My confession

[PaulQ]

I decided to return to this century and buy a new laptop computer. I'm taking some on-line courses, and wanted to be able to study them wherever I was. I ended up with a Compaq Presario C700, which was $250 off because it was open box and on clearance. It had never been used. It has a Pentium dual core processor, DVD-ROM drive with light scribe, wide screen display...and Windows Vista Home Premium.

I confess, I like Windows Vista. Well, at least this version; I haven't tried any of the others. Between the Mac commercials and anti-Microsoft web blogs, I thought I'd be spending the day installing Ubuntu or at least Windows XP. Thus far, I have no desire to do so. I did install Firefox, and there is an icon in my programs menu to get Openoffice. I'm pleased with the interface and overall performance so far.

The laptop itself consumes only 65 watts of electricity, so it goes well with my energy conservation theme. It replaces my desktop for most of my needs, except for the fact that it doesn't have Firewire. I need that for my camcorder still. Other than that, I can plug in my Model M keyboard, Logitech trackball, and my 21" Trinitron monitor for a better desktop experience.

I also broke down and replaced my wired router with a wireless one; again, a great price, on for half of the regular price. I did this since my new notebook has wireless built in. It also goes along with my conservation theme; I used to have a separate hub to provide access points downstairs that I don't need now with wireless. Now I can visit Denial while on the toilet. Well, I suppose I could have done that before, but it's a lot easier to do now. Yes, before you ask, I secured my wireless network.

It's not my first notebook, but it's the first one that's completely free of legacy hardware. It's making me seriously consider ditching the desktop and all the old legacy hardware (well, except for Model M) and free up some space for my Commodores.

[pitcalco]

Your confession was sincere. Don't you feel cleansed?

Now, my son, I absolve you of your sins. Say three Hail Marys and go and sin no more.

[PaulQ]

Does this mean I get to use Windows Vista guilt-free now?

[pitcalco]

Does this mean I get to use Windows Vista guilt-free now?

Ah, no. That's not how it works, unless you want to purchase an indulgence.

Next time you use Vista, come and confess again to gain absolution.

See you in the confessional next week.

[nbla000]

I confess, I like Windows Vista.

I really don't like it

It's really sloooooow and after an hour of windows fades and transparency i get insane and my eyes are like these -->

The explorer window lack of a lot of useful buttons and functions, only use back and forward and i cannot customize it, some power tools are missing and the UAC User Account Control is simply ridiculous.

For example have you never tried on Win95/98/me/nt/xp to hold CTRL key and double click to a folder, it open this folder to a new windows, try this with vista, simply doesn't work.
Have you never customized file associations ? Tools --> Folder Options --> File Types, Vista has not this function.

I may remove all fades, transparency and UAC but i cannot replace missing functions, but first of all is slooooow.

For my work i often install specific software on just buyed machines: HP, Acer, IBM, Dell and i will assure you that to work with vista is frustrating, operation done in 10 minutes on XP requires 20 on Vista even with service pack 1 installed.

I wait Windows 7 and use Windows XP for my desktop, Ubuntu Linux 8.04 is a good choice for standard desktop operations if you have an old machine.

[PaulQ]

I find it not slow at all. If anything, it's quicker than my Windows XP box. Quicker to boot, quicker to launch programs, and just very responsive overall. My XP box is an Athlon XP running at 1.1Ghz with 2GB of RAM; while my Vista system has a 1.6Ghz Intel dual core processor with 1GB of RAM. Even though my XP machine just got a brand new video card, the screen and graphics update a lot faster in Vista, for sure!

I just tried the CTRL-double click in Vista, and it worked exactly as it should (opened the folder in a new window). Changing file type associations was very easy; simply right click on the item, and select "Open with..."

As for the UAC, I haven't seen it once today. I saw it a few times when I first started using the system, but it didn't seem at all overbearing to me. Now that I've been using it for a couple of weeks, I rarely ever see it at all.

It sounds to me like you haven't really used Windows Vista at all, nbla000.

Here's a good review on the truth about Windows Vista:

http://hfboards.com/showthread.php?t=522897

As for Pitcalco, what are the steps to being excommunicated?

[pitcalco]

As for Pitcalco, what are the steps to being excommunicated?

Trust me, you are well on your way

[PaulQ]

I don't think the novelty of Flip 3D will ever wear off...

[PaulQ]

More myths debunked:

http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/51 ... ed&subj=tr

Am I there yet?

[nippur72]

I agree with nbla000, after hours of use the eye-candy effects make you have an headache.

Here at work I once tried to migrate from an XP based Acer laptop to a Vista based full featured HP laptop. Well, I zipped my "Documents" folder on the Acer, burned it on a DVD and transferred on the HP. It was a 2 GB file. But when I tried to decompress it (both with WinZip or with system's "compressed folder") it said me it would take "23 hours to go". I left it decompressing for a while to get a more accurate time estimate, but after an half hour it was still around 23 hours. Really crazy.

The next thing I did was to erase Vista from the laptop. It took some time, but it was worth the effort.

[gklinger]

I don't trust anything that doesn't have UNIX under the hood. That's my problem with Windows in all its various flavours. I never really know what's going on and I'm afraid of what I don't is happening...

At the end of the day, if the operator is happy I figure it's all good.

[Boray]

while my Vista system has a 1.6Ghz Intel dual core processor with 1GB of RAM.

Put in another GB so you have 2GB and it will be faster! I did that and noticed that it got faster. The performance number for the memory got higher too.

I have Windows Vista Basic on an AMD Athlon 3800+ (2.4GHz). My mother has Vista Premium on an Intel Dual core 1.73GHz. She gets a higher number on the processor performance number, but it seems some things are faster on hers and some things are faster on mine.

Btw, Windows Vista is the best OS I've ever used. I also use Firefox with it. Other OS's I've used are AmigaDos 1.3 to 3.9, Windows 3, 95, 98, ME, Different Unix versions between 1993-1998.

[AmiDog]

I'm trying to live with Vista (Home Premium) myself as it came preinstalled on my laptop, and I haven't felt like spending a day or so trying to find XP drivers for it... After setting everything to classic theme and disabling all those extremely annoying "security" warnings you get all the time, it's atleast semi-usefull now. Only the Explorer is still completely messed up, but I'm trying to live with that for now.

I personally think the path W95 -> W98 -> W2k was a positive one which actually added stability and usefullness, but the -> XP -> Vista has thus far not really added any value. I was using W2k until it was time for the regular reinstall (as you always have to do like once a year as Windows gets slower and slower all by itself) a year ago and M$ had decided to more or less stop fixing security issues in W2k.

[nbla000]

I just tried the CTRL-double click in Vista, and it worked exactly as it should (opened the folder in a new window).

Right, it is a service pack 1 implementation....

Changing file type associations was very easy; simply right click on the item, and select "Open with..."

No, this function is present on WinXP too, i intend a very useful function, at least for power user, on XP Tools--> Folder Options --> File Types you may change everything of your file association, add more command etc etc., not just change the program to open with.
For example by clicking the right button above a PRG file my contextual menu says:
Open C64
Open Vic
Open Vic+3K
Open Vic full

As for the UAC, I haven't seen it once today. Now that I've been using it for a couple of weeks, I rarely ever see it at all.

Maybe you don't use programs that Vista thinks are dangerous for you,

The general Vista impression is that is born for newbie users, to prevent that they damages things.

I think is a wrong approach for an OS, we need to invest on users training, a lot of user for example surf the web without a firewall, it's a suicide, virus, spyware, troians may infect your machine in a few minutes.

It sounds to me like you haven't really used Windows Vista at all, nbla000.

I use vista at work from April 2007, and for my work i manage PCs everyday, i'm a software hotline assistant too, i think is enough to evaluate an OS....

btw i don't want to start a war, i'm happy that there are users that like Vista, i simply don't like it for a lot of reasons....

It said me it would take "23 hours to go".

Maybe it is an italian version problem

The next thing I did was to erase Vista from the laptop. It took some time, but it was worth the effort.

Only the Explorer is still completely messed up, but I'm trying to live with that for now.

I agree but i don't want to live with that.

[6502dude]

Hasn't Vista been discontinued?