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Windows 'Vista', anyone?

6K views 55 replies 39 participants last post by  kajunman1 
#1 ·
I myself, am running WinXP SP3 and [after making a number of configurational changes] am reasonably content with it.

I have asked a number of individuals [mostly fellow techs] for their impressions of Windows 'Vista' and nearly unanimously, the response has been negative.

I suppose that I should get a copy and install it on another partition for when I work on customer's systems, but after what I have heard, it is difficult to summon up the motivation to do so.

What do you guys think of 'Vista'?
 
#2 ·
I tired Vista for two months. The experience was ok but there was no compelling reason to switch. I switched back to XP mostly for the little annoyances that came with Vista. For example, Vista drivers for my printer did not do the manual duplexing. How sad is that? I love that feature.

If you need to do OS service/configuration on Vista there are lots of gotchas. They are not that hard to Google your way around but it will take you some time. It would be worth practicing if you expect to do this much. If you will just be working in user land then there is not much to see. Getting a feel for the new Explorer will be the biggest nuisance.
 
#3 ·
No sir, I insist on being able to tweak the OS via services config, registry editing and group policies editing. I would have to once again, do research [as you alluded to] as to how to accomplish such tweaking.

I concur with you relative to the printer drivers. That would be a problem.

I understand that Vista is primarily 'eye candy', which does not interest me at all.

I also understand that Vista is 'resource heavy', the aforementioned problem likely being responsible for at least much of that sort of thing.

I did try Vista very briefly and the experience annoyed me, greatly.
 
#4 ·
No sir, I insist on being able to tweak the OS via services config, registry editing and group policies editing. I would have to once again, do research [as you alluded to] as to how to accomplish such tweaking.
Which is why I run linux. Windows anything is a pain in the rear.

My wife run windows on her computers and its a never ending "honey can you fix this/that", and dont even get me started on trying to keep the damn thing secure.
 
#5 ·
This is one diverse forum!
+1 for Linux, I'm all for sticking it to Microsoft and I'm no fan of Apples proprietary stinginess.
I took a low budget Vista laptop over there after they pulled XP from Best Buy shelves. I hated it- for my system specs XP would have ran great; this thing was slow. I had to relearn switch functions and positions. Then Vista (maybe it was Toshiba) fragged up the hard drive beyond repair. After getting it back 3 months later, I kept using it.
When I got back to Japan I pulled the old XP desktop out (the desktop has better specs) and uploaded service pack 3 and upgraded some hardware.
I miss Vista.
After learning Vista and going back to XP I can quit ragging MS, well rag them less.
Vista is better, not my ideal OS but you have nothing to fear.
If you spend a lot of time on the computer and like it's intricacies you should try out Linux.
 
#8 ·
I feel that Vista has gotten the bad end of the schtick if you ask me. There's a TON of things which annoy the living crap of me, but then there are a TON of things I enjoy about vista. (One major is DX10.)

But I have to say this, Xp is a pretty solid OS, espeically when you "customize" it yourself, with example Nlite. I hated SP2, but SP3 seems ok on my Acer One, which I plan on converting to Vista.

However, I am looking forward to Windows 7.



SOLIDUS
 
#10 ·
But I have to say this, Xp is a pretty solid OS, espeically when you "customize" it yourself, with example Nlite.

SOLIDUS
"Nlite?? :):)

I will have to research that one.

As stated earlier, I am running XP SP3 and the OS has proven to be very stable.

When I was married, I was the 'computer guru' in our home. Even today, I still maintain all of our machines and I consider all of our machines [two desktops and two laptops] to be "mission critical".

Accordingly, if an OS is not rock solid stable, I refuse to take a chance on installing it on our systems.

I had heard [or read] that Microsot realized that Vista was fraught with many a problem and was rushing to develop another OS in order to supplant Vista.

As I had only heard about such from one source, I am dubious about the truth of the statement.

Given Microsot's history, such would not surprise me.
 
#12 ·
After being with PCs from the very beginning I finally ditched them forever. I bought a MAC mini in 2006 and it is better than sex. I will NEVER own a PC again. Never. All I do is turn my computer on. That's it... no tweaking, no fiddling, no anti-virus this anti-spam that. PC's have to be nursed and babied all the time to get them to run. I just turn my MAC on and in less than 10 second I can be on the net of making a movie... once you go MAC you never go back...
 
#14 ·
I suggest you have another look. The BSD core makes makes for good stability and they are customizable, you just need work a little harder at it because most of their users are pedestrians.

I use all three regularly. One of the big things that puts me off OS X is the finder. I hate the finder. hate it with a passion. I am a little rusty with Macs, though, since I gave away my icebook. please please pleas Mr Jobs, update the mini!
 
#15 ·
Now, you've brought up a subject I like to rant about. I'm a senior support tech with the usual "major computer manufacturer" and I know from day in and day out experience that 4 out of 5 times when someone says "Vista is junk cause it won't do this" it's because either the user doesn't know how to do it or there is no OS that can do it without adding additional software. Many people have the idea that an OS is all they need to do anything a computer can do. And I can't recall how many people have had their data saved and easily recovered (easy being the key) because they were running Vista and not XP, GNU/Linux, or OS X. That's where Microsoft butting in can actually help. It's also true that Microsoft updates break computers often, but I've had the same in Linux.

Now, my main computer currently boots Kubuntu and XP Pro (and, God no, not SP3) and at one time I had it also booting Vista Ultimate. It has two other HDDs in it that I hook in now and then to boot Mandriva 2008 Powerpack and Fedora 8. Somewhere, there might be a copy of Windows 7 Build 6801 :rolleyes:. The second computer on my desk boots OpenSuse 11.0 or TinyMe. The notebook in the drawer will boot to a command line Linux solely for play. The computer next to my desk should boot to PC-BSD if I remember correctly. Don't know how many LiveCDs are laying around, but particular favorites there are Puppy Linux and Damn Small Linux. All of them are operating systems, not miracles, and do what an OS is supposed to do. I currently, and mostly, boot to Kubuntu. I will have to boot to XP later in order to work on some files from my second job (proprietary software issue, though I'm working on it). My wife's computer has XP Pro and Ubuntu and she will not go to Vista solely because she doesn't want to change. She uses XP - the Ubuntu is for me. My 4 year old daughter uses XP. I had thought about putting Edubuntu or similar on my daughter's PC, but figured when she gets to school she'll be using Windows so might as well let her learn it better. She can get on my computer and use Linux on it. I have no problem with Apple's OS, as it's mostly just modified Darwin UNIX and their EFI should be the standard instead of BIOS. (For any Apple fanboy who doesn't know, Apple did not invent EFI, which is an argument I hear often.) I have a HUGE problem with Apple and their approach to software and hardware. People who complain about Microsoft being heavy handed are completely ignorant of Apple. Of course, if you don't mind their way of doing business, you do get a working computer for 2-3 times what a Windows PC would cost you.

I tweak all my OS's, with any version of Linux being the most moddable, and I don't know how many times I've broken my systems doing tweaks. Vista is no harder or easier to tweak than XP and, generally, the same tweaks work. Vista is much, much easier to do networking on than XP for the general public and its GUI has interfaces for much more than XP had, though, sometimes it can be hard to find the right window with the right box to click. Yes, it works best with as much RAM as you can fit on the board and a real graphics card, but XP also uses way more resources than it needs to. So does KDE4 on Linux, come to that. And I wish that every OS had a search function that operated as fast and as well as Vista's. The Start Search box is the absolute jewel of Vista.

A particular quirk of mine is that I truly like Windows Solitaire and have a modded copy that I use on both Windows and Linux machines.

I have no problem with any operating system - it's the users who suck. :whip:
 
#21 ·
I'm a senior support tech with the usual "major computer manufacturer" and I know from day in and day out experience that 4 out of 5 times when someone says "Vista is junk cause it won't do this" it's because either the user doesn't know how to do it or there is no OS that can do it without adding additional software.
I believe my negative view of Vista is more from the timing. After receiving a copy (6-weeks after the release) I remember walking around Best Buy looking for 64-bit capable software. I could only find one anti-virus program to support Vista 64 (Kerperski) since Microsoft enraged the other antivirus players with Windows Defender. This same problem was at nearly every turn... finding programs that supported Vista 64 was a nightmare. Most hardware companies did not have Vista 64 patches available at the time so getting simple things like a printer, video card or sound card to function correctly was a mission. :mad: The aftermarket vendors clearly were not ready for the launch date of Vista or maybe they collectively wanted to see it flop. :cool: In either event, the few benefits of Vista was not worth the money or the poor vendor support after the launch.
 
#17 · (Edited)
You know ma'am, it took me forever to switch from using Win2k SP4 to WinXP, but after I learned how to adjust that OS, XP has been running very well for me, but I understand your sentiment.

Like pretty much anybody, I have encountered my share of 'Windows Gripes'. Probably the one thing which that I detest most about Windows is Internet Explorer.

I loath IE with a passion. IE cannot 'hold a candle' to Firefox, which I have been using for a very long time, now.

I like MSWord and Excel; I use them alot.

It seems to me [in my experience] that Windows can be made to run well if you know how to adjust it [i.e., editing the registry, adjusting services config and using group policy editing], but manipulating these is well beyond the skill of the average user.

I have no real experience with MAC, but I sense that OS runs well without having to do all of these sort of adjustments [assuming that such is even possible, with that OS].
 
#20 ·
My last laptop ticked me off bigtime, after I replaced the power connector on the motherboard for the fourth time, I wasnt about to do it again... (thank you HP) so when it went again I bought a Toshiba. It was preloaded with Vista Home Premium. It wasnt bad, just slow, so I upgraded the lt to 8 gig of memory ( www.newegg.com , learn it live it love it!) The difference is AMAZING. I beta tested 95, 98, 2000, and XP. I LOVED XP. Had problems with Vista basic on other computers... Vista NEEDS a hot proc and a lot of memory in order to be what it is meant to be. BUT Microsoft pushed it out before the machines were ready and there was the problem. They tried putting it on everything, but everything wasnt suitable to run it. I have my XP machines on the network here, between them and my kids and wifes computers there are 7 XP boxes, one Unix server, 2 2000 pro boxes, 2 XP laptops and this Vista laptop. Most of the XP boxes and both 2000 boxes were made out of salvaged parts. The only room there isnt a computer is the bathroom ( thank god for wireless networking... jk). I even have one in the garage and basement. Yes we have lan parties here when we have get togethers.

The home network originally started out just to share a single internet connection and laser printer. When people found out I knew the equipment I ended up doing upgrades on the side and ended up with a huge stock of used parts. When Flat panels came out the local thrift shop became a source for 5 - 15 dollar 17 - 19 inch CRT monitors. Other than the laptops and my youngest daughters computer and monitor, other than software I doubt I have 800 bucks tied up in the equipment including the switches, router and firewall. The single most expensive part was the cat 5 cable.
 
#22 ·
64-bit is still a problem and, unfortunately, that is what is being pushed out the door at most major retailers, especially the last few months. It's not necessarily even the PC makers that are doing it, as Microsoft is pushing the 64-bit and offering sweetened deals and licensing arrangements. The only real upsides to the 64-bit is you can use more than 3GB of RAM (which you really wouldn't need much if Vista didn't crave it so badly) and if you are running large database operations, 64-bit can improve the response. Not enough advantage in my book to justify the drawbacks.
 
#25 ·
Windows Vista running on a Dell computer is a combination of freaking utter disaster. The most irritating experience you can put yourself through! STAY AWAY......FAR AWAY!

As soon as it dies (maybe with the help of a shotgun:D:) I'm going back to HP and try and find a copy of Windows XP. If not......Mac here I come!
 
#28 ·
I am quite happy to stick with XP SP3 until a few dozen more service packs come out for Vista. As a long time Windoze user, I am actually going the 'other' way towards open source apps and OS. This week I setup an SME v7 server at home for fun and backups. If you like playing with the OS (like all us air force techs), then go Linux mate. I found Ubuntu a very good distro to start on, so maybe try that.

My folks recently bought a new Vista based system, which I setup. I wasn't impressed at all really. If you wanna play before making any hardware commitments, install the open source Virtualbox from Innotek http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads on your XP box and install & play with whatever OS you like until you decide.

king regards, Herne
 
#31 ·
I have a laptop with XP Pro and another laptop with Vista Ultimate. I've had no problems with the Vista laptop, but I think if I had less than the 3GB of RAM installed and some older hardware connected to it, the experience would be horrible. I can understand why some people don't like Vista, but for me it's been pretty good so far.
Having said that, I'm typing this on the laptop with XP Pro (the laptop I use most at home). Nothing wrong with staying with the tried and true...
 
#32 ·
I think the biggest reason Vista gets a bad rep is because it's often installed on inferior hardware. Vista is not good on budget systems, it barely runs on the 'minimum hardware requirement' system. Macs work because almost all apps come from, surprise, Apple. However, Apple is even tighter with the API's than Microsoft. Linux can become bloated as well, what with spinning desktop cubes and exploding windows.
don't get me started on OpenOffice..... even on a fast box with a couple gigs RAM it's possible to lock up OpenOffice.

Let's face it, if guns worked as reliably as computers, we'd still be waging war with sticks and stones...
 
#41 ·
Yep thats about it too.. and when I showed people what I use they like vista ooo why then they try my computer and are like dam thats nice.. show them extra features and half of them go out and get a new computer after trying it..

I Do a quad core 4gigs ram good video card and 2 moniters and they get throwen off with the moniters at frist but like how I have it setup for example 1 moniter is intrnet the other is doing something else like say photo or video editing while playing music through the stero in the same room and the one downstairs playing music off the one computer and after seeing how I have it all hooked together they like dam I want that come set it up for me and I do.. and they really like it..

My computer does everything music video intrnet tv and game related.. Its all about what you know vista isnt that bad I have only had 1 thing not work with it and thats a dive computer that use usb cable to download the info to it and they just havent made a patch for it yet.. 2 years latter they did but I have xp on a computer behind me and its fast for a computer but I dont use it.. I like my 2 moniter setup Ill never go back to just 1


I also like dreamscene thats runing on the desktop makeing movies into your background its cool what you can get for free..
 
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