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Issue #212 March 2008
What Happened to Performance?
by Steve Ciarcia
It seems like I’ve been spending a lot more editorial space ranting these days. I think the reason is that I feel more at the mercy of ridiculous engineering than I used to. There was a time when if I didn’t like how something worked, I’d just go re-design or customize it, but with today’s complex processors and million-line operating systems, re-engineering commercial items is pretty much impossible. Basically, we’re at the mercy of whatever corporate profit-inspired crap they want to shove our way. Do I sound bitter?
Whether your embedded expertise involves software or hardware, our professional lives these days mandate the use of a PC and there aren’t a whole lot of options. Choices regarding system configuration and processor speeds are still ruled by our wallet, as they should be in a capitalistic economy, but the sad choice of operating systems is a terrible statement of monopoly politics.
I have three computers (two Sony VAIOs and a Toshiba) that I use on a regular basis. One is a large desktop and the other two are large and small laptops. All of them are about three years old and use Windows XP Pro. For the most part, they have been bug-free and I haven’t had any problems installing software for the many programs and devices that I like to use. However, like everything technical these days, evolution continues. Certainly, now that we have dual and quad processors galore, I could expect to see a remarkable increase in performance in a couple of new top-of-the-line VAIOs with Microsoft’s latest and greatest multi-processor operating system—Vista.
I’m glad I wasn’t the first one on my block to try this because it would have been a disaster. But in order to get a better handle on reality versus all of the Microsoft bashing, I bought a dual-processor Gateway laptop with Vista Home Premium to see the results of three more years of Moore’s Law in action. In my opinion, Vista is a sexy, graphic-intensive operating system designed to move us all into the world of flashy video, Internet-centric living, and more Microsoft-provided software services and advertising. (Sounds a lot like Google doesn’t it?) My single-processor 2.39-GHz P4 XP seems faster than a 2.6-GHz Core 2 Duo with twice the RAM running Vista. And, there seems to be very little driver support for the small-company peripherals and software packages that I am currently using under XP. (It should have been a clue when I did a Google search on “Vista sucks” and got 150,000 results using exactly those words.) ;-.)
At this point, the decision is to forget upgrading (a concept that if it catches on should strike panic in every PC manufacturer), switch to a Mac or Ubuntu (unfortunately not enough driver support here either), or buy new hardware and just install XP Pro instead of Vista (easier said than done).
I hope PC manufactures get the message, but they need to know they have been led down the path by Microsoft. Perhaps like many of you, I’m voting with my wallet. I’m not buying any new PC hardware until they sell it to me without Vista or in a configuration that I can easily install XP alone. For example, we needed new desktops for everyone at the office this year. To the detriment of all the other PC manufacturers who only sell Vista, the solution was getting them from Dell because Dell would configure them preloaded with XP.
Unfortunately, I don’t think Dell has the laptops I want, and solving my personal PC requirements is turning into a whole ’nother bag of worms. Unless I order some expensive exotic gaming machine where they already know it has to be XP or a way off-brand PC, I don’t see any laptops from the “regular guys” that aren’t preloaded with Vista. (And who’s the idiot that thought up four different versions of Vista to further confuse the market?) Unlike a desktop where we can configure the hardware to accommodate the available drivers and do a clean XP install, prepackaged laptops are black boxes with few configuration options. The only option for most VAIO, HP, Toshiba, etc. laptop owners is to try to install XP as a second disk partition. The good news is that this indeed gives you back the use of XP, but apparently Vista never goes away, and doing this has its own unique set of bugs. Forget that.
Still, hardware is hardware, isn’t it? Logic suggests that we should be able to simply buy a new HP or Gateway laptop, wipe Vista off the machine, and then install XP. Unfortunately, the reality is that most retailers are selling a lot of this new hardware as “Vista-only” machines and internal peripheral XP drivers aren’t necessarily available for that specific laptop. The result is that it may require numerous calls to the manufacturer (how’s your Chinese?) to obtain XP drivers. Yes, you can install XP, but you might find that the DVD player doesn’t work because you have the wrong driver.
So, right now I’m sitting here with three computers I’d like to upgrade and about $6,000 I’m not spending on any manufacturer until someone sells me a new laptop with XP Pro on it. I have a list of favorite brands, but I’m open to suggestions. If you’ve spent more time researching this problem and have some answers, please e-mail me and tell me where to look. In the meantime, I’ll trust that Vista Service Pack 1 has helped mitigate some of the performance issues, but until then, I guess Google’s content scanning will make this editorial 150,001 the next time someone searches that phrase.
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