Windows Vista

King_Furby · May 29, 2007, 07:41:16 AM

Anyone here got Windows Vista?

Dispite my hate toward the OS i was wondering if anyone could take some screenshots of the interface and some of it's icons. Like i want to see the difference between the look of windows XP and Vista. Mostly i want to see how the icons look.

Why do i hate vista? well cause i can't get Halo 2 PC because of it, it's a vista only program

PurpleBlasphemy · May 30, 2007, 11:31:07 PM

I would like to pose a question in this topic too.

Does anybody like Vista? I mean, of course there are people using Vista, but are any of you serious computer users who have found Vista not distasteful? Everyone I ask who knows the faintest about computers sees the operating system itself as, essentially, malware. And yet I have not seen any converts to OS X or Ubuntu, except by those who just used Windows XP because it had all the good games and have sworn that it's the last Windows system they buy unless Vista happens to be just a downswing, like ME.

schnookums · May 31, 2007, 12:03:57 AM

Hmm...well, my experience with Vista was as a beta tester (avoiding the joke that everyone who uses microsoft stuff are beta testers) and...well, once I finally figured out how to set it up how I liked it I didn't have any real problems with it. I only reloaded XP 'cause Vista wouldn't run my Japanese pr0n games. As an aside, I couldn't stand Ubuntu, so take what you will from that.

Vekseid · May 31, 2007, 12:18:38 AM

I wouldn't go so far as calling Vista the ME of the NT line. Many people are rather 'meh' over it and, well, so am I.

There is the matter of its rather insane system requirements. That works out to a lot of computer power that could be doing useful things, like playing my japanese pron games...

As for Halo 2 being Vista only...

It can to run on XP

Far eyes · May 31, 2007, 01:17:58 AM

Installing Vista is like using led shoes, you can do it but there is really no point to is.

I would like to point out what Bill Gates can do with a Donkey cock but I believe that falls under forum rules :o

TheAlchemist · May 31, 2007, 06:38:25 AM

I haven't used Vista properly yet, but we did install it on one of the stations here at work, just to see how our product fares on it and how bad it will be if/when we need to make the port from XP.

It fared badly, it looks pretty darn bad, and I hope we never have to do it. Just seeing the PC use a steady 500M of virtual memory on idle mode after a fresh install and with nothing running made my skin crawl.

King_Furby · May 31, 2007, 09:21:50 AM

I have not heard one good thing about windows vista.

TheWolf · May 31, 2007, 10:32:01 AM

Windows Vista...

Having just purchased a new computer and being forced to be on Vista because of it (at least until I decide to do something myself) I have to say that I am not impressed at all...

Computer is a 2.4 GHz AMD 64, originally with 2Gb of memory...

It ran like syrup in winter, it was so slow as to be a pain in the butt, at start time all I had available to me was a little over 0.5Gb of memory as the OS took so much... I am a serious user, and work with computers all day as a WebDev, and Vista sucks big time from being a resource hog... And this is just Vista Home Basic, I hear the Business and Pro versions are even more hungry for memory...

I upgraded to 4Gb memory, and it runs a little better, leaving me with somewhere in the region of 2.5Gb of usable memory...

It's reasonably pretty to look at, and has a few fun things... But if you're a serious user, these don't make up for the fact it's not a good OS... No, I wouldn't go so far as to say it's the new Win ME, but it's close...

I work with XP Pro all day for work and find it to be a much better, more stable, and less resource hungry OS... As soon as I can, I'm changing out OS...

TheWolf

ZK · May 31, 2007, 11:11:57 AM

In honesty, when it comes to OS's. You need to wait at least a year to two years for them to release their service pack before purchasing. Never, when it comes to such sensitive programing do you purchase it outright.

Just my opinion.

TheWolf · May 31, 2007, 12:58:23 PM

Quote from: Z.K. on May 31, 2007, 11:11:57 AM
In honesty, when it comes to OS's. You need to wait at least a year to two years for them to release their service pack before purchasing. Never, when it comes to such sensitive programing do you purchase it outright.

Just my opinion.

And a valid one at that, I would normally not have upgraded, but my computer died and I needed one real quick, and all I could find was Vista...

I would have waited until it had been 'tested' fully by users, but didn't have much of a choice...

In short, I'd stay away from Vista for a while until they have the bugs (and resource issues) worked out... WinXP Pro is a much better choice in my opinion...

King_Furby · May 31, 2007, 04:45:26 PM

I just say vista is stupid, you need good specs to even run it.

My computer is a Dell Dimension 4700 and i can't even run vista. I don't want it but still. I know my computer is not the best thing on the block but it's good for what i use it for. I just wonder why they made vista need such high specs? well money of course and to try and screw everyone over.

TheWolf · May 31, 2007, 05:03:41 PM

Quote from: King_Furby on May 31, 2007, 04:45:26 PM
well money of course and to try and screw everyone over.

Now, now, MicroShaft (with their best selling product WinBlows) would never do anything like that...

*ahem...*

King_Furby · June 02, 2007, 12:01:13 PM

Sad thing is they don't care at all. they will shaft humanity till the giant lobsters come from the sea to rule us.

ZK · June 02, 2007, 12:34:06 PM

Well, then again, tell me what company still exists that isn't hungry for money that isn't corrupt? Major conglomerates are, as usual. From Microsoft, Sony and GameStop Inc to name a few.

King_Furby · June 02, 2007, 01:45:24 PM

well yea. It just gets me cause i alot of new software is built just to run on Vista..cough Halo 2 PC.

Vekseid · June 03, 2007, 03:49:02 AM

Quote from: King_Furby on June 02, 2007, 01:45:24 PM
well yea. It just gets me cause i alot of new software is built just to run on Vista..cough Halo 2 PC.

...did you miss my post?

And yeah, several companies have it as a matter of policy not to use pre-SP1 Microsoft software.

Lovelynice · June 03, 2007, 04:51:37 AM

Quote from: PurpleBlasphemy on May 30, 2007, 11:31:07 PM
And yet I have not seen any converts to OS X or Ubuntu, ...

I'm an Ubuntu Linux user. Used to only use Windows, but never again. Ubuntu is way more reliable and incredibly secure. It's easy to personalise as well

King_Furby · June 03, 2007, 04:55:19 PM

Quote from: Vekseid on June 03, 2007, 03:49:02 AM
...did you miss my post?

And yeah, several companies have it as a matter of policy not to use pre-SP1 Microsoft software.

no i did not miss it, but i view what they are doing as an illegal act. I don't reconise them as they are trying to scam people are by reading their website to me it's sounds like they do not have rights to release that. H2 PC was built to be vista only, so falling leaf is going against that. I don't think their software will work, they are dishonest people. They are running this scam so people will be under the false impression and buy h2 from them

Lilac · June 03, 2007, 05:41:56 PM

Quote from: King_Furby on June 03, 2007, 04:55:19 PM
no i did not miss it, but i view what they are doing as an illegal act. I don't reconise them as they are trying to scam people are by reading their website to me it's sounds like they do not have rights to release that. H2 PC was built to be vista only, so falling leaf is going against that. I don't think their software will work, they are dishonest people. They are running this scam so people will be under the false impression and buy h2 from them

It's built on DirectX 10, which is what is "Vista only".

To explain, when a large application loads, it also calls a number of general libraries (called .dlls in Windows, but there are others like old-time .obj files in DOS and of course the various standard libraries *nix uses), that provide a set of standard functions so that multiple applications can use them. DirectX and OpenGL are two such libraries specializing in supplying common graphics functions.

Reverse engineering is specifically legal - what do you think the WINE project is?. So, if you wanted to, you could analyze the DirectX 10 files libraries, which are a standard, free API with publicly available documentation, construct any new .dlls yourself and update old ones where needed. This is actually very common - most of the instability in Windows (prior to 2K at least) - a lot of companies would create their own 'fixes' to problems in windows dlls, or add their own functions, or whatnot.

Thus the "Alky compatibility library" on the site Vek linked to - you can download the preview builds now, even.

King_Furby · June 03, 2007, 06:38:28 PM

Well it's vista only for several reasons , something to do with windows live as well. but there are other factors.

It's just reading the site of falling leaf, makes them seem very suspecious..i can't and won't trust them.

ZK · June 03, 2007, 10:30:46 PM

From what I read [and on the box of the Halo 2 PC game] you also need an X-Box Live Gold Account to play online. Meaning? Yes, now for all Windows Vista only games made by Microsoft, apparently you have to PAY to play them on the PC!

King_Furby · June 03, 2007, 11:01:23 PM

Quote from: Z.K. on June 03, 2007, 10:30:46 PM
From what I read [and on the box of the Halo 2 PC game] you also need an X-Box Live Gold Account to play online. Meaning? Yes, now for all Windows Vista only games made by Microsoft, apparently you have to PAY to play them on the PC!

You need Windows Live, not xbox live though i guess the two are almost the exact same thing. But there is going to be a free silver account for h2pc though you only get some features like match making with a gold account. There is alot of assorted info, some places are saying different things.

what happened to the good days of free full acess live PC gaming. Microsoft is runing PC gaming.

NightBird · June 03, 2007, 11:24:18 PM

There are a lot of things worth blaming Microsoft for, but I kind of think the success of EverQuest and a number of its successors had a lot to do with the prevalence of charging fees for interactive PC gaming.

King_Furby · June 03, 2007, 11:30:51 PM

some online games are pretty expensive in my mind.

Like i loved planetside but could not affort over $20 bucks per mouth for it.

one MMO that was actually good yet cheap was Ragnaroc online (however ya spell it). It was like $12 a mouth. i played it for a while and enjoyed it.

Vekseid · June 03, 2007, 11:33:47 PM

Quote from: NightBird on June 03, 2007, 11:24:18 PM
There are a lot of things worth blaming Microsoft for, but I kind of think the success of EverQuest and a number of its successors had a lot to do with the prevalence of charging fees for interactive PC gaming.

Or Ultima Online before them?

Actually I was more surprised that battle.net was free.

As far as Microsoft and/or EA ruining gaming... I just don't spend money on their entertainment products, period. There's so much to try and not enough time to try it all, cutting out a couple of publishers is no big deal.

Hunter · July 27, 2007, 08:38:51 PM

We do have a Vista (Business) machine in the office but it's primary for programing our propriety software on. Vista is, in my experience (and I have way more than I like): slow (i've seen it hang up just opening Word), clubsy (yes I do mean clubsy, try installing something), irritating (just about anything you try to do requires "permission"), and generally just a pain the behind to work with.

Just as a note, I have a Vista machine, an XP Pro machine (my primary), and an Ubuntu machine at my cubicle.

Hunter · September 02, 2007, 03:15:08 PM

Just as a note, both Dell and HP offer XP systems in the Home/Home Office section.

I don't see XP going away anytime soon. Too many IT departments are either refusing to change or are going over to Linux.

Nell · September 29, 2007, 03:48:18 PM

I have vista on the laptop I'm using right now and here's what I conclude from it: While it is fairly useful to have Vista on any new computer, there would be no point updating to vista on a computer that has XP.

Advantages of Vista:
-A much better all around media oriented OS that makes it more comparable to the Mac while still retaining that Windows looking skin.
-The fact that you can add Memory to the computer just by plugging in a flash drive is pretty awesome
-The security system is much better than that of XP; it has all its own spyware protection and everything, all you have to do it download a free complementary virus protection like AVG.
-Simply having the few new features on Office, although the look is a little hard to get used to at first (**Side Note: Documents to NOT have to be saved in the docx format as there is a compatibility mode that they can be saved in. People need to quit complaining about that.)

Disadvantages:
-Applications take up much more computer memory than is necessary. However, this shouldn't be a problem at all if you get Vista with a new computer.
-Security is still not quite as good as the Mac

Hunter · September 29, 2007, 07:58:36 PM

That's probably because the GUI for Vista was rather blantantly ripped off from Solaris 10. ::)

And not so incidently, M$ just announced (yesterday) that they plan on extending sales for XP to June rather then ending them in April.

King_Furby · September 30, 2007, 12:27:31 PM

Quote from: Hunter on September 02, 2007, 03:15:08 PM
Just as a note, both Dell and HP offer XP systems in the Home/Home Office section.

I don't see XP going away anytime soon. Too many IT departments are either refusing to change or are going over to Linux.

xp is pretty much at it's end of life now though. by 2008 no new computer will carry xp.

Hunter · September 30, 2007, 12:57:54 PM

Quote from: King_Furby on September 30, 2007, 12:27:31 PM
xp is pretty much at it's end of life now though. by 2008 no new computer will carry xp.

I won't disagree. But many companies are seriously looking elsewhere for their computer needs.

Nell · September 30, 2007, 01:06:12 PM

Quote from: Hunter on September 30, 2007, 12:57:54 PM
I won't disagree. But many companies are seriously looking elsewhere for their computer needs.

I really doubt many if any are going to end up doing it though. Switching over to something like the Mac or Linux from Windows would be fairly inefficient for the general populace of computer desk workers just because it would be hard to get used to.

King_Furby · September 30, 2007, 01:09:24 PM

windows is still going to be the main system used for most business needs.

Hunter · September 30, 2007, 01:32:31 PM

Quote from: xcloud90x on September 30, 2007, 01:06:12 PM
I really doubt many if any are going to end up doing it though. Switching over to something like the Mac or Linux from Windows would be fairly inefficient for the general populace of computer desk workers just because it would be hard to get used to.

And have you looked at a Mac or Linux interface lately? The Vista interface is a blantant ripoff of Solaris 10, which I've already stated. Most users, in my experience, when switching from a M$ environment find virtually no change in their productivity after a short (less than an hour) of familiarization. The "average" user rarely strays outside of their email, word processing tools (spreadsheets, etc), and their web browser. And those don't change very much from one OS to another.

Nell · September 30, 2007, 01:45:27 PM

Quote from: Hunter on September 30, 2007, 01:32:31 PM
And have you looked at a Mac or Linux interface lately? The Vista interface is a blantant ripoff of Solaris 10, which I've already stated. Most users, in my experience, when switching from a M$ environment find virtually no change in their productivity after a short (less than an hour) of familiarization. The "average" user rarely strays outside of their email, word processing tools (spreadsheets, etc), and their web browser. And those don't change very much from one OS to another.

Well I suppose that a different OS could be gotten used to, but gradually changing your systems over in a company, especially a large one, can be a fairly large expenditure and cost a great amount of effort. And to furthermore do it all in one go would be a huge feat.

Hunter · September 30, 2007, 02:03:43 PM

Quote from: xcloud90x on September 30, 2007, 01:45:27 PM
Well I suppose that a different OS could be gotten used to, but gradually changing your systems over in a company, especially a large one, can be a fairly large expenditure and cost a great amount of effort. And to furthermore do it all in one go would be a huge feat.

Exactly. Approximately 30% of IT departments say that they have no plans of switching over to Vista. Some of said companies are in the fortune 500.

Nell · September 30, 2007, 02:21:18 PM

Quote from: Hunter on September 30, 2007, 02:03:43 PM
Exactly. Approximately 30% of IT departments say that they have no plans of switching over to Vista. Some of said companies are in the fortune 500.

Ah I thought you meant they would soon switch over to Linux or Mac. I am going to agree with you that upgrading their old systems to Vista would be a waste. I'd say if they already had XP, there'd be no point changing. But as for the future, they might have to get Vista on their new systems because it really would be a hassle converting all the old document file types and everything. Perhaps some would be willing to make the change...if we're dealing with fortune 500 companies, it might just become a bidding war over who can cut the better deal for their software/hardware.

Hunter · September 30, 2007, 02:29:49 PM

Some of them are. One major automobile manufacturer recently deployed 20,000 workstations (the company has approximately 60,000 total) loaded with a Linux operating system. I'd imagine that the cost savings ran around half a million to three quarters of a million dollars there.

Not pocket change.

Personally, I will not switch to Vista. I have two computers at home. One uses Linux (Ubuntu) and the other uses XP Home. I only need the XP machine to get my schoolwork done, otherwise, I wouldn't even have it.

King_Furby · September 30, 2007, 07:16:01 PM

I don't really want to get vista but i will be. I am mostly just mad about what they did with Halo 2.

i would rather just stick with something i am familar with.

Hunter · September 30, 2007, 07:38:29 PM

Well, XP is likely going to be available until June of next year. And I wouldn't be surprised if it was available later than that.

Nell · September 30, 2007, 07:41:04 PM

How come you're still hooked on XP for Halo 2 when Halo 3 is out? I myself haven't played it yet so I don't know too much about it.

Simon · October 01, 2007, 12:09:19 AM

In my experience I don't think Vista is more slower than I thought XP was when it came out, other than that I like it.

Keiro · October 02, 2007, 05:01:26 PM

I have Vista.

Vista Home Premium, to be exact.

It runs just fine on my 1.2 Ghz dual-core Pentium 4 laptop. 1 Gig of memory, 120 GB hard drive, wireless g card, etc.

I am surprised that it's running fine. Though, there were some XP programs that screwed up IE. It boots far faster than XP does, and I must say that the shutdown process has slowed down. I will be investigating the reason for the slowness in shutting down.

However, I must say that since I tinker with XP often, and now only begun to tinker with Vista, that I've not had many problems...save for my damned portable USB hard drive, which for some reason, cannot get the driver.

Vista says it's a compatibility problem with Texas Instruments flash media device....I have no idea what it is.

I suspect that if I were to install XP on it, it'd run like crazy.

Elder · October 03, 2007, 01:54:18 AM

My experience of Vista splits into two categories, on a machine that it is installed on it works well, a little slower than XP on an identical machine but when you install it on an existing machine it is a nightmare. Driver incompatibility is one of the worst problems I have a pretty standard Nvidia graphics card, a 512Mb 7900GS but the drivers that ship with Vista corrupt if they try and run a DirectX application and the new ones downloaded from the Nvidia site were not even recognised as driving a 3d card. The Audigy 2 sound card drivers are severely cut down. I could go on there are no drivers at all for my old Adaptec SCSI card at all. As it stands I have a 150Gb drive that has Vista installed, I swap over to it now and again, get pissed off with things not working and go back to XP again.

Elder

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