Vista highlights and lowlights after six months of use

[Erich Kohl]

Okay, I don’t want to be any of the following:

* A Windiot
* A Wintard
* A Wintroll
* A Microsoft fanboy/fanboi
* A Microsoft apologist
* A Microsoft shill
* Etc., etc., you get the idea...

So, I will objectively provide a brief list of the positive AND
negative things that I’ve experienced with Vista (Ultimate, 32-bit)
after using it for six months on a PC I built myself...

--- POSITIVE ---

* Beautiful and functional user interface.

* Speed/responsiveness is quite good (okay, I admit, I’m running it
with a dual-core CPU and 2 GB of RAM).

* Software compatibility (the majority of my programs have worked).

* Hardware compatibility (the majority of my devices have worked).

* Stability; feels more secure than previous versions of Windows (I
think it actually is, but this is a subject of debate, I know).

* Built-in applications are nice.

* Robust and powerful; well organized w/ integrated search.

* Media Center is just great! I love watching movies with it.

--- NEGATIVE ---

* At first, a few crashes and blue screens while trying to sort out my
driver issues.

* Some bugs I’ve noticed here and there: in Calendar while working with
tasks, the Sidebar (it got totally corrupted once), and the Games
Explorer (all the icons keep getting messed up).

* Sure, I did run into a couple of software/hardware incompatibilities
here and there.

* Early on, I had to reinstall the entire OS just because I told my
BIOS to natively recognize my SATA hard drive. Windows didn’t like
that and decided to crash because of it. Dang it!

* Spontaneous reboots on at least two occasions (but then again, I’ve
been experiencing power supply issues, so it might not be Vista’s
fault).

* User Account Control is only mildly annoying in my opinion.

* The silliness of having so many different versions to choose from
(but then again, Microsoft clearly explains what your options are on
their website, and it wasn’t THAT difficult for me to make a decision).

* That’s about all I have for the negatives, but I am also aware of the
fact that some people are complaining about Vista’s somewhat high price
and hefty system requirements, so I might as well mention that.
Although, I’ve read about some rare cases where Aero has been
performing decently even under integrated graphics.

All in all, I’m generally satisfied and happy with how things have been
going. But I’ll be the first to admit: Windows ain’t perfect, and the
alternatives (OS X, Linux) will always keep Microsoft worried (not to
the point where they’ll suffer psychosomatic symptoms, but I’m sure
it’ll always be on their minds).

 

[Michael Jennings]

I guess you wouldn't get too many responses if you claimed to
just adore UAC, but G-d knows, I've been wrong before.

 

[Kurt Herman]

Whats also funny is the exact same FUD campaign started from the Lin-Trolls,
in the Mac forums, when Leopard came out. I think they just sit around
waiting for ANY new version of Windows or Mac OS to come out, and see it as
a chance to push Linux.

I actually felt a kinship to my Mac cousins, for the first time in many
years, when the Lintrolls attacked them.

Kurt

 

[HeyBub]

Whats also funny is the exact same FUD campaign started from the
Lin-Trolls, in the Mac forums, when Leopard came out. I think they
just sit around waiting for ANY new version of Windows or Mac OS to
come out, and see it as a chance to push Linux.

I actually felt a kinship to my Mac cousins, for the first time in
many years, when the Lintrolls attacked them.

Kurt

What you describe is common. People want to be OK.

One way to accomplish that is to pull down those that are more OK than they.
Some can't rest until they discover a flaw in another person, political
party, or operating system. By finding a problem in the other, they are
(relatively) better off.

I think the syndrome comes from eating too many carrots as a child.

 

[Lang Murphy]

Okay, I don't want to be any of the following:

* A Windiot
* A Wintard
* A Wintroll
* A Microsoft fanboy/fanboi
* A Microsoft apologist
* A Microsoft shill
* Etc., etc., you get the idea...

So, I will objectively provide a brief list of the positive AND
negative things that I've experienced with Vista (Ultimate, 32-bit)
after using it for six months on a PC I built myself...

--- POSITIVE ---

* Beautiful and functional user interface.

* Speed/responsiveness is quite good (okay, I admit, I'm running it
with a dual-core CPU and 2 GB of RAM).

* Software compatibility (the majority of my programs have worked).

* Hardware compatibility (the majority of my devices have worked).

* Stability; feels more secure than previous versions of Windows (I
think it actually is, but this is a subject of debate, I know).

* Built-in applications are nice.

* Robust and powerful; well organized w/ integrated search.

* Media Center is just great! I love watching movies with it.

--- NEGATIVE ---

* At first, a few crashes and blue screens while trying to sort out my
driver issues.

* Some bugs I've noticed here and there: in Calendar while working with
tasks, the Sidebar (it got totally corrupted once), and the Games
Explorer (all the icons keep getting messed up).

* Sure, I did run into a couple of software/hardware incompatibilities
here and there.

* Early on, I had to reinstall the entire OS just because I told my
BIOS to natively recognize my SATA hard drive. Windows didn't like
that and decided to crash because of it. Dang it!

* Spontaneous reboots on at least two occasions (but then again, I've
been experiencing power supply issues, so it might not be Vista's
fault).

* User Account Control is only mildly annoying in my opinion.

* The silliness of having so many different versions to choose from
(but then again, Microsoft clearly explains what your options are on
their website, and it wasn't THAT difficult for me to make a decision).

* That's about all I have for the negatives, but I am also aware of the
fact that some people are complaining about Vista's somewhat high price
and hefty system requirements, so I might as well mention that.
Although, I've read about some rare cases where Aero has been
performing decently even under integrated graphics.

All in all, I'm generally satisfied and happy with how things have been
going. But I'll be the first to admit: Windows ain't perfect, and the
alternatives (OS X, Linux) will always keep Microsoft worried (not to
the point where they'll suffer psychosomatic symptoms, but I'm sure
it'll always be on their minds).

My experience with Vista has largely been positive also. But I think you
missed one huge negative in my book; file copying is majorly screwed up.

Lang

 

[Mark Conrad]

My experience with Vista has largely been positive also. But I think you
missed one huge negative in my book; file copying is majorly screwed up.

Hi Lang,

Would you mind explaining briefly a bit about file copying?

Thanks,

Mark-

 

[Erich Kohl]

Hi Lang,

Would you mind explaining briefly a bit about file copying?

Thanks,

Mark-

It's funny, I've heard the same thing, but I can't say I've experienced
any problems in that area.

Unless we are talking about file copying as it pertains to doing it
over a network -- I think I've read of at least one case like that.

 

[Lang Murphy]

Hi Lang,

Would you mind explaining briefly a bit about file copying?

Thanks,

Mark-

Mark,

It takes forever to copy files... whether local or network. I think the
actual file copying may not be much slower, at least not here, but the
management stuff that goes on in Vista, i.e., calculating time and that
stuff, takes a ridiculously long time, imho.

Lang

 

[Mark Conrad]

Mark,

It takes forever to copy files... whether local or network. I think the
actual file copying may not be much slower, at least not here, but the
management stuff that goes on in Vista, i.e., calculating time and that
stuff, takes a ridiculously long time, imho.

Gotcha.

Have not yet fooled around with copying large files,
will try some and compare it with OS X.

Mark-

 

[Lang Murphy]

Gotcha.

Have not yet fooled around with copying large files,
will try some and compare it with OS X.

Mark-

Well... the best comparison, imho, would be against XP... like comparing
file copies in Tiger to Leopard.

Lang