Vista OS users - your $.02

[Jon325i]

Ok - I've decided on a laptop to purchase and I am ironing out a few component selection details. One of those options is going with MS Vista for the OS. Now I've heard plenty of news about this software recently - mainly how Microsoft was pushing out a bunch of security patches just weeks after its initial release. Has it gotten any better? If I get it I am going with the Basic version just to try it out. If I like it enough I will keep it and perhaps upgrade to Premium - if I hate it I will load XP Pro and call it a day.

Please chime in with your $.02. thanks!

Jon

[s0urce]

As a general rule of thumb, don't upgrade until SP1 comes out.

[AndrewBird]

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...

[Jscotty]

I am not messing around with Vista until I know that its REALLY finished. I am banking on the fact that there will be 2 or 3 service pack releases before the end of 2008. Vista seems to be full of a bunch of crap to make your computer idiot proof yet it hinders the productivity of the more advanced users. The only reason why I didn't mind immediately upgrading to XP when it first hit the market was because it was essentially everything that Windows NT was not. For a long time I would use nothing other than Windows NT because of its rock-hard stablity and efficiency. Now I don't know if I want to upgrade to an OS that is going to second guess everything that I do simply because the average person can screw up their system.

[Jon325i]

Your feedback confirms my suspicion. This laptop (an HP btw) only offered Vista in three flavors: Basic, Premium & Business. Since I am not 100% sold on this OS I am going to opt for Basic and see how it goes. If I don't like it, in goes the XP Pro. This particular laptop is coming with 2 gigs of DDR2 RAM and an Intel Core 2 Duo processor (1.8 Ghz) so it has the 'guts' to run Vista at a later time should I decide to go with it once MS irons out the bugs.

Jon

[smonkbmw]

that sounds like the same hp that i have. i miss xp. there is so much unused crap on this computer that i CANT DELETE. it drives me up the wall. i have not found one feature on this OS that makes me want to run it over XP. it took me a couple weeks to iron out the "permission" requests, those in themselves can make you want to break something.

[MikeE30325i]

my mom got vista on her desktop, and it has has been fraught with problems. wait til it is fixed for sure.

[Tvan]

I just installed Vista over the weekend, and it's actually pretty nice once you turn off UAC (that's the annoying security demon.) The most annoying problem so far is that the third parties haven't done enough to fix their software yet. And Nero is impossible to use. If you get it installed without errors, it won't run even properly.

[SandyEggoE30Girl]

I bought a new laptop with vista on it for my CAD person because she likes using PCs. Well last week I made the new computer have a small problem:twisted: and took it back to CompUSA, got credit and bought her a new mac book pro.
She is loving the new mac.
Also I installed XP on the new mac and it runs flawlesly.
Vista sucks ass, big time!

[Tvan]

I bought a new laptop with vista on it for my CAD person because she likes using PCs. Well last week I made the new computer have a small problem:twisted: and took it back to CompUSA, got credit and bought her a new mac book pro.
She is loving the new mac.
Also I installed XP on the new mac and it runs flawlesly.
Vista sucks ass, big time!

I want to replace my powerbook with an MBP so I can use it on the road to do my CAD work.

[SandyEggoE30Girl]

I don't know what type of CAD you use but we use Archicad 10 here, and love it for architecture. But a mac with xp on it can run autocad or solid works.

[Tvan]

I don't know what type of CAD you use but we use Archicad 10 here, and love it for architecture. But a mac with xp on it can run autocad or solid works.

Oh, the stuff that I need to do on the laptop is just AutoCAD Mechanical Desktop.


I have a separate PC that I use for Inventor, CATIA, Solidworks, etc.

[Jscotty]

Also I installed XP on the new mac and it runs flawlesly!

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.

[smonkbmw]

turn off UAC (that's the annoying security demon.)

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

[SandyEggoE30Girl]

you have to buy a program called parallels, once installed all I had to do was put in the key for windows. It was sooooo easy.
The only problem we have had so far, is in XP we could not plot some drawings. But I understand that there is something we are doing wrong?
I have a few lighting design programs that I use, and they work really well off of my macpro work station.
The funny thing is I have not had a crash with windows running on my mac?:D