06.23.07
Vista Networking? Think Again.
I have spent the past few days trying to get a co-worker’s new Toshiba laptop, powered by Microsoft’s Windows Vista, set up. Being over 2700 miles away from home (and even further for my co-worker), it is essential that the laptop works with the hotel’s WiFi network. While my Dell, powered by Linux Mint, works reliably, his does not.
Apparently, some of the changes that Microsoft made to their TCP/IP stack are incompatible with some implementations of DHCP. In simple English, if you buy a computer with Vista on it, you may need to buy new networking equipment in order for the computer to connect reliably.
After all of this–try this fix and try that fix, including registry fixes and temporarily disabling the built-in firewall–there is still not a reliable way to connect his computer to the wireless network (and from there to the larger Internet).
I am sure that Microsoft will have a permanent solution to this within a month or two. They are pretty intelligent people, so they know about the problem and are working on a solution for it. It is too bad that they felt the pressure to push it out the door unfinished.
Still, if you have a small business that uses networked computers, your best bet is to insist on Linux-powered computers and standardized network protocols and file formats. If your people spend a week or two in a hotel, unable to connect to the network (and hence, unable to reach your VPN), you may lose a substantial amount of productivity with those employees. Instead of throwing your company’s money into a giant corporation’s “one-point-oh quality” product, so that you can be free tester to help them work out the bugs, check out the polished Linux distributions that are available for the desktop / client.
In our country, we have seen that larger companies, as they gain power and influence, tend to turn it against their employees, their customers, their neighbors, their communities, and their smaller competitors. It becomes a game of trying to use their money and influence to benefit themselves while transferring all costs to the rest of society. Often, if society as a whole “spanks” a particular corporation, it decides to be a good citizen and good neighbor, at least for the next several years.
If you still want the Microsoft blessing, look at Xandros for the desktop. Xandros is a small Linux distributor that has signed a blessing agreement with Microsoft. If that is not important to you, or if you explicitly wish to avoid the “blessing,” take a look at Mint or Ubuntu or Fedora for the desktop. (For non-technical users, we recommend Mint or a Ubuntu-family [Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Edubuntu, Xubuntu] operating system.)
Giving Up On Vista « Opportunity Knocks said,
June 23, 2007 at 15:17
[...] A coworker got a new Toshiba notebook with Windows Vista preinstalled. Since I am 2700+ miles … However, at this point, nothing seems to work reliably or repeatably. At this point, he is ready to go back to XP. [...]