Vista isn't so bad after all

[cavillas]

The moans come form the same people who harked back to win98se when xp came out, same arguements and concerns.  Xp was much better when SP2 was introduced.  That's life.

[Den]

Some people just like to moan and don't like change

[LesD]

Some people just like to moan and don't like change

I love a good moan Den don't you? 

Right now being a Vista rookie of a week or three I am saying nothing except I have my good old XP Pro box sitting along side the new Vista one with a KVM switch between the two and I am glad I have!
The switch that is not Vista. 

[Den]

My XP box is on the floor and not plugged in at the moment and thats where I hope it stays untill I pass it on to my son. I think the bigest problem is that we like the machine we have and want Vista to run on it with little or no extra expense. In my case I bought the HP machine so cheaply I would have had to pay almost as much just for Vista Home Premium.

[LesD]

My XP box is on the floor and not plugged in at the moment and thats where I hope it stays untill I pass it on to my son. I think the bigest problem is that we like the machine we have and want Vista to run on it with little or no extra expense. In my case I bought the HP machine so cheaply I would have had to pay almost as much just for Vista Home Premium.

No argument Den, HP machines have a good reputation and for the price you paid you got a bargain with Vista too. We use HP's exclusively in our Lab. at work. 12 of the beasts I updated them all last week, 5 Desktops, a Tower, 5 Laptops and the Proliant Server. You can get just a wee bit tired of the relentless number of Windows Genuine Advantage KBxxxxxx that MS chuck at you. In six months since the last full update it was on average three per machine. There as I said earlier I like a good moan!   

BTW my OEM Vista Home Premium was £58 from MicroDirect collected.

[Inactive]

I am sure that there were significant improvements going from 98SE to XP, the plug and play USB being the main one, sadly I cannot think of any significant such improvements in Vista.

[cavillas]

I like the sidebar and photo gallery, also the calander is useful.  I normally use Office xp but find the built in stuff quite useful.  Even with 512Mb memory it is now behaving quite snappily and no signs of blue screens etc yet.

[Gary]

There are many under the hood improvements, better handling of multicore cpu's a stronger kernel, a new and more robust tcp/ip stack, protected mode for IE7, intergrated search, better user interface, windows photo gallery, snipping tool, sidebar with some great gadgets, better power management with many settings to get what you really want out of it, no matter what you say UAC is great to not run as full admin but still be able to do all you need, Direct X 10.1, voice recognition which is fun to use for typing with no hands, opening programs and using commands all with vocal commands and is indispensable for many disabled people. I could go on.

What really bugs me is people forget what XP was like with sp1 it had bugs was a security nightmare people hated it moaned about its issues and the number of flaws and patches, pre sp1 it was bloody awful, I love Vista it runs fast does what I want with ease and more style also its a young OS, people so easily forget the past. Windows 7 will be built off Vista as well so its not such a huge upgrade as Vista was from XP.

After running Vista since March I can leave it running for days without reboots, its more stable its faster and its good at doing what it says, and makes imho XP Pro look and act dated, something I never would have thought I would ever say.

[David]

I love Vista

[Simon]

When I first got Vista, I spent days trying to make it look and feel like what I was used to, XP,  I got rid of the Gadgets, and installed all my old programs, and now have it how I like it, but my XP desktop is definitely still quicker.

[Inactive]

But none of those listed Gary are " significant " improvements in my book, I still far prefer XP.


XP is significantly faster than Vista.


To each his / her own, as they say.

[David]

I think you may be right in my case In but as I never really got used to XP I found Vista easier for someone with my limited experience....Its easier to use and understand and seemss to date XP

[Gary]

But none of those listed Gary are " significant " improvements in my book, I still far prefer XP.


XP is significantly faster than Vista.


To each his / her own, as they say.

XP is not faster than Vista here In   but those improvements are fine by me, I would not go buy Vista if I had XP but with a new pc built for Vista with the right specs its fine, I think even with windows 7 I won't rush out and buy it either, in the end only if it comes with a new pc and I can't see myself buying a new one for many years now.   The upgrade game is to expensive, better things to spend your cash on than new gadgets all the time that are out of date within a few months. I would prefer a damn good holiday  

[cavillas]

It seems the differing "sides" are appearing once again.  When windows 7 does make an appearance it seems it will be stripped down without IE, and such like; just a bare OS for which you will be able to get add ons from online.  These add ons can be from anyone though. For example use Firefox, Thunderbird and not have to worry about any MS stuff at all.  The only problem I can envisage is MS charging for their add ons as they will probably be enhanced to justify the cost.  Just my view.

[Inactive]

I reckon Windows 7 will, like all before, need more resources just for it to run at a reasonable speed, progress...??

[Gary]

It seems the differing "sides" are appearing once again.  When windows 7 does make an appearance it seems it will be stripped down without IE, and such like; just a bare OS for which you will be able to get add ons from online.  These add ons can be from anyone though. For example use Firefox, Thunderbird and not have to worry about any MS stuff at all.  The only problem I can envisage is MS charging for their add ons as they will probably be enhanced to justify the cost.  Just my view.

More than likely Alf, I can't see Microsoft giving anything away, after all blood and stones come to mind when I think of that company

[Gary]

I reckon Windows 7 will, like all before, need more resources just for it to run at a reasonable speed, progress...??

In some ways use

I reckon Windows 7 will, like all before, need more resources just for it to run at a reasonable speed, progress...??

Like a sports car needs more fuel In when we are told to cut down the carbon footprint? I see your point, but also to do the things now you can with a pc on the media side you need more resources anyway. In the end though enough is enough, and I'm happy with what I have, also I have more pressing needs than Windows 7 in my life

[Rik]

More than likely Alf, I can't see Microsoft giving anything away, after all blood and stones come to mind when I think of that company

It depends on how strong their desire for dominance remains...

[Simon]

Providing there isn't a raft of compatibility issues, I think it would be great if W7 shipped 'bare bones', but equally, I could see people getting into trouble with it.  It should at least have an enhanced Security Centre, which would prevent network access, without adequate protection.

[Sebby]

I think Vista sounds good on paper. All the new features you mention, Gary, sound great, but I found that they don't do anything in practice. SuperFetch, indexing... They all just slow the machine down. I find Vista so slow that I wouldn't consider using it again.

[Gary]

Providing there isn't a raft of compatibility issues, I think it would be great if W7 shipped 'bare bones', but equally, I could see people getting into trouble with it.  It should at least have an enhanced Security Centre, which would prevent network access, without adequate protection.

Sometimes Simon a cabin, small community and no pc's would be heaven I think   Im disillusioned with our throw away society, but if I had to take a pick I would say mobile computing will kick off more and more, with handhelds being more popular for basic usage, and that would suit me.

[Rik]

A bare bones OS would be very attractive to me, and doubtless many others here, but I can't see it succeeding as a mass market product. Which suggests that most OEMs would actually provide an additional package of apps to bring it back up to current levels.

[Gary]

I think Vista sounds good on paper. All the new features you mention, Gary, sound great, but I found that they don't do anything in practice. SuperFetch, indexing... They all just slow the machine down. I find Vista so slow that I wouldn't consider using it again.

They don't slow mine down Sebby but I have a modern PC with pretty good specs, saying that Justina's laptop is fast as XP was on her old 2GB ram Toshiba, the one with with vista on has 3GB ram and a 2.1ghz core2duo and flies along.

[Gary]

A bare bones OS would be very attractive to me, and doubtless many others here, but I can't see it succeeding as a mass market product. Which suggests that most OEMs would actually provide an additional package of apps to bring it back up to current levels.

One thing I hate is all the cr@p that comes on some machines Rik, god forbid what OEM's would but on it, mine came with Vista and Nero and that was it, no security or anything which was great so I did not have to spend ages uninstalling rubbish I will never use

[Rik]

I notice that Dell were pushing Norton on QVC yesterday. They obviously don't realise that would put some of us off.