QUOTE - I stand with Microsoft and that is bound to create hate mail from the masses. UN-QUOTE. What does that tell you about a company???

Wow! If a "Vista Master" can't get Vista up to snuff after tweaking on it for a whole year, what chance does a humble, ignorant user like myself have with it?
Of course, I realize that Vista is not at fault for all the problems people are having with it. The *real* blame rests squarely on the shoulders of the gullible, peasants who bought cheap simply because they can't afford to shell out $2100 for an "e-mail machine" like the Microsoft Executives can. People who can't afford a *real* computer ought to stop whining, and just get an OLPC.
Fortunately, there may be a positive side to this fiasco. In the near future, just imagine the manufacturers dumping THOUSANDS of Vista (in)capable computers on the market for a dime on the dollar, and every one of them ought to run just about *any* distro of Linux (including Fusion) like a Champ, straight out of the box!

When reason fails me I must call forth greater minds ,from An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by David Hume published in 1758 before Microsoft even wrote one line of mangled code:

Hume distinguished between "antecedent skepticism," such as René Descartes' method of doubting everything that has no "antecedent" infallible criterion for belief; and "consequent skepticism," the method Hume employed, which recognizes the "consequences" of our fallible senses but corrects them through reason: "A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence." Better words could not be found for a skeptical motto.

And so I will leave you to judge the propriety of your conclusions with the a thought borne 3+ centuries ago, "A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence." Though your eyes may see your mother's computer swimming in a pool of digital molasses created by Microsoft, it is in the best interest of your career and livelihood to not believe what lies right before you eyes.

Do not become too blind to the world before you. There may be a test in the next one and whether you pass or fail may depend on what you learn here and now. All lessons do not end and begin with a dollar sign, despite what your heart tells your right now.

Vista is crap, it is not a breakthrough, it is not even mediocre, it has no reason to be, other than to drive dollars to Microsoft. Funny ain't it, once upon a time people bought Operating Systems to run an application, not write a book on the operating system or show everybody how pretty the screen looks. It's kind of like marrying a beautiful idiot, fun to show off, but not that practical to live with.

Vista will make history, it will be the benchmark that heralds the decline of Microsoft's business empire and intellectual capital. They've painted themselves in a corner, a strange act for a bunch of geniuses eh?

Well....I have to go with Peter on this. Three months ago I bought my daughter a laptop for $800 with Vista and it runs beautifully. She has had it three months now and she has ZERO complaints. My son just had to get a new laptop and he insisted he wanted a low-ball computer from another vendor. It also came with Vista and, because the hardware was not up to snuff, it was just horrible. We returned it and got another one of the systems my daughter got (for even less because it was on sale this week). He has had it now for three days and is delighted....Vista and all. The problem is not Vista and my guess is that if you put an equivalent configuration of linux on his original computer, it would run just as poorly.

Funny how the "literati" here are so up in arms over Vista. I guess if my livelihood were made in maintaining thousands of computers, an upgrade to a new operating system would not be something I would look forward to. That new operating system had better be one heck of a lot better than the old one for me to want to spend the time making the upgrade. That is very understandable. But to trash the new, which in nearly every measure is better (perhaps not enough better), seems unnecessary. I, a humble end user, have several Vista machines and have had absolutely no problems with them - I like the operating system, and when I buy new computers I buy Vista computers.

Oh, I so love feature bloat. My Vista is so much better than your Windows XP. Watch me flip multiple windows as if they were pages in a book. So what if I need a $150.00 video card to make this feature usable. So much the better to prove that I can afford to have the best in computing along with my BMW and my iPhone. I am a true yuppie and help to build our economy.

I see very little reason to avoid or move up to Vista. The flames and praises that I have seen printed are, to me, the same as what happened with Win95, win 98, win 2000 and Xp. Before the first or second service pack there were issues with a lot of systems. After new drivers were written and the first big round of bug fixes were applied we had pretty good operating systems. Not perfect mind you but okay. I am not implementing Vista in my work environment but I will eventually. I am still waiting to see how sp1 works and for better drivers to be written for the lower end equipment.

"...this particular Vista Master couldn't get the thing moving any better." "I've had no trouble with it outside of the ordinary with any system."

If you believe the mother-in-law's system troubles are "ordinary", it seems possible that you're suffering from the MS Windows equivalent of Stockholm Syndrome. You spent a YEAR trying to make it work properly?! I would expect a rational person to stop wasting effort and just switch to something that works without requiring a "Master's" touch.

In contrast to Gary's etherial philosophy, I'll make an utterly practical comment. In many cases, it's not Vista or hardware that's slow, it's the user. I have Vista on my notebook, intentionally, so I can ease into it. The security features are an improvement. The gadgets are cool once you settle on the useful ones. I even like the Aero graphics. Now, if I could just find what I need quickly and easily.

It takes me at least twice the time to find half the stuff I use moderately and about ten times as long to find stuff I use infrequently. Checking a non-functioning network connection was easy in XP. With Vista, it involves navigating through half a dozen unintuitive screens that all seem to have multiple correct branches.

All Microsoft had to do to make Vista acceptible to the masses was create an option for an XP-style user interface. XP had a "classic" start menu, why not Vista?

I've given my customers the option of a Vista Business install or a downgrade install of XP Pro (permitted with the Vista Business license). Because of legacy software concerns and the learning curve, all have opted for XP Pro. If there had been an option for a somewhat familiar interface, I'm sure some of them would have chosen Vista.

-Mark

It is encouraging to see that Vista runs beautifully for some people, and that they are delighted with it, however, I can't help but also notice that these people also seldom describe what they actually DO with Vista beyond citing "personal use". I think it's great that your kids can use it to access their My Space and G-mail accounts, but I find myself much more interested in the opinions of the IT Professionals, the Web Designers, the Video Editors, the CAD Engineers, the Tech Bloggers, the 3D game and Graphics designers, and other people who actually *depend* on their computers to make a living.
The fact that Vista is an adequate replacement for Web TV is the least of my personal concerns. How about you Vista Lovers being a little more specific about the productivity features in it that you find so endearing?

"The problem is not Vista and my guess is that if you put an equivalent configuration of linux on his original computer, it would run just as poorly."

An unqualified and uninformed assumption at best!
There is no *IF* about it, Bob. I run one of the latest distros on an older *Vista Obsolete* laptop which has the very same 915 chipset that has Microsoft and Intel backpedaling like a cat with it's head in a paper bag. Even running the 3D Compiz GUI, it's quite snappy, and with the release of KDE 4.1 it's likely to get even better.

I'm not trying to win any converts here, or blame Vista for being what it is, I'm just stating a fact. If you find yourself stuck with a "Vista Capable" computer after June 30, you have *absolutely nothing* to lose by giving Linux a shot on it.

You guys are missing the point. If you need a new computer, and buy at least a middle of the road box for today's hardware standards, it will come with Vista and run it relatively well. If you don't need a new computer, then Vista is not a compelling upgrade. So what? While marketing hype is high, it always is from big business. If you feel you need to convert your SUV to burning vegatable oil so you can be "green", go ahead, just dont complain when the exhaust smells. If you need a new car, buy a hybrid. If you need a new computer, get a decent one, and you'll be happy with the OS that comes on it.

The statement that Vista is crap is about as accurate as saying that the local fire engines are crap because they won't push water through my garden hose fast enough to put out a fire. Of course they won't, you need the proper equipment. Same thing with Vista.

Vista is great as long as you are using the proper hardware for the job. Like many have said, if you don't need or want the upgrade then don't buy one.

My personal experience has been good. In my house we have four laptops running Vista, only one having more than 1GB of ram. My daughter does high-end graphics and has 3GB on hers. I also kept my 4-yr-old HP laptop with XP Pro on it because it still runs great. My Vista laptop has 1GB and is an off-the-shelf HP Pavilion. I do Web development, Visual Basic development, graphics editing, genealogy, and music writing, along with the usual stuff like studying, e-mailing, spreadsheets, etc. Related to hardware, I had a problem with one device, an Epson scanner (it was listed as incompatible with Vista, but I was able to get to work with some tweaking). I use a Palm PDA on here (I had to download a patch from the Palm Web site), and even use an old GPS unit that I bought at a garage sale (no patches required). It was old enough that it requires two ports - a serial port and a PS2 port. When I originally bought it I had to get a new USB adapter to get it to work. It works as well on my Vista machine as it did on my old XP machine.

Many things are better, but I'll mention only one here due to space considerations. I'll use a hardware example simply because hardware compatibility tends to get the largest share of negative comments. I use a wireless print server with two printers so we can print to either printer from anywhere in our yard or house. Normally when I install either of these printers I need the driver disc. On Vista, I didn't need the driver CDs. I simply had to go to the server IP address and select the printer. Vista found what it needed and installed the printer without further ado.

As many have said already, if you don't like it then don't use it. But don't call it crap just because it doesn't fit your needs.

Well, here is my 2 cents. I bought a Vista Computer last May, an Acer 5570-4421. It is running Vista Premium, with the normal configuration ( 1gig Ram, 160 GB HD, etc. I also have Word, Excel, PPT, etc on it. I don't run games or intensive graphics programs - definitely a "casual end-user".

Vista is complete crap, simply put. It take several minutes for my computer to completely boot up. When I boot up Word, again, the thing is having a baby and takes it's slow sweet time to finally come up. Shut down of the computer is equally time consuming.

As for as the MS Office re-design, I can see where it "might" make a little sense, but it takes more mouse clicks to find basic things than it did in XP.

I recently started looking at Apple laptops, and have been reading LOTS of reviews about software and hardward, both apple and MS related. The overwhelming feeling I get is that MS tries to be too many things to all people, and the result is "bloatware". The software has to run on different brands of laptops, etc. The MS office software is apparently really buggy, and slow, based on my own experience.

I think I am becoming an Apple convert. The things just "work". For fun, I downloaded Safari 3.1 onto my Windows PC, and it ran like a champ. And, here's the fun part - it automatically imported my IE and Firefox bookmarks into Safari! It did it in the background when I ran set-up. No prompting from your's truly. I opened Safari, and they were just "there". It was a truly fun end-user experience.

I will say, in the next 6 months I'll have an Apple computer - I'm sick of Microsoft's bullshit. Buggy products that are slow, and cause the end-user headaches. They are not the only game in town anymore.....

Thanks for listening!

And it continues.... Long time computer users know this is all a repeat of the exact same flame wars, angst, hype, hyperbole each and every time Microsoft release a new operating system. So meh.

Personally, this particular hobbyist has grown into the opinion that it may well have been better if Vista x86 wasn't released at all. Rather, Microsoft release only Vista x64 (which *does* include the libraries needed to run 32 bit code, and runs it well at that - Never mind the stuff some people come to accept because their buddy said something ringing of Truthiness). Issue a statment/policy saying that 64 bits are "The Way Forward" and if you want to be there then please feel free to join us with your next computer purchase. Don't bother upgrading your existing box unless it meets , because it will run badly. As far as XP, we understand the needs of our Legacy users, and are grateful for their support and understanding regarding this key change of paradigm. We will do some extra work on SP3, and we will extend support a while longer than we otherwise would have. But it is EOL as of .

Of course, from a business standpoint the manager(s) responsible for such a decision would likely be committing what's euphamistically called a "Career Limiting Move". Anyone taking more than a cursory glance at the 32 bit installed base and the opportunity to hammer FUD on apps not running (harder than already, I mean) would understand that pretty quickly. So from the start the odds of that happening were basically nil. I think maybe that's too bad. Maybe the 32 bit cord gets at least partially cut in 2010 with Win 7.

Currently using Vista 64 at home and regarding the OS itself - (1) It runs fine, does what it's supposed to, and believe it or not does it better than any just released OS I've had the pleasure of playing with - and know that this goes back to the days when a 386 was hot stuff.

(2) Every OS released by any maker has been slower, with a larger footprint, and therefore more comsuming of Hardware than the prior version from that same maker. Sure: Cue the 'Bloated Pig' comments, but know it's merely a repetition of what was said about XP... and 2K.. and... A lot of people seem to conveniently forget this little fact of computing life.

(3) In either flavor, Vista is different from what came before - look/feel/behavior. A lot of people seemed to want XPv2. But being a different OS, and all, it doesn't take much in the way of logic to make that kind of deduction before opening the box. And so what??? Get the book, learn the thing, and get on with it.

I just read that MS will support XP until 2012, so my worries are over, and the pros and cons of vista are now irrelevant... unless my PC self-destructs after July of this year and then I'm forced into an unwanted "upgrade", which is really the issue at the core of all of this hoopla, after all, isn't it.

So isn't what all of you Vista Lovers are actually saying, "When there is only one choice, you always have Freedom of Choice?" You win. I lose. You're right. I'm wrong. Isn't that your REAL POINT?

Because if it isn't then how can you defend any O/S that costs twice as much and takes twice as much hardware to operate and only produces slightly prettier pictures along with stacks of errors, the de facto standard of any NEW O/S?

If it works for you, that's great.

It doesn't work for me now and yet you are proudly tirading that I have NO CHOICE.

Face the truth. You're as sadistic, as its authors are greedy.

As far as I have seen, Microsoft will offer XP support for corporate use until 2014, and for home users, support will end sometime next year.
As I personally use Linux at home and XP at work, I am not qualified to pass judgment on Vista one way or the other, so I rely on the comments of those who are actually using it. Here is a Microsoft sponsored blog site assisting users with Vista SP1 -

http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsvista/archi
ve/2008/03/18/windows-vista-sp1-released-to-windows-update.aspx#comments

I will let everyone decide for themselves what to make of it, but to me it makes running some of the current popular Linux distros look like child's play.

I've heard the "your grandma could use Linux" comments before. This has not been my experience.

I use Microsoft products, but would like to build a complete open-source experience starting with some flavor of the Linux OS - not because of Microsoft's products (I like their products), but because of their attitude. I've been playing with Suse and Fedora Linux as well.

Recently, I had decided to give Ubuntu Linux another chance (I had problems the first time around) and this past weekend went to the Ubuntu Forum online to see what kind of experience others were having. There is a list there of issues, each contaning a link to the discussion of that issue. Just the list itself was 420 pages long. Obviously, Linux is neither as easy nor as well-behaved as many folks would intimate.

I'm not giving up on Linux, but I also have to say that it's unlikely I'll be giving up my Windows PCs anytime soon either.