Why Windows Vista Sucked | What Went Wrong

In 2007, Microsoft launched, to the general public, one of their most ambitious products: Windows Vista...and then it sucked. But Why? What exactly went wrong with Windows Vista? Why did it fail? After all, it included many overhauls to the Windows experience, and its entire structuring surrounded a concept that would also become a part of Microsoft’s marketing slogan: “bringing clarity to your world.” However, Mircosoft's marketing and how they approached Vista's development would show that this just wasn't enough.

I think one of the most fascinating things about the phenomenon surrounding Vista’s downfall is that there really isn’t one straightforward answer. It’s a fairly complex situation that really needs to be delved into to be fully understood, a situation that frankly poses another interesting question: Was Vista really as bad as we remember? A superficial answer would tell you that Vista’s failure was simply caused by development issues, the popularity of Windows XP, unfavorable marketing, mob mentality, and, in some respects, simply coming out at the wrong time.

But if we really want to get into the nitty gritty details of what exactly caused Vista to fail, we need to go all the back to 2001. Yes, Vista already began its decline before even the release of Windows XP. Though it wasn’t called Vista at the time. Microsoft’s new project was under a completely different name: Windows Longhorn. Code names were often given to Windows versions during their stages of development, Windows XP was Whistler, Vista was Longhorn, and Blackcomb was an even higher, at the time, unknown version of Windows: Windows 7. Whistler and Blackcomb were names of mountains in British Columbia with Longhorn being a bar between the two places, and specifically Blackcomb was meant to be Microsoft’s next big release of Windows, and just as revolutionary as Windows XP. This Longhorn project was meant to essentially be the vehicle between these two operating systems, but it soon started to become more than that.

You see, Longhorn’s original release date was in 2003, with Blackcomb in 2005. But overtime during its development, Microsoft began piling on more and more features to Longhorn, which would ultimately harm productivity. Many leaks of the OS, both real and fake, began to surface on the web in mid-2002, giving out more information about its features than Microsoft wanted the public to know. But at the beginning, Longhorn didn’t seem much different from XP, and because of this, people still didn’t really know what to expect, despite what they were being told. An article titled “A Fork in the Road to Longhorn?” was posted to the Direction on Microsoft website in October of 2002, expressing a lot of skepticism about the OS meeting its initial deadline, and they were ultimately right. By 2004, Longhorn was still in development. Rather than being just a transitional release of Windows like it was originally intended, Microsoft soon had a lot more features in mind that they wanted to add to Longhorn. This included a new security architecture called “Palladium,” (or NGSCB) which used hardware and software to protect the OS from malicious activity, a new 3D GUI, faster desktop search, the sidebar (a primitive version of what we recognize today as the “notification center” in Windows 10) and a new storage system called Windows Future Storage (WinFS).

Longhorn became an ambitious project, and many features meant for Blackcomb were now being crammed into Longhorn. It was clear Microsoft didn’t have a good sense of direction and weren’t exactly sure what they wanted Longhorn to be. The OS became more bloated and unstable overtime, and big changes such as completely rewriting some parts of the OS, made it very difficult to use. Microsoft accepted that there was too many problems, and by August 2004, the Longhorn project was completely reset, and the release date was now uncertain...

Microsoft then made many changes to the project, including even the project's name, which was now, of course, "Vista." Each beta release gave them more chances to make it better, and in a lot of ways, things were actually looking quite nice, and Microsoft was finally able to get Vista released on time. But still...it sucked.

Chapters

0:00 - Introduction
2:54 - Start of Development (Windows Longhorn)
6:47 - The Big Reset
8:17 - Vista is Released
9:13 - Windows XP
10:15 - Unfavorable Marketing
13:02 - Mob Mentality
14:43 - Wasn't Made For These Times
15:27 - Conclusion

Google +: just kidding.

Beauty Flow by Kevin MacLeod

A special thanks to these patrons:
- Swingadee
- Winolotonolo
- Tommy Sharp
- Sl0rg
- Hannah Marsh
- Not So Sweet Melissa

ENJOY THE PROGRAM.

[nationsquid]

Yes, this is the “Beatles” channel. 😎 I may also just upload other things that interest me as well. The format and content is very, *very different.* It may not be what you are used to from me and it may be outside your comfort zone, so just a heads up on that. Although, I will also be making *video essays* in the format that you all are already familiar with. Nonetheless, I hope to see you over there! :)

As always,
NationSquid

[zed]

Windows vista’s interface must be one of the most visually beautiful softwares I’d ever seen. But yes it was sluggish as hell back in 2007. Needless to say, vista walked so that windows 7 could run.

[willwest]

I loved how the OS looked like everything was made by glass, it looked so clean and sophisticated compared to XP

[SUPERWIND]

Vista was actually AHEAD of its time, To the point that computers couldn't handle the new UI and features.

[pinstripecool]

Man I loved Vista, I remember being so blown away by the new UI it looked so modern and futuristic at the time.

[bubbletea_]

Our family used a Vista machine during my middle school years, so to me it was just normal. I didn't know anything about the negative perception people had of it nor did I really care. I just wanted to watch YouTube videos and play Club Penguin.

[urphakeandgey]

For some reason, Vista had my favourite aesthetic. It felt like the perfect middle ground between XP and 7. The fact most of the aesthetic carried into 7 must mean that was never much of an issue.

[justinhamilton]

My older brother had a crappy laptop with vista on it, he passed away in 2009. Vista will always hold a special place in my heart for all the afternoons we spent playing around in his laptop, watching YouTube and drawing and playing games.

[SpaceSysZ]

I remember vista being used in my school back then and I loved the Aero theme. No slowdowns, no crashes. It shows that with the right hardware, Vista was great. More than a decade later, I’m reliving Vista with a virtual machine

[PaulStompbox]

As a 7 year old kid when I first saw Windows Vista in 2007, I was in awe and felt as I had already began living in the future. I convinced both my parents to buy brand new Vista computers (because I assumed there wasn't such thing as installing the OS on old computers, to which, I judged correctly but for different reasons), and so, in 2007 and 2008, they got one each, to which, I loved them. I loved the apps they had, the gadgets sidebar, the glossy look and feel, and, just the fact it was the newest thing available. I had no idea people really hated it. Then Seven came out, and while I wasn't too excited for it other than that it was the newest OS, I asked my parents to upgrade just from the Vista computers because it was newer and Vista started to look somewhat aged. That's my story.

[therearespoons]

Vista was NOT BAD. I completely agree this: "Vista just came out too early."
If Vista was release when at least 1-2GB RAM in a rig is common everywhere, I am sure we will never hear "Vista sucked"

[huntermorgan]

Everyone who said Vista was a bad operating system never experienced the HORROR that was Windows ME.

[matthewpaulargall]

The aesthetic of Windows Vista has aged very well. It looks more beautiful than today's operating systems.

[asherscottL]

My family went from Windows 98 to Vista, and I remember being so blown away. I was so puzzled as to why people hated it so much

[johnfromthird]

To this day I still absolutely LOVE the look of Vista... It was so pretty. So much better than the flat materiel esque design we have today on computers throughout. Also the old Iphone UI where nothing was flat. Everything was cel-shaded.

[blacksonic]

Ngl that start up sound was really nostalgic

[trilobitemmmxxx]

I loved the looks and slick design of Vista, the aero effects were great, plus the cool integrated gadgets. I never had major problems with the system either.

[frankzeppelin]

This video is mostly fair, but it's leaving out one key element: Microsoft has historically relied on the revenue from mediocre (or awful) intermediate releases between their premiere operating systems. These intermediate OS's add functionality, but not really as much as would generally warrant getting a new one. The simple fact is that most people were happy with XP. I loved XP. And I didn't get much experience with Vista but there were too many credible stories of it just being slow and buggy. And Microsoft's position was basically, "You're computer must be too old so go buy a new one, " which didn't help. Vista was a solution to a problem most users didn't have.

[tamasakura]

Remember when I first switched from xp to vista, It was just like seeing the future. That UI looks gorgeous, the icons in vista is top level even now. When win7 came out, I really wanted it has the vista UI, but can run faster.

[JCVB]

Honestly thought Windows ME was the worse it would literally break its self