Vista? Oy!
I’ve been working with someone on a computer that has the Microsoft Vista operating system installed. Overall, it’s OK, although sometimes goofy things happen. For instance, it will say occasionally that the video driver has stopped working, and then the screen will go black, and then it will come back on, and everything seems to be perfectly normal. But there’s one other thing that is really annoying.
Vista has a really, really, really, really, really fucking difficult time with https:// websites. You know, the ones that are supposed to be secure? The ones that operate through a secure sockets layer in order to provide authentication and encrypted communication? The one that’s widely used on the internet for security-sensitive communication such as payment transactions, corporate logons, and administrator security functions? The really kind of important shit?
Vista won’t display most of these pages. It gives you an error page that states there is a problem loading the page. It could be the server, it could be your connection, it could be the page has both secure and unsecure objects, it could be that the certificate for “http://www.some_stupid_website.com” doesn’t match up with “https://logon.some_stupid_website.com/index.php”, or it could be any number of things, but Vista can’t diagnose what the problem is. Why is that? The answer is simple, really – VISTA IS THE PROBLEM!!!!!!!!
It doesn’t seem to matter what browser you use: Firefox, IE, Opera, or whatever. The pages work for a while, and then, all of a sudden, Vista decides to not display them anymore. So, if you want to access, oh, I don’t know, web mail? Financial institution websites? Government websites? Anti-virus and anti-SPAM websites? Or even trying to update definitions for anti-malware software? Forget it. Once Vista decides to stop accepting https:// pages, you are shit out of luck.
So I decided to tool around, trying to figure out a fix. I downloaded updates – nothing worked. I tried changing internet options for SSL and TLS settings – nada. I tried running a couple of command prompt scripts – zip. I tried using a restore point. Fahgitaboutit! The only thing that worked, albeit temporarily, was to back up files and use recovery disks to set the machine back to factory condition. What a joy that was. Especially when it worked all of two freaking days.
You see, what happened is Microsoft decided to update IE7 and the default HTTPS protocol settings were changed to disable the weaker SSLv2 protocol and to enable the stronger TLSv1 protocol. Or so they say, because whatever the fuck it was that they did, it didn’t work. And it isn’t Microsoft’s fault, either. It’s everyone else’s fault. Those who haven’t upgraded their software or their hardware to be compatible with Vista, they’re the ones who are causing the problems. But it sure isn’t Microsoft’s fault. No way in hell is it Microsoft’s fault.
My question is, if Microsoft is such a great company with all these stupendously intelligent and highly paid programmers and employees, why can’t they make stuff that’s backwards compatible? I have a CD burner, a printer, a video card, a digital camera, a video camera (that’s not even a year old!), a monitor, a scanner, and a sound card on my computer at home that all work perfectly fine. At least they do with a multitude of Linux releases, and Windows Me. However, some of these perfectly fine pieces of equipment aren’t compatible with Windows XP. And absolutely NONE of them are compatible with Vista. So, if I want to get a new computer with Vista on it, or if I wanted to get a laptop, I can’t use any of that stuff. I have to get all new stuff. And then I’d have to figure out a way to get all that old stuff recycled – even though they all work perfectly well. And it’s all because Microshaft cannot write one piece of programming that’s backwards compatible.
All ranting aside, I can’t get this person’s computer to work right, because of Microsoft, and because of Microsoft’s shitty business practices. Time to re-boot and start all over again. Unfortunately, she can’t return Vista and get their money back. So, she’s out 370 bucks. I wonder if there’s a class action lawsuit that can be brought against Microsoft for that? Probably not.
