Vista: Download Disaster?

[KenR]

A reportedly, increasingly common tale of the not-so-smooth switch over to Vista.

In the world of operating systems, Microsoft Windows Vista is just a baby. It's just now toddling along on new systems being sold throughout the U.S. And, like a small child being dropped by the stork to new parents, it's available to older desktop PCs via Microsoft's download-to-buy program.
Giving early adopters such easy, unfettered access to the somewhat untested OS was a bold move by Microsoft. The company had to know that people like those who work at PC Magazine would be among the first to test-drive this new installation option.

http://www.pcmag.com...,1895,2098770,00.asp

from http://www.osnews.com

[Nighted]

You'd think after over half a decade in development, Vista would be garnering more praise. I was very excited about XP. I feel nothing but dread concerning Vista, especially considering the bad experiences that I am reading about almost every day. It's basically a new beta operating system forced on every "tester" that would buy a new computer. You think more efficient would be better, not more resource intensive and bug ridden. It's simply inexcusable for a company with the resources of Microsoft to expect consumers to accept this. The problem is that people will let them get away with it and there is no popular alternative at the moment.

* Nighted is neither impressed, or surprised. 

[2stepsback]

one and all,

do see this if you have not already:

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=220
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=221
http://content.zdnet...-12354_22-56084.html

in addition however, see this as well:
http://www.pcdoctor-...om/wordpress/?p=3939

or
in images:
http://content.zdnet...2554_22-56073-1.html

hth,
-2stepsback

PS: if you want my advice, wait at least six months before purchasing vista, and *DONT* upgrade. Buy a new Vista.
You cannot downgrade back to XP.

PPS: At least get your XP backed up **FULLY** - disk image or better. Else, you have biiiig trouble.

[nudone]

on the restoring functionality issue - i wonder if you lose any program/files/settings after the functionality is returned...

if you lose nothing then i think vista may be the greatest operating system microsoft have made - in that no one will have to pay for it.

[Nighted]

Here's what happened to the author of Folder Size:

What is the deal with Vista?

I installed Folder Size in Vista, it installs fine, but Explorer doesn't show the Folder Size column to be available. So I go to another machine to install Vista and set up a development environment so I can find out why Folder Size doesn't work. This machine already has XP and Ubuntu on it, and some unpartitioned space, so I tell the Vista installer to install to the empty space. It copies some files and then reboots, as expected. But instead of resuming the Vista installation, it resumes XP from hibernation! So I shut down XP, and it boots XP again. So Vista overwrote my Grub boot menu, and boots the wrong partition! I kind of expected it to overwrite the boot menu, and I figured I would restore it later. But I was surprised that it couldn't figure out what partition to load.

And here's the best part - XP didn't actually load the second time. It loads for about 5 seconds, a Blue Screen of Death appears for about 0.1 seconds, and then the machine reboots. Even when it tries to load in Safe Mode.

So the Vista installation upgraded my computer from a dual booting XP/Ubuntu system, to a completely non-functional system.

Vista sucks!

 

[nudone]

interesting post by Zaine on his blog: http://www.thegsblog.com/?p=156

i'm not sure about linux taking over but i can see xp not retiring as soon as microsoft had hoped. perhaps we'll have two opposing camps - the xp gang and vista gang.

everyone buying a new machine will have vista, of course, but i can see that companies will have to keep supporting xp even if microsoft try to force it out. well, that's what i hope anyway.

[wraith808]

Heh...that's one of the reasons I *just* bought a new laptop.  So I could get XP on it (not to mention the sales now that M$ is pushing the retail channel to get rid of any XP machines).  I got a sony vaio SZ that was sitting right next to a vista one... the last one they had.  The Vista one was 2279.00.  The XP one was 1519.00.  What a deal! LOL!

[RoadKill]

I recently bought a new Gateway 5408GT with Vista Premium pre-installed.
  Core 2 Duo 4300 @ 1.8 GHz w/1GB DDR2.  Integrated graphics card and Hi-def 7.1 sound. I bumped up the DDR2 to 4GB.  The power supply was, if I remember, 300w.  I added an nVidia 7950GT PCIe card.  The PCIe card, however, requires more power than the stock configuration.  So off to the store, again, to purchase a 500w Antec supply.      Interestingly I was unable to utilize the 'upgrade now' software (cd) that came with the system.  Correction, the software ran, but when I attempted to upgrade to Vista Ultimate, even though no 'installation buster' issues were detected, it failed. Fortunately the system did reset itself to the original configuration of Vista Premium with no ill effects.  Phewww!
  When I attempted to upgrade the previous pc I had (HP a450n, 3GHz, 800MHz fsb, 1.5 GB DDR) from WinXP Pro to Vista Premium, it did upgrade.  However, much system hanging, and a few too many BSODs convinced me to re-install Win XP pro.  So, I decided, time to buy a new PC.
  And yes, I have had a couple (read literally 2) BSOD on Vista.  But the system identified the error as related to software (Webroot SpySweeper) and provided a link to the manufacturer to update.  I followed the link and, lo, it really was a functional link to Webroot with the download link for an updated version that is Vista compatible.  A real improvement over the XP direction which 9 out of 10 time (in my limited experience) led to a 'don't know what software or driver caused the error, sorry' screen.
So, yes, I would wait a little while to upgrade.  And unless you feel compelled to upgrade your present you present box, I would just build my own or buy one from an OEM in about 6 months as mentioned previously.

On a 1 to 10 scale with 1 being 'infernal machine in smoldering heap on front lawn' and 10 being 'PERFECTION in a box', I would give Vista (at least as I am experiencing it) a 6.

That's my 2 cents!