Vista

[Spacecadet]

Been using Vista properly for the first time today

Don't see what all the complaints are about

SQL Server 2005 (with RS and IS) - Installed fine
SQL Server 2008 beta (with RS and IS) - Installed fine
Visual Studio - Installed fine
IIS - all works great

3 USB modem (so i can connect it all to the internet from the clients office)
- works fine

HP Printer drivers all installed and working

Its an intel centrino powered laptop, so not the highest spec but vista runs very well on it, no waiting even with SQL Server clunking away in the back ground.

[NickFitz]

Are you running under an Administrator account? If you use an ordinary user account (which you really should) then you'll be interrupted every few minutes by User Account Control dialogs asking you if you want to allow the OS to do something or other, usually offering very little explanation of whatever it actually is.

As a technically-minded user you can probably make sense of this, although it's still irritating, but the average user just gets utterly confused and doesn't know how to answer.

After a period of regular use (of that account) these things start to tail off as permissions are gradually approved - but this just means that you go a few days without one, and then it pops up again when you least expect it. Most people find this even more enraging, as they thought they were now safe.

This ultimately leads to a constant low-level nagging doubt as to whether you'll ever get anything done without interruption, which makes it impossible to feel totally comfortable using the system.

You can turn all this off, if you wish, but then you lose all the security improvements over XP SP2, so there seems little point having the new OS. Furthermore, if you turn UAC off and install software, that software may not work if you later re-enable UAC, or may not work for other users.

That seems to be the major issue people have with it, from what I've heard.

[xoggoth]

I thought it was ok to start with too, the problems become apparent after a while.

The worst is the prolonged pointless disc thrashing that just starts for no reason, I can't see my hard disc lasting the year out. I have followed every damn tip I can find, turned off windows search, superfetch, readyboost, automatic defrag, automatic defender virus check, set a fixed virtual memory and done clean ups. I have checked for viruses and other malware and nothing else is running. I have a decent spec machine and adequate memory. So WTF is caning my disc? Aaaagh it's just started again!

You will probably also soon find that for no obvious reason the enhanced security starts to slow things down and it takes ages to save a mail attachment or open an office app. I got round one problem by having a special version of Excel.exe renamed as <rude word>.exe. What does that say about the security?

[VectraMan]

You can turn all this off, if you wish, but then you lose all the security improvements over XP SP2, so there seems little point having the new OS. Furthermore, if you turn UAC off and install software, that software may not work if you later re-enable UAC, or may not work for other users.

I feel a bit sorry for MS in some ways, as having been giving a good kicking about security in their OS's they then get another good kicking for doing something about security in their OS. To be fair, the issues with UAC are really down to the software rather than the OS (and I plead guilty to causing a few), but when you see an established application no longer work when you change OS you're bound to blame the OS.

Still in compatiblity terms, far more XP apps work correctly under Vista than work correctly under Linux.

As I said before, I certainly wouldn't upgrade an existing system to Vista, but if a new PC came with Vista (my new laptop has), I wouldn't be put off. The only problem I've had with it is being unable to install the XP embedded toolkit, which is a bit specialist.

[lilelvis2000]

That is the most annoying thing...the constant disc thrashing. And I have now turned off the search service. which has helped..but need to turn off a few other things. I think Vista is smart enough to turn this all off when you are on battery however.

One think I like about Vista is the ability to store several network setups. and it seems to automatically detect which one to use. fantastic when you are like me and need to move from home to office to client. Each having its one specific configuration.

I would make sure you have the latest video and device drivers. My system crashed and hung quite often. and it was crappy drivers which were at fault. After a year it has become pretty solid.

[VectraMan]

I would make sure you have the latest video and device drivers. My system crashed and hung quite often. and it was crappy drivers which were at fault. After a year it has become pretty solid.

Indeed. I've had various reports of crashes and graphical glitches, and it's turned out to be machine specific dodgy drivers. It's the same thing we went through with XP; if anything XP was worse as that was the first time home users started using a proper version of Windows. Everybody seems to have forgotten that.

[NickFitz]

One think I like about Vista is the ability to store several network setups. and it seems to automatically detect which one to use. fantastic when you are like me and need to move from home to office to client. Each having its one specific configuration.

Wonder where they got that idea?

<Looks at "Location" preferences introduced in OS X in 1999>

Ah yes - so Windows has that now? Jolly good, looks like they're starting to work out how to write an OS

[TheBigYinJames]

Wonder where they got that idea?
Ah yes - so Windows has that now? Jolly good, looks like they're starting to work out how to write an OS

No bomb yet, though. Or the incredibly scarce and expensive software.

[NickFitz]

No bomb yet, though. Or the incredibly scarce and expensive software.

The majority of the software on my Mac is either bundled with the machine, free, or costs about $35, which is less than £20 these days. I don't know of a single Windows app that doesn't have an equivalent or superior Mac alternative - well, except MS Office, which is the most un-Mac-like Mac app there is, as well as one of the most expensive, which is why I don't use it. NeoOffice (based on OpenOffice.org) is good enough for the one day a year I do anything Office-like.

Actually, glancing through my Applications folder, I see that I'm wrong - it's not the majority, but all of the software on my Mac that is in one of the above categories.

[chicane]

Don't see what all the complaints are about

I think half the complaints aren't complaints at all, but rather people asking "what's the point?". Even 18 months after release, there are few/no compelling reasons for anybody to "upgrade" to Vista. I guess MS have themselves to blame for making Windows XP too stable/fast/well supported in its twilight years.

Come to think of it, there are few everyday that I wouldn't be able to do with Windows 2000, and it's now 9 years old. Are the cracks in Microsoft's OS business model beginning to show?