C Tate said:
Does Vista take as long to startup as everyone suggests? Is using it a
satisfying experience or a frustrating one? Does it hang a lot? I need a
new
computer but am turned off by Vista reviews. I am considering a Mac.
Should a
take the plunge or not?!
Vista doesn't take much longer to start up than any other OS. If it takes a
few seconds longer, is that a big deal?
It is satisfying if you don't have any hardware or software issues. It is
frustrating if you do. Sounds dumb, but that's what I've observed as being
most folk's complaints in this NG over the last 18 months or so.
Vista has never hung or blue screened for me since RTM was released. All my
installs have been clean installs, no upgrades. If you get a new computer
then the area of concern might be that whichever vendor you buy the computer
from might throw on some crapware that doesn't play well with Vista. One
should hope that after the length of time that Vista's been out, vendors
have gotten their "stuff" together in that respect, but I wouldn't count on
it 100%.
I've seen articles recently saying that many of Vista's "troubles" can be
traced back to nVidia video cards... whether that's true or not, I don't
know... I'm writing this on my Mac Pro which has an nVidia GeForce 7300 GT
and it doesn't seem to have caused any problems thus far but must admit I
only boot into Vista on my Mac every couple of weeks as I have 3 PC's
running Vista. (None of which have nVidia cards...)
While I really enjoy my Mac Pro there are things about OS X that drive me
crazy. It really comes down to: what applications do you need to use? Many
apps are available for both Windows and OS X... but if you have one single
app that you can't live without and it's only available for Windows...
well... there's your answer. (Yes, one can install Vista or XP on a Mac to
be used via Boot Camp, but you'll have the extra cost of buying Vista if you
buy a Mac.)
I got my Mac Pro when I had a windfall of sorts... I've always wanted a Mac
and I got one because I could. I like the apps that come with OS X... but
iPhoto drives me crazy because when you import photos into it, you cannot
access the photos through the Finder (Mac equivilant of Windows Explorer)
but must export the photos from iPhoto to another location on your hard
disk. That just seems plain crazy to me. (And... maybe one can do it, but I
have not discovered how without using iPhoto's export function.) An awful
lot of extra work.
Ultimately for me... the Apple ads that say OS X "...just works like you
do." are bullsh*t. There is no such thing as an intuitive OS. One gets
acclimated to an OS and the longer one uses it, the more familiar one is
with it. One of the major complaints about Vista is "they moved my cheese
and I can't find it." Fair enough... a lot of stuff did get moved in Vista
but Vista's search functionality is far greater than XP's IMHO. Once one has
used a new OS for a while, then those "hard to find" items are no longer
hard to find. In this respect, moving to either Vista or OS X will have the
same effect; one will have to "re-learn" certain fundamental functions.
As to whether it's time for you to "take the plunge" and get a Mac... you'll
want a minimum of 2GB's RAM to run Leopard. Same as Vista. Only a few Mac
desktops come with 2GB's RAM installed. Most come with 1GB RAM and you'll
have to upgrade... so that's an additional cost on top of the heavy premium
one lays out to get a Mac compared to a similarly powerful PC. (Apple has
upped the RAM on many of their laptops to 2GB, but if you're thinking about
getting a Mac Mini or an iMac... the mini only comes with 1GB right now and
only the top end iMac ships with 2GB RAM.) One can find many low cost PC's
shipping with Vista that provide 2GB's RAM - and sometimes even 3GB's - for
half to 2/3's the cost of a Mac.
If you only use your computer to surf the web and write emails, then you
could save a boat load of cash by getting a PC running Vista. If you use it
for other tasks... well then it's up to you to figure out which fork in the
road makes the most sense for you...
In any event... good luck!
Lang
