Stupid Is as Stupid Does

Got into a discussion (as much as a Usenet thread can be likened to civil discourse these days), in a military aviation group about everyone’s favorite whipping boy, Microsoft Vista. For anyone who has been around the computer world for a decade or more, the pattern is familiar. MS announces a revolutionary update to their operating system. Bells and whistles abound and the pre-release hype is intense. Magazines line up and fall all over themselves telling us about the whiz-bang and how indispensable the new software is going to be. They drive the beta-ware and report miracles of user-friendliness.

Then comes release day, and within minutes the horror stories begin flowing. Within days the new software is revealed as blotted, buggy, unready for prime time. Same stuff, different audience, different conclusion. It happened with 95, 98, ME, XP and now to unprecedented levels with Vista. Let’s note that the not-unbiased Apple folks have not been hesitant to pile on and maybe even misrepresent a little bit.

I bought a new machine when I needed one. I unhesitatingly went with Vista and Office ’07. I had a single driver issue which was the fault of the third-party equipment which failed to properly link to the Vista software. Once I found it, that product worked well also.

Here’s the story that was discussed by the newsgroup:

We Are French--We don' need no steenkin updates

I frankly (no pun intended) don’t see how you can blame MS for advising the French that an update was required and then not having the customer take such a simple action. Stupid is as stupid does and the Frogs found a crème de merde in their box of chocolates.

But as the discussion progressed what became clear was that folks express strongly held opinions on Vista without being a user. Or, we find some of this in play:

From the latest edition of PC World magazine, a reader writes:

“I heard of a woman who stated that she didn’t know she had to have antivirus software; another user claimed not to know that you had to download updates for antivirus or for Windows. Microsoft finds a way to help them with warning bubbles in Vista—and now everyone is annoyed and they want the warnings off again.
…But what Microsoft needs to do is create Windows 7 Smart and Windows 7 Stupid, so that people who actually know how to use Windows have their version and dumb people have the other one.”

So, there we have the solution. And, I believe it is a good one. Seems like Joe Biden or Nancy Pelosi ought to be taking this ball and running with it. I think the concept has a great appeal for their core constituency.