San Francisco - While Microsoft trumpeted Vista worldwide on Tuesday, the internet abounded with postings from people unimpressed or downright disappointed with the new operating system.
As Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates headed a multi-million dollar "The wow starts now" ad campaign for Vista, computer aficionados online countered "Yawn, not wow."
Headlines on weblogs and news websites included "Think whisper, not bang" and "Why you don't need Vista now".
Critiques mocked Vista's grand promotion campaign, contending the system that Microsoft spent five years and $6bn to create had little to offer that hadn't been available in Apple's Macintosh computers for years.
"Not that I have a hate-on for Microsoft or anything... but I think this Vista was just a joke," wrote a blogger at Microsoft-operated Windows Live Spaces website.
'No one really cared'
"Just like (Windows) XP it's gonna take like two years to work out all the kinks. And by the way, I'm still finding problems with XP!"
Numerous patches, fixes, and updates have been released for the Windows XP operating system that Vista is replacing since its release in 2001.
Unlike the releases of Nintendo's Wii and Sony's PlayStation 3 video game consoles in November, throngs did not queue up at stores to buy Vista when it went on sale after the stroke of midnight on Monday, bloggers observed.
"In fact, it was kind of the opposite," a Tech Blog author identified only as Josh wrote. "No one really cared."
Bloggers complained that Vista was expensive and slowed computers that lacked upgraded memory and graphics components.
"Your software won't work," Chris Pirillo wrote while providing "tips" on Vista in a Windows Fanatics weblog. "Consider that a huge tip."
Privacy breach
"Assume that if something works in Windows XP, there's a good chance it will not work the same way in Windows Vista."
Vista also scanned computers to insure film or music files there were legally copied, bloggers complained.
"They can search your computer via the internet and delete any illegal files including music downloads," Josh said in a posting. "My privacy has been breached."
Microsoft has proclaimed Vista is its most secure and thoroughly-tested operating system release.
Webloggers advised readers to put off buying Vista until flaws had a chance to be discovered and fixed.
Breaking popular games
Online complaints included needing to upgrade most old software along with hardware to work with Vista. Major computer game publisher WildTangent has accused Vista of "breaking" many popular computer games.
Some bloggers praised Vista features such as photo handling, speech recognition and desktop search but contended that Visto offered nothing revolutionary.
"Much of the new goodness has been available on the Macintosh for years," Adam Hertz wrote in an online posting. "But, for those who wouldn't consider crossing that particular chasm, Vista seems like a good thing."
Windows XP users would likely be pleased with Vista's enhanced features, but should be prepared for a tedious upgrading process, bloggers said.
Approximately 95% of the 900 million computers in the world run on Windows operating systems.