Vista

If you're using Vista, what are your impressions?

I know CPF contains a high amount of Linux and Mac users (anybody still use plain unix?) but was wondering if anybody went out and became an early adopter of Vista? Any good forums where users post their first impressions? As mentioned I hope to become a Vista user sooner rather then later when I buy a new pc.

EDIT: I changed the title. Rather then have a MS vs. other os wars, my main intention when I started this thread was for early users to post their opinions.

Re: Any early users of Vista?

geepondy said:

I know CPF contains a high amount of Linux and Mac users (anybody still use plain unix?) but was wondering if anybody went out and became an early adopter of Vista? Any good forums where users post their first impressions? As mentioned I hope to become a Vista user sooner rather then later when I buy a new pc.

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Not yet but I ordered another 512MB of RAM today to get me up to 1GB.

I took a look at "Vista" listings on eBay this morning and there were over 500 already.

It's going to happen for me eventually but I'm waiting for the SP (Service Pack) to be issued before I jump in the pool.

Re: Any early users of Vista?

I was/am a Beta tester.

Running it on a Dell with a Gig of memory, Pentium 4 3.0 chip.

It's pretty, but it is a hog. The computer runs slower than it did with XP, though just marginally.

I've been running it for about 6 months on that machine, doing the upgrades and additions when prompted.

It would probably run better on my AMD 4800+ with 2 Gigs, but I've had lots of driver issues with it where it is and my AMD machine is my video editing rig and has lots of drives, some of which I have had to be very careful installing to make sure the drivers would work with the editing software I use.

Some of my regularly used programs and printers still don't have drivers available.

I think I won't buy it to install until I have no choice, or I buy a new machine.

Bill

Re: Any early users of Vista?

Like XP before it, I won't be switching over to Vista for a LONG time. XP was a PITA when it hit the streets, sp 1.1 came out pretty quick! There's no evidence to remove any doubt that MS will do anything different this time.

For now, it's win2k-sp4, winXP-sp2, Linux. Vista may make a MacOSX adopter out of me. (yikes!)

Re: Any early users of Vista?

I had it (Vista business) lying around for a few months (legally obtained) and installed it today after receiving my new computer.

My first impressions:

• It is pretty colorful. Looks nice iff you like colors. I am running the 'Aero Glass' ui.
• I have yet to see a new functionality that improves 'productivity'.
• It seems as stable as its predecessor. (Well, it better be...)

Technical observations:

• If you are deploying vista in a business environment, you better read these documents. It will be a PITA in a heterogeneous environment with 2K/XP. And no, the solutions in the documents are not 'fine', unless very specific requirements are met.
• If you are not deploying vista in a business environment, you better read at least Managing Roaming User Data Deployment Guide.doc of the above documents. It contains valuable information about why your user profile won't be good with vista and how to fix it.
• Vista loves. Loves memory. Lots of it. It has no problem consuming 1 GB of ram while I am surfing cpf. I have no clue how this can be. Right after start it eats up 600 MB. However I supply it with 2.5 GB of ram; we'll see how long it takes until it consumes all of it.
• An E6400 will do for an processor, an nvidia Geforce 7600 GS chip will do for a graphics adapter; I guess, quite a bit less will do (unless we are not talking gaming). But beware: You will need memory.

Oh, did I mention it really likes memory? Throw in a fast SATA-HDD and you should be good to go.

Do not upgrade unless you know why you are doing it.

Re: Any early users of Vista?

Early sales figures would seem to indicate that the sales aren't all that great and that more versions seem to be sold installed on a computer. It looks like it might be a good year for computer manufacturers with people who will buy a computer to upgrade to Vista than those who will go to the expense of adding components and then upgrading the operating system (which could very well exceed the cost of a new computer.)

geepondy said:

I know CPF contains a high amount of Linux and Mac users (anybody still use plain unix?) but was wondering if anybody went out and became an early adopter of Vista? Any good forums where users post their first impressions? As mentioned I hope to become a Vista user sooner rather then later when I buy a new pc.

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Re: Any early users of Vista?

How did you get it months ago if it just became available yesterday? Is it one of the preview editions?

chrwe said:

I had it (Vista business) lying around for a few months (legally obtained) and installed it today after receiving my new computer.


Do not upgrade unless you know why you are doing it.

Click to expand...

Re: Any early users of Vista?

geepondy said:

I know CPF contains a high amount of Linux and Mac users (anybody still use plain unix?) but was wondering if anybody went out and became an early adopter of Vista? Any good forums where users post their first impressions? As mentioned I hope to become a Vista user sooner rather then later when I buy a new pc.

Click to expand...

I've been using Vista since Mid December (I'm an MSDN subscriber). I like it, but it takes horsepower, there are a few issues - some software doesn't run (very few) and there is real fun doing things like sharing directories - by default when you "share" a directory - your only sharing it between users on that Box - you have to do a bit of hoop jumping to share on your intranet (for security reasons) - I still have not been able to print to the printer on my wife's laptop, but that MIGHT not be vista - might be the laptop (think it is)

I love the search stuff built in, Aero is fairly slick, the task switcher is nice. Some of the desktop gadgets are nice.

All in all, I like Vista, but it takes some getting used to.

Re: Any early users of Vista?

Big Business' were able to get it back in November. The home users had to wait until this week.

Re: Any early users of Vista?

Brighteyez said:

How did you get it months ago if it just became available yesterday? Is it one of the preview editions?

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Corp Tech partners, and anyone who subscribes to the MSDN Universal has had access to the released versions since sometime in Novemeber or December - I've had my copy of Ultimate installed since Early December. I needed a new PC, and decided that I was going to just install Vista on it

Re: Any early users of Vista?

Yeah, I thought it was sometime last month, that's why I was wondering how he could have had it months ago, if the MSDN version wasn't even posted until early last month.

KC2IXE said:

Corp Tech partners, and anyone who subscribes to the MSDN Universal has had access to the released versions since sometime in Novemeber or December - I've had my copy of Ultimate installed since Early December. I needed a new PC, and decided that I was going to just install Vista on it

Click to expand...

Re: Any early users of Vista?

I am using the beta right now, only cause XP on my other drive is giving me the BSOD! If I had a gig of memory or more I would like Vista better. Vista runs a bit slow for me since I'm using Ultimate. Vista is nice, but no reason to shell out big bucks to upgrade right away for me.

Re: Any early users of Vista?

bwaites said:

I was/am a Beta tester.

Running it on a Dell with a Gig of memory, Pentium 4 3.0 chip.

It's pretty, but it is a hog. The computer runs slower than it did with XP, though just marginally.

I've been running it for about 6 months on that machine, doing the upgrades and additions when prompted.

It would probably run better on my AMD 4800+ with 2 Gigs, but I've had lots of driver issues with it where it is and my AMD machine is my video editing rig and has lots of drives, some of which I have had to be very careful installing to make sure the drivers would work with the editing software I use.

Some of my regularly used programs and printers still don't have drivers available.

I think I won't buy it to install until I have no choice, or I buy a new machine.

Bill

Click to expand...

You're running it on a Pentium 4? I thought Vista required a dual core processor. Doesn't it?

Re: Any early users of Vista?

Brighteyez said:

Yeah, I thought it was sometime last month, that's why I was wondering how he could have had it months ago, if the MSDN version wasn't even posted until early last month.

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Hmm... Thinking about it, you might have caught me in an exaggeration there. I think it came with that MAPS subscription like two or three months ago. I cannot give you an exact date, so let us rely on the date you named. OTOH: Can't we let pass 'two months' as 'a few'? Reading my post again I shouldn't have posted that sentence, as it does not contribute in any way. I was just so proud of being able to refrain from installing it for months, i had to share

Re: Any early users of Vista?

It does not require a dual core processor to run, but as someone else noted, it does like lots of memory!!

Bill

Re: Any early users of Vista?

Trashman said:

You're running it on a Pentium 4? I thought Vista required a dual core processor. Doesn't it?

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No

Re: Any early users of Vista?

I have been running it in a multi boot environment for a while now since some of the early betas through the RCs and now a full version. Service Pack one is already scheduled for q3/07 sometime in September I think. I think its a nice os it has bugs as all new software does but it does some really cool stuff. My only suggestions are you may want to wait till SP1 hits. If you don't do that make sure your box is very stout. The minimum requirements are what it will run on. Not what it will run good on. You need a box thats a high end machine less than 6 months old imo to run it and have a good experience better than XP.

Blake

Re: Any early users of Vista?

I've used Vista two months now and I like it very much. Nice eye candy, more secure, much better over long time with its automatic defrag.
Some of the best arguments to get Vista: http://tech.msn.com/microsoft/article.aspx?cp-documentid=2664459

On the other hand, this is a very fine time to stop and give Linux a thought also...
Best and easiest Linux distro I've ever used is Linux Mint(based on Ubuntu Linux).
Here you can find live cd you can download and test [/U]without having to install it: http://linuxmint.com/download.html
I'm using version 2.1 Bea at the moment and everything is working great on my Acer 2001 laptop which is 2,5 years old with Pentium 1,4 M. Mint support seems almost nil but since it's based on Ubuntu support can be easily found on Ubuntu forums.
3-D desktop can be added using Beryl add-on.

Tuomo

Re: Any early users of Vista?

I tried the beta, not too impressed.

Msoft needs to LOWER system requirments not raise them..

Re: Any early users of Vista?

DarkLight said:

I tried the beta, not too impressed.

Msoft needs to LOWER system requirments not raise them..

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Shoot OEMS were ticked off that the requirements where even higher. They want to sell lots more hardware..