Mister Catshit says:

My ma-in-law bought a new Laptop in June. She was having problems with it and I suggested she install a spare XP I had laying around. Being the woman she is, and it is under warranty, she returned it to the store and asked them to install XP. They did back in early November and she is happier than a pig in poop.

Dan says:

Dear Ed, aka #20 edit: OS’s are computer programs.
You fail at being a smartass!

JollyBengali says:

Vista Home Premium came installed on my laptop. I have been using it since February 2007. Here are the positives, in my experience.

1. Never crashed.
2. Most of my applications worked.
1. I enjoyed the new interface improvements.

Here’s what I didn’t like about Vista.

1. Very sluggish even with 2GB of RAM
2. Almost impossible to watch HD video content.
3. I found UAC to be extremely annoying. Surprisingly, the UAC counterpart in OS X doesn’t bother me at all.

I eventually realized that the new interface isn’t worth it and “upgraded” to Win XP Pro.
ALL, yes..all of them, work now. With 2GB RAM, XP works like a charm. I also have ZERO issues with HD video.

YMMV.

moflaherty says:

I am a shrink-wrap developer and I run Vista and XP on the same machine (not dual boot, but drive swapping. I will spare you the reasons.) I also have a Mac with Leopard, not for development but for music (Logic.)

Anyway, since the hardware is the same (including the model hard drive that I swap), it is interesting to me how much slower Vista is for some tasks. (I have 2.5g of RAM, a duo, and an XT850 video card.) I blame the drivers and the driver model. I am not complaining; I love the new start menu as well as some of the Aero features. But I have found some quirks. For example, Vista has a hard time starting when my secondary external hard drive is plugged in. If I power that off during the startup, then all is well. Otherwise, I have to wait for the driver to mount the drive which can take up to a minute if at all. Some of the print drivers don’t appear to work either. If I print a document out of Word 2007, I can’t specify the quantity—I always get one copy no matter what.

What I think is funny about all of this is how people forget history. I remember these same kinds of quirks when XP hit. For those of us who used Windows 2000 (or were dumb enough to use ME), XP was a quantum leap. It took time for the drivers to mature. Vista is the same way—it will take some time. I am curious to see what SP1 will fix, and I would venture that we will be more pleased with the outcome. Those of us early XP adopters suffered through the same pain—it took time.

Finally, to all of those Mac zealots who believe that Vista is a rip-off, I disagree completely. OS-X is a great piece of software, but there are clear differences. In fact, there are annoyances with OS-X that Microsoft has long since addressed that I wish Apple would fix. Yes, I can’t stand the user access security in Vista—Mac wins that hands down. I wish Microsoft would make that less obtrusive. Apple interface gurus understand what non-intrusive interface design means. However, I don’t believe Apple understands developers to this very day. Microsoft has always understood that “we” are what makes Windows #1. Though I love my Mac and my iPhone, I can’t figure out how anybody can make money writing software for them. Believe me, if the opportunity was there, I would be doing it. I tend to go where the money is—Microsoft is that path and has been since the early 90s. Until Apple embraces us, they will remain a great platform for hobbyists like me.

So Vista is like anything else Microsoft produces—it is a love-hate relationship. But it is still a relationship with benefits, and I do believe it will only get better.

Michael

Mike Voice says:

#37 Though I love my Mac and my iPhone, I can’t figure out how anybody can make money writing software for them. Believe me, if the opportunity was there, I would be doing it.

Apple has had mixed results trying to walk that line since the first Macs shipped with MacWrite & MacPaint…

They spun-off Filemaker, and dropped Write & Paint… but with market share so low – reversed that trend when thy released the iLife apps: iTunes, iPhoto, Garageband, iMovie, iDVD.

Nice to see the “core” functions being put to use by third-parties… i.e. webkit being used for browser functions, Core Graphics resulting in some new photo-editing apps, etc

Leopard’s problems can probably be traced to Apple delaying the release, so they could shift engineers to getting the iPhone out the door – and then throwing engineers back onto Leopard to meet it’s revised shipping date.

My Mom’s & Sister-in-law’s complaints about Vista seem to center around the idea that it forces them to do things differently than XP – when they had no complaints about XP.

The only reason they use Vista is because they were dumb enough to buy a new machine after Vista was released.

In hindsight, they would have both bought a new machine just before Vista shipped.

Sunni Pautler says:

thanks, will check back sometime, have bookmarked you for now.