Vista is the reason that I am typing this on a Macbook right now. This is not to say that Vista is “bad” I enjoyed some things about it. I guess my problem was that Dell had a “Ready for Vista” sticker on my laptop and well it wasn’t. The computer was sluggish with bad driver support and every time I attempted to install it there were problems.

When ever I decided to buy a larger hard drive for my Macbook I probably run Vista in Boot Camp.

Also SP1 did fix some problems.

Vista is bad because its such a resource hog. Many people especially gamers like the maximize computer speed they can get and thats from xp. Vista is just way too annoying with uac even though it can be disabled, i just find vista is betaish and ive used it for over 4 months and now im back on xp pro, il give vista a try a bit later by dual booting with my current xp

Most complaints about Vista seem to come from those who don’t use Vista. Another set of complaints come from people trying to use hardware/software for which the developers of that kit probably didn’t follow the Windows rules to ensure compatibility, e.g. they cut corners or didn’t care.

I use Vista on a laptop that had it pre-installed. Works fine.

So does XP and Ubuntu on the other machines we have.

this is the same thing that happened when xp came out it was bad mouthed nothing new here..i have 2 new computers one desktop one laptop both have vista premium on it and you know what i have had 0 problems with vista in fact i cant even stand to go back to xp.. i honestly think if u can sit down and not listin to the media and what people say on the internet you might acctually like it and see its not bad all is it perfect no network transfers are slow as heck thats my only complaint but is it big enough to say burn microsoft down f vista and only use xp no thanks i dont want xp anymore i still have one pc with xp on it and it will stay that way you know why it cant run vista so why bother..

thats where alot of this f.u.d comes from is people upgrading there old pile of junks to vista then sayin vista sucks well DAHHH

anyways when windows 7 comes out u will see everyone jump on a vista bandwagon and we can have this same debate again

I used to be firmly on the hate side of the love/hate line - when Vista first came out, I gave it a spin and I was sorely disappointed. So many things had taken massive steps backwards from XP - layouts, icons and usability, the entire sound architecture and control interface, performance… the list went on.

Now, however, I’m writing this in Vista - just a few days ago, I decided to give it another chance, an honest chance, and I love it. A lot of things have been fixed since Vista’s release last year, and with the big issues out of the way I can appreciate the improvements now - the very pretty Aero interface, the fast and easy-to-use searching, the improved power management support (standby works much faster in Vista than it ever did in XP). And most of my other issues are gone - Creative has released better drivers for my sound card, and SP1 fixed a lot of the performance issues.

Was Vista as bad as everyone said it was? Yes - in comparison to XP, it was awful when it first came out. Is it still as bad as everyone says it is? Not at all.

Hello,

I have had a good experience with Microsoft Windows Vista so far. The reason for this was probably because I planned extensively for it by choosing hardware from reputable first-tier manufacturers who were good about releasing device drivers during the beta test cycle, so I knew that I would have decent quality device drivers available when (or shortly after) the operating system shipped.

The computer that I put together in October/November 2006 ran Windows Vista well, and most of the software I used either ran under Windows Vista or had updated versions available. The only thing I had to wait a while for was tape backup software, which is now kind of a niche application. Eventually, I found an application do that, though, so from my perspective, I am set up and using Windows Vista without any significant issues.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

I use OS X as my main OS but have Vista on another computer. I had loads of trouble upgrading it to Vista, from XP, even though the upgrade came with the computer and the computer was ‘Vista Ready’. During the installation I got two blue screens. There are no drivers available for my printer, so I am unable to print from that computer. A few days ago, I got another two blue screens in the space of 10 minutes - the 10 minutes being the time Vista took to boot because it runs so slowly. These BSODs occurred the same day Vista refused to resume from standby.

I hate Vista because of the amount of problems I’ve had with it and the bad design. Some areas of the operating system haven’t been updated since Windows 98! Other ‘features’ are impractical or are completely useless, for example the new search tool. It spends all day indexing your computer but when it comes to searching for something, the folder you want to search isn’t indexed!

I’ll be sticking to my Mac and avoiding Vista as much as possible.

“upgrading it to Vista, from XP, even though the upgrade came with the computer and the computer was ‘Vista Ready’.”

thats the first problem you upgraded should of done a clean install and let me guess that “vista ready ” pc was a dell just cause it says its ready doesnt always meen it is its called advertiseing and u took the bait not vista’s fault at all

i think its great you like yer mac so much i should be gettin mine soon so i ll report back how much i either love it or hate it but i wont go as far to say ill avoid vista since i usally like to game and lets face it unles u like fist person shooters u aint gonna game on a mac

I teach in a community college and I have a class that requires the students to give presentations. Some of the students decided to use PowerPoint. We’ve had all kinds of problems with Vista when it comes to displaying PowerPoint. Part of the problem is that of saving the presentation. Vista saves it for Vista alone, apparently. The presentation cannot be used by an other OS. The same goes for a Word document. Word saved in Vista can’t be opened up by any other OS. That makes it difficult for the student and the teacher.

So far, I don’t love it…or hate it.
I just don’t “like” it! I’ve had it since it first came out. I’ve found nothing in it to endear me to it. I run a small computer repair and consulting business, and of course what I say means nothing to anyone except the people I deal with.
I do have a problem with the “spin” around Vista. Of course, it is not much different than any OS since Windows 3.0, and yes, I’ve been around that long!
What does bother me about Vista is that it is very resource-hungry and OEMs and Microsoft are not being honest or helpful when they install and promote Vista. Yes, it will run with 512 Megs of Ram, and it will work with “cheap” integrated graphics, (but maybe not Aero), but is that being explained to buyers…that they “should” upgrade to 2 Gigs of Ram and buy a decent discreet Video card, to get acceptable performance from Vista? I think not, and that is where my problem lies. Let the first time buyer be the one to suffer in all of this, by forcing Vista on everybody and killing XP.
I think, however that in this case Microsoft has probably misjudged the business community’s acceptance of Vista and therein “lies the rub”. Without the major user community onboard, Vista will sputter and die. (Perhaps as early as 2009 according to Steve Balmer who announced MS7 might be released as soon as that.)
I am quite upset with major purveyors of things like “free computer when you sign up for HighSpeed Internet”for a three year contract, as it is with a major Canadian Telco. Giving away a computer that has 512 Megs of ’slow’ memory, a very underpowered processor and tons of add-on malware producing software, from a company who manufactures in China…then puts on Vista Basic as the operating system, just begs of embarassment shortly to come.
Best Buy, Future Shop, Staples, Office Depot and other major retailers are not much better. If you happen to get a “kid associate” who at least knows computers, you will sometimes be given t truthful warning about the basic systems and store brand loss-leaders. People who buy on price alone, wake up and do some research first!

And so, Justin, to fulfil your wish, here is my final comment.
Will I ever love or hate Vista? No, probably not. Will I ever use it as my primary OS? No, not likely.

But, just so you know I did really look at it. “It sure is pretty alright!. “

I purchased a custom-built computer prior to SP-1 and either I downloaded and installed the SP-1 RC-1 (Release Candidate) or it came in on a Microsoft update. Sometime later, around March of this year, a small message appeared on the lower right of the desktop screen: “Evaluation Copy - Build 6001″.

About a month ago, I noticed new Taskbar tray icon which, when clicked, indicated that “—my copy of Windows will expire in XX days and any version of VISTA must be installed.” Each day, I was getting closer to the “D” day!

I assumed this had something to do with my VISTA Business OS software; however, the Control Panel>System indicated that “Windows was activated”. I tried reactivating Windows but the Taskbar messages still persisted and the desktop statement didn’t change or go away.

After 4 hours with a very knowledgeable technician (in India), we determined that I indeed had a genuine copy of VISTA and that the problem was caused by the SP-1 RC-1 that was installed earlier.

After removing the RC-1 version of SP-1 and installing the final release of SP-1, the error message on the desktop disappeared and the Windows expiration warning messages stopped. It was not necessary to reactivate Windows or change the product key.

The lesson to be learned is that Release Candidate software should not be installed and only the final versions should be used. Unfortunately, the error messages did not mention SP-1 and implied that something was wrong with the VISTA OS software itself which turned out to be untrue.

SP-1 is a huge file that changes many VISTA files which affects the entire OS and the RC-1 version apparently caused generation of messages indicating that Windows was about to expire even though I have a genuine copy which successfully activated upon installation. This problem was fixed in the final version of SP-1.

I must say, however, that I’m not having any other problems with VISTA so far and I’m not about to revert to XP. I’m not using any of the “fancy” visual effects capable with VISTA, however.

With one hour of tweaking and tuning Vista runs almost as well as XP. Since it is only at service pack 1 that is pretty good. It took two service packs to get XP correct. As far a security, there is no such thing, if you use the Internet, some miscreant is going to find a way to hurt your machine.

I built my new system with Vista Ultimate Home and have no problems. I love it. It looks good. It works with all my equipment. I find it alot more secure and speedy. If you leave all the UAC stuff on, it helps keep bad things from happening when inexperienced people use your computer, although it can be annoying to the average user.

Does anyone read these comments? Probably not, as everyone has their own opinions and I bet not one comment here will change a single mind…

I’m more middle of the road than most on Vista. I’ve used it and it worked fine. I didn’t like it much, but that was because it was strange to me. I’m used to XP’s way of working, so the changes niggled me. That of course would go away in time as I became more used to it.

The computer was not mine, so when it came time for giving it back, I found I had no regrets. The main reasons are:

1) it’s enormous requirements on computing power, just to leave as much left for the user as XP. Of course the same was true of XP over W95 and 3.1 or even DOS before that, but that is not the point - In this case, all that computing power and so electrical power is wasted in protecting rights over HD media. I don’t play it and so object to it automatically assuming I’m a pirate. The ability to play HD (and so checking) must be able to be turned off for it to be accepted in the workplace. Looks like they couldn’t find a secure way of disabling it, so we are all lumbered with content management.

2) Following on from (1), I obect to paying a lot of money for a computer and OS that will only perform at a similar speed to what I already have. I will wait until the hardware has sped up sufficiently to be able to cope with Vista’s extra requirements and give an advance over what I already have.

3) UAC, it’s a pain, but it was apparently done on purpose to get users to pressure the software writers into writing prograams more securely. Fine, a good idea perhaps, but I run a lot of legacy programs. They have not been updated as they have been discontinued, but are still necessary for my hobbies.

4) Following on from (3), lack of drivers (incompatability) with Vista for my legacy peripherals. Again they are no longer available, so upgrading now will be a problem, hopefully new products that do the same things will become available in time.

5) I’ve been “turned off” Vista by some of the more outragous claims made for it. Claims like it is greener as it uses less electricity. I’ve not run any tests, so do not know how true that claim is personally - But the comments that followed on many websites afterwards that rubbished the claims made me feel the claims are over-inflated (whether they are or not) it left me feeling the marketing is comming on too strong - As in if anything is being marketed so hard, then it cannot be any good.