Windows Vista

[zipzap]

DECS schools have an agreement with Microsoft whereby they get all the latest versions of pretty much everything...except Vista. Schools have been told not to touch it and stick with XP Pro.

Okay whilst i don't think much of Vista, using DECS as an example of knowing what is good or not is pretty silly.

Ho ho, what a riot. It's the techs that don't want a bar of it.

[rod_rooster]

DECS schools have an agreement with Microsoft whereby they get all the latest versions of pretty much everything...except Vista. Schools have been told not to touch it and stick with XP Pro.

Okay whilst i don't think much of Vista, using DECS as an example of knowing what is good or not is pretty silly.

Ho ho, what a riot. It's the techs that don't want a bar of it.

Not sure where you are going with that zipzap?

[prowling panther]

I've been using Vista basic for just over 12 months, got an ACER slimline, Pentium 4 3.20Ghz, had 512 RAM, upgraded to 1GB when I bought it, shared Graphics, everyone told me they were a peice of sh(junk)it, stay away from Vista, nothing but troubles.

The only drama I had with the machine was the sound would not work, a tech came to my place and sorted that out (Warranty) and 12 months and 5 days after the Warranty ran out the power pack stuffed up, I took it back and asked the question, they replaced it with out question or problems, the whole thing has never crashed on me big time, it runs for 15 hours + a day, the only thing that is wearing out is the letters on the keyboard.

Touch wood.

[dedja]

Sorry, I thought I'd bump this one ...

I agree with the sentiments regarding XP over Vista.

I've been in the IT industry for 20 years and I would not even consider Vista, let alone install it in the corporate environment.

XP isn't perfect by any means but what Microsoft have done with Vista is loaded it with so many shiny dials, knobs and gizmos that it runs like an absolute dog.

So even in the consumer market, Vista will do some cool stuff, but at a price, and that price is speed.

I had my laptop stolen a while back from home so when I replaced it, obviously couldn't get XP preloaded so I went with Vista Ultimate. This beast is loaded with 4Gb RAM (have 32 bit version so only 3.5Gb is used, but hey, insurance paid for it), but the memory management is shocking.

I have wanted to reinstall with XP or a linux variant for a while but just haven't got around to it.

So just to re-iterate, 12 months after the last post to this thread, and service pack 1 and host of other updates, Microsoft, you can't polish a turd, it's still shite.

I'm interested if anyone who was previously having issues with Vista managed to overcome them, other than installing XP?

[Dissident]

Never touched Vista.
Like you, been in the industry for years.

I have tinkered with 7 though ... very nice.

From what I can see - decent -> high end system, use W7
decent or less, XP.

W7 has great backwards compatibility.

[Westsider]

I'm using W7 exclusively at home now... no issues at all.

[Wedgie]

Vista came on our lastest laptop but that's fully specced up and can handle it, that laptop is only used for World of Warcraft with my son or my missus browsing the net so we put up with it.

A computer dealer in the country sold my parents a pc with Vista installed and the pc only had 512mb!!
Virtually couldn't run. The parents wouldn't tell me which business they bought it from as they worried I was going to go burn the place down!

Ive heard good things about 7 and Windows usually goes in a pattern of good one, dud, good one, dud, etc so will be looking forward to it.

Vista is crap.

[dedja]

I'm using W7 exclusively at home now... no issues at all.

So you're using obviously using 7 RC in anger then? ... Brave man!

32 or 64-bit?

RC officially expires on 1st June 2010, but is useless from 1st March 2010, so I assume you'll get the formal release then?

Might be worth installing it as a playpen to see what it's like.

Cheers ...

[dedja]

Never touched Vista.
Like you, been in the industry for years.

I have tinkered with 7 though ... very nice.

From what I can see - decent -> high end system, use W7
decent or less, XP.

W7 has great backwards compatibility.

I installed Windows 7 RC as a dual boot with Vista on my laptop ... real easy install and everything works out of the box and only had to update a handful of drivers.

First impressions are good ... doesn't suffer from Vista's sluggishness at all.

[Pseudo]

XP isn't perfect by any means but what Microsoft have done with Vista is loaded it with so many shiny dials, knobs and gizmos that it runs like an absolute dog.

Much like XP was like upon its release. The - well, one - trouble with Micro$loth OSes is it takes several years for the hardware to catch up with the software.

FWIW my laptop has dual-boot XP with Fedora 10. Work computer and home computer both just XP.

[dedja]

XP isn't perfect by any means but what Microsoft have done with Vista is loaded it with so many shiny dials, knobs and gizmos that it runs like an absolute dog.

Much like XP was like upon its release. The - well, one - trouble with Micro$loth OSes is it takes several years for the hardware to catch up with the software.

FWIW my laptop has dual-boot XP with Fedora 10. Work computer and home computer both just XP.

That can be very true but I think MS just got the architecture wrong with Vista!

[Psyber]

Windows 7 release is set for October 22.
Any remaining OEM XP install discs will disappear from the wholesale market by early September.
Wait for 7...
EDIT: to clarify about XP - I have kept an unused install disc on hand in case I need it.

[Wedgie]

Also for those in the market for a new pc soon you can get a deal when it comes with vista but you get a free upgrade to 7 when it comes out, make sure you do that.

[dedja]

XP will still be supported until 2014.

[RustyCage]

Have Vista on my laptop, wish I got XP on it when i first got it though because now I have a lot of files on it, it will be a pain in the backside getting everything off and putting XP on it. Vista shits me because my laptop always goes really slow even from start up and most of the software I have or can buy that Id like doesnt work on it

[dedja]

Have Vista on my laptop, wish I got XP on it when i first got it though because now I have a lot of files on it, it will be a pain in the backside getting everything off and putting XP on it. Vista shits me because my laptop always goes really slow even from start up and most of the software I have or can buy that Id like doesnt work on it

I've been running Windows 7 RC on a 2nd partition on my laptop for 3 weeks ... haven't even been tempted to boot into the Vista partition as Windows 7 runs very well and is a billion times better than Vista.

The official release for Windows 7 is in about 2 months, but well worth trying out now.

[prowling panther]

where can I get a trial version of Windows 7

How much extra ....... would my machine need to get up and go?

[dedja]

where can I get a trial version of Windows 7

How much extra ....... would my machine need to get up and go?

You can't download Windows 7 RC anymore from the Microsoft website as the real deal is out on October 22.

[dedja]

No excuse to be using Vista any more now that Windows 7 has been officially released.

Now if only Microsoft wouldn't price gouge so much ...

[Dutchy]

No excuse to be using Vista any more now that Windows 7 has been officially released.

Now if only Microsoft wouldn't price gouge so much ...

I presume you have to buy it to upgrade from Vista?