This is a post I meant to write months ago, when popey wrote about it on his blog.
People often come to me to help out with their computers – this is not a surprising thing. Back when Windows XP came out, I really struggled for a while, because I had no exposure to XP. I do now have more experience, as it’s the main operating system available at my work. I don’t particularly like XP, but I was able to help out.
I won’t be supporting Vista. There are a number of reasons for this, but to distill it down, here are the reasons:
- I won’t be running Vista on any of my machines, which makes it difficult to know how to fix it when things break
- I have serious concerns about some of the “Digital Rights Management” software that is intrinsically part of Vista
- I have serious concerns about the licensing scheme that Vista uses
- I have serious concerns about the potential for erosion of privacy in Vista
(There are more details on some of these points here
I know some people will dismiss this as the rantings of a (madman | communist | Microsoft hater | geek weirdo | other)* but it’s a risk I’m willing to take.
mrBen
*Delete as applicable
I’m considering a similar policy: “davee’s family/friend support: Windows Vista policy: Removals Only”
Yeah… I’m taking a similar stance with requests for help with Vista. I’ve decided that I’ll be willing to look at it, but unless someone is a good friend or relative, I’m likely to say, “You know — I don’t run this, I don’t use it, and I don’t know much about it. You might want to take it to [computer tech support vendor of choice].”
I’ve looked at it once or twice to help a couple people, and it looks like in some cases, it is set up *very* similarly to XP… but yeah, I’m not about to set about earnestly learning it, at this point.