Vista on OEM hardware - THIS is why it sucks for many people

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http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=429

That is a most excellent article, my friends. It could stand a read, actually two to grasp the significance of what the writer was trying to say, which happens to be what many of us around these parts (I ain't a n00bie, I assure you) have been preaching from even before "the start."

I've always like Ed Bott, and this articles hints at why: he knows his shit. And he knows when stuff ain't right, and better yet, he knows how to fix it.

Intelligent comments and discussion are of course, always welcome. Trolls, move along.
 
Page 4, top paragraph

For a clean install or a cleanup, drivers are key. That’s never been so true as now. A PC that was built a year ago is likely to have have been plagued with buggy drivers for video hardware, network adapters, and other crucial system components. Today, driver quality for Vista components across the board is noticeably better (although pockets of bugginess still exist). For a clean install, my challenge was to find the best driver for each system component, a strategy that required three separate search parties.
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Drivers. It's what I think made my Vista experience poor. ULi was bought out during the RC process of Vista and we are stuck using those same drivers still today.
 
I agree. Which is why I'm a DIY'er. My last OEM purchase was in '98, and after that experience, I've never look back. But, it does leave those who are unable to build their own system in a lurch. Quite personally, this is probably why people are switching to macs in droves. Most OEMs just dont understand, most people dont want the spyware crap turning up dozens of running programs in the lower right hand corner. They are also sick of over-powered CPUs being bottlenecked by low RAM and slow hard drives.

But to be fair, XP had the same problems back in the day (in some cases it still does). To blame Vista for all these problems is for the most part ridiculous. Notice I said for the most part. Vista loves higher end hardware than XP, just as XP did over W2K and Win98. More so on the video card now. But the blame also runs with the OEMs, who are both clueless to what the customer wants, and helpless as the bottom line shrinks. The low-end "internet appliance" just wont cut it anymore. Also, customers need to start investigating more about what they are spending their money on. I dont know about you, but if I'm going to crank out $1-2000 for a computer, I'm sure as hell going to take the time to make sure the hardware/software is a balanced configuration, and of good quality. If it's not, they wont get my money. Unfortunately, Joe Sixpack won't do that kind of investigating, and will instead blame Vista.

Both MS, the OEMs, and the customer need to do their part. Otherwise, Apple will be the one who makes out in the end.
 
I like Ed Bott myself. He’s one of the few people at ZDnet with common sense I think.

There really isn’t anything new here though. Windows retail machines have been plagued by poor system integration for years, well back to the days of Windows 3.1. It’s as though somebody throws this crap together and doesn’t even bother do a second of usability testing. Astonishing.

Vista is a great OS. Yes, it tends to run better on newer hardware, but it still works fine on five year old systems, if you don’t install Ultimate and all of the services.

Personally I wonder why Microsoft doesn’t take more ownership and go out and smack bigger vendors like Sony upside the head. It does nothing but hurt Vista’s image, if it has one.

That’s why people in forums like these install there OS’es from scratch.
 
The One And Only said:
I agree. Which is why I'm a DIY'er. My last OEM purchase was in '98, and after that experience, I've never look back. But, it does leave those who are unable to build their own system in a lurch.
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Not only that - you can be perfectly competent in building a desktop and that's not going to help you if you want to buy a laptop. The Vaios he talks about are laptops, and it's pretty much impossible to build one of those yourself.
 
The first thing to go on my Thinkpad was the OEM Vista install. Never figured out what they did to it to make it so fraking slow. Guess I'm just very lucky to have my own 64-bit install disc from my desktop.

Kudos to this guy for actually applying some thought and not just jumping on the hate bandwagon.
 
A day 1 "Flatten and reinstall" has been the standard procedure on every laptop I've owned. I can't understand how anyone at these places can sleep at night knowing they are shipping trainwrecked totally unusable installations on their machines.
 
LstOfTheBrunnenG said:
The first thing to go on my Thinkpad was the OEM Vista install. Never figured out what they did to it to make it so fraking slow. Guess I'm just very lucky to have my own 64-bit install disc from my desktop.

Kudos to this guy for actually applying some thought and not just jumping on the hate bandwagon.
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Thinkpads, even in the XP era, were slow. They have a LOT of bloatware and pre-installed little applications.
 
Mithent said:
Not only that - you can be perfectly competent in building a desktop and that's not going to help you if you want to buy a laptop. The Vaios he talks about are laptops, and it's pretty much impossible to build one of those yourself.
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Oh I understand that, which is one of the reasons I dont use a laptop. Although my desktop rig is hardly top of the line (C2D E6400@3200, 4 gigs RAM, Geforce 8800 GTX, XFi), its not exactly a slouch. I have yet to see a laptop that touches it. As such, I guess I have "acquired" tastes :D

But, the rest of my family owns laptops (4 in all). It was a chore to strip them down to rid them of the garbage, but they are happy with them. But yes your right, I cant build one myself, thus I just dont use them :)
 
You can do some pretty amazing things with some of the barebones-laptop building services nowadays. Not absolute and total customization, but you can have fun with picking and choosing the components you want, up to a point. Since some of the companies that build laptops for the major OEMs get in on this, you can effectively get the same hardware, especially from the style of stuff Asus and some others have.

http://www.xoticpc.com/laptop-manufacturers-really-makes-laptops-ip-11.html

Nice article about what goes on behind the scenes of ODMs that cater to the OEMs and produce what people buy.
 
The only OEM machines I resell to consumers are Dell Vostros, for this very reason. I can choose what bloatware (none) is installed on the machine before I order it. They still have Dell drivers and a little bit of Dell software, but much better than most OEMs. I used to re-image everything, but I don't feel that's necessary now.

I still prefer to build machines for people looking for real performance, but for basic word processing/internet, the price/performance is good on the Vostros
 
SuperSubZero said:
A day 1 "Flatten and reinstall" has been the standard procedure on every laptop I've owned. I can't understand how anyone at these places can sleep at night knowing they are shipping trainwrecked totally unusable installations on their machines.
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Quoted for truth. I build my desktops, and buy my laptops. I play around with them for a few days on the OEM install and then BAM! Reinstall. The difference really is amazing.
 
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