Bonum Certa Men Certa

Vista 7 Limitations, Compatibility Issues, and Hype from the Microsoft Ecosystem

Novell ball



Summary: A set of news and observations about Vista 7, which Microsoft is promoting rather aggressively despite obvious problems that continue to crop up

THIS is the latest part of a long series uncovering the reality behind Vista 7. It's full of shortcomings.



SoftPedia sheds light on yet another technical problem with this new operating system, which is just Windows Vista in a new gown.

"Windows 7 RTM Can’t Print Large Page Documents



Windows 7 is by no means without its own problems, albeit in a volume far less consistent compared to Windows Vista’s. Still, users of the latest iteration of the Windows client will stumble across glitches in the operating system, some more severe than others, some just annoyances. As far as printing from Windows 7 is concerned, Microsoft informs that customers might find themselves unable to print large page documents using the platform.


Wonderful.

Then there are the compatibility issues we wrote about in:



Here is another new example of incompatibility:

Songbird is free and open source, and is available for Windows XP/Vista, Mac, and Linux. Currently, Windows 7 is not officially supported, though some users have reported no problems running it on their system—just be aware that it's at your own risk if you decide to try it on Windows 7.


This is why enterprises are very reluctant to deploy Vista 7. As Wired Magazine put it several days ago:

In October, Microsoft unveiled Windows 7, the latest version of its operating system. This time around, there were no lines in parking lots, no breathless press coverage, no sense that a new computing era had begun. Indeed, some 40 percent of businesses said they had no plans to upgrade. Accessing the Net is what’s most important, and no one needs the latest Microsoft OS to do that. But Ellison himself provided the most glaring sign that the computing landscape had changed. Fourteen years earlier, he had reacted to the Windows 95 launch by becoming one of Microsoft’s loudest critics and most ambitious would-be competitors. This time, he said nothing. There was no need. The fight was over.


We have found 9 clusters of headlines about Vista 7 and none about Vista (in Google News). One short article about Vista 7 was titled: "Windows 7 – whats all the HYPE about?"

On Oct. 22, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer took the stage in downtown New York at the lead event for a somewhat — for the software giant — soft-edged launch for Windows 7. Ballmer presided over a day of speechmaking and sales promotions in cities worldwide. But the events were on the whole smaller than the usual major Microsoft launches.


The Microsoft-focused Emil already starts spreading hype with vapourware (Vista 8). Microsoft never resorted to a vapourware pitch quite so early. Microsoft started speaking about "Windows 8" 6 months before "Windows 7" was even released!

So who else hypes up Vista 7? Well, how about Matt Rosoff, who describes himself as "an analyst with Directions on Microsoft, where he covers Microsoft's consumer products and corporate news," OK? This is the type of person CNET gives a blog to. They have not a single blogger there who covers Free software. It's a problem of bias which we addressed many times before. The obvious role of bias can be seen in this post from Rosoff (Vista 7 promotion), who at least had the guts to say one negative thing about the company from which he makes a living.

Songsmith. The idea wasn't all that bad. Karaoke is fun. Making music on computers is fun. So why not, reasoned some Microsoft researchers, create a program that fills in audio accompaniment as users sing. Unfortunately, the $29.95 price and unbelievably mockable promotional video turned Songsmith into an Internet laughingstock. Later videos featuring Songsmith's accompaniment to the vocal tracks of songs like Queen's "We Will Rock You" and Van Halen's "Running With the Devil" highlighted the silliness.


One of our readers, Marti, has just announced that he would no longer touch Windows or offer Windows support to anyone (Marti tried Vista 7 and hated it).

Today I have decided to remove all instances of Microsoft Windows on all my machines and that I will not any longer provide gratis help for Microsoft Windows.


So, in summary, Vista 7 continues to suffer from real problems, but Microsoft's ecosystem is trying to hide them. It even starts promoting an imaginary successor of it. This is the one that will solve all your problems! They promise. This time it's for real. Really! Trust Microsoft.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Slopwatch: Brian Fagioli, Google News, and Other LLM Slopfarms
Why does Google News keep promoting these fake articles?
Links 29/10/2025: Amazon Kept "Data Center Water Use Secret", "Abuse of Power" Against Media
Links for the day
Gemini Links 29/10/2025: "My Hardware Specs" and "Goodbye Debian…"
Links for the day
EPO Cocainegate: Feedback and Clarifications
Part III will come out soon
Links 29/10/2025: "US Military Is Destroying the Planet Beyond Imagination" and Boat Strikes Deemed Unlawful
Links for the day
Quality Comes First (Techrights Search)
It's generally working already, but we wish to polish it some more
Techrights Party Countdown
Late next week we'll be holding a party near our home
European Parliament and Council Directive on Privacy is Vanishing
"edited / censored some time more recently"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, October 28, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, October 28, 2025
Slopwatch: The March of Slopfarms, From UbuntuPIT to Linux Journal and to Various Fake Sites Still Promoted by Google News
It's so worrying to see what the Web has become
Links 29/10/2025: CISA, Ukraine, and Amazon Problems
Links for the day
[Teaser] The EPO's Spokesperson, a Cocaine User, Fancies Young Women
How's that for "optics" in the EU and Europe's second-largest institution?
How Will António Campinos Respond to the EPO's 'Cocainegate'?
That's the same thing we saw and still see when the press deals with enablers and partners of Jeffrey Epstein
Join Us Now and Share the News - Part IV: There Cannot be Free Software Without Free Press and Free Information
One day, one can hope, more people will recognise that for Software Freedom we need free press and free thinkers
Join Us Now and Share the News - Part III: Principled Stance Is Never Cheap
Protecting the truth and insisting that the general public is made aware of things that really happened isn't cheap
Join Us Now and Share the News - Part II: Because Scarcity of Accurate Information Breeds Collective Ignorance
we too will strive to share information that's aggressively suppressed
Gemini Links 28/10/2025: More New Arrivals at Geminispace, xkcd on "Document Forgery"
Links for the day
Join Us Now and Share the News - Part I: Defence of the Truth
This year we make a very strong, firm statement for truth, even if that means explaining our work to the top media judge in the country
Links 28/10/2025: Meta and Fentanylware (CheeTok) Age-Restricted Down Under, "Britain Needs China’s Money"
Links for the day
Links 28/10/2025: Mass Layoffs at Amazon and Charter to Cut 1,200 Jobs
Links for the day
The Cocaine Patent Office - Part II: The Person Who Planted Paid-for Fake News for the European Patent Office (EPO) is a Cocaine User, Friend of António Campinos, Now on Record as Having Been Arrested
Background: High-level manager at the European Patent Office caught in public with cocaine, arrested
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, October 27, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, October 27, 2025
Google News Drowning in Slop (and Slopfarms That Hijack About Half the Results)
Google News seems to be drowning in this stuff
Gemini Links 28/10/2025: "How to Maximize Your Positive Impact" and ASCII Art and Artist Attribution
Links for the day
PETA and Activism
Being staff or volunteer in PETA isn't easy
Big Blue, Huge Debt
debt will soar again
Links 27/10/2025: Mass Surveillance Sold as "AI", People Reluctant to Lose Physical Media
Links for the day
Parties and Milestones Again
we've begun putting up about 40 balloons
Techrights' 19th Anniversary: Bronze
Time to go back to preparing for this anniversary
Our Latest European Patent Office (EPO) Series Will Last Several Weeks, Will Ask the EPO Management and the European Union (EU) Very Difficult Questions
If nobody loses a job (or jobs) over this, then the EU basically became no better than Colombia or Nicaragua
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, UbuntuPIT, Brian Fagioli, and Google News
We focus on stories that are fake or LLM slop that disguises itself as "news" about Linux
Links 27/10/2025: Wikipedia Vandalism, Bruce Perens Opens up on Childhood
Links for the day
This Site Could Not be Done by LLMs Even If It Wanted to (Because It's Not a Parrot of What Other Sites Say)
LLMs have no knowledge or deep understanding
Microsoft is Disloyal Towards Its Most Loyal Employees
Against its most faithful enablers
19 Years, No Censorship
No factual information is ever going to be removed, more so if it is in the public interest
We Are Not a Conventional Site, That's Why They Hate (or Love) Us
Throughout the week this week we'll be focusing on the EPO
Following the Line of Cocaine All the Way to the Top
Even a million denials and spin-doctoring won't distract from the core issue
The Cocaine Patent Office - Part I: António Campinos Brought Corruption and Nepotism to the EPO, Then Came the Cocaine
High-level manager at the European Patent Office (EPO) caught in public with cocaine, the Office has some answering to do
Purchasing/Possessing Computers Isn't the Same as Controlling Computers
Let's strive to put computers back under the control of their users, no matter who purchased these (usually the users)
Gemini Links 27/10/2025: Alhena 5.4.3 and Fixing Bash
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, October 26, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, October 26, 2025
Thankfully We've Made Copies of More Interesting Data From statCounter
If statCounter (the Web site or the 'webapp') vanished overnight, we'd still have something left of it
More Silent Layoffs at IBM/Red Hat
when the media counts such layoffs or presents tallies the numbers are very incomplete