Vista Death Watch

[Gargoyle_Steve (Steve)]

Originally Posted by DJDD

I quite liked Win98 and as long as you accepted a reboot was required twice a day then all was good. I would argue that very little productivity was lost because of it.

This is a bit off the main topic but I disagree with that statement. I was building a LOT of PC systems back in the Win 95/95b/95c/98/98 2nd Ed days .. my old Toshiba laptop today still runs 98 (1st Ed) and is quite stable - except for when I used to try to run ICQ, for some reason it hated that!


In terms of Win 98 2nd Ed I had a network of 3 desktops running that OS for ages with no problems at all, in fact my network monitoring application used to run a clock that showed how long each unit (PC) had been continuously operational, ie not powered down or rebooted, and it was very rare that the day count didn't reach triple digits, ie more than 100 days, before the clock was interrupted by any kind of restart or power down.

I have always contributed this operational stability to good quality hardware components, and of course not loading evry bit of "junk" software that comes along as a freeby ownload. My PC systems had a great reputation with my customers for the same kind of long term stability and to this day I still get positive comments from many of these old customers who still have these sytems running in one role or another to this day, mainly because they do still run and still are as stable as heck.



Back on topic - I run XP now and it seems plenty stable, ie never needs rebooting and I don't get hangups, etc, but I do find that I tend to end up closing my pc down once every 2-3 weeks or so for various other reasons so the 100+ day session are long gone now.

I'm considering buying a new laptop but have to say that I REALLY would prefer to be able to get one running XP instead of Vista.

[Straylight]

I have yet to install Vista on any of my PCs. Why? Because I can't see what extra it does that XP doesn't do.

Now, I have no need for all the administrative security functions and policies etc. that a company would need, so who cares about that. Aero-whatsit - who gives a stuff! It makes your windows look pretty, and chews up a hell of a lot more resources. Wow, what a waste of time that is.

I read an article talking about the ergonomics of Vista. Apparently people have to do almost 2-2.5x as many mouse clicks using the default settings, because Vista asks you to confirm EVERYTHING once or even twice that XP just goes ahead and does. This is a significant issue that forces a lot of people back to XP.

Lack of drivers is always an issue which will slowly resolve. DX10 is a waste of time atm. Even Crysis doesn't look that much better.

Basically, the only reason I have for going to Vista at the moment is if I am forced to. When Vista eventually becomes dominant, or Vista does something XP doesn't, I will switch over, probably dual-booting for 12 months in the process.

[vash (Ashley)]

I went shopping around because I want a new laptop with xp I managed to find a couple all costing around 1200 which have a decent cpu and all plus can run vista if needed

[Glenhuon (Bill)]

I've built a few systems over the last few months and all have had XP as the OS. Most of the new ones I've worked on from customers have had Vista Basic installed and agree with "confirm everything at least twice" statement. It gets right up my nose, if I tell the darn machine to do something, it should do it immediately, unless its something really stupid that going to do harm. Its not only our education system thats getting dumbed down.

Bill

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

Originally Posted by Glenhuon

I've built a few systems over the last few months and all have had XP as the OS. Most of the new ones I've worked on from customers have had Vista Basic installed and agree with "confirm everything at least twice" statement. It gets right up my nose, if I tell the darn machine to do something, it should do it immediately, unless its something really stupid that going to do harm. Its not only our education system thats getting dumbed down.

Bill

Bill - here's the funny proof: http://movies.apple.com/movies/us/ap...ty_480x376.mov

[programmer]

Originally Posted by Glenhuon

if I tell the darn machine to do something, it should do it immediately,

There sure is a lot of misinformation about user account control. You guys aren't helping by spreading this kind of Mac fodder. I would've expected more especially from someone who builds systems.

[snowyskiesau]

I run Linux but I like to stir the pot when I can

http://it.slashdot.org/it/07/11/26/0643230.shtml

[sailormoon]

Vista is good....i think becos i use it on my laptop which is bascially my prime pc. The only bad thing is that it consumes alot of memeory and power which is abd for my laptop..only ha 2 hr battery life!!

[bloodhound31]

So now for the questions that really count.

What is going to change by converting from XP to Vista when....

You do astrophotography using standard supplied Canon software?

You use programs like:

Photoshop

Deep Sky Stacker

Registax

You use a modified ToUCam?

Baz.

[edwardsdj (Doug)]

I agree Baz

Why is it that there is always so much excitment whenever Bill Gates decides to turn the handle of his money making machine again?

[Starkler (Geoff)]

Originally Posted by ballaratdragons

Why doesn't a competition brand come out?

Why do we HAVE TO use only Microsoft???

Yeah, I've heard of Linux, but does it come in a box, just install, and use?

Ken there are heaps of linux flavours out in the form of a "live cd", which allows you to load and try it running from the cd drive before committing to installing to your hard drive.

I have ubuntu linux as well as winXP on my home pc. The ubuntu cd comes with the OS, web browser, open office (MS Office clone), heaps of applications already there and ready to use.

Which linux distro is suitable for me?

[Glenhuon (Bill)]

Originally Posted by programmer

There sure is a lot of misinformation about user account control. You guys aren't helping by spreading this kind of Mac fodder. I would've expected more especially from someone who builds systems.

This ain't misinformation, this is hands-on, playing with the thing. MS will probaly sort out the bugs eventually, just like they did with XP. But untill they do, it stays in the box and I'll stick to XP.

Bill

[RB (Andrew)]

XP for me all the way thanks, I have no need to upgrade.
In fact I'm so disappointed that most if not all new Windows laptops are only available with Vista pre-installed.
I'm in the process of re-installing XP on my trusty 'old' lappy and upgrading it's ram and HD.

BTW XP SP3 is in the late beta stages but probably won't be released before the Vista SP I'm told.

EDIT: oh and The Amiga Rocks !!!

[bloodhound31]

Originally Posted by bloodhound31

So now for the questions that really count.

What is going to change by converting from XP to Vista when....

You do astrophotography using standard supplied Canon software?

You use programs like:

Photoshop

Deep Sky Stacker

Registax

You use a modified ToUCam?

Baz.

These are actually legitemate questions I need answered and soon. I am about to buy my new lappy in the next couple of days and I need to make the decision as astrophotography and running gear is it's main task.

anyone?

Baz.

[edwardsdj (Doug)]

Hey Baz,

Sorry to have misunderstood

If you have a system with everything you need working under XP then the main question I'd be asking myself is: do I really need a new system?

Personally I'd always get the latest version of Windows if buying a new system.

You may have to wrestle with it for a few nights to get everything going and there may be some hardware driver you need that's not available under Vista but that is the price you pay for moving to a new system.

In 12 months the majority of people will be using Vista (it ships on practically all new systems) so I'd definately get Vista with the new laptop.

Have fun,
Doug

[bloodhound31]

Thanks Doug,
yes, Ii am forced into buying a new lappy as I fried mine just before Christmas

I guess we will have to change to vista eventually anyway..

[jay019]

Originally Posted by programmer

At least Microsoft can write their own operating systems

I surely hope that was a joke! Or do people really forget that DOS was originaly written by Tim Patterson, which in itself was a reimplementation of CP/M. As for windows, thats just ms "borrowing" ideas from XEROX Parc/Star and Apple LISA.

Or maybe I'm just a misinformed ranter?

[Zuts]

Originally Posted by jay019

I surely hope that was a joke! Or do people really forget that DOS was originaly written by Tim Patterson, which in itself was a reimplementation of CP/M. As for windows, thats just ms "borrowing" ideas from XEROX Parc/Star and Apple LISA.

Or maybe I'm just a misinformed ranter?

I hope you are joking . Those ideas are over twenty years old, or are you trying to say that operating system design and development stopped over twenty years ago?

Paul

[jay019]

Originally Posted by Zuts

I hope you are joking . Those ideas are over twenty years old, or are you trying to say that operating system design and development stopped over twenty years ago?

Paul

No, I am saying that ms did not write their own OS. They may have added to the Patterson DOS, but realisticaly, they did not write an operating system, just extended one. DOS was still a base up till XP, and from what I hear Vista is built ontop of a FreeBSD base, so explain how they wrote their own OS, I dont understand.

Jay

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

Originally Posted by jay019

No, I am saying that ms did not write their own OS. They may have added to the Patterson DOS, but realisticaly, they did not write an operating system, just extended one. DOS was still a base up till XP, and from what I hear Vista is built ontop of a FreeBSD base, so explain how they wrote their own OS, I dont understand.

Jay

Vista is not a massive port of FreeBSD - MacOSX is. Vista is totally, utterly and unquestionably native MS code.