Buzz Out Loud Lounge: Silent Vista-loving majority?
Silent? Not really
by MarioP3 - 5/8/08 9:05 PM In reply to: Silent Vista-loving majority? by chustarI am a IT professional, and dreaded the install due to what I'd heard... But as clients went ahead and bought systems with Vista installed, I broke down and installed it on my personal Toshiba laptop. Which Toshiba assured me was not in any way Vista compatible. The install went flawlessly, I learned the differences in the OS's and how terminology changed to protect the MS guilty (such as the control panel object names... why???).
Well, the two+ year old Toshiba M65 laptop runs Vista with higher performance scoring than many new laptops, after a upgrade to 2GB, it's performance was very good. Connecting to modems (cell phone broadband), wireless networks, Firewire devices and USB devices has been flawless. Wired networks no issues.
The only fly in the ointment is the video card driver - ATI will not issue new ones saying it's the laptop vendors responsibility and Toshiba will not saying the laptop is NOT Vista capable. So that means that (so far the only thing I've noticed) I don't have 16bit full screen capability. I can live with that.
It's been over a year for me. I like it. Just do a hands on test of any computer system to verify the performance before laying down dollars.
Vista Ultimate
by Bubbalou52 - 5/8/08 9:54 PM In reply to: Silent Vista-loving majority? by chustarI have had Vista Ultimate since February of 2007. I love it. My son got it also. No problems on the 32 Bit version once you get software made for Vista. Drivers were not an issue as I built the computer around the same time using (then new)technology motherboards and CPU.
I like it much better than XP. It has a lot of power waiting to be discovered. Every day it seems there is something new being discovered. I also installed the 64 bit version but only recently companies (including Microsoft) started making compatible 64 bit drives and some software. While it is not dramatically faster than the 32 bit version it is noticable and it seems to operate the computer more efficiently. Before I bought a good Zalman Heatsink for the AMD X2 6000+ processor the CPU would over heat using 32 bit Vista and running a long Spy Bot or NOD32 scan unless it was in Power Saver mode (reduced efficency and speed). I could however run them with no problem in the 64 bit Vista as the CPU did not have to work hard at all.
I now have a Zalman heatpipe heatsink and run it on High Performance all day long with no cooling issues whatsoever.
Another niceity I found with Vista 64 is that I could connect both Network jacks to separate router channels so they utilize both for increased upload/download bandwidth. XP seems so "old hat" now after using Vista. Yes, people will complain if their beloved software doesn't run on Vista but you can really only blame the 3rd Party Software companies for that one. NOD32 Antivirus even has a 64 bit version that I use. I highly recommend NOD32 for any computer that is connected to the Internet.
I am doing well with Vista.
by RELDDAP - 5/8/08 10:29 PM In reply to: Silent Vista-loving majority? by chustarRight out of the chute (nearly one and a half years ago), I bought an HP PC with Vista installed . I was quite frustrated in the beginning, especially with the pop-up that INSISTED that I didn't have a legitimate version of the OS. Documentation directed me to call HP but after several unsuccessful attempts to translate the pidgin English of the East Indians (which gobbled hours of my precious time) I called MS, who provided a solution (albeit without joy or enthusiasm). I continued to stumbled over a number of frustrating quirks and, either found my own solutions, or got clues from forums (esp CNet). I have not found "Help and Support" to be very beneficial - it seems too superficial. After several months, the system began to smooth out as I tweaked it regularly and I became a happy camper.I am fairly content with Vista but am willing to acknowledge that XP is a good OS. However, I would not go back now that most everything seems to be operating smoothly in Vista.
A little 'ol lady PC addict.
what other os is designed for multiple core cpu?
by bigmikd - 5/8/08 10:50 PM In reply to: Silent Vista-loving majority? by chustarthe original purpose for vista was to better utilize background services, or to better multi-task. xp wont allow background ops to work full speed-ergo-if you like using faster modern processors you better get used to vista(or become a bilionaire by writing a new code that average users can handle).just my .02
That depends on how you use your computer.
by ekhine - 5/8/08 10:56 PM In reply to: Silent Vista-loving majority? by chustarBeautiful OS if you buy a new machine and search the web and watch youtube. No problem if you buy all new peripherals too.
If you use lots of programs and need to buy new versions because of incompatibilies, that becomes a problem. who enjoy being forced to buy new peripherals if your relatively young, perfectly working multifunction machine does not like Vista.
To love a new OS or not reflects what kind of computer user one is rather than the OS itself.
And we need new OS even if the old one is more than adequate, to keep the economy humming.
Vista is Superior
by wyliepops - 5/8/08 11:05 PM In reply to: Silent Vista-loving majority? by chustarAlthough there are some issues with hardware out there, I have had only one issue with HD audio on Vista 64, Windows Vista has made many improvements in the areas of security, file indexing and user profile storage. The fact that Vista is so new, and many applications and firmware have not upgraded to incorporate this OS, make the general computer user uncomfortable with Windows Vista. The area where Vista will make the most noticeable difference is in a network environment. This obviously will happen slowly, as businesses upgrade as needed, and not on a lark. I personally run a multi-boot: XP Pro, Vista 64 and Ubuntu. I have had more issues with XP and Ubuntu than with Windows Vista.
Silently enjoying Vista
by little_fiver - 5/8/08 11:30 PM In reply to: Silent Vista-loving majority? by chustarI wouldn't go so far as say that I love Vista. I like it. I really do. Although in general I would say it seems more a flashy version of XP, and that if my Laptop didn't come with Vista installed, I am not sure if it would be worth paying for an upgrade from XP.
I have used Computers pretty much all my life, starting with Texas Instrument, Commador 64, Victor 20 (not to be confused with Vic 20). My first home was PC Compatible was a 286 overclocked to 16 MHz, although I did have a 8086 for a while while learning assembler at college. I even still have a copy of PC-Dos 2.1 sealed in the original packaging. Over the years every OS I have used had their own problems. This past December I bought a $500 Laptop that had Vista Home Premium pre-installed.
I have had virtually zero problems with Vista. I say virtually zero because I did have an issue using a 5 year old USB to COMM adapter (with 5 year old drivers) that I was using to program a 20 year old barcode printer with a DOS interface. I could not start the Vista with the barcode printer attached, but it worked fine if I plugged it in after Vista started up.
I do have the advantage, in the fact that I bought this name brand Laptop with Vista pre-installed. I know upgrading on older computer, or making a U-Build computer, can come with it's own headaches. Been their, done that, but isn't that true for all new Major releases of OS?
My Experience with Vista is that it is the most stable version of Windows Yet. With XP sp2 a very close second. And Vista's Eye Candy is nice. I am sorry to hear that so many are having problems with Vista, but that are so many like me that enjoying their Vista experience.
How can you love something that's an obvious step back?
by Emilio2000 - 5/9/08 1:52 AM In reply to: Silent Vista-loving majority? by chustarI really wanted to love it, and had high hopes. But Vista turned out to be a huge disappointment.
First, there's the missing drivers. A year and a half after Vista's introduction, Linksys still has not released new drivers for its wireless printer driver. In fact, Linksys has that wireless printer driver listed as being fully compatible with Windows. That might be true with the 32-bit Vista, but it is definitely not compatible with the 64-bit Vista. So, now I can't print from my shiny new Vista computer.
But, worse than that, Microsoft and Windows Vista itself are to blame for the sub-par software that is included in it. For example, Windows Mail is much less capable than Outlook Express. They had a perfectly good product in Outlook Express, and they had to mess it up. We can't use Outlook Express any more, and have to put up with the dumbed down Windows Mail
Windows mail offers only some eye candy (like the ability to add photos for each contact - Who has time for that?). But, when it comes to real features, it has dropped several features that worked perfectly well in Outlook Express, such as:
1. When using several Groups of contacts, there is no way to find out which Groups a person belongs to (by looking at the person's Contact info). Outlook Express clearly shows the Groups in the "Other" tab. But Windows mail is blind is this respect.
2. There is no easy way to synchronize two Address Books on two computers (like you could easily do by exporting and importing the WAB file in OE).
3. You can't drag and drop individual contacts into Groups (like we used to be able to do in Outlook Express).
4. You can only export individual contacts, using a .CSV file (the most primitive method). There is no way to export Groups.
Basically, some idiot at Microsoft decided to strip all these functions away from us, and now they expect us to love it?
The depressing thing is that there is no indication that the future will bring any relief either. Microsoft simply finds new ways of making life more difficult for us, to strip away functionality, or to hide things were it is more difficult to find.
Why can't they just keep the interface we are used to, and just add any new features, without stripping away the old ones?
Oh, and on top of that, my Windows Vista has a mind of its own. When it is in a good mood, it lets me use my external hard drive for backups. When it's in a bad mood, it simply pretends it doesn't see the hard drive there. Sometimes it ignores all USB ports. Sometimes rebooting fixes things. Other times it doesn't.
Only geeks who like to constantly tinker with things could love Vista. The rest of us are just annoyed when we can't get our work done.
Been using vista for over a year with no problems at all
by decromin - 5/9/08 2:47 AM In reply to: How can you love something that's an obvious step back? by Emilio2000You can count me into the positive vista experience group. I've been running Vista Ultimate on my two home machines since Feb last year, and so far I've not run into any problems whatsoever. I've not seen any driver issues, save for Netgear taking so long to release their SC101 software for vista, and again I cannot blame vista for that! All in all I prefer vista to the XP machine I use at work, and I frankly cannot understand the complaints people make about it, especially when it comes to drivers. Nvidia ***** up a driver and suddenly it's Microsofts fault?? Hmmm ....
Vista
by matrixtech - 5/9/08 5:33 AM In reply to: Silent Vista-loving majority? by chustarJust showing some love for vista, i bought and HP Pavillion notebook with vista home premium, and have had no problems at all, the only thing i wish i did different was and amd dualcore! And if i remember right XP had it's share of issues at first, and i still had security issues untill i finally got rid of my desktop!
so cheers to vista and hopefully great patch coming soon!
Matrixtech
Vista
by bnlkmtka - 5/9/08 5:35 AM In reply to: Silent Vista-loving majority? by chustarI have been using Micrsoft's operating systems since I bought my first PC, IBM XT, in 1986. I have experienced DOS, Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows Millenium, Windows XP and now Windows Vista. What is the big problem with getting used a new operating system? I don't love Vista. I just think it is better than the last operating system. Get with it.
vista 64 bit is the future
by jef46f - 5/9/08 6:18 AM In reply to: Silent Vista-loving majority? by chustarmicrosoft made a lot of improvements in vista and put a lot of effort into the 64 bit editions to improve compatibility. Out of the apps I regularly use only about 10% wouldn't run and none caused a system crash. I wish I could have said the same for all the other windows versions I have installed... At any rate I am now running home premium 64 bit and it has been great so far; it's a hedge on future developments as more aps take advantage of the greater memory access and 64 bit speed advantage . till then the 32 bit software runs fine.
Vista Basic
by samunro - 5/9/08 7:40 AM In reply to: Silent Vista-loving majority? by chustarWhen I bought my Lenovo laptop I received a free upgrade to Vista Basic when it was released. I've loved it with the exception of learning how to use it. I only wish my machine could support using Home Premium, but that'll have to wait till I upgrade mt desk top.
Robbie Talking The Pros and Cons of Vista
by Robbie Mosaic - 5/9/08 7:50 AM In reply to: Silent Vista-loving majority? by chustarRobbie Talking The Pros and Cons of Vista
I first saw Windows Vista Home Basic on Teo and parents' computer. Later I began to use it for production in Microsoft in Zizhu. I found these problems of Windows Vista:
- High memory load after booting. XP takes about 120MB RAM after booting up, but Vista takes about 600MB (not counting that SuperFetch cache), even with no visual effects enabled. This makes the whole system sluggish. Without SuperFetch, XP is still much faster than Vista is.
- Only a little improved GDI experience (GDI is the GUI programming interface on Windows). Although Vista introduced the new bitmap drawing era[2] (translucent applications draw faster, so that a translucent clock floating on top of other apps is feasible?), most old applications won't enjoy the benefit of this. The only useless improvement is: when an application stops responding, its old window content will be preserved and redrawn automatically, and covered with a slim white silk to tell you that it stopped responding.
- Strange behavior of ctrl-space on the command line. Usually on the command line, ctrl-space means turning on or off the IME (switching back and forth between IME mode and keyboard mode). On Vista, it became very strange. It doesn't turn on/off the IME, but turns the IME between double width and single width, and I can't find any key to really switch on/off an IME. Can anybody help me!!!
- Compatibility problem of non-mbcs applications on the command line. OK, this is the app's problem so let's blame it.
- UAC is annoying if it is turned on. In the end, I could not bear it. I limited my user account to be normal User and use another Administrator account to do administrative tasks. In addition I disabled UAC.
- Non-consistent interface with Office 2007. Office 2007 uses ribbons but Windows Vista doesn't. But Windows Vista Explorer uses such a strange interface, making me very stunned when I first used it.
I have got these new things in Vista:
- UAC storage virtualization. This redirects file creation in system directories (Windows, Program Files) to directories in the user's profile. For example, file creation in the Windows directory will be put in a place like:
C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Windows
, IIRC. This prevents legacy applications to misuse program directories. It is a compatibility improvement. However, this kind of virtualization is limited: Vista 64-bit doesn't have this, and programs cannot virtually delete an existing file.
Anyway, the number of programs incompatible in this way is less and less. I hope that one day this feature is useless, when Windows applications are all programmed to support multi-user security.
- Explorer searching. Searching speed is improved using the new Windows Search feature. However I usually don't do file content search excessively. I'd rather make the directories tidy. If I search for a file name, I only need to dir /s /b to dump a list into a .txt file, and then grep inside the .txt file, and this is very fast.
- Clickable structure in Explorer address bar. And folder views selectable by a slider. However these things are not useful to me since Windows 2000, so I don't appreciate them very much.
- The new visual styles. It is beautiful and distracting. Don't take me to Compiz[1].
- Individual application volume control. This should have existed since Windows 2000, but postponed to such a late time. Pathetic.
- Session 0 isolation[2]. This is OK. May affect performance a little bit, but not too much.
- UIPI (User Interface Privilege Isolation). This adds some security to an administrator shell running in a normal user log-on.
- File junction (like symbolic link, but more limited). Anyway, this feature does provide some kind of flexibility, but I hope it is 2000 (directory junctions are supported then) rather than Vista.
- HDD and CPU performance test. What did I say? Oh, yes, install Vista and expect your HDD to be the real bottleneck of your system, and welcome a sometimes busy CPU.
[1] http://compiz.org/
[2] http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa480152.aspx
Vista Application Compatibility Cookbook
vista and Digital FX
by commissar12 - 5/9/08 8:09 AM In reply to: Silent Vista-loving majority? by chustarIf anyone would have serious problems with vista it should have been me. I work professionally in the commercial visual effects industry. at work we use windows xp x64, and i like it. at home i have 2 machines, one with xp x64 and another with vista ultimate x64. i have no problems running any of my animation or visual effects software; i run programs like, Alias Maya, Adobe After Effects, Premiere, Digital Fusion, Zbrush. They all run flawlessly on both these versions of windows. but i definitely prefer vista over xp for 64 bit software - xp x64 had more than a few compatibility issues with x86 software.
Its true that vista had some problems at the get-go. my first week with vista was problematic because of nvidia drivers, but once i upgraded those i haven't had any problems. drivers are still an issue on some old hardware, for example, i have a linksys gigabit ethernet card that doesn't have x64 drivers, but it would work fine if i was using the 32bit version of vista. I firmly believe that most driver issues, like this one, are not Microsoft's fault, the hardware manufacturers are simply not choosing to provide uniform support of their products.
I use vista x64 every day, i don't suffer BSOD's, and all my software runs the way i expect it to - what more could i ask for? I'm glad that Microsoft is pushing the x64 version of vista, i wish they would push it even more. most of my professional software comes in x64 versions and the extra memory and speed i get from those is essential for getting my work done on time.
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