Windows Vista?

baccaman21

Just wondering if anyone uses Vista and what their experiences of it are?

I've not strayed onto the Vista Path yet as I've been reticent to get involved in (yet another) windows User interface update...

Big question I need to know, as I've just been forced into updgrading to Vista (on my other PC) - is whether is has options to not use it's new interface? WIth XP I've always reverted it back to CLASSIC windows operation as I can't stand the so called 'improvements' to the interface...

I've only had a cursory glance at Vista in operation in singapore ealier this year and it sent shivers up my spine... all nicey nicey graphicy graphicy nonsense... Bring back DOS that's what I say...

anyway... enough ranting.

All I need to know is whether it is possible or not to not subscribe to the new interface and whether it does have built in reverse compatibility (in terms of interface)

thanks

Big n Daft

I think you can kill the aero stuff,

This will get rid of a lot of the bells and whistles which do nothing except eat memory and make people go "ooooooooooo" for a day or two.

As for backdating the interface, not 100% sure but I seem to remember reading somewhere that it is written ground up in a whole different way, hence the problems they've had making lots of XP soft and hard ware work with it.

BTW, I don't use it and probably won't until I actually have to (as in when they stop supporting XP)

Hope this helps.

Mog Uk

Been using Vista for a few months now, providing you have all the latest Vista drivers it's nice and stable...

There is an option in display properties to revert to Windows Classic and disable all the Vista 'Bells & Whistles'.....

Big n Daft

Heh heh,

That'll teach me to talk about things i have no feckin idea about!

Cheers for that.

baccaman21

(Phew)
Cheers Mog, BnD

Hopefully all my Adobe Software (pshop, illustrator, indesign, etc) will still work on it?!?

If not my Short term Freelance career is up in smoke... eek.

:S

The Big Cheese

baccaman21 wrote:

(Phew)

Hopefully all my Adobe Software (pshop, illustrator, indesign, etc) will still work on it?!?

Nice to see a fellow designer!!!

I too use XP and the firm have decided that they are not moving platforms just yet - XP is solid and reliable but they said that about '98, 2000 as well. I think it's still in its early stages but what's good for one thing (ie the home user) is not so good for the office/networks etc...

Mog Uk

Cheesey wrote:

but what's good for one thing (ie the home user) is not so good for the office/networks etc...

Agreed, Vista works great for me at home, Photoshop CS2, Dreamweaver etc etc, however there is no way we could use it in the office, it just doesn't work with some of the apps we use....

dirtbiker100

I rarely hear any good things about vista these days, the latest was:
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1 ... X1K0000532

baccaman21

eek... that don't bode too well. :S

brasso

I've been using vista ultimate for quite a while. Its ok but some of the security controls are a pain in the arse. Pretty stable with latest drivers after a few opeing issues. No better than XP tho until latet direct x support in apps/ games

Red Panda

I have Photoshop CS3 running fine on Vista and I like it's stability (The OS that is). I believe there's a service pack coming out for Vista in the not too distant (early 2008) so I 'hope' many of minor glitches will be ironed out.

I set up a dual boot machine so that I could try Vista alongside my fav, XP. I'm still happy with XP and find I don't boot to Vista that much. Mind you Vista's bells and whistles are impressive and I particularly like the speed of the indexed search function.

Anonymous

I've actually used Vista as a problem solver in my alter ego as head of IT.

We had an ancient computer, which died when the hard disk crashed. Couldn't recover anything from the disk.
Anyway, the machine was pretty damned old, and we had no idea what the motherboard, graphics chip, sound chip, LAN, etc etc were.
Tried installing XP, couldn't really do anything without the drivers. So I though, frick it, I'll give vista a go.
Worked like a charm, installed, found network, went online, downloaded all neccesarry drivers. Runs sweet as a nut.

This was on an ancient (duron 1100) machine with onboard everything - so no aero, obviously (needs directX9 card for that).
And I have to say, Vista seems to run better on it than XP ever did.

deanvw

yh. you can revert to windows classic thats what ive done..ive also got retro theming!!!

Neil2oo7

You can download themes off the internet to suit your preferences if that helps.. COuld make it look as new-fangled as possible or as old school as you'd like it to be.

redddraggon

I love vista, I have no problems with it, I do have 4GB of RAM though.

No problems even with the 64bit version

jacktheoc

ive been using it for about 5month and i think its excellent and looks great on the computer with the news updates, pics and the big clock on the welcome page!

jayson

Bin using Vista home Ultimate 64 edition since feb and i have to say its ok, abit form over function but nonetheless it seems stable.

I had a world of hassle whan i first installed it, BSD's every 5 mins or so and other random restarts but it turned out i had a faulty stick of RAM and after i replaced that its sweet as a nut.

There's alot've comments regarding device drivers but it seems those are mostly Nvidia cards, i use an ATI card and the drivers work perfectly for me, i dont do pc gaming though so i cant fully comment on the 3d side of things.

My sound card (creative XFi) works ok but the drivers are still not up to XP level of functionality, i get no bass or treble controls etc but that can be fixed with the equalizers in ur chosen media player.

In short, its good if ur buyin a new pc with it pre-installed but i wouldn't say its a must have if ur pc is stable and running XP, it doesn't really offer anything massively different its just got a nice new suit.

Jimbob_no5

i find vista really good, better quality programmes eg word etc

Gingersaurus

Had Ultimate for a while, didn't like it and went back to XP. Too many compatibility issues.

BoredHousewife

Have tried vista and gone back to xp because vista slowed my computer down more than I liked (3ghz p4, 1gig ram e.t.c). If you need to use stuff on xp then maybe dual boot is the way to go.......

redddraggon

kona_cowan_rider wrote:

i find vista really good, better quality programmes eg word etc

The new word works on XP aswell.

Youngfox

Anyone tried Ubuntu the free linux which some Dells are using ?

Big Red S

Yeah, used Ubuntu for a while on my desktop. Personally, I think that Kubuntu (Ubuntu with KDE) is more windows-user-friendly, but that's another religious war....

jayson

Youngfox wrote:

Anyone tried Ubuntu the free linux which some Dells are using ?

Ive got a dual boot system with Vista and Redhat Linux, never tried Ubuntu yet.

redddraggon

Youngfox wrote:

Anyone tried Ubuntu the free linux which some Dells are using ?

I used it for about a week on my laptop. Used plenty of other distributions of linux, and never really rated linux and always prefered the current windows.

BoredHousewife

Ubuntu is good but as BRS said Kubuntu is a bit more windows user friendly, I would use it but it can't figure out my wireless and I've lost patience. TBH linux is a labour of love, labour being the operative word. I've tried it a few times and love the idea of it but in reality its still not good enough for me to ditch windows full time, and I never pay for windows anyway . :oops:

Shadowduck

Youngfox wrote:

Anyone tried Ubuntu the free linux which some Dells are using ?

I've been on Linux the last few years and Ubuntu about the last 18 months - goes without saying I like it! You can always download and run the Live CD without installing if you want to try it and check compatibility, it runs a lot slower from CD but it'll give you an idea.

For anyone baffled by the comments about Ubuntu / Kubuntu, the difference is that Ubuntu uses the Gnome user interface while Kubuntu uses the KDE user interface - the underlying OS is the same. KDE is perhaps a more familiar environment for those converting from Windows (I used it when I first switched), but Gnome has a nice minimalist feel without so many unnecessary options and settings.

Shadowduck

BoredHousewife wrote:

*snip* ... can't figure out my wireless and I've lost patience ... *snip*

Don't know how long ago you last tried, but wireless setup was simplified a lot in the 7.04 "Feisty Fawn" release (April this year). The 7.10 "Gutsy Gibbon" release is due sometime in the next few weeks, so may be worth you trying that if you still love the idea.

BoredHousewife

Shadowduck wrote:

Don't know how long ago you last tried, but wireless setup was simplified a lot in the 7.04 "Feisty Fawn" release (April this year). The 7.10 "Gutsy Gibbon" release is due sometime in the next few weeks, so may be worth you trying that if you still love the idea.

It was feisty fawn I tried, just couldn't get it to work and gave up. Do keep it on vmware to tinker about though

BoredHousewife

just had a look and the beta of 7.10 is available so I've started downloading now, will post how I get on

Shadowduck

BoredHousewife wrote:

just had a look and the beta of 7.10 is available so I've started downloading now, will post how I get on

You're braver than me, I usually avoid betas! I know my way round the OS reasonably well-ish* so I can try to help if you need it.

*I've set up eight Linux boxes now, for people who were a bit cheesed off with Microsoft and tried my Ubuntu setup. Most of them just worked so I haven't done too much troubleshooting...