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sillingw
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Windows Vista

Post by sillingw » Thu, 09 Oct 2008 2:11 pm

Just curious - I have seen quite a few derogatory comments about Vista but my experience does not agree with most of the comments. Now let me say straight off, I am not a fan of Microsoft by any stretch of the imagination, I do not think they are innovators, they see an opportunity, copy it with inferior software and use their awsome marketing machine to kill the origional (Netscape, wordperfect, lotus 123, Novell etc...) but I am running four computers (A Home theatre PC, a home office PC, My work laptop and my wife's work Laptop) - I switched the home machines to Vista (32 bit for the office and 64 bit for the HTPC) about 6 months ago and they are behaving as good or better than the old XP (which I am still running on the laptops) I find Vista to be more reliable than any other version of Windows I have used, easier to manage and easier to tune/configure. So my question is, are the bad comments from personal experience, or just propogating an internet Myth?

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Post by taxico » Thu, 09 Oct 2008 8:38 pm

vista sucks. it gave me so much problems as it was incompatible with all the "older" programs i owned or had to use.

i believe if one only owns fresh post-vista released softwares (or no software at all) on a new fast computer, vista'd be alright (after turning off all the nagging).

otherwise, it's a horrible OS. crashes and hangs and whines too much.

***WARNING WARNING - semi-legit info of dubious origins coming up!

i found out an easy way of downgrading a computer to XP is to order XP recovery CDs for the models that offer both OSes (not likely these days for new computers).

no need for product key and all drivers are there. without the prohibitive cost and restriction of obtaining an XP license.

i think XP's still good for the next few years so i'm gonna milk it for all its worth, and hopefully vista would have its bugs ironed out and all my software updated by then.

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Post by taxico » Thu, 09 Oct 2008 8:43 pm

i forgot to mention my laptop came with vista when the OS was just released.

so my experience would be affected by that. AND even documents were leaked showing how senior management did not feel vista was ready for release.

perhaps it's better now. but i'm not gonna wanna risk it.

my major motivation to downgrade came when my it made my USB tv tuner lag, so the speech doesn't sync with the video.

as the laptop i owned before it got stolen was identical (except for HDD space and OS), i knew it had to be vista.

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Post by QRM » Thu, 09 Oct 2008 8:48 pm

No problems with mine, OK a few teething problems when it first came out but that was more with third party drivers not being up to date.

I think the problem starts when you try and stick it on an older machine then the processing power required just to get the thing running means it will be glitchy and sluggish.

Running vista on two quad core desk tops, and a laptop (have to admit the underpowered laptop was better with XP, is a bit sluggish now)

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Post by sillingw » Fri, 10 Oct 2008 12:08 pm

Could be to do with the power of the computer, both my home machines are high powered 2 X dual core CPU's (AMD) and 2 gig of ram, and as I said, I installed only 6 months ago - so no real problems for me, but I think I'll leave XP on the lower powered laptops

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Post by Dinoofsg » Sat, 25 Oct 2008 1:43 am

Been a pc builder for almost a year plus, to me XP Pro's still rock! Truthfully, XP has been the most stable release and best liked OS among the windows family.

Yes, vista started off sluggish and defensive (compatibility with third party sftwares). People commented bout its aero design which is sought like mac's copycat. Personally i find vista is a bit too much fancy in design. But nonetheless, its function, like sillingw mentioned, is rather good: UAC (its gd although ppl find it a nuisance, but then complains when their comps get hijacked/intruded/infected :P) widgets and etc.

Maybe we have been accustomed to using XP, which gives users the power and control over the system, than using Vista, which sought of is the system controlling us + incompatibility issues (= lost of $ for some...), and thus the negative feelings of it.

And like reviews mentioned, it may have been another hurriedly-released OS since the project was way over-due for several 'intended' launch date for a few times...

But hey, the word's out that Windows 7 (as it is called for now) is bout to be release probably next year? Said to be light weight and all, who knows whats next? ;)

One thing's for sure, without window's team behind all these release of OSes (since Win95), we might nt have pushed computing limits so far and reached so many new levels of products & softwares! Agree? ;)

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sundaymorningstaple
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Post by sundaymorningstaple » Sat, 25 Oct 2008 6:54 am

tic.....toc......tic......toc......tic....... :wink:
SOME PEOPLE TRY TO TURN BACK THEIR ODOMETERS. NOT ME. I WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW WHY I LOOK THIS WAY. I'VE TRAVELED A LONG WAY, AND SOME OF THE ROADS WEREN'T PAVED. ~ Will Rogers

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Post by Plavt » Sat, 25 Oct 2008 12:02 pm

I think what QRM says may well be the problem, I have two laptops running Windows Vista (one Home Premium the other business) and quite honestly I don't find any problems with either. However, if as taxico mentions you are running older programs having problems is nothing unusual.

A point rarely mentioned is you are often better off with the previous version of Windows (.i.e. the version prior to what is currently on the market). The reason being it has been more tried and tested and hackers don't seem interested. For those who know the British Open University you will notice they never use the current software it is all the version prior presumably for the reason mentioned above. :wink:

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Post by Ruki » Wed, 26 Nov 2008 5:28 pm

windows vista like always giving a lot problems

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Post by durain » Wed, 26 Nov 2008 6:18 pm

Ruki wrote:windows vista like always giving a lot problems
yeah, we know that (about a month ago!).

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Post by bandrew » Fri, 28 Nov 2008 6:06 am

Just could not refrain from commenting here, as you know exceptions are always there in this world I feel the person who commented Vista worked well for him was such an exception. I think not many people here would be surprised if I say till date I am yet to come across a person who has had a good experience with this OS. Yeah XP in its variant versions are better but Vista should be dumped for sure.

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Post by sillingw » Fri, 28 Nov 2008 10:50 am

I should also mention a couple of other points. I am running XP on another machine and used to run XP on the two machines that have now been upgraded to Vista. The main machine is a home theatre PC and is used mostly for MCE - playing music, movies, pictures etc.. - I do find this to be easier to manage and more reliable running 64 bit vista ultimate - the other machine runs 32 bit vista ultimate with office. Just my experience so far, I prefer Vista. But as pointed out, I do not run older applications

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Post by eyeFone » Fri, 28 Nov 2008 11:29 am

A lot of people forget that when XP was introduced there were also a lot of backward compatibility problems etc. It's just that now there are soooo many more users, who are all connected that the problems with vista were amplified.
I've been on vista since jan 2007 on my laptop and now have it on my work and home desktops. I also have a lynksis media extender which was designed for vista and handles my media in a way that would never be possible with XP (with such ease anyway)
Sure, in the first few months i had a couple of driver issues, these were quickly resolved by the manufacturers. And for the most part i've not had any problems. Office 2007 and CS3 work a treat too.
I'm sure that the majority of gripes come from people who are resistive to change. This was the case with most of my colleagues. When I joined my current office a few months ago they were all on XP, I've since managed to convert half and so far no major prolems. (there was one guy, be he surfs a lot of porn and switched off his UAC.....)
rant over :)

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Post by sillingw » Tue, 02 Dec 2008 12:23 pm

Good observations eyeFone, pretty much my own - after using various versions of windows for over 20 years, I think Vista is the best of the lot - FOR ME, and i do think that too many people jump on the It sucks bandwagon, without having a great deal of experience on it - I still wish Linux front ends were better.

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Post by bigfilsing » Fri, 05 Dec 2008 2:31 am

sillingw wrote: I still wish Linux front ends were better.
Your kiddin right. If there one thing Linux got right it was the amazing choice of front ends .all massively able to change to anything you want.
Many things that are now found in Vista came from Linux / Macs
KDE, Gnome = faster n better than anything MS has dreamt up/ stolen.

I still struggle with some aspects of Linux...dont get me wrong. But the desk tops and front ends are top stuff :wink:

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