Is Vista worth the trouble ?

[Jim Kay]

If you are running a 32 bit version of Vista, it won't even RECOGNIZE more
than 2 gig of RAM.

Vista is fine if you accept the current 'standards' in the software
industry. Specifically, every vendor (in the case of Microsoft it's every
division) treats the customers as if there are no other software vendors and
the customer is getting all of their software in just one place.

What I mean is nobody seems to care if their products are compatible with
either Vista or with other products. User Account Control (UAC) is a great
idea but NOBODY, including Microsoft, has made all of their software
compatible with it.

Microsoft's flagship software development product, Visual-Studio
Professional 2008 trashes your Vista system unless you disable UAC and leave
it off. It's been like that for since November 2006 when Vista became
available in 'Retail' form.

So, is Vista worth the trouble? That's an individual decision. I'm keeping
it despite all the time I've wasted on it.

Jim Kay

 

[Tim Slattery]

If you are running a 32 bit version of Vista, it won't even RECOGNIZE more
than 2 gig of RAM.

WRONG!! 32-bit Vista has a 4GB address space. Addresses in that space
must be used to access video RAM, the BIOS, a few other things. What's
left over is used to access your system RAM. That usually comes out to
3.2 to 3.5GB of system RAM that can be used. Definitely more than 2GB.

See http://members.cox.net/slatteryt/RAM.html

Note that Vista with SP1 will report 4GB of RAM installed, but it
won't be able to use any more RAM than pre-SP1 Vista.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

If you are running a 32 bit version of Vista, it won't even RECOGNIZE more
than 2 gig of RAM.

Sorry, that's completely untrue.

All 32-bit versions of Windows (not just XP) have a 4GB address space.
That's the theoretical upper limit beyond which you can not go.

But you can't use the entire 4GB of address space. Even though you
have a 4GB address space, you can only use *around* 3.1GB of RAM.
That's because some of that space is used by hardware and not
available to the operating system and applications. The amount you can
use varies, depending on what hardware you have installed, but is
usually around 3.1GB.

Note that the hardware is using the address *space*, not the actual
RAM itself. The rest of the RAM goes unused because there is no
address space to map it too.

 

[Canuck57]

If you are running a 32 bit version of Vista, it won't even RECOGNIZE more
than 2 gig of RAM.

32 bit is a 4GB address range. It usually drops to 3GB or so with 32 bit as
you need addressing for other things like BIOS and video, so be it.

But 2 GB for Vista 32 bit? Unless it does not automatically turn on the
memory PAE. Maybe someone can help you turn on PAE, you then will see more
than 2GB if you have more than 2GB installed. PAE is not needed if you use
64bit.

Vista is fine if you accept the current 'standards' in the software
industry. Specifically, every vendor (in the case of Microsoft it's every
division) treats the customers as if there are no other software vendors
and the customer is getting all of their software in just one place.

Yes, that is about the way it works. But it is in large part due to the
inherant instability of the MS-Windows API.

What I mean is nobody seems to care if their products are compatible with
either Vista or with other products. User Account Control (UAC) is a great
idea but NOBODY, including Microsoft, has made all of their software
compatible with it.

Actually, as much as I bash M$, this is actually a good idea, that perhaps
needs refinement but is a good idea. Any time the OS and OS related
binaries are altered, the user should be prompted. But I do question how
throurough it is.

Microsoft's flagship software development product, Visual-Studio
Professional 2008 trashes your Vista system unless you disable UAC and
leave it off. It's been like that for since November 2006 when Vista
became available in 'Retail' form.

Now that just plain should not happen. They had Vista to work with 2 years
in advance. No excuses.

So, is Vista worth the trouble? That's an individual decision. I'm keeping
it despite all the time I've wasted on it.

I am keeping it for now. Mostly for educational reasons as I am in this
business. Plus, I am waiting for Fedora 9 to be released, 20 days to go.

I have reverted back to my XP MCE system for may daily activities. So has
my wife. Infact she said then give me the XP machine...when I asked her to
use Vista.

 

[Tim Slattery]

But 2 GB for Vista 32 bit? Unless it does not automatically turn on the
memory PAE.

MS Server operating systems use PAE, not Vista. And you don't need PAE
to be able to use more than 2GB.