatibility issues? Every new OS has a few of those growing pains, and some of those aren't the fault of the OS, but rather the manufacturer of other products (The recent Creative drama, anyone?). The rush to push Vista into laptops/computer that weren't built for it was also a major tactical error.

However, what makes me roll my eyes is that a huge majority of the people who bash don't even give proper time to the OS, rely on hearsay from the internet to form their opinions instead of trying it themself, or just follow the sheep mentality and for all their complaining either run Vista already or have already paid a company they claim to hate their money. For every 1 person of varying computer savvy that has a problem with Vista, there is a significantly larger ratio of people (although obviously less than XP before it) who have no problem with Vista (such as myself), and while it's not perfect, it's certainly serviceable. XP still isn't "perfect" and it's been out for what, 6-7 years now for fixing problems? Give Vista a little time, or just run XP/Linux or Mac OS and give the whole thing a rest. It's gotten old.

[/angrynerdrant]

[The Anarchyz]

I don't talk as a person who made his mind because others told me what Vista is, or read it on the internet... i'm a computer systems analyzer/designer/developer who is right now working in a company that, because of its nature, has a huge contract with M$, and they receive almost all products that M$ releases, and even get in advance the betas. My boss and i have a fresh copy of every released version of Vista, and we decided to test all of them, so everything that i know about Vista is because my boss and i worked with it, and every version we tried is legal (i tried cracked ones at home, but i prefer to form my opinion on legal ones so Microsoft doesn't have an excuse)...

About the graphics, it eats the card, obviously if you have a card like mine (nVidia GeForce 9800 GTX) combined with a high processor (Core 2 Quad) and lots of RAM you don't notice that even playing video games, but when you do the comparison, you see the difference between using the card with XP, with Ubuntu, with Mandriva, even with Hackint0sh (!!!), and compare it to Vista. The results are really poor for Vista...

The compatibilty issue on Vista is more than a new OS flaw, XP when it was released the first time solved almost everything wrong with ME about incompatibilities, as for 2000, it was almost the same, but with Vista, they lose like 35% of compatibility, when they suppose to gain that or at least lose like 5% and recover that in Service Packs, this was not the case...

I'm giving Vista time, it's known that i'm a declared M$ hater but i'm always fair saying what they did good (like Xbox LIVE for example), and right now i can't say anything good about Vista because the good things i found are already on XP, maybe when SP1 is complete and i try it, i'll find something good, and i will be thrilled to say it, but the present is now and right now Vista is not what it should be...

[Pirotechnix]

Just as clarity, I was not saying you were that way, I'm just generally fed up with all the generic Vista bashing when, although some of it is justified, a damn good portion of the recycled accusations are exaggerated or downright false; a good portion of the errors are simply PEBKAC. (That, and using "M$" always triggers an automatic response with me, even though I agree with the message it represents in spirit...lurking Digg technology article comment pages can do that to a person, I guess )

[The Anarchyz]

Just as clarity, I was not saying you were that way, I'm just generally fed up with all the generic Vista bashing when, although some of it is justified, a damn good portion of the recycled accusations are exaggerated or downright false; a good portion of the errors are simply PEBKAC. (That, and using "M$" always triggers an automatic response with me, even though I agree with the message it represents in spirit...lurking Digg technology article comment pages can do that to a person, I guess )

No problem, i just wanted to clarify that i'm not one of them.

M$ stuck with me in an argue about OS's and VG consoles, since then i use it in almost every Microsoft-related conversation.

[bdogthehog]

I wouldn't claim any credit for this one my friend, before you know it the Scientologists will be publicly defaming you and seizing your bank accounts lol.... no seriously.