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[Leon1464]

Hey do you have any experience with new Microsoft OS? Is it great or you think it sucks... Share your opinion 

[amos]

This could be a controversial topic

Personally - and I have only used it once, admittedly - I thought it was horrible.

The glassy borders looked a mess - I mean, purposefully blurring what was behind them? I prefer a clean and minimalistic interface.

I cannot - and never will - understand why Microsoft have taken a structure that everyone is used to, with a familiar Start menu, Control Panel and so on - and completely shredded it. I've had numerous elderly family friends say to me, "I've just bought a PC with Vista, and I haven't a clue what to do."

In addition, it's a huge memory hog. Completely inefficient and unpractical. Their solution? Take of all the effects you paid about £50 more for!

I do like the 3D effects, but, obviously, I don't need Vista to get them anymore!

Overall? A miserable failure and complete disappointment.

[TheZeroorez]

Untill I need Vista as XP gets instable, DX10 will finally (within a year or so) run smoothly on a VGA I own, or whatever, I'll stick to XP for this damn simple reason: http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/01/29/xp-vs-vista/

But trust me, if Wine even gets just a bit better, so also stuff that needs a registry can run in Linux, it's goodbye there MS for me...

[amos]

Wine will have to get a lot better before I am happy to run a machine without Windows at all. I used to dual-boot, but when my PC died and I bought a new one, it seemed far too much hassle to put Ubuntu back on.

[Leon1464]

I guess a lot  of people are not happy with Vista  . My friend bought a new laptop with Vista Premium. Even though it was dual-core laptop with 2gigs of RAM and ATI 2200 it had ubelievably slow response. When I had to reboot the system ir took nearly 3 minutes to boot  Yeah Aero looks good, but that´s all.

Plus he got the newest Office. I think guys at Microsoft went crazy, they redesigned the GUI so much that we weren´t able to make a single presentation in a reasonable time. We spend ages by looking for usual tools.

Now about DX10 it looks amazingly on the paper, but have you heard the news about Crysis that spread over net recently? When you modify some setting file you can unlock the ultra high details even in dx9 and the results look much more the same (at least that´s what I heard). Here

Code:

http://webpages.charter.net/bliss/

is a comparison between dx9/dx10 shots. All I see is better HDR lighning and slightly better geometry in DX10 but we are comparing Very High and Ultra High here. Is it worth the money you spend for new Graphic+Vista? No revolution right now.

My opinion : I´ll stick to XP, untill Microsoft tear it from my stiff arms  (maybe  2008-2009).

[amos]

I have to say, I thought the new Ribbons interface on Office looked very intuitive. I can understand it being difficult for people already used to the old interface, but for new users I can imagine it would be easier to pick up than the old layout.

[Roman]

I have personally experienced lack of drivers for Windows Vista: for Nvidia and especially Creative Audigy 2 at first, now I cannot find only one driver for Avermedia TV/FM PCI tuner. Avermedia's support says that this model is obsolete but I would not say so, neither would say many other users of Aver TV 305.

Has anyone had similar problems with Vista drivers, maybe someone is successfully using a program like FLY2000TV for a TV-tuner model ?

Logitech has recently renewed drivers, including Rumblepad 2.


I cannot really get what and how to turn it off not to have always to confirm a program's execution. Will someone tell me or provide a good link ?


As to lack of programs to run under Vista, half a year ago it was terrible but is much better now - quite a few pirated as well as licenced games are now compatible with Vista, including Chessbase series and Valve's Orange Box. Antiviruses and programs like 3D SMAX also are compatible now.


I cannot really claim that I like absolutely all its features, for I merely have not learned them all, but some features are great. Users who have used far from being perfect MUI's on XP can enjoy masterpiece 700 Mb MUI's for Windows Vista. A vista MUI installation file occupies only ~120 Mb and extracts to almost ~700 Mb when istalled. It does not translate only letters, but also sounds and graphic signs. I personally have installed a Russian MUI and I like it.


I like some 3D stuff in Vista, especially Flip 3D and Flip 2D, which are generally better than XP immitations (WinFlip is an exception), Vista's aero interface being so much better than numerous XP skins and start menu emulators. Indeed, a few things can be appreciated if compared to XP's rather weak alternative programs written so far.

I like the original Vista start menu not because it has search ( I prefer to have them already organized rather than to every time search), but because all program's list is provided on one panel and I freely choose a program without "a fear" to loose focus under mouse pointer.

In my experience, Vista boots up faster than XP.

Like many critics, I could also find weak points. For example, was it that hard to foresee virtual desktop (like Yod'm 3D, DeskSpace) along with the Flips ? I think that Microsoft should have supported virtual desktop development and, unlike Beryl, could have made it 6 sided.


       
 

[Roman]

I thought that Vista's direct X 10 would be faster, and now even THG's tests show it is pretty much the same speed as DX9.

Microsoft should have spent more time developing it instead of doing so many subdivisions of Vista's versions (what for?), which diverts me from paying much money for a non-ultimate licenced version. 

[amos]

I thought the Mac vs PC advert hit the nail on the head.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=DWdxBvHl0lI

[Leon1464]

Lol, yeah this is a good one  Actually I think Home Basic is a waste of money, not that the Aero is such a big deal but 199$ for reskinned XP and DX10.

[Roman]

I´ll just add another offtopic post, sorry  I think Windows 7 looks really promising. After many encounters with Vista I swore I never install that system on my PC

Which feature or what glitch made you feel bad ?

[Leon1464]

Main thing was that the Vista is way too much robust, with too many hidden services running, ever annoying UAC (yeah you can turn it off but there´ll be an annoying pop-up that you have disabled UAC), slow boot and the poor performance on the lo-spec system (especially laptops) where it was either forced by a marketing (look our laptops with the shiny new OS) or by Microsoft limiting their XP support. Yeah it is true that you can turn off Aero and Sidebar and stop services from running, but from the ordinary pc users point of view this is not the solution.

Another thing that keep me from installing Vista is sometimes ilogically reorganized settings and control panel, but that´s just a matter of habit and not much of an issue, oh and I hate the Vista start menu, search is a wonderful feature but a program entries *bleh.

Now if Win7 could combine the new features of Vista (DX10(11), driver model, security) with the speed of XP (or be even better regarding to what I heard about the beta) plus add a sleek design and improved GUI on top, I would definitely and seriously think about upgrading (and god knows in a few years or so we´ll definitely need an upgrade either to Vista/7, or Linux, or MacOS as will XP grow older).

It just make me feel bad about the whole Vista thing as you hear more complains than praises. I think MS knows that it cannot afford another failure like Vista (being good or bad still compared to XP its a failure) ,so we´ll se what 7 will be after the hype fades off.

[Roman]

Thank you Medard:

with too many hidden services running

- the total number of Vista services is not significantly larger than that of XP. If a feature is not used, its corresponding service is running idle and not taking much CPU. With all the services on, my CPU is loaded at 5 % only. Many services are set to Auto or Manual and do not start until features are used. Besides, services can be desabled. Although I personally did not feel much difference as a result of disabling a dozen of them.
 
The annoying UAC can be easily turned off, then the system should be rebooted, and there won't be annoying pop-up notifications, nor security center allerts to turn UAC on. I'm not saying that the UAC is a masterpiece, and I too keep it disabled.



I think that features not vital to the OS core and GUI should have been granted user-friendly customization, including being able to turn them to their initial state.

I hate the Vista start menu, search is a wonderful feature but a program entries *bleh.

- what do you mean by "program entries *bleh" ? I know there's a big slowth when I set on "Highlight recently installed items", but the rest is fine, including the search and the alphabetic sorting of the Start Menu. To me Vista's start menu is definitely better than XP's.

Now if Win7 could combine the new features of Vista (DX10(11), driver model, security) with the speed of XP (or be even better regarding to what I heard about the beta) plus add a sleek design and improved GUI on top, I would definitely and seriously think about upgrading (and god knows in a few years or so we´ll definitely need an upgrade either to Vista/7, or Linux, or MacOS as will XP grow older).

- alright, I too wish the final 7 would be nicer, more secure, and faster than XP. But early Vista builds also promised to be faster than XP. Vista and its successors will definitely require faster hardware to process the new features at convenient speed, and I don't see how 7 will do without additional services for the new features and how it will perform faster with its advanced GUI. Nevertheless, let's hope.

I myself prefer Vista to XP (I use both), but I think there should be more customization, and I am happy to see some in 7.

I probably have the same feeling that 7 is what Vista should have been, but then why on earth did Microsoft not build XP right after Windows 98 ? It takes time and testing, including those of end-users. Just my opinion.

Cheers 

[Leon1464]

Hi Roman about the start menu I liked it the way xp has it, when you click on programs and then you see all entries of the start menu in the another window. In Vista all the entries are squeezed into the start menu itself making it a little chaotic. I dunno, its a matter of habit and maybe you can change it in Vista to make it look like in XP.

We all knew that Vista would need a faster hardware to use all its new features but seriously I think the requirements are way too high. Vista is very RAM dependent and no ReadyBoost can save that. After Microsoft ended the support for XP there is a hole on the market that Vista cannot fill. I´m talking about cheap laptops and netbooks (ok netbooks are special case and it made MS actually prolong XP support for these little machines). The result is Vista installed on an unapropriate hardware providing the sluggish Vista experience. My friend has a new Asus laptop with Vista Ultimate 1GB RAM getting performance index 2.9 and I'm telling you working with that system is most of the time agonizing. You can sometimes see Vista on a 512MB machines, even Vista Basic can´t work happily with that.

Now about the hidden services i understand that that general idea was good. Make Vista prefetch programs, defrag hard drive and do tons of stuff in the background when the PC is idle. Realization is not that good, Vista laptops are way too busy when left idle hard-drive is spinning cpu usage flying up and down making you wonder what exactly is your PC doing right now. Don´t take this too seriously it is just based on my observations.

Anyway MS had enough time to polish its new system. Win 98 came out in (surprise) 1998, following Win2000 came out in (another surprise) 2000. Win2000 had a lot of features from the coming Xp (NT kernel, NTFS, better Plug&Play) XP came out in 2001 adding new GUI and improved stability. That´s a 2 maximum 3 years for a new system to came out. Vista came after 5 years (2006/2007) being announced in 2003 (the famous Longhorn)(I´m excluding Win2003 Server as it is derived from XP). I understand MS focused on XP, adding features with SP1 and SP2 yet they still had enough time to adress the bugs and fix performance issues.

Yeah i don´t like Vista much. I think they are not worth the money to upgrade from XP. I´d like the new features (DX10,handwriting recog., driver model), but I´ll rather wait to see what will 7 offer.

Wow, sorry for making it that long

[Roman]

  Medard,

Wow, sorry for making it that long

You don't need to be sorry, this is a good interesting discussion. Your reasoning looks very good, quite convincing. In fact, I have similar impressions in many Vista's aspects.

Make Vista prefetch programs, defrag hard drive and do tons of stuff in the background when the PC is idle. Realization is not that good, Vista laptops are way too busy when left idle hard-drive is spinning cpu usage flying up and down making you wonder what exactly is your PC doing right now.

I noticed exactly the same, and soon I disabled the superfetch and adjusted the indexing, the "problem" went away. Right now that I'm posting my HDD is resting. I also find that Vista "doing tons of stuff in the background when the PC is idle", especially without user's permission, is not a brilliant optimization at all.

MS had enough time to polish its new system. Vista came after 5 years (2006/2007) being announced in 2003

Very good point. Vista's development turned out a much more laborious task. It took several years to create Vista, and to make 7 of Vista straight away was probably impossible even for Microsoft.

I also very much dislike that they divided Vista in as many as 4 versions and intentionally disabled some useful features in Home Premium, like the option to install MUIs.

We all knew that Vista would need a faster hardware to use all its new features but seriously I think the requirements are way too high.

True. My productivity index is 3.8, I use Aero and flips 1024x768 no problem, but overall I'm not impressed by Vista's speed compared to XP's. The speed of archiving, copying, starting, and gaming.

I will be happy if the final 7 is faster than Vista, I just have some doubts that the new features will consume fewer resources. Anyway, I'll try 7 the beta and the final when available, and I'm sure I'll like many of the things I read about in the net.

Don´t take this too seriously it is just based on my observations

Oh, I'm taking this quite easy. I would not be happy with only "adepts" around, it would be no fun. A forum is all about democracy, about sharing different thoughts. So, if you say you like XP and I say I prefer Vista, then there is nothing bad. From different viewpoints we should only benefit.