I got myself a new lap-top computer ( Acer ) with ton's of memory and Vista operating system ..
What a piece of junk that software is !!!!!
Very,very slow,many drivers don't work ,(have a HP Laserjet printer- no way to have drivers downloaded-it is not supported by Vista )
Skype works very badly,Google Earth displays views much slower than on XP,my connection to my Wi-Fi router was a mess get get working,now the laptop-works on ADSL but not my PC..
I'm now considering installing XP again on the laptop,since Vista is clearly not the type of OS that Microsoft should have released -ever !
I know there was a thread abot Vista some time ago -closed now- so I just wanted to re-initiate a flaming shot on Microsoft ...Sometimes you wonder if they ever try their s.h.i.t. before invading the shops with software that required more time and effords to work than the one it replaces.

[Edited 2007-08-18 13:15:27]

Bring it back and check out a Mac instead.

You could still play with Vista on it later if you really wanted. But you'll most probably find that you'll be better off with MacOS X.

You will definitely not regret having taken a good look at your other opportunities.

Don't just believe me - have a good look and trust yourself!

Agree.

Also had it on an Acer laptop. I really tried to like it and not believe it was bad as i'd heard. It was though, bloated and terribly slow.

Switched back to XP and I've bought an iMac which I'm now waiting to be delivered 

I just got my first blue screen of death this morning. Something about an index failure. This is not good considering I start classes in a couple days. Should have went with XP Pro...

A friend of mine bought a top of the line HP with 4 gig of Ram and the like running off Vista, and still has all the problems in the world to have it run smoothly, and that's not even counting the drivers problem, which apparently are pandemic.

He is now, as an increasing number of people are, looking into reselling it to buy a Mac.

How come Microsoft keep shooting themselves in the foot and still come out with krappy products like this? Oh yeah, I remember: monopole...

Quoting Beaucaire (Thread starter): What a piece of junk that software is !!!!!

So that's why everybody goes "Wow"  
I'm glad I stuck to my XP.

Ivan

Quoting Francoflier (Reply 4): He is now, as an increasing number of people are, looking into reselling it to buy a Mac.

Load of crap.   Have you done some national poll to find this result?

Just for the record, Im running Vista on a HP D2224EA with 2 GIG of RAM and its running fine. Performance is fine. Drivers are fine. Everything is great.

Vista is fine

Quoting ThomasCook757 (Reply 6): Load of crap.   Have you done some national poll to find this result?

Mac sales are growing at two to three times the total market rate. I'd say the statement is quite valid.

Quoting Beaucaire (Thread starter): Very,very slow,many drivers don't work ,(have a HP Laserjet printer- no way to have drivers downloaded

I've had a problem with the driver for my HP scanner, so I'm using it with an XP machine. Could it be that some manufacturers are just using Vista as an excuse to persuade people to buy newer products rather than providing Vista drivers for existing ones?

That said, I've had a few BSOD with Vista, the first I can remember since Win98/ME, though my various items of hardware are 2-4 years old.

Quoting David L (Reply 8): I've had a problem with the driver for my HP scanner, so I'm using it with an XP machine. Could it be that some manufacturers are just using Vista as an excuse to persuade people to buy newer products rather than providing Vista drivers for existing ones?

Printer manufacturers like HP make most of their revenu with the sale of ink-cartridges..and not by selling computers!
I bought some time ago a stockpile of re-fills for an Epson printer until the print-head was gone.The cost of repairing the printer was more expensive than buying a ew printer-so I did -but the pile of cartridges I had were useless,since the tricky part of producing printers is to change permanently the type and form of refills.
It has been said that printer-ink is more precious than parfume -I fully believe it.
The manufacturers could give away the printers,since the average life-cycle of an inkjet printer is somewhat between 12 months and 18 months -then it becomes obsolete.But in that short period they make a lot of cash with the ink !

Quoting Ohthedrama747 (Reply 2): I've bought an iMac

Quoting Francoflier (Reply 4): looking into reselling it to buy a Mac

Welcome home, oh prodigal ones.

I'm quite sure that if I bought another PC based computer, I'd retrofit it with XP and Office 2003. The last one before the current pair started out with W98SE and I'm done with that unstable piece of crap.

Just remember: Mac OSX won't give you a blue screen of death. Instead, it'll give you a kernel panic, and you'll still have to reboot the computer.

A laptop + Vista won't do good for a while hehe.
But guess what : It's exactly like when XP went out in stores. What did people do? Install Windows 98 instead, because Xp was too much for their poor computers, especially laptops. Remember XP on a PIII with 128Mb of RAM? And now, it's running just great on pretty much anything sold...

And as many Windows versions prior to Vista, they always do better after the first major update (SP1, 98SE, 95 OSR2). In 2 years, the computers specs will be on par with what Vista require, drivers will be stables, and then adoption rate will climb to a normal level. Exaclty like XP.

And just like XP, people say that there's no reason right now to migrate over to Vista. True, but when DirectX games will start selling, when enterprises will move over to Longhorn Server, when each and every Windows version sold with a new computers will be Vista, when applications will start requiring Vista, it will take over XP slowly.

Some enterprises still runs on Windows 2000 in part or totally, because it's a very stable system. Like they did run NT4 for a while. But they had to move over when the softwares stopped supporting NT4, and it will be the case for Windows 2000 sonner or later too. Now that XP is mature and much more stable than before, it started replacing 2000, and the same thing will push Vista in a couple years.

True, Apple do have a very pretty and stable OS. And they've been able to run an OpenGL 3D interfaces for years, without requiring an high-end graphic card like Vista does, and that should be a very good example for Microsoft. Well, I should say, BSD with their XWindow server offer that, as a lot of Linux distributions   So it should have been an easy task for Microsoft to offer a 3D interface running on pretty much any graphic card supporting DirectX... which isn't necessarly the case. But it help when you're the one building the computer and the OS at the same time hehe. And it does help that it's an accepted fact that most of the time, you don't upgrade a Mac, you throw it away and go buy a new one...

Quoting Goldenshield (Reply 12): Just remember: Mac OSX won't give you a blue screen of death. Instead, it'll give you a kernel panic, and you'll still have to reboot the computer.

Most Mac users have never seen a kernel panic in their life.

Quoting MrFord (Reply 13): And it does help that it's an accepted fact that most of the time, you don't upgrade a Mac, you throw it away and go buy a new one...

I guess you're drawing on your own extensive experience here?   

In fact Macs generally have a longer useful life than PCs do. And since they cause much less aggravation than PCs do, people don't have the urge to get rid of them as much.

Most users of Windows-only PCs don't upgrade their machines either, by the way, except for replacing the harddisk with a bigger one or for upgrading RAM. Which is one of the reasons why the market is increasingly shifting away from desktops to notebook computers.

Quoting Klaus (Reply 14): Most Mac users have never seen a kernel panic in their life.

At least you admit that it DOES occur. The good thing about any *NIX software is that kernel panics are a rarity, since the relative instability of the kernel due to a lack of error trapping causes developers to ensure that their code will not cause a kernel panic for the end user in the first place.

I upgraded to it and it runs fine and I have had minor driver issues such as the wireless driver wouldn't work and I downloaded the Vista one before upgrading and the XP one that came with the card worked over the Vista one that Linksys had on their website. The other issue I have has was with NVIDIA video drivers as they fail and recover on boot which is annoying which has me using the first edition of Vista drivers that came out which doesn't give the error. Other than that I have has to make some minor adaptations as my Digital Camera works fine but the software doesn't so I just use the Microsoft photo program included. I was also worried about my Creative Zen which I used the programs given to me on the disc to sync the player and then learned that I don't have to use it as MP11 syncs it for me.

Quoting David L (Reply 8): I've had a problem with the driver for my HP scanner, so I'm using it with an XP machine. Could it be that some manufacturers are just using Vista as an excuse to persuade people to buy newer products rather than providing Vista drivers for existing ones?

My HP all in one had Vista drivers setup and all I had to do was plug and play and it worked 100% and the only thing I can't do is scan papers to PDF's which doesn't really bother me that much anyways and on the website for the product it says that you will need to upgrade your printer. As said HP doesn't care about getting drivers as a new printer or all in one is quite cheap.

Quoting Beaucaire (Thread starter): I got myself a new lap-top computer ( Acer )

Your first problem was buying an Acer.

Quoting Klaus (Reply 1): Bring it back and check out a Mac instead.

  

Quoting Klaus (Reply 7): Quoting ThomasCook757 (Reply 6):Load of crap.   Have you done some national poll to find this result? Mac sales are growing at two to three times the total market rate. I'd say the statement is quite valid.

Every time I'm in Tysons Corner, I stop by the Apple store. The lines at the checkout are always long.

Quoting Klaus (Reply 14): Quoting Goldenshield (Reply 12):Just remember: Mac OSX won't give you a blue screen of death. Instead, it'll give you a kernel panic, and you'll still have to reboot the computer. Most Mac users have never seen a kernel panic in their life.

I've had my IMac for over a year now. I have no idea what a kernel panic is.

Quoting Fly747 (Reply 5): So that's why everybody goes "Wow" I'm glad I stuck to my XP.

XP is a great program, for me there is no reason to upgrade.....I've had no problems with it and don't plan on upgrading to Vista.

Phyllis   

Quoting Klaus (Reply 14): I guess you're drawing on your own extensive experience here? eyebrow In fact Macs generally have a longer useful life than PCs do. And since they cause much less aggravation than PCs do, people don't have the urge to get rid of them as much. Most users of Windows-only PCs don't upgrade their machines either, by the way, except for replacing the harddisk with a bigger one or for upgrading RAM. Which is one of the reasons why the market is increasingly shifting away from desktops to notebook computers.

Yes I do draw from my own experience there, and from common knowledge... You're right, Mac are pretty reliable, and people do change their PC too. But you'll find a lot of 8 years old PC in enterprise, sometime even older, still running. True, rarely you'll see a entry-level Acer or junk clones PC running for that long. But try to kill an old Compaq Deskpro, they're beast too. Enterprise-grade PC are a lot better than their home counterpart. Why? Purpose build, just like a Mac. Or a Sun workstation. A lot of people change their home computers because it's slow and buggy. Take that same PC, restore it to it's original state, and by magic, it start working as fast as before. Take a 5 years old Mac, and reinstall it from scratch. You'll see a big difference too. Well unless you didn't install anything new for the past 5 years... but that's what normally kills them.

Windows can be made really reliable too. You need to intall only trusted apps, and run it with a stable set of drivers, and it will run forever. What, you say? Can't install that fancy toolbar, or that funny cereal box game, of those so lovely similes? And can't install that beta driver for that no-name webcam? Guess what : That's what makes MacOS so reliable : a controlled environment. Can't install any piece of junk available on the Internet. And that generic webcam/videocard/sound card. And can't have that fancy overclockable board, or those 20$ buggy memory modules on that buggy integrated ECS motherboard. And nobody will try to install your OS on an outdated rebuild computer, and try to run Word 6 on it, and complain because it won't work.
They sell the whole thing as a package. Here's the computer, here's the OS, and here's some apps with it. Want to run your 3 years old iLife ? Sorry. not compatible. Go buy the lastest. And I personnaly thing that this is the only way to do it. Unfortunately, if Windows was trying to make it work the same way, people would be complaining that this would be a monopoly abuse. That they would try to impose their way... Can't have it both way I guess  

Apple realized that there's was a market for people who were looking at computers as a comodity. Just like a TV or a car. You buy it, it works the way it is supposed to be, nothing less, nothing more. And that probably helped convincing a lot of new users to try it. But for the rest of us, there will still be a need for Windows  

Oh and the main reason why people are moving to notebooks now ? Price. And the fact the performance difference between them and desktop are marginal at best now. Laymen users stopped buying computers with upgrade possibilities in mind when the Pentium II came to the market. But it doesn't mean poer users/gamers/enterprises aren't still looking for that. Also, new laptops are in fact much more easily upgradable than their older counterpart.

Quoting Klaus (Reply 7): Mac sales are growing at two to three times the total market rate. I'd say the statement is quite valid.

That's easy to do because Mac have just under 10% of the market.

I don't have any problems with Vista and I've been using it for about 6 months now... seems like some people in here are very unfortunate...

Quoting Beaucaire (Thread starter): I got myself a new lap-top computer ( Acer ) with ton's of memory and Vista operating system .. What a piece of junk that software is !!!!!

Your problem is:

1. You bought ACER. You should have bought IBM / Toshiba / Dell. Don't ever thinking to buy SONY. Sony = trouble.

2. You should be aware that Vista requires a high performance computer to perform optimize.

3. It's a LAPTOP. what do you expect? unless of course if you buy a high performance laptop then it's a different deal.


I run Vista Ultimate without any problem at all. It runs smooth and fast but of course that''s because of my PC got some of the best latest technology. Big memory 2 gig, 800 GB, latest VGA card Geforce8800GTX 768Mb, and of course the all important processor dual core duo 2.6 Ghz.

Not everybody who buys a computer is supposed to be an expert in information technology.
Lap-tops are becoming a work-tool and I would suppose the manufacturers offering those devices must have tested it before going on the market.
My bigest troubles currently are with my Wi-Fi device installed by the local phone-company ( in France it's called "Livebox" for Orange or France Telecom) -it used to be OK with my XP driven old lap-top but the new one does dis-connect evry 35 minutes and then re-connects ...
I also have a Internet-radio device hooked to the Wi-Fi box who does broadcast some hundred radio-stations from all over the world and which works just fine.
But since three days I waste my time to get an XP-based PC and a Vista based Lap-top to work over the same Wi-Fi box-and it's a nightmare.
Surfing on the older lap-top (XP) was much faster -downloading immages took half of the time as compared to Vista.
I have 2 MB ram...

Windows Vista is 99% windows XP,we been looking at both of them and,was wondering why Microsoft put Vista on the market in the first place. I have Windows XP home edition,and had not problems with it at all.

dave

XP has been a good, stable, simple OS for me, but I only had to use Vista for 5 minutes in a computer store to know what a stinker it is. Disregarding all the reported problems under the hood, I just can't stand the interface. Not only does it look like it was designed by a 15 year-old nerd living in a basement, but a lot of the functions are foolishly laid out and have a weird way of working. Some people like it, I guess, but I sure don't (and I've been a Windows user since Windows 95).

Although I'm still a bit miffed at Apple for not putting out a headless iMac, getting a Mac Mini and then customizing it how I like it with a desktop DVD burner and a desktop hard drive wired to the SATA port is getting more appealing every day. Leopard is definitely my next-gen OS of choice.  

I was an early adopter to Vista, and I actually had Vista installed and running on here about a week before its official launch.
I find Vista to be much more logical, much clearer and much friendlier to the eye.
Considering the specs I did run Vista on (1gb ram, FX5200!) I should have had issues, but I didn't. I now have a 6800GS OC and 2GB of ram, its nice.

Now as to Mac, I think it does run nice, and yes, is simple to use. However, I cannot justify the price differences between Mac and Windows to ever make it viable. Plus, I have a stack of Windows only software here, and even if I was to get a Mac and I was to stick Windows on it through boot camp, it'd eliminate the point of me owning a Mac.

kev.

Quoting Beaucaire (Thread starter): I got myself a new lap-top computer ( Acer ) with ton's of memory and Vista operating system .. What a piece of junk that software is !!!!!

I'm sorry to say but you did two mistakes IMHO. First mistake is Acer. 'nuff said.
Second is choosing an un-powered computer for running Vista. Vista is a nice CPU, GPU and RAM sucker, because of all the useless eye candy implemented in the OS.

I know a lot of companies here that made the mistake to upgrade to Vista or buying new hardware for running Vista. The problem is the legacy software and hardware. Partial or no support at all. Vista's OpenGL implementation is a POS, of course at Microsoft they are pushing for their closed-source, proprietary, not-portable DirectShitX, while all the rest of world prefers the open-standard, portable OpenGL. Final solution for the companies: downgrade to XP.

My personal experience with Microsoft, so far, is:

MS-DOS 3-5: Ok, simple, but with surprises time to time.
MS-DOS 6.22: Rock stable, excellent if the user application is stable. (Shame that Digital Research's DR-DOS didn't catch the market, BTW).
Windows 3.0: Ok but still limited.
Windows 3.1: Very good.
Windows 3.11 for Workgroups: Excellent if you had the right hardware and drivers.
Windows 95: The worst piece of junk ever.
Windows 98: Better, but still piece of junk full of bugs.
Windows 98 S.E.: Good but still with a lot of problems.
Windows ME: What was Bill thinking before releasing that bloated POS?
Windows XP Home & Pro: Very good software, but only starting from SP2. Stable. A lot of holes, still.
Vista: Plenty of problems with legacy stuff. Bloated with a lot of unnecessary eye-candy, will require years to stabilize and attract the business market. Poor Man's clone of MacOS X, implementing features that were already available in Mac OS X (and KDE and GNOME) years ago.

Quoting MrFord (Reply 19): Oh and the main reason why people are moving to notebooks now ? Price. And the fact the performance difference between them and desktop are marginal at best now. Laymen users stopped buying computers with upgrade possibilities in mind when the Pentium II came to the market. But it doesn't mean poer users/gamers/enterprises aren't still looking for that. Also, new laptops are in fact much more easily upgradable than their older counterpart.

If you deliberately stay about three steps behind the leading edge of technology the cost of computing can be very low indeed with the PC format. I've got an eight year old IBM that's my backup machine, and I've tuned it as far as I can take the motherboard and processor. All of this was done for pennies on the dollar buying slightly out of date stuff. I've been shopping around and I think I can buy a motherboard and processor that's a significant upgrade for a modest price.

Quoting Beaucaire (Reply 9): Printer manufacturers like HP make most of their revenu with the sale of ink-cartridges

Good point, although it was an HP scanner I had problems with so that wouldn't apply. Funnily enough, my HP printer had no such problem and is working well with Vista... and I keep buying HP ink cartridges. Perhaps devices that continually require consumables from the same manufacturer are more likely to work and those that don't "unfortunately" need to be replaced. Yes, I know, I'm probably being overly cynical.  

Quoting StarAC17 (Reply 16): My HP all in one had Vista drivers setup and all I had to do was plug and play and it worked 100%

How old was it?

Quoting FlyKev (Reply 26): Considering the specs I did run Vista on (1gb ram, FX5200!)

Mine has 2GB and an FX5900 but it's almost always Civilization IV that causes the BSOD so I shouldn't really be too surprised as it fairly hammers the hardware. It certainly never caused me to believe it was all Vista's fault.

Quoting Vaporlock (Reply 18): XP is a great program, for me there is no reason to upgrade.....I've had no problems with it and don't plan on upgrading to Vista.

I'm planning to go to Vista when I get a new computer. Sure I upgrade my current rig to it as it meets the minimum requirements, but putting Vista on a four year old computer (albeit a heavily upgraded one) doesn't make a lot of sense.

I've also considered getting a rig built that exceeds the minimums for Vista Premium, but would perhaps stick with XP until I absolutely have to switch to Vista. While the major manufacturers are supposed to quit offering XP as an OS option by the end of the year, the little local mom & pop places will still offer it for quite some time.

Quoting ThomasCook757 (Reply 6): Load of crap.   Have you done some national poll to find this result?

Klaus is correct; Mac sales are booming year on year.

Quoting Klaus (Reply 7): Mac sales are growing at two to three times the total market rate. I'd say the statement is quite valid.

Yup.

Quoting Klaus (Reply 14): Most Mac users have never seen a kernel panic in their life.

Yup. I even have to look twice when I see one.

Quoting Goldenshield (Reply 15): At least you admit that it DOES occur

Of course. Just like you will come across a Porsche that doesn't start first time.

Quoting Vaporlock (Reply 18): XP is a great program

OS isn't the same as program, FWIW.

Quoting MrFord (Reply 19): You buy it, it works the way it is supposed to be, nothing less, nothing more.

Ever heard of Open Source? Even Widgets, FWIW, are user written.

Quoting 777236ER (Reply 20): That's easy to do because Mac have just under 10% of the market.

Calculate the market share on BMW, Mercedes, Audi in the automobile market. Let me know.

Quoting David L (Reply 29): How old was it?

Got it in 2004 and all I did was turn it on and it saw it right away and installed the drivers for it and everything works. The only thing I can't do is install the software on the instillation disk such as HP scan which allows me to scan several sheets into PDF form.

Besides a few driver problems, I have busted some bugs in Vista.

One, Windows Mail kept "ghost messages"-the subject line is there but not a body-and these messages couldn't be deleted. I found this was a bug, and in order to fix it, I had to delete everything out of the Windows Mail folder (found in C:>Program Files), restart the program, and let it re-build itself.

Also having a few issues with Windows Photo Gallery, it seems to crash when I close it.

Otherwise, Vista has been Okay-but FSX is a different story   

Quoting Beaucaire (Thread starter): Very,very slow,many drivers don't work ,(have a HP Laserjet printer- no way to have drivers downloaded-it is not supported by Vista )

Did you try a Generic LaserJet driver ? Normally, pretty much any LaserJet PCL driver should work, at least for now. What model is it? You can try the LaserJet 4 driver, it's basic enough not to cause conflicts normally.

Quoting StarAC17 (Reply 32): Got it in 2004 and all I did was turn it on and it saw it right away and installed the drivers for it and everything works. The only thing I can't do is install the software on the instillation disk such as HP scan which allows me to scan several sheets into PDF form.

One big step with Vista is the requirement for signed drivers. There's still workarounds with the x32 version, but not so with the x64 one, which is a HUGE improvement. For sure, that means no beta drivers, less frequent releases, but also more stable one, and far less chance to have buggy softwares from HP, Lexmark, Canon and the like. And should I mention Creative ?  
It's inconvenient right now, but it's all for the better. Companies will have to learn how to write a driver correctly without black magic tricks, then release them, like it always should be. They tried to impose that with 2000/XP, but the market pressure was too high. But I guess they finally got tired of being blamed for each and every BSOD Creative drivers gave to their cutomers lol.

Quoting Swiftski (Reply 31): Ever heard of Open Source? Even Widgets, FWIW, are user written.

Yes, inside a preloaded devloppement environment specifically tailored at this task. Not unlike .NET Framework, but this time efficient. Well that is if you didn't compile your own kernel from Darwin... then I guess you can do pretty much everything? (I'm asking)

I am purposefully avoiding buying a new PC because of Windows Vista. I need a new computer, but I absolutely refuse to put that thing on it. All I have heard, from computer professionals on down, is what a load of crap it is. I will either buy a Mac or one with Windows XP.

Texan

Quoting MrFord (Reply 13): But guess what : It's exactly like when XP went out in stores. What did people do? Install Windows 98 instead, because Xp was too much for their poor computers, especially laptops. Remember XP on a PIII with 128Mb of RAM? And now, it's running just great on pretty much anything sold... And as many Windows versions prior to Vista, they always do better after the first major update (SP1, 98SE, 95 OSR2). In 2 years, the computers specs will be on par with what Vista require, drivers will be stables, and then adoption rate will climb to a normal level. Exaclty like XP. And just like XP, people say that there's no reason right now to migrate over to Vista. True, but when DirectX games will start selling, when enterprises will move over to Longhorn Server, when each and every Windows version sold with a new computers will be Vista, when applications will start requiring Vista, it will take over XP slowly. Some enterprises still runs on Windows 2000 in part or totally, because it's a very stable system. Like they did run NT4 for a while. But they had to move over when the softwares stopped supporting NT4, and it will be the case for Windows 2000 sonner or later too. Now that XP is mature and much more stable than before, it started replacing 2000, and the same thing will push Vista in a couple years.

Well said. The thing is that people still think that once they buy something totally new from Microsoft, it will immediately run well, when it's clear that it may not. When I bought my copy of Windows Vista Business and Office 2007, I knew what I was getting myself into and was well aware that being a first release of a Microshaft product, I had to expect bugs. Now, half a year later, I got Vista running pretty decently on my system. So remember: when buying something from Microsoft, expect bugs, don't just buy it blindly.

Quoting Rammstein (Reply 27): Windows ME: What was Bill thinking before releasing that bloated POS?

That's why I always told people at that time to get Windows 2000 instead. Windows ME is basically Windows 98 with a handful of features of Windows 2000.

Quoting LTU932 (Reply 36): That's why I always told people at that time to get Windows 2000 instead. Windows ME is basically Windows 98 with a handful of features of Windows 2000.

Correction : It's Windows 98 WITHOUT a handfuls of feature of Windows 98... oh and with the desktop icons and color scheme of Windows 2000  

And it got some computers corrupted for the rest of their live... I ran into some that would ONLY run WinME, 98 would crash, 2000 wouldn't even install without a BSOD. Complete mystery... so we blamed some Satanic possession   

I run XP Home Edition and have had no problems.

When Vista came out, I read alot of computer people recommend NOT buying it for about a year, so service pack 1 had a chance to come out or Microsoft could work on the bugs.

I like XP. I will stay with it for awhile.

JM

Quoting Rammstein (Reply 27): Windows 3.1: Very good.

That was my experience as well.

Another good Windows product was Windows 2000 professional. Had that on a laptop for many years, and it never crashed.

I remember a lot of warnings not to buy XP till it had been out for 6 months or so. I went ahead and bought it anyway and I can't say I ever regretted it. Having experienced XP there was no way I could have gone back to 98/ME. It's pretty much the same with Vista, though I'm not going to bother trying to install it on my smaller, older PCs, which I tend to use only for background tasks. If I still have Vista/Civilization IV problems after I bring my "good" PC up to a less outdated condition, then I'll start moaning.  

Quoting MrFord (Reply 34): Companies will have to learn how to write a driver correctly without black magic tricks, then release them, like it always should be. They tried to impose that with 2000/XP, but the market pressure was too high. But I guess they finally got tired of being blamed for each and every BSOD Creative drivers gave to their cutomers lol.

Well said. Dodgy drivers are responsible for a lot of problems yet Windows always gets blamed.

I bought a Compaq Presario 2 months ago and I just can't agree with the statement..

Quoting Beaucaire (Thread starter): What a piece of junk that software is !!!!!

I also don't have this issue...

Quoting Beaucaire (Thread starter): Google Earth displays views much slower than on XP

GE runs the same as ever, I had one prob with the Brother upgrade for my printer but the store gave me a new HP (straight swap) with no arguement, the brother was 2 months old at that point.

I find that there are lots of things about Vista that I really like and its giving me less trouble than XP gave me back in the day, in fact, I was never that impressed with XP as I got too many blue screens for my liking.

So, at the risk of being a freak....thumbs up for Vista from me  

Quoting Palladium (Reply 22): 1. You bought ACER. You should have bought IBM / Toshiba / Dell. Don't ever thinking to buy SONY. Sony = trouble.

IBM hasn't made personal computers in quite a while-they sold the business to the Chinese who now sell the former IBM product line under the Linovo banner. I am now using Vista on a new HP C500 and have not had any problems with any of the interfaces.

Oddly, when the name Vista came up I did not immediately associate it with Microsoft. I have an interest in police and fire vehicle technology and the state of the art lightbar now produced by Federal Signal is sold under the Vista name and has been marketed under that name for three or four years now.

I have a 2 yr old Dell Inspiron 9300 that I just installed vista on (came with XP pro), and it's been running great (equal or better than XP).

http://www.blackviper.com/WinVista/servicecfg.htm

That site has some tips on optimizing vista by turning off unnecessary processes and some other stuff. Try it out.

i have an HP 400 gig hard drive 3 gig ddr2/drive with an hp deskjet and windows vista runs great!!!!

Running Vista on my laptop... no problems to report.

I've had two Macs in my life (2000-2004), NEVER again. And the only software related headaches I've had operating Windows machines stemmed from QuickTime and iTunes...

Quoting TransIsland (Reply 45): I've had two Macs in my life (2000-2004), NEVER again. And the only software related headaches I've had operating Windows machines stemmed from QuickTime and iTunes...

Ah say, ah say Klaus,where in the hail did you leave the keys to the Panzer?


     

Well, I couldn't be bothered to read all the learned discourse as to why Vista is so crap. But unfortunately I have it on both my new laptop and my new PC. And so far it works perfectly with everything I have. It does what I ask it to do.

None of my equipment is top-line stuff, with my laptop coming from PC World and my PC from Tesco. But it works, so in my humble opinion I would suggest that maybe some of you chaps may just be doing things you shouldn't or maybe even expecting a little too much. I don't know but all I can say is, I'm alright Jack! 

Andy   

I probably have the same Acer laptop.

Turn off all of the Vista graphics crap. That will improve the performance....

I've had Vista on my Sony VGN-SZ430 for the past month, month and a half. Within a day of having it, I get this notice;



Haven't had the time to do or check anything. It gives me the "Victim of....." pop-up every time I start up my computer or awake it from sleeping. Kind of a pain, other than that, I really haven't had time to figure out any other flaws.

Hope it works out for you.

Matt