Windows Vista forum: Should you go for Windows Vista

"Question: How many Microsoft engineers does it take to change a lightbulb?
Answer: None, it's a hardware issue!"

I couldn't agree more!

What do you think made Microsoft worth 80 billion. It was not from making bad decisions. It was from being innovative and supplying products the world was requesting. I admit they had a lot of bugs but what other company has even begun to compare with the software features MS offers. Linux is good but MS got embedded and it was because they thought of it first. Open architecture from the beginning. If apple had done this at first there would be some real competition going on now. More than is at this time.

Supposedly extended support for XP goes until 2014. This is a pretty good while to get used to the idea of vista.

You should go if
- you want to test the new features in the next standard operating system.

- your PC has at least 512 MB of memory. I recommend 1 GB.
- you have a fast processor (pentium 4, Athlon 64).
- you have a supported graphics card with 128 MB of memory, more is better.
- you don't mind having minor software incompatibilities.
- you have at least 6GB of hard disk drive ONLY for the installation of Vista.

those sound more like a hardware list needed to move to vista and on the lighter side more than reasons to move. The only reason to move is if your current situation requires it for you to continue doing what you want to do ie. work, compatibility with networks, I cant really think of any reason to change unless you just want the new experience. Thats me. If I may say so. I work alot with computers of all kinds, mine is a HOT Rod only lacking SLI video and I feel I need the SLI for vista. We put the best hardware we can find together to run things like Autodesk Inventor 3d modeler requested by design engineers and nothing that is available now for less that 3000 bucks can handle it when useing the 3d tools and realtime zoom and rotate features. Throw in a Quadro card thats another 900 bucks. Power cost big.Vista poves to be even more hungry just for the full transparent desktop. I am serious. But I love the way it works and looks. I cant wait. Ill sell my car if I have to. I have to be on the edge due to the fact that my customers come to me for info on what to buy and why. they pay me to put together machines geared mostly toward what they spec. So I know hardware. Vista has to be less power hungry after the beta or people are going to have to spend big money to see it on their desktop in full bloom. Thats for sure.Look at the recommended system for Vista at some of the computer seller sites. Itanium DUo, SLI video w/512 mb mem, 300 GB Sata Raid0 with 2 GB DDR2. Thats alot just for the OS. Why do you think Intel is jumping out and launching the new duo chips now. Even when their customers have warehouses full of computers to sell already with P4 hot rods in them. Vista Beckons. Everyone is getting ready. Ill say that when Vista is launched, Half of the people in the United States will immeadiatly start upgrading or buying new machines. Heavy upgrades. I am the only one in my family that is capable even running Vista beta. And I have a big family. They are not into power user status as I am. But if they want to use vista get out the wallet and call me. I love it !!!!!!!!!!!

I tried the beta on my pc, expecting its reasonable specs (although a little weak in the graphics) of an amd 4400, nvidia 7300GS, 1GB RAM, etc. to run vista like a dream.
This could not have been far enough from the truth. I was met with unstability and continued crashing, and the originally reasonable boot time slowed down to a hault after just a few basic drivers and applications had been installed.
Nothing from games to dvds to even simple internet connection goes as smoothly as you might hope, and most drivers require alot of searching and research to get to work! My verdict: looks good, but much of the funtionality upgrades just add a pretty screen to give the impression of having more options, when in fact it really just slows you down when all you want is to change a simple setting!

When I got the e-mail from Microsoft that Vista Beta was released for testing, I rushed to d/l it asap. I have been working on computers since high school back in 1971. My first home computer was an 8088 from Radio Shack with (2) 5-1/4 floppy drives and a whopping 15 meg hard drive with DOS 1.0 that I thought I'd never fill up and 128K of RAM, 256K CGA monitor, wow. (grin)
I have tried so many programs that everybody throws at me since all my friends and family know I am that hard core nerdy PC brain type. Since the release of this Vista, the e-mails, phone calls and mail have been pouring in, ''Is it any good?'' My answer is, ''Yes, Absolutely!'' But be prepared to buy a new expensive computer if you want to run it correctly and for certain programs such as, McAfee Virus & Firewall protection, Nero Burning ROM (any version),
Power DVD, Adobe Audition 1.5 or 2.0, to name a few will not work with Vista, yet. Perhaps, they will work when Vista is released for sale. Majority of my progran software and games work fine. Occassionaly, I have had a few bugs which I sent the automatic notification to Microsoft and got responses back from them in a timely manner on every situation with either, ''a fix will be created soon'' or ''what you can do to correct this error...''
Vista has tight and well needed security and I love it, but my first few days when I thought I could just jump in there with my Administrative rights and rule it, it stopped me cold from accessing folders that had important data such as pictures and audio files. Vista was just protecting and honoring the access rights of the XP Pro and that is why I could not get into those folders. It is a darn good thing that I made a back-up of my hard drive before I installed it (like everyone should do). Yes, there are ways to access those folders, you just have to read the instructions, something I have learned to do only as a last resort.
My current system that I have thrown together, Intel D915GAV motherboard with 2 GB mem, onboard audio & video, Intel 3.2 Ghz HT CPU, (4) 250 GB SATA HD's, Pioneer & BENQ DVD-RW drives and a Ultra SLI 600 Watt Power supply just makes Vista happy enough to play some features. I will add a nVidia 512 meg PCIe card soon to get the other features to work.
Vista has noticeably increaded the speed of my boot-up, programs, networking (file transfers)and with better built in security which is more important to me than all the new tricks, fancy look and layout of the new desktop.
With new system software upgrades you need to expect to give up some of those old programs that lack security and install new ones that can do the same job and more than likely be even better than before. Be prepared to learn new tricks or stay in a system that is going to be left behind. Vista is causing me to learn and at age 51 the challenges feels good. Microsoft also released appropriately their Office 2007 Suite for Beta testing that works great with so many new fantastic features (Go get it now it works with XP also).
For those of you who know how, I recommend installing Vista as a second boot-up (Multi-Boot-up)(Installed on another bootable drive), that way you can go into your XP or Vista without giving anything up. It works great for me, since I still haven't learned all the ins and outs of Vista yet and this gives me a cheating chance to go back into XP to move files into a shared folder that I can pickup in Vista and move it to a folder that is much more safe.
Vista takes away some choices, but give you so many new ones, that I recommend it for those of you who have a system that can pass the Vista compatibility test, try it. For those whose system can not, Wait and buy a new PC next year after Vista is released. No use in patching a system together that is never going to be good enough in the long run. Save your gard earned money now! It will cost a lot to buy that Mercedes (Vista) system next year.

I'm with you. I never jump on the newest incarnation of anything, too many bugs and glitches. It will take, as you say, a couple of service pack upgrades to work out the difficulties. But some of you are computer junkies and must have the newest of everything, thank god for you people who like the newest and are willing to suffer through the experience for us wusses! For the moment, I'm happy enough with XP and will wait and watch the response to Vista.

Cheryl

I've never upgraded the OS on an existing machine either. I'm looking forward to the price drops on non-Vista-compatible hardware that will come.

There's no way I'm going to pay tons of money for a new computer (because one is an older desktop past upgrading, the other's a laptop...no room) and then shell out all the money needed to buy the operating system when it first comes out. Besides monetary reasons, Vista will have way too many bugs, I'm sure, and the flashy new interface just isn't worth the headache to me.

I'm happy in my own little XP land for now.

I want the new experience. Not just Aero Glass, but the OS as a whole. I've been with Windows since 3.0 and I'm just a Microsoft junkie. They're not perfect, but I believe their accomplishments far outweigh most of the negative.

Sure IE7 & WMP 11 are available for XP SP2, but that seems like playing a Nintendo 64 game that was ported to SNES.

There are hardware considerations (mainly DirectX10/WDDM 2.0 cards), but I'm more concerned about cost. How much will Vista Premium cost? $300? $400? Do I think it will be worth $400? Yes. Will I pay $400? Heck no.

I'll also be waiting till at least SP1. Hopefully by then my money tree will have shed its bills.

It's all about the new experience. What's new, what's changed, what isn't available anymore. I can't get a new wife, but I may as well get a sleek, young, sexy OS.

Although you will probably find me criticising Windows Vista in other forums I would get it when it comes out, why? I am getting kind of tired of Windows XP and not to mention security, Vista has some nifty features such as searching files on your computer and probably Aero Glass. All I know is that I am dying to get vista but I dont own a credit card and I dont have a high speed connection.

Hardware companys will make out when Vista gets turned lose. (Fact)

Thank You

Wendell H

I've been using computers since 11 years now, and I'm worried about the cost of Microsoft operating systems. Especially as an unemployed student, I wouldn't like buying vista for few hundred dollars, when alternatives work well for me.

Alternatives?

I'm using Ubuntu Linux and Mac OS X Tiger on a macbook, and it's the ultimate thing. At least I don't have to bother about security, cost, hardware upgrades, viruses, proprietary software or anything else. Both these OS's come with tonnes of free built-in tools to edit photos, record a soundtrack, make a website, burn DVDs, play videos and sound... and so on...

I was introduced to Linux one year back, and Mac OS X six months back. And now I've experienced both, they've effectively erased the influence of windows from my mind.

Thank you Bill Gates, I love you, but I wont pay you.

I've read a lot about Vista recently, and most of what I've heard makes me not want to run Vista even if Microsoft PAID me to do it, let alone me shelling out money for the "privilege" of running this bloated, ineficient OS.

I agree furthermore with the above statement that most of what people do with a computer COULD be done just fine on a Pentium II or even an old Pentium MMX running Windows 98.

Personally, the only reason I'd entertain the idea of "upgrading" my operating system is if I needed to use software or peripherals that just could not function on the OS I'm currently running.

For example, when Windows 95 OSR2 came out back in 1996, the main tangible benefit was the FAT32 file system, allowing hard disks over 2 GB to be formatted as a single partition. When Windows 98 came out, the main tangible benefit was support for USB peripherals. And when Windows XP came out, the main tangible benefit was support for wireless networking.

So for a user that does not use any USB peripherals, and does not need wireless networking capability, there really is not a whole lot of incentive to "upgrade" to XP, let alone to Vista.

Of course one way that Microsoft and the hardware vendors "force" upgrades to a new OS is by releasing peripherals and chipsets that cannot run the older versions.

I know that when I bought a new computer right after Windows XP came out, I thought it was very bloated and inefficient, and ended up reformatting the hard disk and using the Windows 98SE disc from my previous computter. I was able to do that, because all the hardware devices in that computer were capable of running Windows 98, even if I had to download device drivers from sources other than the PC manufacturer's own website.

But after Windows XP was out for a few years, new computers started using processors and chipsets that just were not compatible with Windows 98 anymore. I suggest the same thing will occur with Windows XP after Vista is out for a year or 2.

Of course the thing that most people fail to understand--or else MS would be out of business--is that if your current computer is working fine, then why purchase another one unless it does something that you want to do but your current one cannot? If people thought like this, then the new OS and the new computers that require it would languish on the shelves unless consumers can see some tangible benefit to "upgrading".