Just wanted to be fair to Microsoft being that I recently posted "The State of Linux" in the General Chat Forum from which, it was moved to the Linux forum.

Anyway, I've bee using Vista now for about 12 months now. First I was introduced to the RC1 build and then purchased Ultimate to try out all of the features.
I must say that in the beginning it was quite a mess, especially in the world of wireless, and printer drivers. I've noticed lately that manufacturers are catching up to pace on Vista quickly. HP should be commended for their work in print drivers as many of them now seem to be supported on Vista. Also many of the most popular wireless companies now have drivers and software in place for Vista. Considering the short release to developers I thought we'd see a much more drawn out crossover period. There are still a number of smaller issues, that I won't mention here.

From where I stand, Vista has come a long way and the only qualms I have are the interface. So, far the only legitimate argument I have for Vista is that it
seems bloated in the services that run in the background. Some of this can be attributed to the security features keeping you pc safe from malicious software which it does quite well. I strongly recommend viewing the startup list in this forum because there are a few services that some of us can live without, IE; ready drive. None-the-Less, I'd be comfortable using Vista in a work environment within the next six months. I'm not an administrator by any means, but Vista has proven to be better than what I had originally thought. I wouldn't recommend using Dial-up with it, due to performance issues tho.

It also seems that useability software, such as Flash Player, and Acrobat reader have no issues. The DVD capabilities even work as advertised. One thing I will say tho, I finally found a use for Bitlocker. Yes that pesky little encryption tool that won't go away. Well, in order for that to be useable, you will definately want to make back ups. Two reasons to use bitlocker? If you're the government and need to have data available on the go, then Bitlocker makes perfect sense in a laptop. Or if you do a large amount of online business that may store personal info on the drive. Back-ups again are crucial, and these are both good uses of Bitloacker IMHO.

Does anyone else have any comments on Vista? Feel free to comment away.

I've used Vista since the early beta days and I love it. It does what I want, and if I feed it something it doesn't like I can usually fix it.

The average user has 2 problems with Vista:
1) They can't just go ahead and use their old applications/hardware without thoroughly researching compatibility
2) There just aren't that many Vista compatible applications/hardware being sold (that users can use straight out of the box)

Several well-known web personalities have criticized Vista for the first reason - but why would you want to use old stuff with your new OS? It's like putting re-tread tires on your sports car, it just won't live up to it's potential, and it may even cause problems with it.

As for reason 2 - I just picked up a printer from WalMart. The latest and greatest, all in one thing on their shelves. Even had a "Works with Windows Vista" sticker on it. The sticker was a "clue" to me - but most users won't notice this. Sure enough, I got it home and it didn't have Vista drivers on the CD. So I had to go to the manufacturer's website and download them. But most people don't notice this "clue" and are understandably upset when they get their new hardware home and it doesn't work right out of the box.

So, in short, Vista isn't ready for the mainstream yet - but it is a valuable addition to the Windows family and will, eventually, become easier to use than we found XP to be.

I love my Vista and I'm on dial-up I may be one of the lucky ones...my printer (HP 1610 all in one) worked right from the start. I haven't had to find any new drivers.

I was really looking forward to Vista coming out. I bought a desktop in June 2006 that of course, only had XP at the time, but was "Vista capable".

When Jan. 30th hit, I went and picked up a copy of Home Premium.

Then I had the daunting task of googling every piece of hardware on my box and getting Vista drivers for it. I eventually (over a 3 month period) got all drivers that would work w Vista. I did the same for my installed software....waiting until June for Zonealarm to finally release a Vista firewall. That poor Vista DVD sat on my shelf for 6 months.

Anyways, I backed up all my data and files to DVD, wiped the hard drive using CopyWipe and then installed Vista clean. The installation was flawless....I updated my drivers, went to Windows update, fired up the antivirus and installed all my applications.

I had ZERO problems, not a single blue screen.

The only issues I see with Vista are the following:

- a lot of background processes can sometimes cause your Hard drive to be accessed frequently and this can become quite annoying
- files & folders - I like the Detailed view rather than large icons when I'm browsing my files. However, when I apply the Details view to all folders, some folders are still in large thumbnail view.
- UAC is way too much for me to handle...I'll let my firewall and antivirus do the work thank you very much!
- generally, it's a little buggy..too many things to mention here but it's a new OS and I'm sure by the time they get to Service Pack 6 ( ) er I mean SP1 it should run a lot smoother.

The drivers that Vista supports and that are available on the DVD are outstanding. You should still update, but out of the box, the interface, sound and most monitors, mice, keyboards will work fine with the default drivers.

Do you remember upgrading from DOS 6.22 or Windows 3.1 to Windows 95?? I myself, hated 95 at first because it was an entirely new learning curve...I constantly accessed the DOS prompt to my file managing. But I eventually got used to W95 and loved it from 95 to XP.

Vista is a similar learning curve...I purchased 2 books:
Windows Vista Inside Out and Hacking Windows Vista. Both are well worth the $$ as they teach you a lot.



I couldn't agree more...

My advice:

- make absolutely sure meet all the hardware, power, CPU and memory requirements as recommended by Microsoft. In fact, I would make sure you have at least 2GB of RAM, a 256MB Video card, and 60GB or greater Hard drive.
- go through every piece of hardware (including the monitor, mouse, etc.) and get Vista drivers for it
- look at your software and go to the manufacturer's site to get versions that work with Vista.
- after installing, go through the services and disable anything you will not use. Do the same with the Startup manager and disable any non-essential programs to load at startup. Get programs like Process Explorer and Codestuff Starter to do this.

Vista is very good once you "tame it". It can get a little noisy, especially with UAC and the security centre but other than that I really like it.

I_am_CanadianEh?, you can change the size of icons on your desk or in folders, by holding down Ctrl and using the middle scroll on your mouse

I_am_CanadianEh?

Do you shop at B&N because that's where I've seen both of those books at this time. Inside Out series would be recommended for Intermediate to Advanced Users BTW. Myself, I'll want to pick up that book along with the Vista Resource KIT. Two very Awesome selections from the Microsoft Press. I heard that O'reilly has some decent material as well. Unsure of the titles at this time.

Here's one for you all. I have the Motorola IMFree working in compatability mode. When this little nightmare came out, only the Tech guru's Knew what do do with it and how it worked. It's not supposed to work with Vista but it does, if you run the installer in a particular way as well as the APP in compatability mode. Google IMFree if you'd like to know more about the device. If anyone still has one with all the parts and wants it to run on Vista, ask me for a tutorial.

Further, many applications work in compatability mode, however, DRIVERS by themselves Rarely work in compatibility mode. I think running a .DLL as a service causes many issues as that requires Native Vista API's and not simply referencing WindowsXP and earlier libraries.

One very particular program/piece of hardware simply sucks. The software for the Nomad JukeBox 10gb and 20gb. Those can be used with a verying degree of success in compatability mode also. I've found anything that uses Open Database Connectivity is better off run as Adminstrator in addition to compatibility mode so that those programs have the freedom they need to operate on the net.

I remember installing an Epson Print driver and app natively THAT DISABLED ANY DVD capability in Vista. What a crock.
Fortunately Epson figured that out and corrected the issue, but none of the techs I spoke with at the time had a work-a-round or knew how that happened.

That's all for today, see ya next time.


PS ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) Is used by many mp3 programs that catalogue your music and edit tracks titles automatically.

I rather enjoy vista. Yeah it definately has it's flaws, but it is also easier to you. I know that it supports direct x 10, any games that worked on older systems, may work on vista but not well. I found that out the hard way, by installing quake 4 on this vista based computer. Anyway the computer i use has 1gb of ram, and it operates vista very smoothly.

the first week i did'nt like it,,, the second week i liked it,,,, it grows on you day by day,,,,,, i waited and got a machine with vista preinstalled insted of upgraiding my xp machine,,, im glad i did, insted of having to install vista drivers for evrything & getting some of it wrong or haveing to reinstall drivers that failed etc,,, and hateing the os because i had to mess about,,, also my xp machine has 1 gig ddr2 ram which is ample for xp,,,, where as vista is alot smoother with 2 gig which it has,,,, just like xp ran well with half a gig but was better with a full gig, the same applyes to vista,,, runs well with 1 gig but better with 2. There ars alot of unnessary services running on default, but i have stoped most of them and once you have done this it stops most of the activity when in idal,, just the auto defrag running now in idal which dose not last long,,,, so all in all im pleased with it up to now,,, but i would say that as nothing has gone tit's up yet,,,,,,lol

if you want to end up like this play around with an old machine and hope for the best. if you want to end up like this bite the bullet and buy a new machine. upgrade was going to cost me 550$ (aus) new rig with Home Premium 750$. took a while to get used to but it was worth it

It's sorta like buying a new sports car - you're gonna have to tinker with it to get it running the way that you like it.

Or, if you just want to buy a new car and drive it - then stick with the Buick (XP).

same thinking here Aussie,, thats why i waited 6 months or so while all the bata testers had ironed out all the hair pulling niggels & faults , see who sed us pom's were thick,,,,,,lol

and John,,, where in the scale of american cars dose a Buick sit,,, top, middle or arse end???

Sorry 'bout that (for the non-US folks here)! A Buick is known in my area as a staid, old fogey's car. It gets the job done - but the emphasis is on comfort rather than performance or innovation.

I like it, most of the problems I have come from nVidia's drivers or from poorly coded programs that mess up on all OS's. Vista is my first experience when it comes to 64-bit computing. For games that support 64, I can tell that there's an increase in performance since they can take advantage of all that RAM.

Buick's are the american Volvo's then,,, so if thats the car for xp whats the car for vista,,,,, maybe a scooby doo impretza or a mitso evo in the uk,,,lol

Pontiac GTO (re badged Holden Monaro made in australia) no offence Usasma

To me going to Vista from XP was like going to XP from 2000pro. Some of the features I like, and then there are other things where I can't imagine why they did them. I never understand why things have to be moved to different places.

After I played around with it I set the interface back to windows classic, just like I did with XP. I don't see the need for goofy UI things like transparent windows, the sidepane etc.

I had a DVD decoder so that I could watch movies on my XP. But it is incompatible with my Vista Business. And Vista Business can't play movies, being Businesslike and all. I can get another one for about $15 so it's not that big an issue. I did always wonder why XP PRO had games and the cute little doggie in the search tool.