Taking one for the Team...

[techieMoe]

I've been curious in light of the unprecedented negative publicity around Microsoft Vista. The rants I've done on it were all for the pre-release versions, certainly well before Service Pack 1, which supposedly fixed a lot of problems.

The opportunity has presented itself (by way of a friend of a friend who works for Microsoft) to secure a legitimate copy of Vista Ultimate Edition 32/64 for a very significant discount ($20USD). I intend to take this opportunity.

I've spent $20USD on bad video games, so as long as Vista Ultimate gives me a few hours of entertainment, it's worth the money. I'll be documenting the experience on my site, of course, so I'm sure it will be entertaining to the rest of you as well.

Be warned, however: I fully intend to give Vista a fair shot. I specifically asked for Ultimate Edition, Service Pack 1 in order to test the top-of-the-line, best they can do release. If anything has the potential to impress me, it's this release.

Will it actually impress? We shall see. I intend to install the 32-bit version on Rig 1 and the 64-bit version on Rig 4. If anything goes wrong I have everything backed up and all my restore CDs handy. Expect a new rant in the near future.

[geniuz]

I can't wait to read all about it, last experience I had with Vista ("Home Premium") was on my girlfriend's laptop...got a blue screen when trying to set up a wireless inet connection...and it happened again when inserting a usb-stick.
So it wasn't exactly good...but still it does deserve a fair chance !

[smolloy]

I argue about Vista a lot with a colleague of mine. He's very knowledgable, so I respect his opinion.

His experience of Vista has been quite positive. He likes a lot of the updates (like not auto-running CDs and USB sticks), and he has never seen any instabilities. I, on the other hand, hate it. I've already had to reinstall it, and everything about it is so slow and painful.

The only difference between us is that I'm running 64 bit, and he's running 32 bit, so I'm beginning to suspect that 32 bit is quite a bit more stable.

Which one did you get Moe?

[gruven]

I actually enjoy using Vista Ultimate 64 w/SP1. I now have it installed on my main desktop dual booting with Gentoo 64.

I will say this though, if I didn't have it on a POWERFUL rig, it wouldn't be all that great. On my rig, it runs smooth and fluid.

I have installed some extras from Microsoft (Power Shell, Unix Tools, NFS Utilities) and that makes the OS really usable.

Just my opinion though. It isn't as bad as everyone says.

For reference, my rig:

Intel Q6600
8 GB DDR2 Ram
500 GB Seagate SATA II HDD
XFX 8800GT 512MB
Some more stuff

[techieMoe]

The only difference between us is that I'm running 64 bit, and he's running 32 bit, so I'm beginning to suspect that 32 bit is quite a bit more stable.

Which one did you get Moe?

I'm not sure yet, as I haven't received the physical DVD. He's supposed to bring it in to work tomorrow and I'll spend the day installing and playing with it.

I was told (and this could be in error) that the version I'm getting has both 32-bit and 64-bit.

[techieMoe]

I actually enjoy using Vista Ultimate 64 w/SP1. I now have it installed on my main desktop dual booting with Gentoo 64.

I will say this though, if I didn't have it on a POWERFUL rig, it wouldn't be all that great. On my rig, it runs smooth and fluid.

I have installed some extras from Microsoft (Power Shell, Unix Tools, NFS Utilities) and that makes the OS really usable.

Just my opinion though. It isn't as bad as everyone says.

It's stories like these that make me curious. If it turns out to be not as bad as the hype, I've got myself a very cheap version of Microsoft's flagship OS. If not, I still have XP and all my Linuxes. Interesting side note: the guy I bought this from offered to refund my $20 if I don't like it. Haha.

[rokytnji]

Vista Ultimate for 20 bucks? My wife would love that.

[Artesia]

It does seem to be quite hit-and-miss. Lots of people have said that they haven't had any problems with it, but that wasn't my experience. When I bought my laptop with Vista preinstalled, it didn't recognize that a CD burner was present and I had to delete a registry key to fix it. When my family bought their new HP desktop with Vista SP1, on first bootup, it didn't recognize the mouse. And the "My Computer" icon doesn't display on the desktop, which I don't think is intentional.

I'm really looking forward to reading your rant.

[elija]

I got a laptop with Vista Business pre-installed. It was slow and clunky. No blue screens but a very frustrating and unpleasant experience; even turning off Aero didn't help. No joke, I could go and make a coffee while trying to open pretty much any software bigger than Notepad! I haven't found a Linux distro that isn't smooth as silk on the beastie. (1.6ghz Core 2 Duo, 1 gb ram)

At work the three people who are running Vista are the ones who have most IT problems. And they too are running it on computers "designed for Vista"

I too await the rant with baited breath!

[carlosponti]

say it aint so Moe












ps i am only teasing