Dear silicon.com... Vista gets down to business, caught on camera, ID cards…

Windows Vista's on the agenda again and this time silicon.com readers are debating whether the latest OS is really business-friendly. Readers were also busy commenting on the "ring of steel" automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) camera rollout in Manchester, while ID cards were a hot topic once again…

Vista - ready for business?
Watch out business - Vista's after you

My productivity has dropped significantly since trying Vista. Under XP the same PC could run three 512KB Virtual PC's with memory left over. Now it can hardly cope with two running.

I'm going back to XP this week. Good riddance to bad news.
-- Anthony Hunt, Maidstone

Although it has some management features for large corporates, for the end user it has few if any obvious benefits and many drawbacks: it is generally slower, has an unfamiliar and often inconsistent interface and appears to be less stable than the XP we know and love (relatively speaking)…
-- George, UK

The fact that Vista is being pushed so hard by Microsoft speaks volumes. We neither want nor need it.
-- W.S.Becket, Bangor

Vista upgrade tester on my PC says that there are 17 pieces of my current software which will not run with Vista. And it is my problem to fix it, not theirs. There are three pieces of software they advise me will never work with Vista, so tough! What a sales pitch - whatever became of backward compatibility?
-- AJS, Bucks

Editor's choice

silicon.com editor Steve Ranger flags up his picks on the site this week...

♦ Exclusive report: silicon.com CIO50 3008
♦ The CIO's route to the top
♦ Mars - The CIO training ground

Manchester on camera
ANPR "ring of steel" watches over Manchester

I was thinking about getting a job in Manchester - but not now, I won't ever go to the place again. This is inappropriate use of potentially beneficial technology. I cannot see any justification for keeping the data for five years - to my mind, they'd have trouble justifying five months.
-- Jeremy Wickins, Sheffield

What possible justification can Manchester police have for keeping for five years the records of tens of thousands of innocent citizens going about their legitimate business. Police State big style. I certainly won't be visiting Manchester, thank you very much.
-- Chris Walker, Staffordshire

This is to be applauded in it's success in removing uninsured, untaxed vehicles from the road. But - the criminal fraternity will rapidly know where the cameras are located and will equally rapidly find routes that avoid camera detection.
-- Chris Goodman, Fareham

Good god, do people really have to ask why the police are keeping the details for five years? It's damn obvious, it's so that for any crime, they can just go fishing through the database - just hope that you weren't in the database as having been in the city on the wrong day.
-- Simon, Cumbria

ID cards - the latest privacy concerns
ID cards: The "surveillance society" risk

It's still going to be implemented no matter what anyone says. Just like HMG will keep on asking for 42 days detention until they get it regardless of any opposition.
-- Karen Challinor, UK

This present government may well implement ID cards in a small scale way over the next two years, ever presuming that they can get the technology right in the time scale that they have set themselves.

If either of the main opposition parties win the next general, a likely scenario I would suggest, then this scheme is due to be scrapped and the primary legislation behind it rescinded. Let's hope this government don't waste too much more of the taxpayers' money on it.
-- Anonymous, Sussex

There is a very simple answer to these concerns - don't implement ID cards!

Is it that MPs are so stupid they cannot see this solution, or, more likely, is it that they lack the guts to stand up to the party whips and vote the proposal down?

Are they so stupid that they have been taken in by the spurious arguments in favour of this appallingly risky breach of privacy and, in the end liberty?

To assume that petty public servants will not start to exploit ID cards and all that comes with them for bureaucratic control and harassment is stunningly naive!
-- Anonymous, somewhere in the UK

Please note, comments may be edited for clarity, grammar, spelling, punctuation and style. The views expressed are not necessarily the views of silicon.com. You can write to silicon.com by posting a Reader Comment below, or emailing editorial@silicon.com.