Home Premium was Dell's express upgrade to Vista from XP Media Center.

According to the Vista site, Home Premium has just about everything save a few security features which the lack of shouldn't bother me anymore than it does now.

Product Versions:

http://winsupersite.com/reviews/winvista_02.asp

I wouldn't exactly call Paul Thurott an unbiased reporter when it comes to microsoft products, but not everything in Vista is doom and gloom.

Hmmm glad I saw that.

I think I'll get Home: Premium.

Well yea I assume hes slightly biased, bu this reviews seem fair.

True, but he's been one of the most outspoken about some of the flaws in Vista. The UI inconsistencies for one. Seeing as how he's the largest Microsoft pundit on the internet, Microsoft listens to him a little more than say, all the people of Slashdot combined. They know he's not just being a stupid MS basher.

Business for me, except it's randomly missing a few things like Windows Movie Maker that I actually use (and Home Premium is missing some other things in Business like IIS, image backup ... grr)

Blah I miss Win2KPro

That's what Ultimate is for, Pommy. Too bad it's expensive. Although OEM is cheap.

well I messed around with RC1 during christmas and quite liked it, sound was screwy as I have a SB card but I expect that to be sorted by the time I come to upgrade which won't be for at least 4 to 5 months when I build a totally new comp.

Till then I'm keeping myself busy learning how to use OSX as I recently got a macbook pro for work (have to interface a lot with linux and can't be arsed to setup linux on a laptop), the damn thing runs like lighting and runs games better than my desktop...well, WoW at least, haven't tried anything else yet.

Might get round to trying bootcamp out on it in a few months, will wait and see how vista fairs on other macs before I try it on mine. btw, with an educational discount the mac was very well priced compared to other laptops from say HP, Dell, etc...and when they cost the same, the mac wins on looks hands down.

They look nice, but do they come in anything but trendwhore white these days?

Black for a macbook, and shiny metal for pros foo

Is it still brushed aluminum? I have never understood Apple's obsession with that.

No offense, Bri, I've always respected you (well not when I was 13) but I don't think you'll ever have credibility in a microsoft-related discussion. We all know very well your stance on microsoft.

(unless you've cooled down the anti-fanboism over the years)

XP loaded fast as hell once I unchecked "show desktop icons."

Either that or they're still using a really thin skin of titanium. I think it is aluminium though. I can confirm that it is pretty though.

*Hugs Powerbook G4*

Wait, so you're saying that microsoft just artificially increases system requirements even though the operating system doesn't need the extra processing capability?

I think you misread my post, because I have absolutely no problem with newer software requiring newer hardware to run. What I do have a problem with is when companies lie and try to say their newer software is faster. When it really isn't.

Right, so instead of commenting on the content of my post, which actually doesn't bash vista, but a marketing practice used to push vista on people, you're going to attack my credibility? bwhahahaha

Speed isn't just a technical spec, it's a usability thing too. In newer versions of windows you can most definitely get the same things done faster, the operating system is taking advantage of the extra processing power which previous versions haven't been doing.

The newest version of Office is bigger, takes far more resources and has far more features (most of which you'll never use), but the user experience is also far faster than what you'd get if you just installed an old version on your new super-fast machine.

Whats there to reply? Its looking like you're spewing the stuff without thinking!

Still, I'll take a stab at it.

WinXP did have better performance than its counterparts if you take into account stability, or if you install the said counterpart on the same up-to-date PC. New versions will make use of the new hardware capabilities and features so as a result, the OS will be built in order to function with those.

The reason Vista will have higher reqs is because it will run faster on today(or perhaps more tommorow's)'s hardware. You simply cannot deny that. Older components may not be capable of putting forth some of the new features like Dual-core and 64-bit.

They don't "artificially" raise system reqs, like you so eloquently put earlier. They raise the reqs because older hardware may not have support for certain features.

Christ I'm not a programmer or anything and I can think this out. You're a programmer and far more experienced than I am with PC's as a whole, and yet you come up with things like "they artificially put up the reqs". Thats why I commented on your credibility. It seemed like you weren't even taking the time to think.

Edit : Bah Detty said better and faster than I.

true, they have stuck with the aluminum for a while now and although I would have liked a black macbook pro (which they don't do ) I still feel they look a tonne better than anything else out there.

I'm running Vista now.

No problems with the install, I booted in the first time and the internet wouldn't work. I fooled around with a lot of stuff before touching it, just getting used to the new UI, and then went on to tackle the problem.

Managed to find the Device Manager... turns out Vista doesn't come with drivers for my NIC. Which is like.. the most generic version available.. so that was sort of annoying. Got a guy down the hall to put the drivers on a flashdrive, and once I got those installed, everything's been easy money.

I love the gadgets. IE.. what? I assume it's 7, sucks hard. But once I installed Opera, I've been having no problems.

Aero (s?) is off, but that's because my computer is 5 years old.

Basic specs:
7 year motherboard. Asus, don't remember the exact model.
Athlon XP+ 1800 1.53GHz
512mb ram
Radeon 9600 All In Wonder 128mb edition.


So yeah. With Aero off, and a couple of programs running, I'm using between 7 and 10% of my processor, so says the gadget that's displayed on my desktop.

Also: I got dual monitor support running like *that*. I didn't need to install or update any drivers, i was just able to go in and enable it with no trouble.

The new start bar is... scary. I don't like it. However, I'm using it instead of the Classic Start Bar (which I used in XP religiously) only because I can hit the windows key and then start typing for the name of my program. I like that.

I'm satisfied, so far. We'll see how my opinion lasts after a few days.



Oh. I'm running Vista Business. I <3 my school's MSDN.

It's nearly the same start menu

True, I do not like shutdown being a side menu. Grr.

On the start menu you can restore "Run" in the options which is the first thing i found out how to do

You can also change the "Off" button on the start bar to be whatever you want. It's default is sleep but I made it the shut down button.

Am I the only one who thinks that the green, yellow, blue, and black color scheme of Vista looks hideous?

I know it can be changed, but it's almost as bad as the blue and green default luna theme in Windows XP.

The best part about Vista is voice command.

I don't think an OS should require such high system specs. After all, as an OS it should be in the background, not eating the resources that the programs that actually matter need.

XP's major greatness was that its stability as an OS was marketed to the average user. Vista seems to be another underwhelming set of gadgetry on the same decent base, like how 98 was to 95.

You could always disable compositing.


Edit: I would like to restate how impressed I am with the voice interpretation. Not only can I do absolutely everything without even touching a mouse or a keyboard, but I can open programs without touching the start menu. Any program on my computer at all. Or search for a file or song.

It's like having a third hand on a second mouse.

too soon

Fantastic. I've always found myself wanting to do other things with my hands.

"They keep touching me!"

Some nice person should use their school connections to get me a legal copy of Business Vista...

I need to do a fresh install but I don't feel like re-installing XP only to fresh install Vista later.

Those nice people are legally bound to not give you that license, as it could result in the invalidation of that site license (and, thus, all who used it).

Shhhhhh. They'll hear you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci2D1ig4df4

Gosh, some of these commercials make it seem like using a PC is a pain in the ***.

According to internets, academic licenses expire after 4 years.

And that'll stop people from using it who really WANT to use it... how?

By which time one can reason that a Vista license will be much more affordable.

Voice Recognition didn't work for me in Vista Beta 2 through RC2. It better work in the final when I install it.

It sucked in my opinion. After a while it just stops working completely. It won't respond to any commands, and it starts lagging insanely bad.

All that on top of the constant 30% CPU usage.

It's neat when it works, but it doesn't, so blah.