There has been much buzz around the ‘Vista Ready’ and ”Made for Vista’ logos lately. My inbox has been swimming in releases about products that proudly display the sticker, and assurances that the given product will work with the new operating system.
I am calling their bluff. Most of the products displayed will work with Vista anyways. Granted, software and some hardware like graphic cards can and should be classified as Vista Ready. Monitors? No. CD burners? Absolutely not. Webcams? I don’t think so. Mice and keyboards? Unlikely.
At the current rate, we will see ‘Vista Ready’ stickers on out power cables and mouse pads very soon. But why stop there? Why not have ‘Vista Ready’ desk and office chairs? ‘Vista Ready’ speakers? ‘Vista Ready’ digital cameras? It sounds strange, but all those products are out there (apart from the desk and chair, which is a great idea.)
Several USB thumb drives are now being touted as ‘Vista Ready’. Does this mean they have read and write speeds quick enough to utilize Vista Readyboost? No, it merely means you can plug them in and they work. Just like with XP. And Windows 2000. And NT, -98, Mac operating systems and multiple Linux systems.
Is this the biggest con in IT to date? Perhaps not, but it is certainly up there along with upselling separate printer cables for $24. Don’t get conned by stickers. Do your own research, and in most instances you’ll find old products work just as well with Vista.
If that doesn’t work, buy a t-shirt with the ‘Vista Ready’ logo on it and future proof yourself.
Of course its a con, but who cares? I haven't paid for any software in 10 years (Thanks Bittorrent).
I downloaded the full activated verions of Vista Ultimate but won't be installing it for a year or so.
I will wait for SP1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9, to come out before I install it. Meanwhile my cracked copy of XP pro with Blinds is just as good.
Posted by: Connie LIngus | April 5, 2007 1:47 AM
Nonsensical comment removed by moderator.
Posted by: Ike Isbutts | April 5, 2007 3:25 PM
Monitor - yes.
http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html
"Vista's content protection mechanism only allows protected content to be sent over interfaces that also have content-protection facilities built in. "
So, in order to playback protected content on a monitor, the monitor must confirm to Vista that it won't pirate the content, or else Vista will decrease the quality. That's what means that monitor is Vista-ready.
Not that I think that all those who put "vista-ready" on their wares even know about all that. Those claims are about the same as your corner joint proudly claiming "best burgers in Chicago", or such.
Posted by: groc22 | April 6, 2007 6:58 PM
To the ignorant Connie LIngus, could you please explain WHY it is a con instead of just shooting into the year, tell us where did you ever get more than SP3 on a Microsoft product (besides Microsoft stating Vista SP's will be small) and explain us how do you ativate UAC, IE7 with Protected Mode and PatchGuard in XP?
Thanks.
Posted by: Filipe | April 14, 2007 6:28 PM