But for some reason, all the people who are saying things like this aren’t allowed to be right.
Vista would be OK (for me) if it didn’t interfere with my work flow so often re the "allow this?, “allow that?” continual pop up double checking for even the most basic file manipulation. It’s idiotic and maddening.
Also, setting up simple peer to peer networking, file sharing, and printer sharing is 10 times harder than it needs to be. It asinine that in 2008 they don’t have simple, step by step applets to accomplish this crap, and make you wade through clumps of technical docs to accomplish stuff that should be EASY.
The puzzling thing is that MS was supposed to be usability testing VISTA to death, to make sure it was user friendly. At his point that sounds like big joke.
Spoken like someone who has never bought a computer.
When my old laptop died, I had to get a new one quickly. This meant getting one with Vista installed, since laptops were no longer available with XP on it.
“Voluntary,” my posterior.
Spoken like someone whose computer has never died… or who has never needed an additional computer.
Sometimes you have no choice but to buy a new one. And sometimes, people don’t know that they dislike the software until they try it.
Frankly, Justin, I’m surprised that you’re even saying these things.
I must admit I’m curious as to why y’all don’t just erase the HD and install XP. You did buy real copies of XP with your previous computers, didn’t you? Not those useless “restore” CDs?
And if you will forgive the advertising plug, this is why you don’t buy mass market PC’s. Reputable independent shops will usually put anything you want on a new machine. We can usually whip out a new machine faster than OEM’s can ship you one, often for a similar price. I have XP licences and can still get more.
It’s also hard to avoid upgrading because eventually MS will stop supporting XP. That could make it too unstable/unsecure to justify using any longer, which forces an upgrade.
I bought a Mac.
And then put XP on it, to run AutoCAD. 
Which for XP pro IIRC is 2014
In my case, because the old computer died. Is that reason enough? Since I have to use laptops, many parts aren’t replaceable after a few months.
I bought it from PC Box because they still offered XP. Nobody else in the area did.
AHunter3, good luck finding a Spanish supplier who gives you the real disks. I still haven’t found one. Every time there’s a news blurb about piracy, I point to El Corte Inglés, FNAC etc. Apparently it’s piracy only if done by a corner store, not if done by a corporation with several thousand employees.
You might want to look here
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/using-windows-vista-compatibility-mode/
I have so far only come across a handful of apps (all damn specialized ones at that) that could not be shoehorned into vista.
If you have something that is mission critical for business you can also have a decent shop load XP into a virtual machine for you.
That way you get current security while still having the ability to run your app.
Suppose Microsoft finally got it’s shit together and came up with a completely new kernel that was entirely modular, much like Linux. It would almost certainly obsolete every piece of software out there. MS is basically screwed, damned if they do, damned if they don’t. People are so resistant to change that the wholesale changes that would probably make MS an ideal OS are impossible.
Actually, I’ve been using computers for years and it took all my savvy to get word processing, internet and email working properly. I kept on running into problems where Vista wouldn’t let me access files that I owned, even when I had admin privileges. It took me ages to get it working.
I pity any newbies buying their first computer who encounter Vista.
Oh, ans another thing. Theres some software I need for a course I’m doing. It runs in XP, doesn’t run in Vista Home edition.
Been trying for weeks to multiboot my PC. Had enormous difficulty owing to the different ways in which the two boot up. Only just got it working. Mostly. Even now I’m missing a couple of drivers for XP.
I agree that restore CDs are useless, but PCs with the OS preinstalled are a very large chunk of the market. Anyway, since XP needs to be activated following installation, there’s no guarantee that having the install CD and license key will allow you to keep moving XP to your latest set of hardware indefinitely.
Why does everyone bash MS for this stuff? Vista has been out for a year now and if software isn’t developed to run on it that’s on the software developer. You don’t see Mac owners bashing Apple for not supporting outdated XP software.
Actually, the software developer in question is Microsoft.
Clothahump,
If you want to do something that’ll effect a change, send Mr. Gates a copy of the receipt of your purchase of an iMac, MacBook, or Dell with Linux* along with your letter asking for him to reconsider why he forced you to not buy your preferred OS (XP). Money talks, bullshit walks. If he saw enough of those letters from people who aren’t sending him money due to his company’s actions, who knows?
*Or any other computer purchased without a Microsoft OS on it.
You people are so melodramatic.
What exactly are things broken in windows Vista? For all the moaning and crying I haven’t heard any specifics, except for a few mentions of third party apps not being compatible.
Devs have had acess to vista for over two years as the OS was freely available to much of the dev community even before retail release. You should be complaining about the foot shuffling they’ve been doing. Not only that but so far almost every person I find having a problem with some app in vista, has not tried the compatability options (run as admin, xp compatability), and 9 times out fo ten that does the trick.
Not that vista Didn’t have it’s problems a year ago. Now though, it doesn’t and it’s very stable and secure, in some cases more so than XP. Don’t be player haters