microsoft vista

rvrdivr · March 15, 2007, 08:18:14 PM

Anybody having fun with the new Vista OS?

It started selling 1-30-07, and I got a new laptop a week later. I've had nothing but trouble with it so far. It has many bugs that need to be fixed.
I have spent a month or so "living the experience", beside having lots of bugs, it really doesn't offer much over XP. For those thinking about upgrading... I say wait.

Anybody else having fun too?

Brian

Radar67 · March 15, 2007, 08:56:31 PM

My policy on Microsoft products is to not load it for at least two years after release. MS has a bad habit of using their customers as beta testers (the software is never ready for release when it is released).

Stew

beenthere · March 15, 2007, 09:57:14 PM

I bought a new computer with XP just before the release. I can upgrade to Vista for $10. I don't plan on doing that, from what I have heard, and from what I experienced in a store that had it running. I don't like changes just for change. That seems what has happened. Sorry to hear of the frustration.

happyj · March 15, 2007, 11:01:02 PM

Personally i am staying away from vista until it has something I need. As an IT architect we are cautiously testing it but are still probably a year away from any kind of deployment scenarios with it. We will continue to backload XP.
just my 2 cents

Brian_Rhoad · March 15, 2007, 11:05:09 PM

I got a notice from QuickBooks that if I went to Vista I would have to upgrade to QuickBooks 2007. At least they warned me about it. I don't think I'll upgrade yet. Like Radar67 said, I'll let someone else work out the bugs!

rvrdivr · March 15, 2007, 11:17:35 PM

It is just different enough from XP, that your forced to spend time to learn (re-learn) it.

Imagine a car... it's the same car but has an over all new look, it has a new paint job, and new rims and tires. But when you get behind the wheel, you find the controls on the dash have been re-arranged. So now, you need to spend time, learning how to drive the car (you new so well) again. You'll notice some new buttons on the dash, but find they don't contribute enough to make a differance.
It's still the same car, it still drives the same, nothing great has been added, and a lot of time was spent re-learning the controls. You also find some of the new controls (programs) don't do as much as the old ones did.
It still shuts down (crashes) for no reason, but now you find it also ignores some of your comands and does what it wants.
There's so much more you'll find as you drive your "new" car that will make you pull hair, but... I have to admit, I'm not at all dissappointed with Vista. I have learned to expect that with the microsoft operating system.

Brian

beenthere · March 16, 2007, 12:24:32 AM

rvrdivr
You sure summed that up in a good analogy (at least twas from my impression when getting on Vista).

leweee · March 16, 2007, 12:47:12 AM

The "WOW" in the Vista promotion stands for Won't often Work. ;D

Ron Wenrich · March 16, 2007, 06:00:06 AM

My old computer crashed and burned right after Christmas. I ended up buying one that is Vista ready and will be getting the update in the mail. I haven't decided if I'll update, but after reading this, I probably will stay with XP.

SwampDonkey · March 16, 2007, 09:47:19 AM

I'm staying with XP because I'de have to probably spend 100's of $$ on new software. My computer is not even a year old yet.

Woodbender · March 16, 2007, 10:44:56 AM

I am the Systems Manager here where I work.

After the comments and gripes and flame-outs I've seen on the user forums and tech rags we won't be migrating this office to Vista for at least a year.

For one thing the computer resources need to be upgraded (new machine?) just to run this spanking new M$ product. It's an Operating System for cryin' out loud. From what I'm hearing a LOT of existing apps break on it.

We can't afford that kind of support from Micro$loth. I have engineers who have to get deadlines out and Vista is just too buggy at this point. We're waiting for M$ to get their act together and maybe we'll do something with Vista SP2 or so.

And Micro$loth "security"? Did anyone see that their so-called "Anti-virus/Security Package" came in dead last in a recent shoot out??

All rise for the Micro$loth National Anthem,... "baaaaaaa"

happyj · March 16, 2007, 11:07:53 AM

speaking to the new apps equation. From our testing Vistas new compatability mode is pretty slick. We have been able (in a lab) to run all of our home grown apps in compatabilty mode and it handles them real well. We also have several older database apps (access97, filemaker pro 7...) that also perform well.
Bottom line this is one thing MS has done right. I think for us it is more the combination of user training and age of the machines. within a year we will have machines upgraded through our lifecycle management process to be able to handle vista and and training plan in place to assist users in how to do what they are used to doing.
For the home front i do not think there is much benifit for probably two years.

Norm · March 16, 2007, 03:47:10 PM

I bought a new media center computer earlier this year and just loaded vista on it. The graphics and audio drivers had to be reloaded with beta ones from the manufacturers and are buggy. The os itself seems to be ok but it takes getting used to, although it shares plenty of similarities with xp. We had thought of getting new computers at work preloaded with vista but will use xp instead.

rvrdivr · March 16, 2007, 04:49:20 PM

I think the bottom line here is, wait a while for Vista to evolve and get de-loused. If your computer works now...why fix it?

My desktop runs XP and I have honed it down to where it works great. I get messages telling me there are updates available but I see no reason changing a thing. I like Norton anti virus and zone alarm for my internet security. Zone Alarm is availible free on Downloads.com. Once you have it tweeked its great.

I'm an old DOS man myself. Anybody remember EDLIN? Back then hardly anybody had a home computer and I was dubbed a "computer genius". Now I can't keep up and have 7 year olds running circles around me. :D

My 8088 ran at 7.5 MH and had a 10M HD and 256RAM. My 286 ran at 12MH, had a 40Meg HD, and 640RAM. Those were the good old days! :D

SwampDonkey · March 16, 2007, 05:06:02 PM

Quote from: rvrdivr on March 16, 2007, 04:49:20 PM
My 8088 ran at 7.5 MH and had a 10M HD and 256RAM. My 286 ran at 12MH, had a 40Meg HD, and 640RAM. Those were the good old days! :D

Actually it was, but it was more fun on C= computers. ;D

mike_van · March 16, 2007, 05:11:03 PM

I went to buy a new Dell for my cousin 2 weeks ago, on their website, it's all Vista. Go to the refurbished/scratch & dent section though, and they have some good buys with XP in them. I got him one of those & it works fine - hey, i'm still happy with 98se. :D [one of those guys that hates change]

rvrdivr · March 16, 2007, 05:17:59 PM

QuoteC= computers

?? You talking about cobol?

SwampDonkey · March 16, 2007, 05:29:58 PM

Commodore ;D

rvrdivr · March 16, 2007, 05:53:50 PM

Ahh yes, the commodore 64. Also the Atri, Tandy, and Amiga game systems were great. Cutting edge technology back then, landfill now. I wish I still had some of those old computers. Oh yeah let's not forget the TSR80.

A place I worked at, years back, had an old Osborne computer. It's OS was called CM\P, a predesessor to MSDOS. It didn't do much but it was fun to play around on. That's one, I wish I had that now.

SwampDonkey · March 16, 2007, 06:12:02 PM

Actually Commodore computers and software are actively traded on Ebay and Amiga OS 4.0 was released Christmas eve 2006. ;D

http://os4.hyperion-entertainment.biz

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=15992.0

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=14312.msg229109#msg229109

;D

Pete J · March 16, 2007, 07:47:03 PM

No good news from me. Old business related apps stopped working. The new version of Office 2007 Outlook doesn't talk to my old Exchange 5.5 server. Printing issues, driver issues. Bill Gates is going to make millions. Everthing else has to be upgraded to support Vista. Pure genius!

SwampDonkey · March 16, 2007, 07:58:52 PM

Oh well, maybe he can use it to cure AIDS and Cancer. :

Engineer · March 16, 2007, 09:43:31 PM

Quote from: rvrdivr on March 16, 2007, 05:53:50 PM
Ahh yes, the commodore 64. Also the Atri, Tandy, and Amiga game systems were great. Cutting edge technology back then, landfill now. I wish I still had some of those old computers. Oh yeah let's not forget the TSR80.

A place I worked at, years back, had an old Osborne computer. It's OS was called CM\P, a predesessor to MSDOS. It didn't do much but it was fun to play around on. That's one, I wish I had that now.

Oh yeah, CM/P. Ran that on an old Kaypro "portable" that was anything but. Also spent a lot of time making Trash80's do things that they probably weren't designed for. Also spent hours upon hours upon hours playing games on an old Apple IIc with the green CRT and not being able to see afterwards. And running AutoCad R.10 off of floppy disks on a first-generation Gateway 2000 386. Yeah. Lots of fun.... :D

PineNut · March 16, 2007, 10:56:38 PM

My Z-80 computer ran at 2.5 MHz and I thought that was fast at the time. Also had a full 2k of RAM. Ran a version of Tini-Basic. Upgraded by adding 8k of RAM and that was living. Then added storage with an 8 inch floppy.

SwampDonkey · March 17, 2007, 07:06:16 AM

Quote
A place I worked at, years back, had an old Osborne computer. It's OS was called CM\P, a predesessor to MSDOS. It didn't do much but it was fun to play around on. That's one, I wish I had that now.

Quote
Oh yeah, CM/P. Ran that on an old Kaypro "portable" that was anything but.

What? This? ;D

Apparently, there were some decent programs, like WordStar and a database program at the time. I never did come across these programs and they may not work on my Ver. 3 of CP/M anyway. By the time this OS came out with the C=128, it was pretty much abandoned. The C=128 had Microsoft Basic built in (1977 vintage), although the C=128 never came out until 1986 and you could buy it at any hardware or department store. I remember seeing a mountain of these stacked in the electronics departments of Zellers and K-Mart. The hardware store was even promoting it for Christmas. Anyone around here interested in computers had a Vic 20, C64, or C128. Never even heard tell of Apple in these parts until the Mac was released in '85 or '86. Then I only heard of it at university. At that time the C64 was almost as capable and had color and GEOS and a 512k REU.