Topic: How much does the new OS suck?

http://weblog.infoworld.com/save-xp/

Nature & Travel Photography
Main Entrance

's'what happens when you rely on proprietary software

I use Vista on my main computer, xp on my laptop and also xp at work. Partly because the xp home license on my laptop came with the laptop and the vista business license on my main computer I got for free from a .Net conference. All the fuzz about vista being so bad I don't really understand it. Not really a fanboy of Microsoft but Vista works for me ... I remember xp getting similar treatment when it first came out.
My main comp is E6600, 8800GTX, 2GB RAM etc so obviously I don't have any performance problems.

(Edited by Arthurio on 03-14-2008 09:55)

To me it's a little bit like HD tv-s. People don't really need it but it's progress anyway... maybe not as much progress as full HD tv tho.

Ditto for me. My notebook came with Vista, and I've had no problem so far. But I'm not installing tons of software or switching drivers every day.

However I'd appreciate if XP was not discontinued.

been using vista for more than a year now, and i love it. not a single crash, no virus, its super fast, its shiny, its amazing.

S'funny, but I though I was all alone in defence of Vista.

When XP came out, it took me ages to become a convert from Windows 2000. When I finally adopted XP, I never looked back. Now, with Vista, it took me no time at all to get comfortable.

If it wasn't for the lack of gaming performance under Vista, I probably wouldn't bother with XP any more. This is actually a big problem, as my favourite games suffer around a 20-30% drop in framerate with identical settings on the same hardware. I have read in a few places that this is less because Vista is a resource hog than because drivers for Vista are going to need time to mature.

I will not install Vista.

I hate that beast with a passion that surprises even me. I have had to support it now since it came out, and it is a nightmare.

When XP dies, I will be moving to Linux.

WebShaman | The keenest sorrow (and greatest truth) is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of all our adversities.
- Sophocles

I have Vista installed as secondary OS on a dual boot..honestly, it's a bloated POS...nuff said.

Nature & Travel Photography
Main Entrance

Used Vista at work today like every other day. It sucked more than XP today like every other day. Logged into an XP box today a couple times to get some things done that Vista didn't want to do like every other day. It sucked more than Unix today like every other day. Without Cygwin I'd have to be a bum or a crazy person.

An interesting (and quite funny) read...

I'm astonished - today I discovered two things about my shiny new operating system:

1) DreamScene desktop rocks. It's possible to get this feature (an Ultimate extra) working in all flavours of Vista, just as it is (apparently) possible to get Aero Glass working in Basic.

2) There is no easy way to change icons for specific filetypes. No joke - the options just aren't there. Short of using a convoluted registry hack for every filetype, there just isn't a way to do it. I can't believe this.

I'm sure this won't be the first ridiculous thing I discover about Vista... but that animated wallpaper feature does rock.

Well, SP1 should be coming out this month, to ruin everyone's day.

Very NOT looking forwards to it.

WebShaman | The keenest sorrow (and greatest truth) is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of all our adversities.
- Sophocles

quote:

---

kimson said:

An interesting (and quite funny) read...

---

So much time spent commenting on something so not worth the time.

quote:

---

reisio said:

So much time spent commenting on something so not worth the time.

---

Are you talking about Spolsky's post or the actual subject of Microsoft's debate?

Well, the new SP1 for Vista was released today.

*shudders*

This is sooo going to be an unfun week.

WebShaman | The keenest sorrow (and greatest truth) is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of all our adversities.
- Sophocles

So's anyone installed SP1 yet?

quote:

---

kimson said:

Are you talking about Spolsky's post or the actual subject of Microsoft's debate?

---

Former, but both work.

I shall install SP1 on my laptop tonight - I'll let you know if the world comes to an end.

Already getting frustrated SP1 users complaining about the lack of drivers for USB, especially Audio (Win Vista Business 64 bit, for example).

Really nice is the refusal of Vista to install SP1 - because the drivers of their Hardware is on the "known list" of those that have problems, and the install promptly fails.

I knew it was going to ruin my week...and now Easter is on the horizon.

Gah.

Nothing like users with time on their hands.

I expect it to be a busy month.

WebShaman | The keenest sorrow (and greatest truth) is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of all our adversities.
- Sophocles

Installed SP1 on Vista box at work. Only annoying thing I've noticed so far is the strange return of the audio device manager system tray icon/agent (in addition to Windows')... seems like there was some semi-normal way to get rid of it in the past, but I s'pose it's not entirely Windows' fault either way... really bad GUI for this audio thing, prefs hidden all over.

Vista still sucks.

Mentioning audio; that is a major issue for a lot of users. First tip for users of HD audio devices on 'Vista Ready' laptops is to disable advanced audio effects, even if none are being used, as this severely disrupts playback of (for instance) MP3s. I don't know if this is a persisting driver problem related to the new audio driver architecture, but the symptoms include jitters, long pauses between tracks, and complete freeze-ups.

My laptop is a pre-Vista machine with HD audio that doesn't appear to utilise 'advanced audio effects', so I have nothing to disable. Still, if I play the same MP3s under Vista as I do under XP on my laptop, there is a marked reduction in quality; it's as though some sort of low-grade spatialisation effect is being applied, and the frequencies are all over the place - this is substantially worse when using EQ functions.

I wonder if they've done anything about this with SP1. I didn't get the chance to install SP1 last night, so I've yet to find out.

...and yes, I know I'm complaining about the very OS I've defended, but I'm pretty happy to pick holes in my favorite movies too.

quote:

---

Still, if I play the same MP3s under Vista as I do under XP on my laptop, there is a marked reduction in quality; it's as though some sort of low-grade spatialisation effect is being applied, and the frequencies are all over the place - this is substantially worse when using EQ functions.

---

That is the well documented DRM measures built in to Vista, WH. It downgrades the audio quality.

WebShaman | The keenest sorrow (and greatest truth) is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of all our adversities.
- Sophocles

I know XP had a few teething problems when it first came out, but I'm sure it never had this many severe ones.

I'm so glad I don't have to put up with this crap anymore, I feel somewhat sorry for you guys that have to use it at work.

Have you thought about asking for a Mac?

quote:

---

Have you thought about asking for a Mac?

---

And then have to do design for the Mac as well? *shudders*

No way! Windows is bad enough, I don't need to add more to my workload!

WebShaman | The keenest sorrow (and greatest truth) is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of all our adversities.
- Sophocles

Yeah - read a lot about the new DRM issues, but this shouldn't be the case in this scenario (though it evidently is) as these are just standard MP3s.

As for getting a Mac.... urgh! I'd rather use Linux.

quote:

---

White Hawk said:

As for getting a Mac.... urgh! I'd rather use Linux.

---

Good idea!

I use a Mac at work and Linux at home and I've really enjoyed using my computers since I made the change from using windows-windows, I've certainly had to learn how to use them, but it outweighs the stress I had from maintaining a pair of windows machines, my 2 new machines maintain themselves.

The nice thing is that OS X obviously behaves very similarly to my Linux machine.



(Edited by Blaise on 03-20-2008 13:49)

I am going to go linux at home the moment that XP dies.

Seeing as XP3 is being released for WinXP, it isn't dead yet...but it's days are certainly numbered...

WebShaman | The keenest sorrow (and greatest truth) is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of all our adversities.
- Sophocles