Thinking about going with Vista... Thoughts?

My roomate works for a company that allows him to get legal copies of Microsoft software (for testing purposes). My main laptop is starting to bog down a bit and I have a blue screen issue that I already asked about on this forum, that basically requires me to wipe my cpu to fix the issue...

Right now I am running HOME XP...on a Dell e1505...2gb ram...t2400@1.83ghz

I purchased my mom a new gateway for Christmas and that was really my first experience with Vista and I really liked it... However, I hear a lot negative about it...

Why should I upgrade? and Why shouldnt I upgrade?

Mind you, I get a free legit copy of Vista, so cost or buying it is not an issue...

 

The major programs I use are...Adobe Audition & Photoshop

 

Run the Vista Upgrade Advisor on your current machine and see how you fare. You have plenty of RAM but that processor is near the bottom limit IIRC

 

Says I am good to go and it is a "good fit" for what I have going...

 

If you have enough disk space go for a parallel installation to start with. If you run into the buffers it's easier to go back this way.
Having XP loaded first is the correct way to do parallel installations as the rule is oldest first.

 

What version of photoshop do you use? I hear that the older versions don't work so well with vista, unless you get cs3.

http://www.news.com/2100-1012_3-6169373.html

 

Honestly, I was anti-Vista right out of the gate, as were many people. I believed the "oh it's really buggy" and "none of your software is going to work" and of course "it's garbage that Bill Gates released to make more money and it'll just crash and nobody will use it" and blah blah blah blah. And today, I must say that 98% of all the negative stuff I heard had almost no basis in fact, at all. I'm not a Vista user, and probably won't be until I have to be (I like WinXP Pro and I have set up with my apps and see no reason to change), but I think Vista is OK. I have nothing against it except that it is resource hungry compared to WinXP, but so is WinXP when compared to Win98. It's called progress. A good friend of mine owns a computer store and recently sold a guy a PC with Vista on it. He brought it back after 3 days saying "Vista is no good" and "it's not good enough for video editing" and "the hard drive is too small". This PC had a 320gb hard drive, 2gb DDR2-800, NVidia 7600GT-OC video, Core2Duo CPU 2.13ghz (I think). It turns out the guy NEVER EVEN TURNED IT ON!!! His friend the computer 'expert' and his cousin the other 'expert' had told him all this BS about how lousy Vista was, and how you needed SLI for video editing and a bunch of other garbage. And neither 'expert' had ever even used Vista, EVER!!! Not even once for 30 seconds!!!! Uh oh... I'm getting off track here..... you get the idea. If you like Vista, go for it. And ignore all the naysayers....

 

I was against Vista as a general rule from the time it came out. To me it was just another money grab and would be no better security wise than Xp was. Then it got really tough to buy computers with XP Pro, for any kinda bucks, so I bought a customer a Vista machine, and then got a really good deal on a Vista laptop for myself. After playing around with it for a couple of days, it is no better security wise than XP, and it needed a multitude of security updates right out of the box, but at least it was no worse than XP. If the choice now is XP or Vista, I would take Vista. It has some benefits that XP doesn't do well, and works just as well as XP. Most of the software I had in my XP machines works okay in Vista, but some doesn't. Oh, well, that's life, right? Besides, it is prettier on a widescreen.

 

Strongly disagree! Security is MUCH MUCH tighter!
http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showpost.php?p=925386&postcount=18
See this post for a description of Vista's security features. I do sound a little scoffing here, but these features are actually quite brilliant.

That is NEVER going to change, and is the same for EVERY operating system, Windows, Mac, and Linux. It's a method of continuous improvement, as there is no such thing as perfection.

 

Agreed, security is considerably better than XP.

Of course, PEBKAC goes a long way in undermining the security of an OS, be it Windows, or any other.

I can give one example of a big secuiry fix over XP: Lack of a default, non-password protected Admin account, which exists on virtually every OEM XP machine out there, out of the box.

 

Ask Halo: I pull no punches about what I think of an OS.

That said, read my blog.

http://adrynalyne.blogspot.com/2008/01/vista-revisited.html

Vista is far from perfect, but it continually improves. Yeah, we were let down from the original vision, but lets face it: the original vision of Longhorn was probably way too ambitious for the time frame alotted. Instead, we all got something we expected: a revision of NT, akin to the Windows 2000 to Windows XP evolution. Not bad, just the same. Apple does the same. MacOS has not radically changed in quite some time. It has just improved on its earlier versions.

 

I do have to give you that; it is what was expected. As I have never used an Apple, I cannot comment to that comparison. I do need to admit, tho, if I had not a long time ago, began using Windows 3.1 (shortly after MSDOS, I would likely be a Linux user today. I did however begin to use Windows, and so have become so mired in having software for that O/S that will do pretty much everything (a bit buggy - but ...) so I have become complacent and lazy and will likely, at this stage of my life, continue in this vein. I almost bought a MacBook last time, but allowed myself to take a deep breath and admit that I am stuck on Windows - and that is how I got Vista - it came with the laptop about six weeks ago, hence the necessity for many updates. I still am more used to XP and so still prefer it over Vista, but that will likely change. I may even agree with all that has been said here after a longer period of time using Vista. My opinions are like that. With more knowledge - they change; but it must be remembered; they are just that - opinions.