I have got used to it and my opinion now is better than it was. SP1 seemed to fix things up somewhat. I have found little reason to prefer it over XP. One thing that remains an annoyance is window sizing. I may have just not got the hang of it yet, but I find it has a weird tendency towards fixed window sizes which are always too small. Maybe I’m not finding the relevant setting (why do I have to go looking?)
Well, just last night I upgraded my wifes Vista laptop (Acer, dual core, stacks of memory) to Fedora 10 Linux. I did install an XP VM for one piece of software that did not work in WINE. She was frustrated with Vista constantly dropping the wireless connection (a hard drop that required a reboot to fix). It may be a hardware/interference issue, but at least Fedora reconnects silently without a problem.
My daughter has asked me to do the same thing to her Vista laptop, too. These are regular users who have just got frustrated with the way Vista behaves. I just avoid it as much as possible, and when nothing I did could fix the network problems, I gave up.
And I like UAC on Vista (makes running at user privileges easier than in XP). My Linux machines do almost the same thing.
Si
I got a new computer pre-installed with Vista. It was a royal pain to get my printer to work again. Ant that was when my husband, who is an IT professional, did all the work. Left to myself, I would have had to buy everything new again.
My scanner still doesn’t work with Vista. It I want to use it, i have to let my husband hook up his old laptop.
I second staying with XP as long as you can.
At this point in time the only people having problems with Vista are people:
-
With old, underpowered machines trying to run the Aero desktop, which of course, provides them with a sluggish experience. Since you are getting a new machine, this should not be a problem for you.
-
People with very old hardware and/or peripherals, or with hardware no longer supported by the manufacturer (as of 2 years ago).
-
People with very old, esoteric software (or software no longer supported by developers as of 2 years ago), though this isn’t true ALL of the time. Compatibility tweaks which can be activated very easily, usually solve most compatibility problems with older software. I run very old dos based apps at work on vista just fine.
-
Clueless users. This is the bulk of where complaints comes from. People who aren’t particularly computer knowledgeable are just used to XP or even older editions of windows and find the change intimidating/confusing. If you are a savvy computer user, this will not be an issue for you.
Ah, no. My wifes laptop is recent hardware, the system was properly maintained, and I am definitely not clueless (I am an IT consultant). Vista just does not work properly on that machine. My daughters laptop is more recent, exhibits no problems, but she does not like how Vista works on it. So she wants something better.
Si
I find this insulting.
I am a savvy computer user. In fact, most of the people at work ask me for comuter help before they ask our official Helpdesk. Yet, I couldn’t for the life of me get Vista to work with my three year old printer and scanner. I am computer savvy. I’m just not an IT professional, and I happen to think being an IT professional shouldn’t be a requirement for Vista users.
Also, if the OP gets a new Vista PC, she might also get Office2007. And that is another thing to avoid as long as you can.
I have 2 identical HP dv9000, one is an xp box, one a vista box.
About once a week I get this urge to take a chainsaw to the vista box. I can run 2 instances of WOW or EVE Online on the xp box, on the vista box it is laggy that I cant go into Jita in EVEOnline unless someone scouts it and it has a population under 100. I did disable the nannynag screen [fuck yes, install the fucking program NOW] early on, but that is the freaking dumbest thing tobe running in the admin identity. I can see it in the user profiles that are set up, but not the admin one.
I am more than happy with xp pro, I have to have xp pro to work [vpn does not work under vista, and if i didnt have an xp box I would have to use that nasty ancient work issued laptop.] I do not see why they have this need to keep making us buy new OS. We get an OS when we buy a new computer, they should be happy with that.
I am seriouusly considering just going with linux and wine for when I absolutely need to …
IT pro here, and Vista is a royal pain in the ass for me. Users I support don’t seem to mind it so much, but my brother hated it so much on his (brand new) laptop that he rolled back to XP, even though some of the drivers weren’t there. I use XP personally, and I think Vista is a big showy piece of crap.
I’ve used Vista Business for almost two years now and haven’t had very many problems. I was concerned at first because I use Adobe Audition version 1.0, but there haven’t been any issues.
There was a bit of a learning curve, but it should be easy to learn if you’re halfway intelligent and computer literate, which I’m sure you are.
Robin
My problem with Vista is that it seems to be geared towards the lowest-level of average home user. I’m a professional in IT and just want an OS that lets me do what I need to do. XP does what an OS should do … stay out of the way and let me do what I need to do without a lot of flashy stuff. Vista adds a lot of eye candy and has re-organized things for no other reason than it seemed to look better to someone at Microsoft. This isn’t just “it’s the way we’ve always done it” with XP. A lot of the changes just don’t make for a better user-experience.
YMMV but I find working with Vista frustrating because there’s always something I have to tweak to keep Vista from getting in the way of my being productive.
You are being overly vague. And I think I know why.
Can you be more specific? What does your daughter think would be “better” than vista? What are the problems your wife is having on her laptop?
How does this violate my list of reasons why someone might have issues with Vista? I clearly stated that one reason might be incompatible hardware. I assume you went to the manufacturer’s website for your printer and attempted to find Vista drivers? If there were none, that means the manufacturer essentially stopped supporting your printer (and it had to stop at least 2 years ago).
My own printer is 5 YEARS old. I had absolutely no problem using it right off the bat. I didn’t even have to download the drivers form the manufacturer’s website. And I wouldn’t simply because it’s an HP and their drivers are bloatware.
Uh, no.
I call BS on this.
You are right, that out fo the box the OS is essentially built around idiot proofing the system.
It’s the ONLY VIABLE way of keeping the idiot masses from screwing things up and then blaming their idiocy on the OS, as they tend to do.
For those knowledgeable it is a trivial thing to change a few settings and keep vista from asking you whenever you want to either install a program or increase it’s security level.
TRIVIAL.
So I don’t buy that you have to “constantly” tweak vista. I use vista for work and for school and for gaming and I don’t have to “tweak” jack shit constantly.
Can you give us examples of this constant tweaking you have to do?
Wow, you are master debater. I’m certain you have convinced everyone with your masterly wit and your incredibly detailed empirical facts as to how I’m mistaken.
Or maybe not.
My only vista complaint is that I don’t like the structure of the program directory that pulls up from the start menu. Other than that I’ve had no negative issues.
It’s been a while since I used XP, so out of curiosity, what’s the difference? I recall it being very similar.
I do like the search box. You don’t even have to click on it. Just click on the button and start typing and as you type the list is populated by increasingly relevant programs.
My only complaint is that that feature should have been more tightly incorporated into EVERY OS window.
Like I said, YMMV.
I work on short-term projects, 2-4 months long. Each time I change projects, I may have to install/re-install/un-install tools and software for that project. Every time I have to do that, I spend at least a day trying to get everything working right in Vista. I don’t have the same problems in XP.
Again, if all you have to do is a one-time set up, you may spend one day getting everything just the way you want it and then it’s good to go.
My experience is that it takes me a day every time I make substantial changes to get things the way I need it.
I can’t imagine that the developers of these tools you constantly have to install and un-install MEANT for it to be a troublesome process in vista. Which leads me to believe that they do not support their use in Vista. I reason this because, and I hope you agree here, there is NOTHING INHERENT in vista that would make installing/uninstalling some software something that would take a DAY.
And therefore you fit into my category of why people might have issues with vista. It’s number 3 on my list, in case you missed it.
Oh great pasta overlord, Why do people refuse to read lists? Why do they focus on the ONE item on the list that they find disagreeable, even if it’s not only true but doesn’t even apply to them?
Fellow pastafarian,
I may have to change versions of Java for each application. Each version seems to have it’s own quirk in Vista.
I have to configure Eclipse differently each time. The tool is exactly the same on both Vista and XP and yet, I have more problems getting Java/DB2/Oracle/JDBC working right on Vista.
Many of our applications will only work in IE6, not IE7. I haven’t even bothered trying to get IE6 working on Vista.
Granted, I’m not the typical home user and I’m making way more changes on an ongoing basis than a typical user.