vista rant

[her34]

my issue with vista is that there aren't any compelling reasons to use it other than for 4gb ram.

let's look at the positive points:

1) dx10
this won't matter for a year or two. even then it will matter to a very small community

2) aero
it's sleek, but a theme is not a reason to upgrade OS.

the thing i hate is that you only get one color choice for taskbar: black. it's too dark and makes icons hard to see because of lack of contrast. they have a whole nice interface for changing the color of your window (which only slightly affects the taskbar) but only 1 taskbar color. users shouldn't have to use a hack to change just that.

3) security
everything being sandboxed makes a system more stable. uac does add more security despite it's annoyances. but xp is secure and stable enough.

when xp was advertised as more stable it was needed since win95/98/me did crash and cause problems. but xp is good enough. the more that vista offers is nice but not compelling enough to upgrade for. when's the last time you had a bsod of infection that vista would have prevented?

4) superfetch/readyboost
this is nice but again, not compelling. saving 5 seconds when you open an application isn't reason enough to use a new OS. loading time is such a small aspect of computing to improve on. average people aren't opening apps all the time.

the area where superfetching would be more useful is gaming. that's a situation where loading is annoyingly long and superfetching the next level/map/area would be nice.

but saving a few seconds off internet browser or office or email reader isn't stunning.



the big negative is that everything takes more clicks to do in vista. they added more menus and dialog boxes and warnings, that just basically mean more clicks than in xp.

this is the same problem in office 2007. having a fully customizable toolbar in previous office versions lets any command be accessed with 1 click. but now in 2007 you have to always click on a ribbon before getting the command. heaven forbid two commands you want are on different ribbons, and you'll have to click back and forth between ribbons all the time.

 

[Pwnbroker]

Office'07 don't have keyboard shortcuts?

If Vista turns out to be ME in disguise, I'll never buy windows again. Swear it. Only reason I'm still using windows is for gaming, and I'm losing interest fast. I can't afford to spend 1-2k every couple of years to stay on top of the gaming technology. Not to mention, pc games are starting to get as expensive as console games. Flight Sim X is $70!!! and there are at least 4 other games weighing in at $50. I want Oblivion, but I'm not paying that much for it. I'll wait a couple years or three and buy it at $30. Guess they are using piracy as an excuse to rob the people who pay for the games. Not to mention the trend towards pay-to-play games. I tried that once, and never again. Who in their right f**king mind will pay 50 bucks for a game and then another 20 bucks a month for the privelege to play it??? The world's gone crazy!

 

[stash]

this is the same problem in office 2007. having a fully customizable toolbar in previous office versions lets any command be accessed with 1 click. but now in 2007 you have to always click on a ribbon before getting the command. heaven forbid two commands you want are on different ribbons, and you'll have to click back and forth between ribbons all the time.

Have you looked at the Quick Access Toolbar?

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/HA012341051033.aspx

 

[theNEOone]

Originally posted by: stash

this is the same problem in office 2007. having a fully customizable toolbar in previous office versions lets any command be accessed with 1 click. but now in 2007 you have to always click on a ribbon before getting the command. heaven forbid two commands you want are on different ribbons, and you'll have to click back and forth between ribbons all the time.

Have you looked at the Quick Access Toolbar?

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/HA012341051033.aspx

yah, no kidding....have you even used office?

i think it's way more customizable than the old office in that you can tailor it more closely to your own usage. i love the new office suite...


=|

 

[stash]

but xp is secure and stable enough.

Stable, yes. Secure? No way. Not out of the box, even with SP2. Way too difficult to run as a standard user on XP, so most people run as admin all the time. Which is a really great way to get owned.

 

[her34]

Originally posted by: stash

this is the same problem in office 2007. having a fully customizable toolbar in previous office versions lets any command be accessed with 1 click. but now in 2007 you have to always click on a ribbon before getting the command. heaven forbid two commands you want are on different ribbons, and you'll have to click back and forth between ribbons all the time.

Have you looked at the Quick Access Toolbar?

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/HA012341051033.aspx

 

[her34]

Originally posted by: stash

but xp is secure and stable enough.

Stable, yes. Secure? No way. Not out of the box, even with SP2. Way too difficult to run as a standard user on XP, so most people run as admin all the time. Which is a really great way to get owned.

when was the last time you got owned and vista would have prevented it?

 

[Sunner]

If anything, it sounds like you should be happy about saving $100-$400.

First time I've ever heard someone being unhappy about being happy about what they have...

 

[xSauronx]

Originally posted by: Pwnbroker
Office'07 don't have keyboard shortcuts?

If Vista turns out to be ME in disguise, I'll never buy windows again. Swear it. Only reason I'm still using windows is for gaming, and I'm losing interest fast. I can't afford to spend 1-2k every couple of years to stay on top of the gaming technology. Not to mention, pc games are starting to get as expensive as console games. Flight Sim X is $70!!! and there are at least 4 other games weighing in at $50. I want Oblivion, but I'm not paying that much for it. I'll wait a couple years or three and buy it at $30. Guess they are using piracy as an excuse to rob the people who pay for the games. Not to mention the trend towards pay-to-play games. I tried that once, and never again. Who in their right f**king mind will pay 50 bucks for a game and then another 20 bucks a month for the privelege to play it??? The world's gone crazy!

you can get oblivion at 30 bucks or less in fs/t easily
i got tired of keeping up with pc gaming myself, too pricey, i bought gamecube a year ago, i had stopped gaming so much anyway, and theyre cheap, games are cheap, theres alot of good ones, and theyre easy to come by.

i do sometimes miss a good shooter, however.

as for vista...i have it on a laptop i just bought, ive hardly used it. ill be putting linux of some sort on it soon.

 

[ShawnD1]

Originally posted by: her34
4) superfetch/readyboost
this is nice but again, not compelling. saving 5 seconds when you open an application isn't reason enough to use a new OS. loading time is such a small aspect of computing to improve on. average people aren't opening apps all the time.

Your opinion has a bias because you are a nerd who leaves his computer on.
Windows XP had a feature called "Prefetch" where it would not clear the ram after you close a program. What that means is you can close Firefox and immediately boot it up again with almost no load time. Same deal with Word, Excel, IE, and other programs. Windows XP is very fast if you leave the computer running all the time, but it's incredibly slow if you turn it on and off like the average idiot does. Superfetch was designed for those idiots, not you.

 

[nerp]

Well, superfetch provides noticable advantages even for people who leave their machines running all the time. Superfetch is a heck of a lot more intelligent than prefetch is. It not only gradually optimizes itself over time, even if your usage changes all the time, but it's a lot smarter with loading/unloading. Prefetch doesn't use low priority IO, just for starters.

 

[stash]

Originally posted by: her34

Originally posted by: stash

but xp is secure and stable enough.

Stable, yes. Secure? No way. Not out of the box, even with SP2. Way too difficult to run as a standard user on XP, so most people run as admin all the time. Which is a really great way to get owned.

when was the last time you got owned and vista would have prevented it?

Me? Probably never. But I ran as a standard user on XP for several years.

But I can think of many times among my friends and family where they would've been safer wtih Vista. They probably would've been safer with a standard user on XP, but there were just too many issues with that on XP for me to really recommend it to them.

 

[Nothinman]

my issue with vista is that there aren't any compelling reasons to use it other than for 4gb ram.

That's not even a valid reason, 32-bit Vista is just as artificially limited with regards to physical memory as 32-bit XP is.

But really, who cares? If you don't want to run Vista then don't, there's no one forcing you to use it, right?

 

[Hyperblaze]

Bottom line is: You can run Windows XP for as long as you want. No one will force you to upgrade to Vista. However, sooner or later, Microsoft will stop supporting bug/security fixes for Windows XP. When that happens, your current operating system will no longer be able to keep abreast to all of the future discovered vulnerabilities.

If you don't want to spend money on buying Windows Vista, there ARE alternatives. I'm unaware of how familiar you are with other operating systems, but feel free to check them out.