so i did it...

[peter dragon]

I got my hands on a buisness copy (no key required) of windows vista. so far ive had very little problem. its on my dual core 1.6ghz laptop.

so far very few problems.

its the future people ;)

i still wouldnt put it on the desktop though. has the same stuff as XP its just in a different place. runs a whole lot faster on the laptop than XP ever did.

[Mister Bushice]

I predict Vista will go the way of Windows M.E. The next piece of shit OS out the door from MS will be a throwback to XP, or else they'll be years developing something completely different.

[peter dragon]

i think MS will shove it down peoples throats and make it work. how long till the MF discontinue XP?

[PSUFAN]

I've been happy with Vista so far. Works just like XP. They must have dropped all the intrusive stuff, because I'm having no troubles with anything. I turned off Aero..it is stupid anyway

[Mister Bushice]

Cnet says "eh":

The bottom line: Windows Vista is essentially warmed-over Windows XP. If you're currently happy with Windows XP SP2, we see no compelling reason to upgrade. On the other hand, if you need a new computer right now, Windows Vista is stable enough for everyday use.

MS fan says no, no, no:

http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/17992/page1/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The business world says nuh uh:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,14058 ... ticle.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

#1. No Wow, No How: Windows Vista

Five years in the making and this is the best Microsoft could do?

It's not that Vista is awful. The integrated security and parental controls are nice, and the Aero interface is as whizzy as it gets. Searching and wireless networking are much faster and easier than under XP.

It's just that Vista isn't all that good. Many of the innovations the operating system was supposed to bring--like more efficient file and communications systems--got tossed overboard as Microsoft struggled to get the OS out the door, some three years after it was first promised. Despite its hefty hardware requirements, Vista is slower than XP.

When it debuted last January, incompatibilities were rampant--in part because hardware and software makers didn't feel any urgency to revamp their products to work with the new OS. The user account controls that were supposed to make users feel safer just made them feel irritated. And at $399 ($299 upgrade) for Windows Ultimate, we couldn't help feeling more than a little gouged.

No wonder so many users are clinging to XP like shipwrecked sailors to a life raft, while others who made the upgrade are switching back. And when the fastest Vista notebook PC World has ever tested is an Apple MacBook Pro, there's something deeply wrong with the universe.

SCARY PART
We have no doubt Vista will come to dominate the PC landscape, if only because it will become increasingly hard to buy a new machine that doesn't have it pre-installed. And that's disappointing in its own right.

and:

A study conducted by ChangeWave in January 2008, shows that the percentage of customers who are "very satisfied" with Vista is dramatically lower than other operating systems, with Vista Home Basic at 15% and Vista Home Premium 27%, compared to the approximately 52% who say they are "very satisfied" with Windows XP and the 81% for Mac OS X Leopard.

The above ChangeWave study also showed a decrease in the percentage of businesses intending to buy a Windows-based PC, down from 96% to 93% between November 2005 and November 2007, partly due to Vista's reception. As of December 2007, small business adoption of Vista has been slower than expected, with the vast majority still favoring Windows XP and even waiting for Windows 7, Microsoft's next version of Windows then expected to be released in late 2009 or 2010. According to InformationWeek, in December 2006, 6% of business enterprises were expected to employ Vista within the first year, yet as of October 2007, only about 1% of enterprise PCs were actually using Vista.

after some looking, it seems now that even MS has said "Fuck it":

http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/35641/118/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Windows Vista successor scheduled for a H2 2009 release?

Chicago (IL) - Several industry sources have confirmed to TG Daily that a very early version of Windows 7, previously code-named Blackcomb Vienna, already has been shipped to “key partners” as a “Milestone 1” (M1) code drop for validation purposes. A roadmap received by TG Daily indicates that the new operating system will be introduced in the second half of 2009.

While it has generally been believed that Windows 7 was scheduled for a 2010 debut, Microsoft has revised the roadmap and apparently moved up the release date by a few months: A recently distributed roadmap of the OS lists a release to manufacturing in H2 2009. Microsoft declined to comment on this date.

The current M1 drop is available to Microsoft partners in English only and has shipped in x86 and x64 versions. An interesting feature that has been highlighted by Microsoft is the ability of the M1 software to handle a heterogeneous graphics system consisting of multiple graphics cards from different vendors. A new version of the Media center is already integrated in this software, but supports PC speakers only at this time.

If Microsoft will be able to keep the H2 2009 RTM (and most likely) release date in place, the company will have two busy. The M2 code drop is currently scheduled for April/May 2008, M3 will follow in the third quarter. The dates for the first Beta and the release candidate are still listed as “To be determined” but it doesn’t take much to see that the first beta versions could become available a year from now.

We will have more clarity on when we could see Windows 7 going into production when Microsoft announces Windows Logo Program Changes for Windows 7. According to the policy of the firm, these changes will be announced 18 months prior to the scheduled RTM.

There are very few pieces of information about Windows 7 and the features it will bring available at this time. So far, we have heard only about new touchscreen features as well as – and probably most interesting – MinWin, a much smaller kernel of the operating system that takes up only 40 MB of memory.

I've decided to skip Vista so I can get fucked over by the next system MS puts out. Hell, I bypassed 2000 and ME and didn't miss a damn thing.

[PSUFAN]

There is such a thing as Reading Too Many Reviews. In my experience, you can find a well-formulated review to suit your preconception if you look for it.

I was very skeptical of Vista, just like I was with XP. They had a lot of plans for Vista that they had to drop. In particular, back when they were calling it Longhorn and whispering in Intel's ear, they were fantasizing about locking up your motherboard when you popped in a CD or tried to use a file that wasn't on the "sanctioned" list. It appears that more level heads prevailed.

When I got a new PC recently I told myself I'd give it a shot, and step back to XP or Ubuntu Desktop if I wanted to. I've had absolutely no trouble. I haven't looked at a sentence of documentation - everything works as I have come to expect it, with some useful additions to the menus and options here and there. Managing default behavior for file types, in particular, seems to have been fixed. XP always seemed to balk at that task.

Like I said, Aero (the translucent interface)really wasn't doing much, and it doesn't play well with Macromedia Studio 8, so I disabled it, and everything flies.

As a part-time Luddite, I understand the thrill one gets at whacking shiny new pinatas. If that floats your boat, then cool...but if you are faced with a decision about Vista, then don't worry - just make sure you maximize your RAM (something we all want to do anyway, right?).

[Shlomart Ben Yisrael]

DRM = kiss my ass

[ElTaco]

MS is going to do two things. their first tactic is to focus on large partners to force them to switch over, which a large chunk will probably start by later this year. The second is kill XP as soon as they can so that they will not sell it on any new system. Considering that most enterprises generally run a 3 to 5 year replacement policy on laptops and PCs, I would say that you will start seeing it in more and more places. I personally am not rushing for multiple reasons. It does not offer anything over XP that I need or want. Lots of hardware that is more then 2 years old doesn't even support certain features of Vista and the requirements are so much higher it means an upgrade on a lot of machines (memory or video card are the big ones).

[Mister Bushice]

I'm looking at it more from personal exposure to problems with it. Every single one of the people who work for me who have upgraded to it have experienced problems of one type or another. One example is that it does not support or recognize adobe acrobat 6 professional, which we use extensively with XP with no problems.

[PSUFAN]

I think this might prove to be a good way of looking at it: You'd be daft to try to upgrade an older computer for Vista. If you have to get it because it is bundled with something new...then there isn't much to fear.

[ElTaco]

MS Upgrades are always bad. I would say that probably 30 to 40 percent of upgrades fail outright. Another 20 to 30 will have issues. I think from an enterprise perspective, that is not worth it. Now try explaining that to an executive.

[Dinsdale]

Hell, I bypassed 2000 and ME and didn't miss a damn thing.

2K Pro is/was a great OS, as far as MS goes. For the web-browsing/personal use PC, I'll stick with it until it doesn't work anymore... which I'm sure MS has in the works. Win2K definitely was a huge upgrade over 98, and 2K Server blew away everything before it.

[BSmack]

I finally bit the bullet and bought a new PC. Of course it has Vista Home bundled with it. So far I'm down. I've yet to have a single one of my old programs fail to install. Even Peer Guardian (who claims not to have a Vista update) installed without a hitch.

Oh, and having 8 times the processing power of my old machine doesn't suck much either. ;)