Vista OS users - your $.02

[gazellebeigem3]

My coworker bought it when it came out for shits. He got pissed off immediately by all the conflicts with programs he used flawlessly on XP. He returned it with the explanation that he "paid for a finished product and wasnt a fucking beta tester" he also added that microsoft can "kiss the baby"

[Ryan Stewart]

I wouldnt consider vista for a laptop anyway. You either have to run basic (or run the basic visuals) to get decent battery life or run the areo and have your graphics chipset and CPU sucking power while my XP machine is idle.

Its a cool toy for desktops but I dont really want to get a 2 hour battery life so I can see through the semi-opaque windows.

[BimmerTom]

I run a handbuilt Vista box at work. Core Duo 2 5600, 4gb RAM, 2x160gb Deskstars (striped), and an ATI 1950 card. Currently running Vista Business 64-bit.

Ok, so here's the deal...

Still runs sluggish and is HORRIBLY slow at large file transfers. Drivers are still a little on the light side - mostly because of the 64bit OS. Printer drivers are the biggest pain in the ass...

Basically, if you're going to run Vista, go biggest proc and memory you can. 2gb is what I would recommend.

Good luck,
Tom

[Firestorm]

sorry im not that computer literate, how do you turn this off?

with a big motherfucking hammer

[1991 318is]

Microsoft has just passed the 1 million copies mark. There was the same problem with vendors being slow to update drivers with 95 and XP. It's hard to tell where the problem is when they all blame each other.

[Tvan]

sorry im not that computer literate, how do you turn this off?

If you are set up as the administrator you can do it in the User Accounts menu in the Control Panel.

[ivo316]

Several of my customers have vista, so i have had to learn how to turn off several features that make it annoying to the common user, it's not so hot, I still like XP Pro better, but keep in mind i stuck to 98 well into "XP times".

There are several compatibility issues with messenger on some laptops security applications, fixes are available from the manufacturer's websites, and the start menu is rather unfriendly. other than that it kinda works.

As said before, nero does not work right, the DVD codecs are 30 day trials, and office XP is a bitch to install, you can get it right, but it takes work. ;)

I'll pass for a while.

[peller]

just run linux :p

I may be a linux zealot but from what I've read and heard from people Vista isn't all that special... And as mentioned, as a general rule of thumb Windows is essentially still a Beta quality product until after SP1. XP is pretty darned solid and in my opinion if it works great for what you need to get done why bother fucking with something unproven?

Your hardware is gonna be powerful enough to get shit done for a while and you can always upgrade later once Microsoft gets their issues ironed out. I wouldn't be too surprised to see another release in a couple years that has all the features Vista was supposed to have from the get go (and competition from Apple and Linux is heating up, waiting 5 years to release another OS just won't do).

[Tvan]

just run linux :p

I may be a linux zealot but from what I've read and heard from people Vista isn't all that special... And as mentioned, as a general rule of thumb Windows is essentially still a Beta quality product until after SP1. XP is pretty darned solid and in my opinion if it works great for what you need to get done why bother fucking with something unproven?

Your hardware is gonna be powerful enough to get shit done for a while and you can always upgrade later once Microsoft gets their issues ironed out. I wouldn't be too surprised to see another release in a couple years that has all the features Vista was supposed to have from the get go (and competition from Apple and Linux is heating up, waiting 5 years to release another OS just won't do).

I'm going to install PcLinuxOS on an old tower of mine that's sitting around just to see how it is. I've used linux a little before, but I'm not all too familiar with it.

[1991 318is]

Microsoft Linux!

http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/32317/118/

[Tvan]

http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/32317/118/

As far as I know, Xandros is the most familiar for Windows users (other than Linspire, which is essentially a box of aids.) Xandros can read and write to NTFS also, which not many distro's can do right now.

[SpasticDwarf]

Does it take anything special to do that? I am aware that its technically possible being that Macs now use intel processors. Back in the days of Windows 95, there were the geeks who figured out how to get windows installed on a Mac but they had to go through various changes in order to make it happen.

Apple offers a program currently called Boot Camp for intel macs. It allows you to create a secondary partition on the harddrive and install XP on it. Then, whenever you boot the comp up, you can choose to boot to XP or OSX. I do this on my comp, and it runs flawlessly. I also play counter-strike source and HL2 on it daily, so there is no issue involving processing power.

[Jscotty]

Thanks Spastic.

As for vista issues, its amazing how marketing can brainwash people into thinking that their computer is obsolete when it functions perfectly fine and it does what they need it to do.

I went to go fix my friend's PC today. He apparently let someone talk him into installing Vista on it which completely hosed his PC. Since February he has been asking me if he needs to upgrade and I keep telling him no. And his response is usually, "Yeah, but this guy on my job said, blah blah blah..." So today when he asked me why his computer was running so slow and what caused it to start acting strange the first thing that I asked was if any changes were made to the system.

Fast forwarding to his confession I told him that Vista was probably the culprit. His response was, "Yeah but the guy who installed it told me blah blah blah... " Ok? So why are you calling ME for help when apparently you trusted his advice over mine? But he gave me the "Awwww come on Scotty.. dont be an asshole" line so I went over there and wiped his hard drive.

[92 mtechnic cabrio]

I've only played around with it in stores on on other's computers, but personally, I hate it. Way more form then function IMO. Yes, everything looks nice and there are some nice features, but there is just too much garbage that really isn't needed. Just the fact that you need AT LEAST 512MB of RAM to run JUST the operation system shows this.

Once again, I haven't used it really for anything. Most of my basis is off of playing with it for 10 min, so...

Who really has just 512MB of ram these days?

I've had 1GB of RAMBUS ever since RAMBUS ever came out!

:p

[Jscotty]

Who really has just 512MB of ram these days?

I am still in the dark ages with my P2 and P3 computers but most of my PC's are still running on 128 and 256 and they work much better than some of the ones my friends have with their 2GB systems. I remember back in the 80's when the experts said that it would be ludicrous for anyone to ever need more than 1MB of ram. Its funny how quickly technology demands change.