A Close look at Vista without drinking Haterade

Since it's suddenly cool to rip into Windows Vista; I'd thought I'd give my take on it. I've had Vista Basic for close to a month now and I've gotten the recent security and compatibility updates. After getting everything just the way I want it I have to say that's it's a Love-Hate relationship with Vista. I'll go on....

I unboxed my copy of Windows Vista with much glee and excitement (after crying about having to pay for Windows, that's another story) and read the manual. Simple enough to install, within twenty minutes my home built machine was brewing something of the Vista variety and I was pumped. I was greeted by a fresh crisp GUI that was easy to navigate. I uploaded a few programs (Avast, Spybot, VLC) to get myself started. Everything went nice and smoothly.

I ran into my first annoyance when I went to open these programs and was told that as an Administrator I needed to okay the running of said program. No biggy, I'll adjust the account settings later. I uploaded all of my music in little to no time flat.

I installed some games and for the most part they went great; DX10 really is worth it for visual intense games that support it. I did have the occasional random slowdown on some games that was only fixed by rebooting the machine. These slowdowns would even affect navigating menus! I was very annoyed.

These complaints and compliments come and go like every other budding iteration of Windows. Driver incompatibilities, new graphic support, random problems that cant reproduced and others are to be expected. My only really bug with Vista is the amount of privileges Administrator accounts are given. As an Administrator I expected to be able to do anything I wanted, not have to wait in line like everyone else. I upside though is that Vista "claims" to offer improved security. I haven't run into many problems yet but I think most of it is geared towards anti-piracy, yarrrr.

For the power users on the other hand Vista may just seem awkward and unresponsive for some things. Drivers and security problems are annoying, but nothing users can't find a way around after awhile. Given the nine months since Vista's launch these users are getting hungry for more support and are quite happy to stick with XP for now and I'd agree with that decision.
My take is all about where you and your PC are currently. I think that you should take the plunge to Vista if you

1.) Just got a new computer with the recommended requirements
2.) Really want to show off your Directx10 hardware
3.) Just upgraded your current machine to a Multi Core Processor

I would wait to upgrade to Vista and stick with XP if you...

1.) are a power user
2.) don't plan on getting or upgrading your machine for some time
3.) are not a big PC Gamer
4.) are constantly installing programs and want to make sure they are supported

For me I'm quite happy with Vista. Sure there are times when I wish I was still running XP, but there are times when I'm glad that I have Vista. I'm not WOWed by Vista, but I am definately satisfied; even a little pleased. At the end of the day it all comes down to what you want to do on your computer; and only YOU can answer that

The WOW starts when?

Windows Vista has been a tough sell to most who knew it was actually released recently, so soccer moms with a new Dell are not included. Vista shipped with some broken promises of functionality, compatability, and Ultimate edition features (Texas Hold’em???).

Now we have another semi-horror story, this time coming from the now former PC Mag editor-in-chief Jim Louderback who mentions his frustrations in his good-bye letter. He states...

“I could go on and on about the lack of drivers, the bizarre wake-up rituals, the strange and nonreproducible system quirks, and more. But I won't bore you with the details. The upshot is that even after nine months, Vista just ain't cutting it.”

Sure this is just one opinion, but it has been shared by far too many. In the end, the decision is unanimous, Microsoft better start fixing Vista and deliviering on the promise of that WOW factor, or else maybe more and more will move to other OS’s, like the one Jim mentioned… Linux.

Read the full article here.

It's my (updated) Dic% in a box!

No matter how you cut it, Vista has got some issues which make upgrading from XP not really worth it. But Vista will eventually come to dominate with its clean interface and DX10 for cutting edge visuals.

Many problems which hampered Vista from the get-go have been solved with the newest performance /compatibility & reliability updates available for download.

some issues addressed include

-poor memory management
-faster time remaining calculations on media data transfers
-being able to put Vista into Sleep mode without crashing

and much more. I recently installed these updates and can already see a huge difference (namely I actually feel like I have 2gbs of RAM in my computer and it sleeps like a baby). What could be considered SP1 is really just some quick and easy fixes on the launch bugs from Vista.

These two updates are available here and here

Happy updating

P.S- watch out for the Vista verification if you're running a *cough*phony!*cough* version of Vista