Sony and Windows Vista

Let me tell you about something that I discovered recently that may affect your buying decisions. As everyone has heard and all too many have experienced, Windows Vista is unstable, incompatible, and very presumptuous. It tends to get in the way of simple use of the computer, such as just getting onto the Internet to download a file.

The reason I bring this up is that most manufacturers allow the consumer to "downgrade" to Windows XP if he does not wish to use Vista. However, this is not true of Sony. I recently had the opportunity to work on a new top-end Sony Vaio LT Series for a local client and found that the computer could not be reformatted to work under Windows XP. Calling Sony for assistance (as this typically means that there is some sort of RAID driver required to allow the Windows XP Setup program to see the hard drive controller), I found out that they said that there are no Windows XP drivers for the computer, the machine was not designed for Windows XP, and that attempting to force the computer to use Windows XP would actually void the warranty.

When one buys a computer, he should be permitted to use any software on it that he chooses, not have the software dictated by the hardware manufacturer. Because of this decision by Sony, I cannot say that I support the decision to buy their products. It appears to be a sign that the company is losing interest in serving its consumers and, instead, is more interested in serving the software manufacturers.

Be forewarned: if you buy one of these machines, like it or not, you are stuck with Windows Vista.