Anyone running Vista?

[Spin This!]

My roommates have a 360 so we tried installing Vista on my box so we could see how MCE works. Honestly it's not as bad as some critics claim but definitely not my cup of tea, compared to XP.

I really tried to like it but there's a lot of weird changes in it that Microsoft seemily just changed for the sake of change. And the "advanced" effects in the Aero theme you just end up just turning off after awhile. Senseless eye candy doesn't get any work done... Mac OS X is much better in this respect.

Thoughts?

 

[jpmihalk]

I am running it on my HP laptop at home and on my tc4400 HP Tablet at work. So far, so good...

 

[joe]

Nope, running XP Pro on our test system until we hear enough folks are running Vista to install another tester. Sounds like that might be a while.

 

[chris]

I'm a die hard Mac user, but recently purchased a PC w/ Vista for a program I needed to run. (Tried to use Virtual PC, but it was a complete dog on my G5). First off, I had to upgrade my memory, graphics card and Vista version in order to get all the supposed "cool" features. I do like the overall look of the OS as it is very Mac reminiscent. The "gadgets" are not as functional as Widgets. For example, I can click on weather and get a five day forecast on the web. I've also had a few incidents where it would go to sleep and never wake up. Earlier this week, it booted up and said, "Something was installed and Windows Vista cannot startup, please select Startup Repair". So, I figure ok Startup Repair will take care of this. It runs it's course and says, "Try starting up Windows Vista, Startup Repair attempted to fix the problem. If it did, Windows Vista will startup. If not, you will be prompted to use Startup Repair."

Now, that's not word for word, but you get the idea. My take is, "something is messed up and we don't know if we can fix". Funny thing is, I didn't install anything. Microsoft on the other hand is installing updates regularly. Seems to be quite a few fixes happening.

I've had the box for 2 weeks or so and it's already got problems that I've never experienced on my Mac. If this were my daily driver, I'd really be up a creak.

Do I like Vista? Yes, but it's safe to say that XP is more stable platform. Will it make me forget about my Mac. Definitely not. Half of the new features have been standard on the Mac for quite some time. Widgets, Spotlight to mention a few.

-Chris

 

[wot_fan]

Thanks for the info Chris. It is good to hear a Mac users opinion of Vista. I do have one question for you though. In your opinion, are there any feature in Vista that are not on a Mac or work better than the Mac equivalent?

 

[chris]

Thanks for the info Chris. It is good to hear a Mac users opinion of Vista. I do have one question for you though. In your opinion, are there any feature in Vista that are not on a Mac or work better than the Mac equivalent?

I'm admittedly biased and to be honest I haven't worked on it enough to find anything. As I use it more, I'll share my findings.

Here's on thing that bugged me. They ship the computer without an OS CD/DVD. So if you want to do a clean install of the OS, you're out of luck. You need to call or email them to get a copy. Even that transaction wasn't so easy. I exchanged a few emails with DELL support until they finally understood. Not like I was asking to do 3d modeling. I even filled out a form on DELL's site that is there for this exact request. When they finally understood, they said I would be receiving my Windows XP CD in the next few days. I shook my head and politely asked for Windows Vista. Oh that wonderful DELL technical support. BTW, I did finally receive it and considering a clean install to get rid of all of the trial software. Yes, the commercials are true.

-Chris

 

[joe]

I hear the networking is better in Vista than on a Mac.

 

[archer6]

As a software engineer that does a lot of cross platform work, I've been working extensively with OS X, Linux, Unix, and Windows in their various forms, for years.

Most specifically (to the Vista question) I've been working with Vista since the first beta and now with the "over the counter" released product.

Respecting my multiple NDA's on all fronts I will share this general info.

Disclaimer: I must state that I've always been pro-mac. However that said I focus on being as neutral as possible. I find the positives in all platforms and build around that.

Compromise: While I'm stating the obvious, nonetheless I must say that as everyone knows, every single product, which in this case is operating systems, always involve compromises. It's a matter of balance. It's a matter of packing in as many features as possible while facing the overwhelming challenge of trying to satisfy a huge group of people all of whom have a wide range of preferences. No one OS can be everything to everyone, hence the huge challenge and every growing list of compromises.

So, for sake of comparison, I will categorize users into the two most common groups and sub groups.

1) * Consumers *
a) General broad usage
b) Gamers
2) * Business Users *
a) Large Scale Enterprise
b) Small to Medium Businesses

Now lets' reduce this down to consumers as individually that's how we use our personal machines.

I give the nod to OS X.

Eventually (approx 1 yr) Vista will be more stable, refined, improved, with added features. At that point it may be a closer competitor to OS X. Notice I said "May". At this point it's simply crazy to predict ahead that far. However it does seem to be going in that direction at a fairly steady pace. And then again, so is OS X, thereforee it's anyones guess.

Presently other than some networking advantages that Vista has, on a general level I would much rather use OS X.

 

[joe]

I give the nod to OS X.

Eventually (approx 1 yr) Vista will be more stable, refined, improved, with added features. At that point it may be a closer competitor to OS X. Notice I said "May". At this point it's simply crazy to predict ahead that far. However it does seem to be going in that direction at a fairly steady pace. And then again, so is OS X, thereforee it's anyones guess.

Presently other than some networking advantages that Vista has, on a general level I would much rather use OS X.

Good to hear! Tiger (out for 2y now) is already ahead of Vista. Now in a year's time Leopard will have been out for a while and Vista will just be becoming stable/useable.

 

[Spin This!]

I hear the networking is better in Vista than on a Mac.

Funny you should mention that. Compared to my Macs (and to a lesser extent XP), Vista kept dropping the connection. I want to chalk it up to beta network drivers but as a Mac fanboy I'll just say Vista. Those little "repair" things are somewhat helpful but it seems like it takes forever to "repair" the connection (at least compared to XP). Mac OS X is way better in this respect.

After using Tiger's widgets since its inception, Vista's Gadgets just look like knockoffs. Apple's Expose feature to bring them in and out can't be beat. (If you need them to stay on the deskop, developer mode can be handy.)

Honestly I'm biased as well... been Mac user since the LCIII.

In your opinion, are there any feature in Vista that are not on a Mac or work better than the Mac equivalent?

I really can't think of anything... everything's so different. The Window switcher where it stacks your Windows (a la Exposé) is an improvement from XP but I wouldn't say it's better than Mac OS X's Exposé.

Honestly, my time is limited to a couple days using it but I can tell you it felt like a real cheap knock off Mac OS X. After Vista kept freezing, I went back to XP and everything was OK. I really only use my Windows box for recording TV shows off the air, among other things.

 

[ebrunn]

I "acquired" a version of Vista to try it out, long story short, hated it, went back to XP