Vista Owners Mass Downgrading to Windows XP

I am really not sure how Microsoft is still trying to argue with people, defending that Vista is a very good operating system, and that it is only problem is a bad reputation. They even tried to do a “blind taste test” with Vista, making users experiment it without knowing that it was Vista. Pathetic!

Anyway to confirm the fact that Windows Vista sucks (period!), there is an article on The Register claiming that around one third of all Windows Vista equipped machines have been downgraded to Windows XP (some by the PC manufacturers directly…).

Vista’s death march picked up some pace yesterday, after a metrics researcher revealed that nearly 35 per cent of PCs built to run the Windows operating system have been downgraded to XP.

In a survey of more than 3,000 computers, performance testing software developer Devil Mountain Software estimated that more than one in three new machines had either been downgraded by vendors such as Dell, or by customers once they bought the PC.

One third is a really big number, especially if you consider that downgrading an operating system is not a trivial task, and most users would think twice before going through that.

Windows fans, let’s hope that Windows 7 will hit the target. Or give Ubuntu a try, as I have been recommending for a while.

Daniel Scocco on August 21, 2008 Subscribe to our RSS Feed

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17 Responses to “Vista Owners Mass Downgrading to Windows XP”

Adam on August 21st, 2008 2:42 pm

Just because people are switching doesn’t necessarily mean the OS sucks. While I agree there are things that Microsoft did poorly with Vista, there are many things they’ve done right.

I have both Vista and XP running on two different machines and like both very much (for different reasons), and I think the main reason people are switching back is because they don’t like change. Vista is extremely different from XP and people don’t know what to do with it.

It does take time to get used to Vista but IMO its worth it. But you can’t just say the OS sucks because people are switching, its not a clear correlation.
Dean on August 21st, 2008 3:43 pm

I use Windows Vista Ultimate on an Acer TravelMate 6291 with 1.5GiB of RAM. It works pretty darn well. I think we give Vista less credit than it deserves, and XP, more.

I agree with Adam—the fact that more people are downgrading to XP doesn’t necessarily mean that Vista sucks. Just because people have been jumping off bridges an awful lot lately doesn’t mean suicide is good, right? I have to say that this is a really narrow-minded post.

Oh, and the “blind taste test” was a smart marketing move, IMO. It just goes to show that when you eliminate all the negative hype surrounding the mere mention of the word “Vista” and use the operating system without prejudice, you’d really learn to appreciate it. (The Mojave Experiment was not without success, mind you.)

I also have Linux Ubuntu 8.04 on my system, and while Linux is lighter, it isn’t exactly more reliable, and I still find myself turning to Windows for my heftier computing. I also have a desktop running XP, and I can say with certainty that Vista beats XP any day. (In my case, at least.)
Daniel Scocco on August 21st, 2008 3:55 pm

@Adam, I am not sure if people are switching back merely because they don’t like change. It is not the first time that Microsoft has put a new OS on the market. It did it with Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows XP. But it is the first time we are seeing this downgrade phenomenon at mass scale.

@Dean, the pathetic thing about Microsoft turning to a “blind taste test” is the fact that they themselves end up admitting that their marketing efforts with Vista were terrible. They spent millions of dollars in promoting it, and yet, as you said, people hate it even if the OS itself does not suck that much.
th13rteen on August 21st, 2008 6:55 pm

What\’s wrong with Vista? Most people would say its buggy, its slow, its incompatible with my software, etc. But, it is true? Vista isn\’t slow for me, its not buggy (anymore), but I did have an incompatibility issue with my printer.

Vista is underrated. People just talk shit about it without even using it. I agree that Vista won\’t run smoothly on their grandma\’s computer. That means its time to get a new computer or upgrade a few parts.

The Mojave Experiment was a good idea. They proved that people hate Vista and most of them haven\’t even used it. I\’m using Vista and I like it.

Daniel, did you actually use Vista on your own computer for a few days?
visi0n on August 21st, 2008 7:50 pm

…time to get a new computer or upgrade a few parts??

Time for Microsoft to make a new windows OS that is modular based and not preloaded with crap you will never use…this is the key!

All the new games etc can run just fine on your current computer but the companies just make it so that they won’t…just so they sell more hardware…

we have to stop bloatware in its tracks…wake up people!

You shouldn’t have to buy a new computer to run the latest OS…period!
Jschmuck2 on August 22nd, 2008 4:29 am

I’m going to guess you need a better machine.
Dean on August 22nd, 2008 7:36 am

@Daniel - oh. so that’s what you meant by pathetic. The way I read it, it seemed like you said that the Mojave Experiment was a bad idea. Yes, I have to say that Microsoft could have done a better job marketing Vista. Does bad marketing mean a bad product? I don’t think so.

@Jschmuck - lol :-))
Josh on August 22nd, 2008 4:17 pm

Wow, two things about this surprise me:

1) Just about all the comments here are actually defending Vista, that has to be a first!

2) and that you, Daniel, would published such a sensational article.

Check your facts before relying on the Register as a credible news source.

The vast majority of the downgrading has come from enterprises, suggesting a mass downgrade by consumers is frankly almost obsurd. Sure, a lot of people have downgraded (and complained on internet) but nothing even remotely approaching this number.

This trend is completely consistent with previous Windows releases. A lot of enterprises do downgrade their systems for a number of years following any new OS release.

A lack of confidence? No.

It takes time for large companies to upgrade and change and even longer for the software they use to be upgraded. It can take 2-3 years for large software companies supplying complex applications for businesses to upgrade their applications for the next platform.

Seriously Daniel, do yourself a favour and do a quick Google. Find the tech news articles from 2001 and you’ll find it quite amusing. Some quotes spring to mind:

“XP offers no new essential functionality over previous Windows incarnations”
“retailers have reported no significant boost in sales prompted by the release of Windows XP”
“2 years on and Windows XP adoption in large enterprises is still lagging well behind Windows 98″
Josh on August 22nd, 2008 4:22 pm

Oh… but I agree with the comments about Vista’s marketing. It has been shocking the entire way along.
Daniel Scocco on August 24th, 2008 3:35 pm

@Josh, I did mention that part of the downgrades was coming from PC vendors on the article.

Secondly, I really don’t think the amount of bad feedback, negative publicity and downgrades have that we have seen with Windows vista is “consistent with previous Windows releases.”

@thirt33n, I tested it briefly, though I don’t own any Vista copies. I only own one Windows powered PC indeed, and it is running XP.
Suresh on August 25th, 2008 7:27 am

Daniel, may I know the source from where in you got the information about dell and other vendors recommending XP over Vista?
I have checked a couple vendors (Dell, hp and others) and even now when you purchase a decent good configured machine, the pre-loaded OS is Vista not XP.
While I agree that XP has its own advantages, Vista is still the preferred OS.
The features and the GUI of vista are far better than any OS of today.
Daniel Scocco on August 25th, 2008 11:14 am

@Suresh, that is a quote from the article I am linking to.
Mikael on August 27th, 2008 8:11 pm

I’ve been running Vista Ultimate on a PC ever since the software was released. The PC scores a 5.9 in the test so I have no performance issues.

The reason I decided to change was that so many third party application just didn’t work properbly with Vista (even though they were said to be Vista ready).

All in all I’ve degraded 3 Vista PCs so I’m part of the 1/3 in the statistics. I even recommend everyone that I know not to use Vista and sometimes I’ll even offer to help them do the downgrade.

I’m definitely not upgrading again but I will hopefully change my mind with Windows 7. I do like the Aero design that Vista has so I hope that they will keep it.

Mikael
http://www.antphilosophy.com
Jack on August 30th, 2008 6:03 pm

From personal experience Vista is still quite buggy and very sluggish. My laptop now runs XP and switched the desktop to Linux Ubuntu (which is great btw).
Billy F*ing-Fag Gaytes on October 1st, 2008 12:35 pm

There are some very annoying aspects of Vista, such as its overeager “are you sure” messages that force users to decide what is safe and what is not (I believe that puts the burden on the wrong party; Microsoft is trying to make PCs safer, but annoying users as a way to get software developers to rework their apps is hardly a customer-friendly security approach). Microsoft is asking people to spend a couple thousand dollars (new equipment, software upgrades, you know, shit like that.) for Vista. That’s a lot to ask of customers when there are few tangible benefits.

Remember how XP was the in-thing when it came out. XP gave you a reason to upgrade from 98, Vista hasn’t done that for me. Yeah eventually I’ll have to buy a Vista preloaded PC…… but for now it’s F*#K VISTA, XP Rocks.

and to ya’ll hard headed biatches, the fact customers are rejecting Vista (downgrading) means it sucks to them. They have no reason to upgrade.

Tom’s Hardware published benchmarks in January 2007 that showed that Windows Vista executed typical applications more slowly than Windows XP with the same hardware configuration. According to CNET, Windows XP Service Pack 3 outshines Windows Vista in performance and in other benchmarking tests.
“Vista, both with and without SP1, performed notably slower than XP with SP3 in the test, taking over 80 seconds to complete the test, compared to the beta SP3-enhanced XP’s 35 seconds.”
Billy F*ing-Fag Gaytes on October 1st, 2008 12:48 pm

XP XP XPXPXPXP
XP XP XP XP
WINDOWS XP XPXPXPXP RULES
XP XP XP
XP XP XP
Ubaidullah on October 13th, 2008 3:52 am

Forget about xp and vista think about Clout.