Hello Everyone!

Well, I just had my first real in-depth experience with Vista, and so far, I must say I am really Impressed!

One of our customers has just bought one of the new HP's with Vista Home Premium Pre-Installed.

I started going through, doing the usual things we do for customers with a new pc. The Mini-Setup was very aesthetically pleasing, and easy. I really Enjoy not having to do that freaking online activation anymore as it does it automatically if it can connect to one of M$'s servers.

A few things have changed and I'm sure the changes will be accepted by most but ridiculed by some as well, change isn't always easy.

Most of our anti-virus and anti-malware programs worked, with the exception of AVG Anti-Spyware. However, Spybot S&D works fine, including Adaware SE and AVG 7.5 Free, and of course windows defender is now integrated so i don't have to install it anymore!

The Hard Disk Defragment Utility can no longer be accessed through the manage option when you right-click “ (My) Computer” You must go to start->applications->system tools->defragment to run the utility, although this might not be necessary for most people since the defragmenter is automatically scheduled to run once a week and also defragments while the pc is in standby. The colored (coloured for you English folk) graph that shows the degree of disk fragmentation, though interesting to watch (LOL) has been deemed unnecessary by M$ and is therefore removed.

The Visuals are truly amazing and while some people complain about it being unnecessary “eye Candy” if you look at something over and over again every day for hours at a time you kind of appreciate a little “flashiness” after awhile.

Contrary to some people who claim vista is a “little tykes mod of windows XP” This version of windows is totally different in areas of security, ease of use, and features.
To install and run some applications the user is prompted to accept the program much like in versions of Linux. The windows update is embedded in the Operating system not the Internet Explorer Browser! Vista Prevents harmful changes to the registry by using a “Virtual Registry” that programs can access and change without messing up the original registry.
I will really enjoy Vista's ability to be cloned onto different hardware without hal errors or using special software to get around such errors like Acronis Universal Restore, since that will cut down install time here at the repair shop.

I think this is the most secure, best looking, and easiest to use OS produced by Microsoft.

I tend to agree with you, although it costs way too much for me to justify buying it when XP does fine for me at the moment - I will be waiting for a while I suspect.

Meanwhile various Linux distros have become much more user friendly recently so I may just switch over to Linux - who knows?

May be interesting too if Apple make their OS available for general use in the future as suspected - could make for interesting competition

I do like the look of Vista, but not the price.
But with XP being supported for a few more years will stay with it.
Always unsure of a new O/S until at least the 1st Service Pack is released, in Vista's case in the summer.

It looks good, nodouting that. But general reviews say Vistas not 'the gaming OS' microsoft was touting it to be. with vista actually getting less fps in games than XP.
I think i'll pass for now

So how much is Bill Gates paying you then?

It's resource hungry; won't play some games, is bloated and restricts the things you can do, like messing with the registry.

If you want Microsoft to completely run your computer and give you no say in your settings, go ahead and run Vista.

Myself, I'm getting familiar with Suse 10.2 now and will keep XP as long as I can, mostly for Gaming and, I must admit, ease of use. Although Suse 10.2 is coming very close to be equal for ease of use once it's set up.

I figure XP will be good for about 3 to 5 years and by then, hopefully, Linux will be even easier to use.

As a sidenote, I looked at the different versions of Vista and the only one worth having, in my opinion, is Ultimate (and for me, the 64 bit version). The OEM version costs around £130.00 including postage and isn’t too bad a price considering you get all the Media components.

But 7 years in the making and released with untold bugs? Not good enough.

Very true. Expect to get anything between 5 - 50 fps reduction on Vista than you would on XP, regardless of hardware.

Yes, i'm a pass as well...

Maybe when Vista is cheaper, and everything is patched and updated, so it is acceptable enough.

Or...Maybe when pigs fly!

I'm going to pass for the time being too.

There has been a surge of interest recently, as there always is when MS release their 'new shiney' OS.
As with hardware i tend to wait at least 6months for the dust to settle around new stuff. With windows you find businesses run on autopilot and steam ahead having to own the very latest systems whatever the cost, because there must be in improvement ... right? ...
Ultimately its these businesses who pay for the privelidge to beta test the initial release and it is for those high-paying customers that MS actually start fixing the bugs uncovered. In 6months time I may get Vista in the knowledge that the majority of bugs have been ironed out at no expense to myself.

Yeah, i'll save my money and wait.

Probably the most wisest of options.

I dont know though. These days the key trend is smartphones. More people are buying them and that is the way phones are going - they are becoming mini-computers.

However this has an implications for laptops and desktops too: you're less likely to use Linux when it doesnt sync easily or at all with your PIM data in Outlook, your music like and iphone etc.

Even though Limux itself is used on many smarthphones that brings no advantage as the linux phone OS's are not standardised or tuned to syncing either.

That is going to be the big drawback in getting a mass market audience for Linux. And I dont think 3-5 years will see that answered.

Don't you think the FPS issue is more of an issue with the driver publishers and not windows vista? Give it about 6 months and all those FPS issues will be ironed out for sure. I'm not saying this release is flawless, Im just pointing out the improvements in security, reliability, and new features that microsoft has incorporated into this release compared to when XP was released.


P.S. Just because you say a few good things about a program by Microsoft doesn't mean you agree with everything they do and sure as heck doesn't mean your on their payroll!