Vista Os

Stumpy,

Hey, it's good to see you! It's been awhile!

We have Vista on one of our computers (yeah, we have more than one computer in a house of six computer using people, and we DON'T have six computers), and I can't say that I'm that impressed with it. I was perfectly happy with XP. The Mrs. says it was a pain when she tried installing some of the kids' educational games - not all of them were compatible with Vista.

Chester

Fellows,

We were planning to implement it the end of this year, now it looks like late next year - maybe. It costs alot. You have to upgrade hardware. Lots of software isn't supported and they can't identify when it will be.

You might check this out. Windows Vista promo

Warning, it's a little crude for the young 'uns.

Quote from Stumpy

The hardware part is what frosted me. I had to buy a new printer because the Canon printer I was using (Pixma ip4300) wasn't compatible with Vista. And I had only bought that printer about 6 months ago.

Luckily, I was able to identify a suitable replacement on Amazon for only $55. (which included free shipping). The replacement is Canon's Pixma ip3500 and it uses the same ink cartridges as the 4300, so the extra cartridges I had won't be wasted.

WOW! Did you luck out, or what? It seems those things are never compatible from one model to another.

One thing that bothers me is that when we plug the printer into the Vista computer, we have to wait while it downloads the drivers every single time. The Mrs. primarily prints off a different computer, so we switch back and forth as needed. I know, we could network, but we tried that and it just didn't work very well for us. Don't know why . . . we just bought a USB hub for each computer, which makes it very easy to make that switch when we need to. It goes back to the Mrs.' computer without a hitch.

Chester

Heard mixed reports on Vista so I will nurse my XPs for as long as possible.

Wonder is Microsoft's policy the same as Apple. Release 1 for the nurds at a ridiculous price. Release 2 at half the original price and Release 3 when they finally work out the problems!!


Mike

Hi Stumpy and all. You guys are correct on the Vista issue's. In fact the last I heard you could still buy a computer and get either Vista or XP. I myself will not be going to Vista anytime soon. That is not for software or hardware reason's. Its more for the thought that Vista may turn into another OS like Millineum was. We may see a new upgraded OS that uses some of Vistas enhancmemnts but then goes forward with a better OS that can work with all scenarios. I think MS should have been held to the fire for this junk, especially since most people had to upgrade teh computer's just to run it. That alone should have told most people that it was not worth the money to buy it.

Good luck to whoever is using Vista and if you are thinking of upgrading to Vista, get the Ultimate version and buy the new hardware wisely as Stumpy has already stated.

Quote from Stumpy

I got the Home Premium version with my new Dell hardware and I think the most annoying part is that integral Help for the system is for all intents and purposes non-existent. In fact, Microsoft's website has hardly any help available. It's pretty plain that the OS was rushed to market before the bugs were ironed out. I imagine we'll see SP1, SP2, etc, just as we did with XP.

I wish to the devil that Microsoft would get their act together and give us an operating system that'll endure for more than 3 or 4 years. I may have to bite the bullet and go back to MacIntosh, although I read an article a few days ago that the inventor of their OS had published a piece shortly before he died complaining that Apple's OS had also become too bloated and complicated. (Jobs didn't invent Apple's first OS)

If all you do is surf the web, email, graphics processing or do word processing then a Mac is just fine. If you want to play games or have a array of software that you can use and load then staying with a XP PC is usually your best bet.

You are correct on that statement as well. I forgot to mention the price difference. That will sway most people over the a IBM-compatible.

To Viper's point, Dell will be selling XP at least through next July. I saw a poll that came out not long after Vista was released and as I recall it indicated that about 40% of businesses intended to upgrade to Vista within a year. They took the same poll about 4 months later and about 35% of business were saying they were not going to upgrade to Vista for at least a year. A sizable percentage said they were just going to sit this one out and wait and not upgrade at all. Microsoft is sweating to be sure.

Quote from Stumpy

Well, I'm not a gamer, Todd, and I don't load up my PCs with a lot of software. . . . my latest Dell (3 Gigs of RAM, 320 Gigs HD, 2 DVD burners, 22-inch flatscreen monitor) . . . .

Wow! That sounds like a set-up that will keep you going for a long time to come!

Chester

Installed Vista for two days, wiped the drive and went back to XP pro

I just read a review on I belive CNet.com and they were comparing the 2 new service packs coming out for Vista(SP1) and XP(SP3). They were saying how much faster XP is still after the SP1 upgrade.

If I can find the article I will post the link here.

I just found it here it is:

http://www.news.com/8301-10784…0540-7.html?tag=nefd.lede

Well, that's not the whole story. I will keep looking.

Here is another article concerning the speed of the new SP3 update for XP:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,139911-c,xp/article.html