Last Updated on December 3, 2018 by Dave Farquhar
What went wrong with Windows Vista? If you were around when it launched, you probably wouldn’t argue with me if I said the things that went right were easier to count than the things that went wrong. Windows XP lived nearly forever because Vista was so bad.
A Microsoft developer took a candid look back. It’s long. Give yourself half an hour to read it. I guess you can say Microsoft bet wrong on nearly everything it thought was going to happen. The result wasn’t pretty. Vista came out, and the hardware it needed didn’t exist. The problem wasn’t just that it was late. Windows 95 was two years late. Windows 98 came out a year late. Microsoft bet big on huge local hardware on the eve of the cloud.
The timing couldn’t have been worse. The hardware was in the doldrums at the time, and in 2013, a Microsoft developer admitted performance wasn’t a Microsoft priority the way it is in the Linux community.
Vista didn’t solve any real problems for anyone. Plus it was too hard on your graphics card and your memory and your hard drive were too slow to meet its demands. By the time affordable mainstream hardware was out that could run Vista well, Windows 7 was out.
Read it when you have a few minutes. It’s interesting.
David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He started his career as a part-time computer technician in 1994, worked his way up to system administrator by 1997, and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He invests in real estate on the side and his hobbies include O gauge trains, baseball cards, and retro computers and video games. A University of Missouri graduate, he holds CISSP and Security+ certifications. He lives in St. Louis with his family.