Startup View. Comparison to Ballista:

Win is cheaper, more expensive to break due to having 1-2 more subroutines than Ballista (only with Odore both are equally expensive) and can fire multiple subroutines. Win wins. On HQ Win wins even more. It's not even fully boomerangable. Add to that the awkwardness of Ballista's single subroutine which never allows you to trash a program AND end the run. Add to that that Win can do both AND trash Hardware in addition to that.

Devil's advocate:

1. Winchester cannot end the run if not played on HQ.
2. A VERY rich runner can "break" Winchester without a Killer installed due to the subroutines being (tho quite expensive) traces.
3. Ballista is more splashable due to only 2 inf compared to 4 with Winchester.
4. Winchester is more predictable to be played on HQ/should not be installed on HQ if HQ is already "full" of ICE.
5. A facecheck without anything installed is worse with Ballista, which has a hard ETR.
6. Link-heavy Runners laugh at the traces.

Answer:

1. Pity, nothing to do about that.
2. I have to go a little out on a limb here: Rich facechecks aren't really a thing. That's why cards like Whitespace work at all. It would make a difference if you already trashed their last Killer but we're already at a lot of "if"s. Even if they facecheck while being rich (another "if") they'll pay a lot - I'm fine with that.
3. How often do you see a Ballista outside of Weyland? o.O
4. Reading this review should have made clear that Winchester is better even if not installed on HQ. If you think predictability is a problem you still get more worth installing Winchester somewhere else.
5. Agreed. Win...loses :( But paying 5 for an early ETR hurts like /%$&. And if you really need the ETR on Winchester you can buff it with your own money.
6. Most of them are not really the meta-winners in Startup right now. Even if they have 1 Link AND Win is not on HQ they have to pay 5 credits which is still more than breaking Ballista with contemporary breakers.

I felt kinda sick everytime i played/saw a Ballista for 5 credits and saw it being broken for 2 credits by a Bukhgalter. That's what drove me to writing this review. I'm not trying to bash Ballista here but I'd really like you to try this: Substitute the Ballistas in your decks as far as you can with Winchesters. Tell me how you feel about it. You can go back if points 1-6 (or something I didn't think about) happens too often. Just give a little love to Win. The review on here makes it look bad which it isn't. :(

Startup View:

Kinda have to rant on this but it just goes way over my head why someone would ever use this instead of the just simply better Enigma. Sure it is a nice facecheck earlygame but who says that you'll actually draw it then? In the mid and lategame this is just a >dead< card which as described earlier gets broken for a single effing credit... It's really just not worth the rez cost, the click to install and therefore the deck spot. Oh did i mention it's also porous for rich runners? Like they pay 3 credits and just move through it which kinda resembles...using an effing icebreaker? How many do you want to put in your deck of these to get your cool painful earlygame facecheck? 3? Jesus, for your own sake - don't.

Look at the alternative in Enigma : Just 1 more rez cost but an actually unconditional ETR subroutine and 3 to break with the ubiqitous Unity (tho 2 to break with Gordian Blade). It also has a hurtful facecheck by losing a click.

What I want you to take away from this review is this: If you ever think about putting a Whitespace in your deck >really< consider if it would be better than an Enigma. I'm putting my hands in the fire here by saying that in at least 95% of the cases it just is not.