Community weekly poll: When will you start using Windows Vista?
- 4/26/07 1:03 PM
Polls' open endedness
by zigjig - 4/27/07 5:25 PM In reply to: When will you start using Windows Vista? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I sometimes find it hard to see what people in general think in the polls. This week for example there were more answer choices than necessary e.g. "when I am forced to & "when microsoft stop supporting XP", are nearly the same thing.
There is nothing 'wrong' with the surveys as such. It is just that it can be very hard to see what the majority are saying.
Hey, Mista. By Vista and you'll be Pista.
by Backup Bob - 4/27/07 5:27 PM In reply to: When will you start using Windows Vista? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Last weekend my brother bought an HP Pavillion in a sealed factory carton from a major retailer. We set it up at my place and then he took it home.
Less than 24 hours later he turned it on and was advised that Windows Genuine Advantage did not like his license and Vista would operate with reduced capability.
"Reduce capability" meant that the Windows Genuine Advantage box was about all he could look at. All of those little pictures on the desktop went away, as did the colorful "Start" button. With nothing to click on the system could not even be taken down gracefully.
He had copied his data to the new hard drive and did not have a backup for some of it. Needless to say, when HP told him he would have to run the recovery routine and reformat his hard drive his comments were a little less than complimentary.
I talked him through downloading an ISO image of Knoppix and burning it to a disc, using his remaining XP machine. Knoppix is Linux that runs entirely from a CD Rom using only memory. It can access a Windows hard drive. It came up beautifully and allowed him to copy his files to a memory stick.
Vielen danke, Herr Knopper!
To run Vista you need to upgrade your hardware and Microsoft prefers to have you upgrade Office, too. Unless you have a very recent system with the latest software you will all but replace the box on the end of the power cord and ditch your software to boot.
At that point one must ask if it is necessary to stay with Windows, or if another type of system would be more cost-effective. That means Mac or Linux, and both have a lot going for them. Knoppix proves how friendly Linux can be. Of course, the Mac O/S is just a fancy front end for Unix, which should help explain why it is so reliable.
Does Microsoft realize they are forcing people to make such decisions?
Oh, and to make life more fun, Microsoft has a little program that helps determine if your system can run Vista. That requires downloading Active-X programs. It also requires the latest .Net framework and XML. Many of us do not have all of this.
If I wanted to sell someone a new system I would offer an upgrade helper that spit out a nice looking Wordpad file, not something that requires a lot of high tech equipment.
My six computers are running XP very nicely, thank you. They are quite reliable. Will I upgrade to Vista any time soon? NO!
Reply: When will you start using Windows Vista?
by thomasbu - 4/27/07 5:27 PM In reply to: When will you start using Windows Vista? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Probably 1 year. I have monitored may user feedback forums, and it appears that most users are saying that Vista is good with the following caveats:
- Takes time to get used to it
- Driver availability may be an issue
- Application compatibilty may be an issue
I have run the upgrade advisor. It tells me my system is "A" okay. Virtually all drivers are available with some limited problems that I had expected (an older CD Clone program and a Karoake Program that has a driver for a hand held mike/song device). I do have some application compatibilty issues primarily with Rhapsody. The user feedback also appears to be somewhat positive on Vista in regards to security and overall user experience once you get used to it. However, most users also say there is no compelling reason to upgrade, and to wait until more time has elapsed or you need a new computer. That is my plan. XP professional seems quite stable, and does everything I need it to do, so I will update when I get the sense that drivers and applications are no longer an impediement.
Thomas L. Burnett
who - you?
by coffeecan - 4/27/07 6:12 PM In reply to: Reply: When will you start using Windows Vista? by thomasbuTom- did you used to be with the DAL?
Windows Vista
by OLD BLUE - 4/27/07 5:27 PM In reply to: When will you start using Windows Vista? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I joined the beta test program in the late spring of '06... like many people I kept a dual boot scenario and because my old system could not catch it's breath I upgraded in Sept (old - AMD 1000 mhz 512Ram, 80G HD) to a dual processer 2.6mhz Intel, 2G Ram, 500G HD, 20" monitor plus all the usual bells and whistles. I began to really pound the system (i.e. Vista) with everything I could throw at it. I love playing with programs and problems, so I hit up all my buds and borrowed (for testing purposes only!) all the software I could and went crazy doing installs, updates and more (many) more re-formats than I care to recall. I sent all the data to the test center and kept up with all the updates and blogs that I could. I was able to wean myself off XP Media Center and took the plunge to fultime Vista (build 5744). In between I tried Vista 64 but found too many driver issues to select it as my final OS. Due to some electrical issues I lost my MB , ram and HDs. I first invested in a new UPS and replaced my components. I tried the Intel D975XBX2, 4G ddr2 667hhz Ram, 1.4 TB HD space, ATI CRossfire w/dual 512mb video cards, 22" ws LG monitor etc... The differences were amazing. I have kept on tweaking the system and have gotten boot times in the 45- 50 sec range without killing the Vista "wow" aspects. If you like to tinker Vista can be loads of fun and stable too... just keep an open mind and read the great blogs at sites like.. this one!
Billy and Winblows? NEVER!
by CIO-NY - 4/27/07 5:29 PM In reply to: When will you start using Windows Vista? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
M$ is only good as shareware. It was BAD when they just made COPIES of the BASIC programming language, and it still bad today. The public and OEM's should stop funding his nonsense and dump it like a bad program. Oh wait, it IS a bad program. It would surprize me very much, if M$ had ANY clue as to how an O/S should behave.
Note to billy: STOP stealing and buying out the competition and let REAL people who know what they are doing, have free competition to make deals with the OEM's to install an O/S that WORKS!
I have been winblows free for years. And make converts out of others for a long time. I obtain ALL software I use for FREE, and support the developers of such code as often as I can. Imagine, you can email the author of a pgm and ask them questions! Try THAT with winblows!
Long live OPEN SOURCE! Hats off to all the FREE LINUX distros out there! Keep at it!
PS I still have been using "old" peripherals for yrs, even though I upgrade my O/S.
Vista and Love it
by gzb3y4 - 4/27/07 5:30 PM In reply to: When will you start using Windows Vista? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I upgraded my laptop to Vista a couple of months ago and I love it. As with XP upgrades I did a clean install, didn't what to keep my old problems. Upgraded my sons laptop at the same time. My sons, Gateway does a bad job of providing tech support for there drivers. My HP was a cake walk. I some program compatiblity issues but have updated all my software. The ones that didn't have updates, I used the compatiblity wizard which to my surprise worked very well. Vista runs very smooth. There are some thinks that you drive you crazy; like allow or cancel, continue. I think the only reason the security is better is because it doesn't do allot of things without you to ALLOW or CANCEL. I think this will cause more problems, because people will begin to just click ALLOW to get rid of it.
NEVER
by RydeMyToy - 4/27/07 5:33 PM In reply to: When will you start using Windows Vista? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I will never buy another windows opperating system. I have been playing with different Linux systems and I will stay with that. The only reason I have XP at all is so my kids can do there homework for school. If I didn't need it for that I ouldn't of baught that copy.
Wray
No Vista, please
by GFW - 4/27/07 6:01 PM In reply to: When will you start using Windows Vista? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
The grief that people are reporting represents only one of the reasons I stay with Mac. The consistency from one generation of software to the next results in very few problems for the Mac community, but perhaps more importantly, the ability to run new OS software on older hardware is better, and the ability to upgrade hardware (depending on which model of Mac you have) has been stellar.
came on new laptop-but!
by coffeecan - 4/27/07 6:03 PM In reply to: When will you start using Windows Vista? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Vista home premium came on a new laptop we purchased. Had to search for vista/canon drivers for new canon printer at canon web site and found them but it took some deciphering to get everything going. Some of our old apps don't work. I really dislike that part very much!!
I like to try new things but I don't like the frustration that goes with it. If I had a done an upgrade and had the trouble that some have had I would be quite angry. There is no excuse for that type of bad performance from world renowned products. It kind of grabs you that you are really being told that you are only a consumer(you're kind of similar to dog poop) and we will treat you in any fashion that we think fit for you. If products in the other than the computer world, i.e. the auto industry, were to treat you the way this recent venture by microsoft and other associated products have treated the consumer, they would soon be out of business. MS is a really large and influential corp but they seem to no longer have the customer as their best interest.
I never thought that I would entertain thoughts of one of those other o.s. 's for my pc or maybe looking at the gosh dang mac but I am now cruising the linux site and reading up on it and also wandering into the mac department at the retailers now. If our research is satisfied with the mac stats then it seems that will be the way we will go. We are just sick and tired of being sick and tired and FRUSTRATED!!! I hate to give in to this type of frustration but I feel disgusted with this recent fiasco. Some of the folks from the early Bill Gates era were kind of like heros but not any longer. They have outgrown their raison de etre in the computer world. They are just plain old corporate execs now- screw the public and the stockholder. You know, I can really live without a computer and I might just try it. I think maybe my life would really be a lot less complicated and frustrating. Just go back to reading more, going back outside more often, involving ourselves more socially, and actually going into the bank and seeing a teller and other folks. We discontinued using a TV for a while because tv and cable had such terrible stupid programming. I figured if I wanted to meet a bunch of jerks like the sopranos and potty mouths like eddie murphy, I could just go to my local bar, have a beer, a game of darts of darts and watch them live and in action instead of watching them on a screen that could affect your vision.
It felt good. And as a result, we watch very little tv, except sports. The computer took the place of the tv for us and we have enjoyed the internet and the fast work that a computer does for us. TV is very seldom on in our home any more and NEVER at the business. Hmmm-I don't need to know the news, weather, etc., but once a day.
We have brokers that keep us informed of the other necessary stuff we need from the market. I actually enjoy reading a newspaper. It's slow motion. I'm glad this subject came up. Maybe I'll start tomorrow and NOT turn on my computer. Go back to phone calls and use text messageing instead of e-mails. I like text messageing. The old fax machine still works too. One of the most recent items we have allowed back into our life is that old fashioned thing called handwritten letters for social correspondence. I would miss these forums though and the learning process thats involved with "messing" with computers. But, You Know, there are always those old things like restoring an old auto or bike or aircraft or boat. Or actually building some furniture or doing some home improvements. Or actually going to a movie again. Oh well. Maybe I will try it soon. I'll let you know how it works. Maybe I will owe a life style change to vista!
Maybe that could be the real value of vista?
Love it.
by gsalier - 4/27/07 6:22 PM In reply to: When will you start using Windows Vista? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
It is awesome.
To all those people who complain about things not working, COMPLAIN TO THE MANUFACTURER OF THE PRODUCT that does not work.... Microsoft write the OPERATING SYSTEM not the driver for your scanner, printer etc that you bought on the cheap from some discount store. As far as games running, every modern game has a copy of DirectX 9.0c which should automatically install to get the game to work. (If it doesn't, complain the the publisher of the game. If they require 9.0c and 9.0c only then it should install).
Vista however is great. The networking is so much better than previous versions. It seems to be a lot easier for the casual user (my wife) than previos versions. I have XP, Kubuntu, Vista Ultimate and 2003 Server. All of them are great at what they do. XP was good for its time. Kubuntu is quite good once you get past the incredibly steep learning curve. (Try joining it to a domain when youve never run it before. Whew...). 2003 Server is as stable as a rock and Vista (with Media Centre) is great.
When will I start usning Windows Vista
by pski2 - 4/27/07 6:30 PM In reply to: When will you start using Windows Vista? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I have been using Vista for 4 months now and am very pleased. There were a few programs on my old PC that didn't like Vista but I have found new ones or the "Geek Squad" at Best Buy were able to get things working.
Very happy so far!
No VISTA for me...
by rkbush - 4/27/07 6:36 PM In reply to: When will you start using Windows Vista? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I use XP Pro with Media Center. I DON'T want to learn any more bells and whistles and XP is a very stable program. I still wake up screaming from my experiences with Windows 98.
It depends on the key application software
by hifly.liu - 4/27/07 6:36 PM In reply to: When will you start using Windows Vista? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
The date for me to upgrate to Vista is determined by the most anticipating game - Hellgate : London, for its support of Direct X 10 which is Vista only. Also is the Hellgate : London for me to decide on 32bit or 64bit of Vista. So please Flagship Studio release the Hellgate : London supporting Spec quickly. I have builded up my system consist of Core2 Duo E6600 2.4GHz 64bit CPU + nVidia GeForce 8800GTS graphic card, which is Direct X 10 ready !!
Use Windows Vista?
by LynneM - 4/27/07 6:44 PM In reply to: When will you start using Windows Vista? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Never, never, never! I just got the last uprade windows version to work for me. I can't take any more. I am going to try to learn Linux and make it work for me for the things that I like to do on my machine. There are programs that will let me run the Window programs that I really need, but the operating system will be some other flavor.
I use Unix at work, so I have some understanding how that system works, but will need to get up to speed with Linux. Too, I will stay with XP and make it do what I Want It To Do, not what the systems decides that I should do. I had to buy a full version of XP, so I might as well get my money's worth. (I still prefer Win98.)
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