Living with Vista

Originally Posted by DougEdey
I find that my videos keep giving me a comm dll error. Which I have no idea about how to fix.

Update your DivX codec's. Fixed that error on both my machines.


As to Vista, love it. Absolutely no hardware issues (only one device on two computers that it didn't support out of the box), and the featureset is amazingly easy and straight-forward to use once you get past your own expectations from XP (or any other OS for that matter).

Readyboost: awesome.

Originally Posted by RTT
hah. clearly someone who's never used Mac OS for any significant period of time ;)

Heh. A number of people (especially after reading some of my less..graceful comments) might think that but I've actually used OS X for a not inconsiderate amount of time (Linux even longer) and the fact is that if I have two opera windows open or something, I know which is which because it tells me at the bottom (in words!).
When I had expose functionality in Linux (under beryl) I never used it. Apart from the fact that I could already distinguish which window is which, I don't think having 5 tiny window previews on a darkened desktop's going to help me much.

Originally Posted by Kipman725
windows vista does have lower functionality than xp as at this moment in time to my knowlage there are no vista only aplications and games or any hardware soley for vista wheras there is plenty for xp that will not run on vista.

Ok interface is subjective and I take it that you like context senseitive menus thats fine.. I however don't and like command lines.

as for lower perfomance, games are just about the ONLY thing most people use that remotly stress there pc.

also I don't kindly take to been called a moron, my points are well considered and I just didn't show a justifying argument as they seemed (at least to me) self evident. It's only an Os after all, it's what you do with it that matters

I disagree. In my experience (And I've been using Vista a LONG time) most things work, I've rarely come across something that doesn't outright work. Even some crappy school software works fine.
Also, the article stated base functionality, not the functionality you get after spending 30 hours installing software.

I'm going to guess you've never used Vista for a length of time, because just stating things with no evidence in a single line about an entire operating system doesn't come across as considered.
Although, I do visit a number of sites where hatred for Vista is high, and as a self-confessed MS fanboy I do my best to destroy the opposing arguments.

My mates have just got vista and have had nothing but problems trying to get the thing to function correctly. I personally use XP on my home desktop, and will not be making the change until I absolutely have to get a new machine. I have a MacBook Pro as well, and to be honest I've been rather impressed with it over the last few months. Apple are unique in offering a complete technology that works out the box. I've got work to do, why would I want to spend time messing around with various problems?

Too..expensive..for..me..
Argh. :(
Anyone got a spare license free for me (or not too expensive lol)? PM me ^^ ;)

I just got a new laptop that has vista home premium. sure you have to get used to the new interface and where stuff is, but other than that, i have no complaints.

intresting read, i have just installed the vista theme on my xp install. like it that way. areo glass etc, just looks like vista but all the joys of xp

Well, I'm Okay with my Vista experience so far. I do, by and large, prefer it to XP; driver issues aside. Mostly because I'm used to OS X and I just can't deal with the awful UI that XP presents- I've just come to accept that if I'm going to be sitting in front of the thing for 8 hours a day or more, I might as well look at something that's not ugly.

Main issues - driver support. Gah. If my box goes into standby or even some screensavers it seems (Frozenfire, at least; I'm guessing this is something with the 7900GT in there), it can't wake up. The display freaks out beyond anything where I can recover things. Happens sometimes with games too. It certainly makes it so I can't use it day-to-day.

Media center has some quirks, but overall is pretty good. I've only tried it for music and video though, no TV. TBH if they were smart, they'd have let it work with iTunes info since it has such a massive install base, so they can get could-be-switchers shelling out for whatever version you need for the media center. That and visualizations suck, especially on my 24" LCD... rendered way too low-res. Ick.

That and some games outright don't work. SC:CT for one, though I was expecting as much (effing Starforce). A lot of other flaws that I can't really deal with, not that I was intending to switch back from OS X. The only thing I really like about Vista over XP is the UI, which certainly is important, but until Windows has Quicksilver and a proper Expose (not to mention UI consistency between apps), I can't even start to consider switching back; they're just too critical in my general workflow now.

Edit -
That said, there are some things I really like, that I wish Apple would put into OSX (effectively all related to Explorer/Finder, but that's been true since long before Vista came out). In any case, the competition is a good thing.

Buzzons - honestly, it's something that you really need to experience. Everything is really well integrated together, and a lot of those subtle tweaks add a LOT of functionality. There's a lot of software that I just couldn't live without anymore (ie, Quicksilver, as mentioned before). Ex, Adium (my IM client of choice, though it's true for iChat as well) is integrated with my Address Book, which is integrated with Mail, etc, etc. Apple apparently provides enough APIs so all sorts of software can tie in nicely. Those little 'a ha!' moments. I could care less about the look of the system; in fact, I generally prefer using my OSx86'd ThinkPad to my MBP, save for a few rather serious quirks - it's honestly better hardware from the user perspective (runs cooler, no hard edges to kill the wrists, better battery life). There's a single piece of software - Minitab - that I need Windows for, but I can deal with that in Parallels. Office 2004 for Mac is, IMO, much better than Office 2003 (although I do like 2007 which I've lightly dabbled with; I eagerly await 08 for Mac), once again because of a generally better UI that allows me higher productivity.

Just as a question to mac users here (As I have asked all those I know in real life that have one)

what do you actually use your mac for? are there any proprietory apps?

For those i know in real life, they use a word processor , a web browser, and a terminal ...

now thats not really "OMG WOW MAC" that can be done on countless different operating systems -- so exactly what is this "Mac factor" that makes them so "ooooo"

other than the fact they ship in a "nice" case?

Originally Posted by Buzzons
For those i know in real life, they use a word processor , a web browser, and a terminal ...

Like 95% of the PC using population...

Originally Posted by Buzzons
now thats not really "OMG WOW MAC" that can be done on countless different operating systems -- so exactly what is this "Mac factor" that makes them so "ooooo"

other than the fact they ship in a "nice" case?

Like Firehed allready said, it all fits together... It isn't a bunch of pieces thrown together, with different looks and feels to all applications...

But extending your comment, that can be done on Linux, without the need of an expensive OS, and Linux runs on nearly all architectures... Ah well, this is once again turning into a mine is better then yours battle, which we all had plenty of allready...

not worth the money when I get better, much cheaper.

What we really need is a windows/OSX/linux hybrid :p

I decided to be an early adopter, as I saw myself going over to it in the future, it's going to cost the same £70 in a years time, except I'll get one less years use out of it. Didn't expect to use it full time, installed it on a secondary partition, but...

...tomorrow will be reformating and putting it on the raid0 array, and xp will be relegated. Simply, I don't use XP anymore. When I do, it's actually slower. Right now, simply browsing the internet with skype open, Vista is using a whopping 828mb of RAM! That's a lot... right? Which is a bad thing surely? But the great thing about it, is it's using that ram to make everything run SO much faster.

Until people use it and give it a chance, they won't like it, I think a lot of people have an anti-MS mentality. I was open minded, wanted to see what it was about, and think the extra functionality for me personally (instant search, instant drivers, etc. etc.) make it much easier. It's a good professional product, not like some stuff you get that obviously was released too early, although it could be improved, with improved driver support (but tbh, that's not MSs fault), but the barebones work, and they work well.

I'm using the x86 version, so can't say what the 64 bit is like. But Vista start to finish is about ease for the end user, and it hasn't failed to deliver.

- the one problem I've had, was installing video codecs, didn't work unless you turn UAC off.

Whats UAC ?

The interface changes is one of the primary reasons I am not switching over to Vista any time soon.
I will wait for SP1, just like I did with XP, it usually fixes things that people complain about :)

On a side note, is there any way to turn off all the fluff in Vista, so that it looks more like 2k? Just that when I was in beta if you switched to "classic mode" it never actually turned ALL of the stuff off, things like the menus on the left of explorer windows (something I really don't like) always remained on.
Also what's the deal with "clear type" remaining on in certain parts even if you turn it off? it just makes text look all fuzzy.

UAC = user access controls (Run As.. For the masses)

Bio : yep you can put it back to 2k look and feel -- bit of a waste though :) -- clear type rocks on TFTs , not sure why it remains on though, could have been a beta bug?

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsvista/aa906021.aspx
http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsVista/en/library/0d75f774-8514-4c9e-ac08-4c21f5c6c2d91033.mspx?mfr=true

both good articles on UAC

no vista for me. My laptop's got integrated video, so no aero. Plus I'm running ubuntu/compiz/aiglx + winxp so I get all the nifty effects anyways. My desktop... WinXP is doing me fine, and my video card's DX9, so no benefit there. I don't think I'll be going full on vista until I get my hands on an 8800 or R600, because honestly, if its not gonna improve my productivity OR my gaming, why move?

The great thing about Vista? It finally got me fed up enough to switch to Linux!

Outside of games, any OS will do. Windows (any version), Mac and linux will all play media files, process words, browse the web, etc. Which is better really comes down to choice and taste beyond that.

For me, I never liked XP, for most of the same reasons that most people who don't like Vista cite. They moved everything around, made it harder to do things to reduce the number of service calls for morons killing their comouters, and just generally made life more difficult. Functionally, Vista looks like XP thrown in the blender again.

I'll probably end up with Vista the same way i ended up getting XP, when I buy another laptop. Unless Dell really does release linux lappys, I'll be stuck with it and will probably run a dual boot with the preferred penguin.

I am loving my new Vista. Mostly because its the only OS I can use. I've used Ubuntu, SuSe and Knoppix before and all of them took so long to do anything, that I gave up trying to use them. It was like trying to write with the opposite hand, an excellent skill to have, but learning it is so intensely slow and frustrating. I would love a linux box if I could just figure out how to unzip a damn file, or figure out the equivalent to a .exe file. But I digress. Yay Vista, ignorance is bliss.

I'm running Vista ultimate for a few months now and am quite happy with it. Works smoother then Xp for me. the only thing I really don't like is the windows image viewer. As an avid amateur photographer I spend a considerable amount of time viewing & sorting my photo's. Windows photo viewer seems to ad contrast and screw up the colors without me wanting that. Just open the same picture in photoshop and in the windows photo viewer and see the difference for yourself!

Anybody else having this problem as well?

i cant help but feel that article tends to be a bit uninformed. For one since when are writing drivers part for microsoft's job. Their out of the box driver support has been exceptional with VISTA. Yes there will be some noname brand 7 in 1 memory card reader or some weird tv card that wont be picked up out of the box, anyone care to guess how many different Taiwanese TV card manufacturers there are.

Also as for nvidia issues in regards to sli and games, that is one one campany's fault and that is NVIDIA, for some reason they seem to be acting like vista just suddenly appeared and they were given no time to develop proper drivers.

And as for the sb live! issues thats been known for how long now? and also how old is that card? i remember using one with my original Athlon chip.

yes vista is around 10% slower than xp but so was xp compared to 98, you dont see people still sticking to their 98's. Although in the first couple of months it did occur.

I do have to agree with one of the poster than complained about the lack of vista ready software, this i unacceptable from the developers of the software, vista has been years in the coming and the sdk has been available for ages, not having vista compliant software yet is just simple unacceptable. And yet microsoft once again gets blamed for this.

vista is all in all a couple of gui changes a major step up over XP, the article i felt was a poorly researched brief opinion of an os.

I can't see the acronym UAC without thinking of the Union Aerospace Corporation, you know, the one that keeps opening the gates of Hell in Doom!

Yeah, I'm a little "different" :D :)

Originally Posted by BioSniper
The interface changes is one of the primary reasons I am not switching over to Vista any time soon.
I will wait for SP1, just like I did with XP, it usually fixes things that people complain about :)

On a side note, is there any way to turn off all the fluff in Vista, so that it looks more like 2k? Just that when I was in beta if you switched to "classic mode" it never actually turned ALL of the stuff off, things like the menus on the left of explorer windows (something I really don't like) always remained on.
Also what's the deal with "clear type" remaining on in certain parts even if you turn it off? it just makes text look all fuzzy.

You can try but you also lose all of the advantages of DWM.

Well I have been using Vista ultimate since it was avalible in November. I have not had any issues with games or software, and I like the fact that Vista will change to basic mode when you have a software that doesnt fully support it.

With regards to nVidia and Creative and other device manufactures it is entirely their own fault for not having drivers ready for their hardware. I mean ATI released a drive in november the only thing missing was OpenGL and Crossfire support which isnt a big thing since it was released really for business, but as soon as retail came out a driver appeared within days that had Crossfire and OpenGL support. I do think its a cheek when nVidia harpped on about 8800 and how they are DX10 and will work with Vista and make your experince better, but when driver problems occured they turn round and blame Microsoft accusing them of sneaking out a new operating system without telling them.

My other gripe is people who try Vista and within hours re-install XP becasue I didnt like the interface. To be honest I find that excuse utter tripe and makes me think that if you come across anything outside of your comfort net you wont try it. Yes for me Vista was a dramtic change in the way you use Windows since XP but after a day or so I was happy with it, and now I find XP clunky.

The other thing people are winging that icons have been moved or renamed, yet on the Mac side the same thing happened on teh switch from OS9 -> OS10. Having supported Macs for over 3 years in a business envirnonment I prefer PCs one of the main reasons for me was unless it has changed that Macs never fully intergrated with Active Directory in the way a PC could, an example having network drives on differnet servers and having to log into each one seperatly, and not able to tie the login screen to an AD account.

I do not think yet we have achived the perfect UI in any OS and you will never get people to agree on the UI of any operating system unless its just make up of naked women then you might get most men to agree to a certain point :)

Kimbie

Vista is great. It hardly ever crashes, and I have yet to encounter any viruses or malware (even with UAC disabled).

My only complaint would be bad 5.1 support, and the biggest problem for me: no more RAW Image Thumbnails. XP had it via a PowerToy, I can't see why a modern operating system like Vista can't. It's really inconvenient when I want to take a look at my shots through Explorer without having to boot up into a program.