Your 2cents on Vista - what sucks, what rocks? Why I shouldn't upgrade yet?
By plocky
@plocky (40)
Philippines
February 4, 2007 11:54am CST
I'm planning to upgrade to Windows Vista soon. However, I am clueless as to what Vista has to offer over Windows XP, aside from "it's the new thing".
This is a very big decision for me since I use my computer a lot for work and the internet, and I want to be sure it's the right investment at this time (meaning, it won't cause major problems for me). It took me awhile to give up Windows 98 for XP. As a matter of fact, I waited 'til Service Pack 2 for XP to come out before I upgraded. I had no choice back then becasue most of the programs I planned to use and the games I wanted to play would only run efficiently in XP or 2000.
I'd like to hear from those of you who have Vista as their current OS, have used it on some other computer, or have gotten wind on some info/feedback about it. It'll help me decide whether to upgrade now, wait 'til the "service packs" come out, or wait 'til I have little choice left.
Here's my rig:
AMD Sempron 2800 processor
512Mb DDR400 memory
Nvidia Geforce 7100 128Mb DDR-128bit video card
180Gb 7200rpm hard disk (50Gb left)
Realtek 5.1channel audio
1 person likes this
5 responses
@RNcorrupted (191)
• Philippines
8 Feb 07
I suggest not to jump to the bandwagon so soon. If you will remember, Windows XP have some problems with its first release and I expect Vista will have some of that when it will come to the end-user.
I have read plenty of article regarding vista and xp because I was planning to get that free premium upgrade but I decided to postpone it and maybe get my copy next year where glitches will be minimized because the first users experienced it.
Another review made is the XP is the most stable windows now available. And if the difference is just in the GUI and the Aero thingy, I can live up without it. I have IE 7 and WMP 11, updates for Vista but available in XP.
My advice is, skip the first year (where problems crop up like mushrooms) then upgrade next year.
Just my 2 cents.
@plocky (40)
• Philippines
9 Feb 07
Thanks for the advice. Come to think of it, I think I'm just gonna beef up my XP - do a clean reinstall, dnload all the latest patches and updates, and put in some major add-ons. That'll keep me loving XP until I hear that Vista rocks (if it ever comes to that, LOL).
@Myrrdin (3599)
• Canada
8 Feb 07
I won't be upgrading until at least one service pack comes out. I never trust the first release, too many bugs. Micro$oft always rushes the production to meet release dates, they never do enough testing. Of course I generally use a Mac now and not a PC, but I still have a PC at home.
1 person likes this
@plocky (40)
• Philippines
9 Feb 07
Yes, your right about MS rushing to meet release dates. Now if only all my apps and games would run in Mac OS, that would be the day! LOL. I love using the Mac, so easy and yet so powerful. I've never had to do a lot of restarts in a Mac, unlike Windows, when eventually you run out of resources and it slows down til you have no choice but to dump memory, end tasks/processes, or restart the PC.
@encounterking (264)
• India
5 Feb 07
u ve a pretty good config but u may want to upgrade ur ram by adding another 512 coz the minimum is 512 and hey i dont think it would be a good idea to upgrade so soon as it has just been launched jus wait for a lil while let the bugs come out there will be loads it which may be discovered in the coming months so wats the hurry??
@plocky (40)
• Philippines
8 Feb 07
I got to play with Vista on a friend's PC which has almost the same specs as mine. You're right, the minimum 512Mb basic requirement for memory just doesn't cut. It loads Vista just fine, but when I start usng applications and games, it almost slows down to a crawl. Really frustrating when you're playing games or re-encoding/decoding video files. The security interface shell also has annoying glitches every time I change system and network settings. I'll wait till Microsoft irons these out and release a major update/patch/service pack.
@Destiny007 (5805)
• United States
5 Feb 07
I suggest you try Tomshardware.com. There is a very good review there.
To Summarize, no OpenGL support, some video drivers not compatable yet, I believe Nvidia was one mentioned.
To be right honest, I saw nothing that really warranted a change. From what I remember of the article, some things ran a bit faster, there was a bit more eye-candy but there wasn't that much inmprovement. I think you might want to add a bit of memory too. It uses more resources.
Do yourself a favor and checkout the article. Then you should have a better idea as to what you want to do.
@plocky (40)
• Philippines
8 Feb 07
I've frequented tomshardware.com in the past. That was the place that got me started with computers since the days of the Coppermine Pentium 3's. I appreciate you reminding me of it, it's been awhile since I went there for reference. A lot has changed on the site, it got "commercialized", if I may say so. But of course, Tom Pabst wouldn't be able to sustain that site without revenue, lolz.
I got a lot of data on the site's reviews and benchmarks of Vista, including the system requirements, features and, even some glitches. Looks like I might be keeping XP for awhile before I migrate to Vista. Appreciate the reference, Destiny007.
@Seattle2007 (344)
• United States
5 Feb 07
Hi there...I would highly encourage waiting 6 months before considering an upgrade. The Home Basic Vista product doesn't look any different than the current Xp and to noticeably see the new features you need to purchase the Home Premium or Home Ultimate.
Source:
I work as a consulting sub-contractor for Microsoft at their main campus in Redmond, WA
1 person likes this
@plocky (40)
• Philippines
8 Feb 07
Wow! This is really helpful, coming from someone who has more-or-less direct interaction with the research and development of Vista. Looks like the Home Basic version is like what Windows ME was to Windows 98. I will definitely be going for the Ultimate when I do decide to switch platform. More power and good luck to making Windows a "necessary evil" in our lives, haha! Keep up the good work!
