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December 8, 2008

Stephen Fry explodes at Vista and Vaio

Both are sorts of 'arse'

Lexton Snol

Just days after laying into products that dare to be made by a company other than his beloved Apple, actor and comic Stephen Fry - possibly Britain's favourite person - has taken a verbal hatchet to Microsoft's Windows Vista and a Sony Vaio laptop via Twitter.

Twitter fan Fry explained that he needed a PC laptop to "review things" and went for a Sony Vaio laptop running Windows Vista.

It didn't take long for Fry to lose his patience.

Stephen Fry and Apple iPhone

"I hate Vista so much I want to cry. Bought a Vaio. The most useless $4k ever spent. It just will not join a sec-enabled network.

"I have nine Macs!!!!!! I don't need another **** Mac. I just want ONE ARSING PC that isn't complete ****.

"Too late. It's going out the window. I can't put up with this sort of arse.

"Listen, I have Parallels, I have Fusion, I have 2 distros of Linux. I need just one, just 1 of **** Vista so that I can review things.

"Forgive intemperate language, but every time I buy a PC they're worse, not better than they were before and it make me so angry I could kill."

Fry's sense of calm and decorum eventually returned: "I've calmed down now. Vista and PCs are so crap it's funny."

At the end of November, Fry used Twitter to call the BlackBerry Storm "shockingly bad" and "embarrassingly awful".

Blackadder and Bones star Fry, who insists he "SO wanted to like it", accuses the Storm of "terrible lag: inaccurate t'screen, awful, slow and fiddly text input.

"Plus the GPS maps won't work - issue with BIS connections. iPhone killer? Ha!"

Fry isn't blinkered about Apple. In September 2007 Fry slammed Apple's original iPhone for only supporting server-side applications, predicting that closed environments aren't the future for the technology industry.

"All the big guns want an iPhone killer. Even I, mad for all things Apple as I am, want an iPhone killer. I want smart digital devices to be as good as mankind's ingenuity can make them. I want us eternally to strive to improve and surprise. Bring on the iPhone killers. Bring them on," he writes.

Fry purchased the second Mac ever shipped into the UK, with the first being acquired by his friend, the late Hitchhiker's Guide author Douglas Adams.

Of the iPhone, Fry concluded: "Everything else in the iPhone lives up to, even surpasses the hype. Another triumph for Jonathan Ive and his design team, Apple has made a wholly desirable and beautiful object. Only a cross and silly person would pretend to be unimpressed or make claims of parity about their O2 XHA Trion or similar lumpen beast."

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Comments received


Patrick said on Monday, 08 December 2008

Lexton Snol - Hmm great name....

lextonsnol said on Monday, 08 December 2008

Thanks, Patrick.

Gordon said on Monday, 08 December 2008

What an opinionated git, he's smart but still a fanboy.

Skidz said on Monday, 08 December 2008

I agree with him about vista , i felt much the same way but it did at least take me a few months to chuck it way.

tech gig said on Monday, 08 December 2008

i think he didn t even try to use the pc or the storm ha we all now apple is really user friendly but will never perform has good has a tweked pc no computing power on it !!!
after few settings and updates will perform better
so fry get out of the apple dumbeness !!!!

Dabblin Harry said on Monday, 08 December 2008

Stephen is right, Vista is a dog on the wrong hardware. Give it enough memory and CPU cores it improves to the point of being on par with XP when XP first come out. If that is what the call progress, then the oxford English definition of progress needs to be re-written. Take Windows 3.11 and install on a core duo, it rocks (as well as it could). Why could old Bill not make things more efficient? Perhaps this takes serious effort, never mind Microsoft only have thousands of developers, maybe that is not enough.

WayHay said on Monday, 08 December 2008

Tech Gig... I notice from your post your PC doesn't even have a spell check. Stupid machines indeed.

fred henri said on Monday, 08 December 2008

Stephen Fry calling something an `arse' With his proclivities he should have a natural empathy with something so described??

Tom Goodier said on Thursday, 11 December 2008

I Agree completley the older ones were better and Vista must be the worst, programs dont run or r not compat its just away of getting us to spend more i did and wish i had not its aload of crap thank god I still got XP on my laptop

Matt said on Thursday, 11 December 2008

HA i love Stephen Fry if he nearly cried when Vista came out i want to see his reaction with Windows 7!! lol

Obiously Not very pc savy then Mr Fry said on Thursday, 11 December 2008

I have used xp & now vista without any problems simple to set up a home network within 10 minutes running 3 computers 2 desktops and a notebook with WPA encryption & I've only got 3 CSE'S
Also my notebook is duel boot with Linux that also connects without a problem

Poit said on Thursday, 11 December 2008

I wonder how many Apple products the bumptious twerp has recieved as freebies.

Fry is something like an Apple product himself. By knowing a little bit about everything he seeks to make himself seem intelllectual, but when pressed his severe shortcomings are revealed, while Apple products work fine, but when pressed reveal their limitations.

Stan Reid said on Thursday, 11 December 2008


I agree with Stephen Fry, Vista is not as good as was promised, and Vaio is rubbish.

Jurgen said on Thursday, 11 December 2008

Well said Stephen. I need not say any more.

redstringuitar said on Friday, 12 December 2008

Take another pill and calm down Stephen!
Vista is actually very good once you learn how to use it properly. some things won't work properly unless run as administrator - it's just MS playing Daddy, that's all!
As for Sony Vaio's, I don't know which model you have, but mine is over 2 years old and hasn't let me down once! (poor video performance though) I'd gladly take your's off your hands, rather than it going through the window!
One more thing, Linux is very bad for depression, trust me, I know!

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