2 simple questions. Which version and how many times.

[Tony K]

Call me ignorant but I haven't had time to even look for my answers so I
thought I'd ask where the smart people hang out. I have been using a beta
version for 4 months now and want to buy the final version.

1. I do a lot of development in Visual Studio 2005 (mainly VB 2005). Which
version of Windows Vista would be best for me?

2. Because I am a (small time) developer I frequently like to format my
hard drive when I start on brand new projects. If I format several times,
does Microsoft limit the amount of times I can reinstall my operating
system? This will be on the exact same laptop everytime.

Thank you in advance for your responses.

Tony K

 

[Dustin Harper]

As far as your second question: it will allow you to reactivate as many
times as you want. Bad after about 3 times, you'll have to call
Microsoft and explain to either the cute girl that I got (once) or an old
guy with a strange accent. If you reformat within 120 days, you might just
not activate it and use it in trial mode.

For the first: Depends on what you are developing. If you rely on domains,
that takes out the Home versions. I use Ultimate for my dev work, but it has
Bitlocker, Dreamscene and a few other minor things that make it good for me.
You can develop using Windows Home Basic if you wanted and not have any
issues. No features in Ultimate would limit or make your development better.
And nothing in the business version would hinder you from anything.

 

[Tony K]

Thanks a lot Dustin.

Tony

As far as your second question: it will allow you to reactivate as many
times as you want. Bad after about 3 times, you'll have to call
Microsoft and explain to either the cute girl that I got (once) or an old
guy with a strange accent. If you reformat within 120 days, you might just
not activate it and use it in trial mode.

For the first: Depends on what you are developing. If you rely on domains,
that takes out the Home versions. I use Ultimate for my dev work, but it
has Bitlocker, Dreamscene and a few other minor things that make it good
for me. You can develop using Windows Home Basic if you wanted and not
have any issues. No features in Ultimate would limit or make your
development better. And nothing in the business version would hinder you
from anything.

 

[Don]

Call me ignorant but I haven't had time to even look for my answers so I
thought I'd ask where the smart people hang out. I have been using a
beta version for 4 months now and want to buy the final version.

1. I do a lot of development in Visual Studio 2005 (mainly VB 2005).
Which version of Windows Vista would be best for me?

2. Because I am a (small time) developer I frequently like to format my
hard drive when I start on brand new projects. If I format several
times, does Microsoft limit the amount of times I can reinstall my
operating system? This will be on the exact same laptop everytime.

Thank you in advance for your responses.

Tony K

 

[Don]

2. Because I am a (small time) developer I frequently like to format my
hard drive when I start on brand new projects...

Just curious why you do that. I never would have thought about it.

 

[Lang Murphy]

1. Like Dustin wrote... if you need the abilty to join domains, only
Business or Ultimate will fit the bill.

2. I assume, because you develop on the same laptop every time, that your
development is not hardware dependant. Another option, albiet a more
expensive option, would be to develop and/or test in virtual machines (VM).
The expense comes in with having to buy more than one OS license. You have
your "host" OS, i.e., the OS running on your laptop, then you'd have to have
a license for a "guest" OS running in a VM. That may seem like a lot of
money, but the time saved compared to reformatting the hard drive and time
spent on the phone reactivating Vista, might be worth it. The only two
virtual machine applications with which I am familiar are VMWare Workstation
and Virtual PC. One can download VPC from the Microsoft web site for free.
Not a trial version. Full version... FREE. VMWare will cost you. But it
supports USB, which VPC does not, so... if you develop for USB devices, then
VPC probably would not meet your needs. At any rate... getting a little off
track there... both VM products will let you roll back to previous
configurations without having to reinstall or reactive Vista. Over time,
this would be a huge time savings. And, one might assume, money saving
configuration.

I've been developing/testing in VM's for a couple of years now... wouldn't
go back to developing/testing on a "regular" PC if you paid me. (Send all
checks to Lang Wants Money, Lawrenceville, GA.)

Sorry for rambling...

Lang

 

[Zim Babwe]

If you develop in VS 2005 (like I do), then NO version of Vista would be
best for you right now. There are too many issues and VS 2005 does not work
well with Vista, even with the Service Pack. What would be the compelling
reason to upgrade right now?

Stay with XP (I am assuming you are using XP) and wait until Vista releases
a service pack and VS 2005 has a new service pack.

Search the Microsoft site for VS issues with Vista. There are many of them.

 

[Lang Murphy]

Hmm... another option as regards to VM's... if you have an existing license
for XP, you could buy a full retail copy of Vista and use both your XP
license and Vista licenses simultaneously on the same box. Vista or XP as
the host, Vista or XP as the guest...

Lang