When will you be getting Vista?

[wfooshee]

My job is to build and support customer networks, so I'll be getting Vista as soon as MS sends me my subscription updates. As to actually installing it, I'll have to justify a hardware upgrade to the boss in order to make it worthwhile, my desk holds a 1.4-GHz P4 with 512 MB RAM and a 32-MB video card.

 

[emad]

Personally, I think Vista is tempting, but the whole WGA thing has me staying away. Ashamed as I am to say it, I don't have a legal copy of Windows. If I go Vista and office 2007, I'll be going legit. MS has gone pretty hardcore with their copy prevention mechanisms and I wouldn't like to trip that up since.

On that note, it's a shame it costs so much for the higher end versions of Vista. Because of it, I don't plan on the upgrade for at least a few years.

 

[Omnis]

I have it.

 

[WallRunner]

Well, now that my dad has got into computer programming, We will have to get it as soon as it becomes the main OS and there are more Vista users than XP users.

From,
Chris.

 

[TheCracker]

The climate is changing everywhere, so why not in hell?


I'm perfectly happy with XP. Vista uses to much resources and i don't need all the eyecandy.

Actually, joking aside, Since i've just got a Intel chipped Mac Pro i might just get Vista as well

 

[Tornado]

I've seen a lot of fighting words in here in regard to Vista, but let me ask you guys this, how many of you have actually use it on a decent desktop computer? And do you think XP is any more secure than Vista, even now, before an SP1 comes out?

I have a question for you then. Not having used Vista etensively, can you honestly tell me that DRM all over the place, stupidly high prices, incompatability with former programs and all that is worth it for some visual upgrades (that can be had on XP for less) and better usage of RAM?

 

[Joel2]

Whoops. Wrong account.

 

[Burnout]

I have a question for you then. Not having used Vista etensively, can you honestly tell me that DRM all over the place, stupidly high prices, incompatability with former programs and all that is worth it for some visual upgrades (that can be had on XP for less) and better usage of RAM?

Whether you like it or not, DRM is going to do whatever it is MS wants to do with it, regardless of your OS. That aside, I never noticed DRM interfering with anything I was doing.

The prices are not that high. C'mon guys, have you actually looked at the pricing? Heck, an upgrade to Home Premium is only like $160 - I agree, prices are high, but they will come down (anyone remember XPs original pricing?), and they really aren't that bad.

Do you know why it took Microsoft so long to release Vista? It's a completely new OS, from the ground up, it just looks a lot like XP and other previous versions of windows, and the compatibility for a completely new OS is really pretty good. I can only think of maybe three or four instances where I had problems with software I used, and Vista was still in Beta at the time - Completely acceptable for test software.

It's not just a visual upgrade guys! I can't stress this enough - Microsoft went through all sorts of crap to make it seem like XP to not confuse anybody, but it's completely new. The thing is, it's ready for the future, and oh boy are there some neat things in the future.. XP is what, 6 years old? It's dated and just pushing along.

With that said, I'm going to quote a user with similar views:

Do I think it's the best operating system out there? No. But it's a damn good OS and those that upgrade from a previous version of Windows will be pleased.

👍

 

[dougiemeats]

Toronado,

The price? Probably not.

But most consumers will not buy the boxed version of Vista. They'll get it when they buy a new PC. I can assure you, that it is a huge improvement over its predecessors.

Everyone makes a big deal about the eye-candy. I used Vista but couldn't enable Aero, yet I was still impressed. It's more than just a visual upgrade, and I'm sometimes annoyed when people use that argument. The little things included make it a pleasure to use on a daily basis: the cookie-crumb address bar, the great search feature, IE7 not integrated into the OS, and its stability. Unfortunately, these features are often overshadowed by the bling.

Besides, almost every application that I used in XP worked just fine in Vista.

Edit: tree'd

 

[Evolution.]

Most secure Windows ever
with Windows Defender and Windows Firewall

Only time "Secure" and "Windows" go in the same sentence is when "not" is included.

And, Windows Firewall? What a joke. .

I'll probably only get it when I absolutely have to.

 

[Omnis]

Vista and Office 07 are pretty cool, actually. It's refreshing to see microsoft going the ways of apple with graphically-aided simplicity.

 

[Burnout]

Vista and Office 07 are pretty cool, actually. It's refreshing to see microsoft going the ways of apple with graphically-aided simplicity.

Agreed; they definitely upgraded the 'bling' factor, and you wont see me complaining.

You know the current uxtheme.dll patch for XP? Can't wait to see what kind of cool themes come out once they figure out how to customize Aero.👍

 

[dougiemeats]

You know the current uxtheme.dll patch for XP? Can't wait to see what kind of cool themes come out once they figure out how to customize Aero.👍

With XP, you almost always had to change the theme, wallpaper, and icons if you really wanted it to look good. The defaults just didn't cut it.

With Vista, the theme (even Basic, but especially Aero), the buttons, the icons, the wallpapers, the sounds, the animations, and the screensavers are all high quality. Some say they overdid the polish, but I think it's tasteful and professional. Sure you might find an icon hidden somewhere that dates back to Windows 95, but they did a fairly complete job at improving the look. It just "looks and feels" right even with the defaults. Basically, what I'm trying to say is: Yes, they'll find a way to customize Aero, but I'm not sure if I really need to change much. With that said, how about virtual desktops and Exposé as PowerToys? That would be nice...

Also, as I look back in this thread, I never properly answered the original question. Honestly, I don't know if I will ever get Vista. Unless they delay the releases of Fiji or Vienna, the next time I purchase a PC will be after Vista. I do have a copy of it already, but I don't think beta software that will time-out in a few months should count.

 

[gregc]

Going to jump back in here with some further thoughts...

Firstly, while I probably could be called a "diehard" Linux user now, 2 or 3 years ago nothing could have been further from the truth. I was Windows all the way. I also use Windows 2000 and XP every day at work, and I tried both beta 1 & 2 and RC1 of Vista at home. In short, I've used Vista and I use Windows regularly. I can't say the same for Mac, I see it every few months and that's it apart from reading articles about it.

With that out of the way, I'd like to cover a few points. I'll probably miss something already mentioned so feel free to pull me up if I do And it's all opinion, of course

DRM - I disagree that it will end as whatever MS decide it will be. The market will decide, IMO. If it's made so restrictive that the user can't, for instance, take a movie out of their Blu-Ray player and watch it on their PC, people will increasingly get annoyed and the format won't be accepted. BTW, those formats are just there as examples. Could be HD-DVD, could be something else entirely - the point is the market will decide.

XP vs Vista - barring any worrying security problems we don't know about, Vista is definitely better than XP. The interface is slicker (although I prefer XP's "look" to the non-Aero Vista). I'm not convinced that we won't see security issues over the next few months, but I wouldn't buy any new Windows OS until after at least the first service pack anyway. Is Vista a resource hog? Compared to XP, a little bit IMO. Compared to other OS's that I know about, needing 8Gb (from memory, correct me if I'm wrong) of HD space just for the OS is unbelievable. I know HDs are fairly cheap these days, but still. 8 gig!?! By comparison, my Ubuntu machine with desktop effects that frankly pee on Vista from a great height, an office suite, a photo editor and various other programs installed comes in at 4.1Gb.

"It's a complete rewrite from XP" - No it's not. From everything I've read it's based on Windows Server 2003, which in turn was based on XP and 2000 Server/Advanced Server. Most of the really good stuff that was originally slated for Longhorn/Vista (WinFS springs to mind, there are others) got ditched.

Don't get me wrong - as I've already said, Vista is definitely a move forward from XP and that's a good thing. If the thread title was "Is Vista better than XP" I would agree completely. However the thread title is "When will you be getting Vista", and my answer was basically never, because I don't see myself needing it. I stand by that

Each to their own of course - but please don't cast me as some sort of blinkered zealot who can't see beyond Linux. I've tried at least some of the alternatives (sorry, i'm not about to buy a whole new computer to try OSX), and I prefer what I have.

Er, random rant over. Sorry for the long post

 

[Burnout]

[snip]
DRM - I disagree that it will end as whatever MS decide it will be. The market will decide, IMO. If it's made so restrictive that the user can't, for instance, take a movie out of their Blu-Ray player and watch it on their PC, people will increasingly get annoyed and the format won't be accepted. BTW, those formats are just there as examples. Could be HD-DVD, could be something else entirely - the point is the market will decide.

What I meant by my DRM comment was regardless of if you're using Windows XP or Vista, the DRM implimentations Microsoft has planned are going to affect you.


[snip]...Is Vista a resource hog? Compared to XP, a little bit IMO.

It uses your computer more than XP did yes, but if it's there to be used, I believe it might as well be utilized to enhance the end-user's computing experience. The only thing that would bother me is if I were, for example, trying to play a game, and Vista was slowing me down or using considerably more RAM, then I would be annoyed. That is far from the truth however.

8GB of HD space isn't much when you think about how loaded Vista is. The included features compared to XP are ten-fold better. As far as I can tell, Microsoft didn't particularly care about making it smaller as Bill Gates recently said on during his keynote speech at CES2007 that 'we are not longer limited by hard drive space' or something to that effect. But yes, it is a bit for your bare OS.


"It's a complete rewrite from XP" - No it's not. From everything I've read it's based on Windows Server 2003, which in turn was based on XP and 2000 Server/Advanced Server. Most of the really good stuff that was originally slated for Longhorn/Vista (WinFS springs to mind, there are others) got ditched.

It's based on 2003 in the same way the Core 2 Duo is based on the Pentium M, which was based on the Pentium 3. Yes, they took the good from older version of Windows, improved it and carried it over, however Vista was created new from the ground up.


Don't get me wrong - as I've already said, Vista is definitely a move forward from XP and that's a good thing. If the thread title was "Is Vista better than XP" I would agree completely. However the thread title is "When will you be getting Vista", and my answer was basically never, because I don't see myself needing it. I stand by that

Each to their own of course - but please don't cast me as some sort of blinkered zealot who can't see beyond Linux. I've tried at least some of the alternatives (sorry, i'm not about to buy a whole new computer to try OSX), and I prefer what I have.

Er, random rant over. Sorry for the long post

And I agree, to each his own. Don't take my opinion as a 'shove it down your throat, and oh by the way you're wrong' type thing, just throwing it out there. No disrespect or offense meant.

For the record, I use Windows Vista, Server 2003, XP and 2000 Professional on a daily basis. I also use OS X and Linux off and on. I believe each has it's own place in this crazy, electronic world we live in, and respect them equally for what they stand for. 👍

And more related to the topic, my 10 copies of Vista Business shipped today (along with a slew of other new MS software).

 

[standard235]

When I make $100.

 

[Anderton Prime]

I don't see any reason to get Vista. I'm pleased with XP.

Me too. I've literally NEVER had an issue with XP.

 

[G.T]

I have the Enterprise Edition of Office 2007 installed on here. It is pretty cool. I've not experimented with it much, but the layout and the whole new menu system is really great. Plus, I like how you can make a graph and you can edit data a lot more easily between Excel and Word.

Oh, and Outlook is great too.

 

[standard235]

Right now, Office 2007 Ultimate is owning me. I'm going to get Vista and XP Pro x64 and run Vista as a virtual machine every once in a while.

 

[Eric.]

I think I may get a pair (or maybe a trio) of 36GB Raptors for a RAID array before I get Vista. Then I'll backup my current drive's data onto my external drive and format the other to have the extra storage space taken up by XP. Or I may just make a smaller (30gb?) partition on it just to keep XP. Looks like my wish list keeps getting bigger!

I voted mid-2007, but it may end up being closer to the end of 2007.