I Love Vista
HI All,
New member here.
I have used XP Pro at home since before SP-1 on 2 laptops and 4 home made desktop computers. The desk top machines were complex and all ran great. Still use XP at work. I love XP.
I like Vista better. My home made Vista machine is still complex. I did have some trouble with older drivers and a couple of programs which did not run at all. Fortunately, they were not needed like Nero ROM Burning, for example, because Vista (unlike XP) has full featured media capability. In general, Vista found drivers without much effort from me. RAID 1 installed without a glitch on SATA 500 gig drives. I have one essential program, Maptech Terrain Navigator, which I have to run in XP compatability mode. But it does run and is functional.
In truth, this Vista installation on a new mother board and with new hard drives has been the most difficult, by far, of any of the machines I have built. I won't lie to you. However, the results of the effort is worth the trouble, IMO. Remember, Vista SP-1 is on the way and should fix problems that some are having. Personally, I'm not having any.
I find Vista faster than XP. I don't understand why some folks are saying that Vista is slower and that they are having lots of problems. I have to think it's because they are using outdated software and have not configured the hardware properly. Not that that's not important but, really, software does age and eventually has to be replaced. And it's not too much to ask that the hardware be set up properly.
I think having sufficient memory is important. I have 4 gigs. Also, I had problems with my original video board and had to replace it. I run dual monitors each with separate Look Up Tables for ICC color profiles which requires a specialized video card. My Vista machine is tailored for Photoshop which runs, starts and computes very quickly.
Not to be underestimated, I think Vista Aero is pretty and feels sophisticated. I know that's like saying a monkey wrench is pretty. But that's how I feel. At work, XP feels and looks like 1930's car by comparison.
Also, in a complex server based computing environment or on a LAN, Vista outruns XP by a bunch. This holds both for network set up and network security. Vista is much better. Sometimes Vista gets a little heavy handed with its warnings but if you are really bothered by this they can be disabled. Not a biggie. Once I had the machine set up, software installed, drivers downloaded and installed, the Vista UAC warnings reduced by an order of magnitude. I have re-enabled UAC.
All in all, I love Vista. Of couse I'm typing this on my Vista machine and smiling.
Sparky