Community poll forum: Will you be installing Windows Vista?

I'll wait at least a year for the bugs to get worked out. I'll think about it after SP1 is released, and maybe even wait for SP2.

I've read the other people's replies to this question from the vehemently no to the adamantly yes. I have had the chance to beta test Vista for a while as research for our company's needs and this is my answer.

No. And probably not ever.

XP does exactly what we need to accomplish daily business. XP is currently patched well, not perfect but well. When XP updates fall out of scope for Microsoft, then we will think about upgrading.

Here is why I'm hesitant:
1) Vista is running a brand new, untested TCP/IP stack.
2) No new file system.
3) The new SMB overhead is going to hobble TCP/IP intensive programs.
4) The new level of control over what program is running is nice but not available in anything less than Ultimate (Wish they would put it into XP).
5) Security dialogs bordering on abusive and confusing for non-technical average consumers (my family is going to be ringing me for months after they buy it on a new machine ).
6) Most modifictaions that people are touting are tweaks to the shell to the OS. Yes it looks pretty, yes it has new search features, yes it has new start menus and yes it has widgets. All of these "features" are 3rd party available today and not what I would consider a major OS upgrade.

What I would like to see though from XP and could possibly force us to have to choose between Linux and Vista:
1) 3rd party programmers not coding assuming admin credentials
2) Better 64bit support for the OS and drivers
3) Execution white-list (preferably centrally administered in an AD domain)

I'm sorry, folks, but I figure that since I pay for my computer hardware and the software I choose to run on it, I should have the right to determine what I do with my property. I'm not going to have Microsoft software crippling my computer because I don't have the kind of hardware they want me to have installed.

You should also read the EULA for Office 2007. Instead of making their products more open and universal, Microsoft is making their product more monopolistic, and apparently making it so that office applications from other vendors can't open their documents.

I have been using both Vista and office since beta 2. Now that they have both RTMed, I am enjoying them even more.

The new office interface makes finding things a lot faster and easier to use. I love the new search feature in Vista. I have allowed my family and friends to use Vista on my laptop and so far, everyone that has used it, love it.

I can not see myself go back to XP.

I'm losing my faith in Windows. Every time a new version comes out it just requires a much better PC to run it on and I dont want to spend myhard earned hardware cash just supportng the requirements of the OS. I'm using XP at the moment because it came bundles with my PC but I'm just about to ditch Windows altogether and install Ubuntu. I just now feel that Microsoft have enough money off me, and having grown up with Linux/Unix I'm comfortable going that route. If I'm really honest about what I use my PC for (email, web, office tools) there are fantastic (and free) products out there than in my experience have greater stability. I know there are probably good points about Windows and I've never been anti-Windows, but it doesn't give me enough benefit to be worth the money. And I will also acknowledge that Microsoft have probably done a lot for the usability of computers for us mere mortals but there is competion out there now. Sorry Microsoft.

The only reason I still have Windows XP on my system is for some games and my scanner. Unfortunately my model is not supported and some hardware seems to be the only weakness. I dual boot with Ubunto Linux. No registry, no viruses, no firewall, no spyware, etc.. None of those programs running in the background sucking uop your resources. Fast and clean and everything is FREE.
Folks, do yourselves a favor and download a couple of the Linux distros (distributions) and burn the ISOs to a CD or DVD. These are boot disks so you can run them from your CD drive until you are ready to install. I suggest Ubuntu and Kbuntu. Each has a different look.

xp works fine for me, im not going to pay more when i already have a great running system. And yes i do believe that vista might ending up being like windows me, it works, but there are so many probs with other companies, you can't install any software that wont make it go nutz. windows xp works fine, i have 2 computers still running xp with home edition. in my room i have a computer running windows 2000 sp4. windows 2000 will be offered security updates for about another 2 or 3 years from now, so we can conclude that xp will be supported with security updates for awhile. besides, windows xp is coming out soon with a 3rd service pack. microsoft has it stated on there website, i dont remember where, but i had seen it on there upcoming service pack page. so xp with another security pack? hmmmm very interesting. also with vista, it demands more performance, my computer that i use mainly is a 2.5 ghz proccesor, with 512 mb of ram. if i upgrade to vista i meet the minimal requierments. no thanx, xp works fine.

Since I'm in the market later this year for a laptop, I will 'assume' that it will have VISTA(and hope the worst glitches are fixed)

As your newletter observed, I had figured out that VISTA is noting more than a 'glitz' cover with fancy 3d and transparent icons. What does that do for the user? W/o security updates it is worth nothing and not a reason to suffer through an update or new system on new PC.

The more I read about the problems with Vista the more convinced I am that with this release, Mikrosoft has jumped the shark for software. It is a release that, by any report I have seen, has questionable utility in terms of upgrades, hardware requirements, user configurability, zero legacy tolerance, malware prevention issues built into the OS instead of an eco-niche solution, and not much in the way of gui enhancement. I mean really, the biggest selling point I hear touted is the Aeroglass interface and how does that really impact the work I do on the machine vs the expense of the hardware required to make it functional? Ooooh, shiney.

I've installed Linux and am investigating VMs to use the few M$ programs that don't have an alternative, mostly for games. I may just have an isolated machine w/o a net connection for that.

XP has been a real workhorse for me. Is it perfect? No, but neither will Vista be perfect. I don't feel that I am lacking anything right now that Vista offers, so I won't be rushing to upgrade. Down the road, if I upgrade my hardware, or if my existing environment becomes corrupted enough to require a rebuild, then I suppose I'll go with Vista. But there is no hurry.

You'll have to pry my Macintosh from my cold, dead fingers. Why on God's green Earth would I want a pseudo-copy of Mac OS X? I can't believe people are still falling for this trickery.

I'm sorry to tell you this, but anything new in Vista from XP, meaning gadgets, aero, LIVE SEARCH, glass, etc., was in Tiger, which was made years before Vista. I'm no fanboy, but I can see what's what. And the Mac UI is much more usable than Vista.

Coming from a die hard Microsoft fan I agree that in many areas Apple has left Microsoft in the dust when it comes to O/S development.

That said....I bought my neighbor kid a MacBook for mowing my lawn and to help him get through college. He has it here all the time and as far as I can tell my Vista machines do much more than the Mac. The Mac looks beautiful, but when it comes down to running the Business Applications I use and even the media capabilities i.e. Media Center I love, my Vista machine comes out on top.