Warning about Windows Vista

Serves you right for listening to the M$ propaganda machine instead of doing your due diligence... The Vista Failure Log

...and researching the multitude of compatibility problems you can expect with a new M$ OS is SOP.

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See "Linux"/"WINE" (below). "VirtualBox" too.

Zero-cost alternative to try:

Already well know by anyone paying attention to the tech press. "The Vista Death Watch" by John C. Dvorak

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-Macs-in-use+Microsoft-should-have-scr=apped-*-*-*-*-*+*-*-manufacturers-squawked+turkey+expensive+*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*=-*-*-*-*-*-gutted+XP+*-after-*-delays-*-*-*-*.*-*+The.Vista.Death.Watch+*-*=-*-*-*-Windows-ME.*-*&strip=3D1

...or investigate avoiding the Borg completely:

(WINE handles Windoze-compatible apps better than M$ does) "Linux Has Better Windows Compatibility Than Vista" 't.run.under.Vista+inc+shocked.me+but.did.in.Linux+how.easy.it.was.to.fin=d+Without.Cedega#22271678"Even Wine is more Windows compatible than Vista" Paul Hovnanian and Ken Smith *-*-*-*-is-faster+LTspice+*-well-written=-Windows-programs-work-*-*-under-Wine+than-*-XP+than-Vista+Even.WINE.is.mor=e.Windows-compatible ...or use your old (9x/W2k) non-product-activation version in a _virtual_ environment: (Has the added advantage that all infections go *poof* when you close the session.)

Preaching to the choir.

BOTH Windows Vista Ultimate and Windows 7 works fine for me, and both have done so since they were beta releases. I have never had a problem with Vista, and now Windows 7 is Vista re-done to run a bit better, and attempt to quiet those that are too retarded to read a minimum requirements list.

I don't know if Windows Vista Ultimate is any better at 1 GB than Home Basic is at 512MB, but I can assure you the true minimum system requirement is much more machine than Microsoft says for Home Basic.

But there are also many many compatibility issues, to the point that most businesses have never accepted any version of Vista. It won't run many groups of applications that need to be inter-operable. Vista restricts the ability of programs to call each other, which was/is an outstanding feature of XP. So 90% of businesses that run any kind of Windows run XP only. IT departments have checked it out and concluded it's not an adequate replacement for XP, no matter how pretty the graphics look.

| I have been running an online business for 10 years using Windows 95 | to XP and now have tried to use Vista for about two weeks. It is | absolutely the sorriest piece of shit ever put in a computer. Nothing | works right. I have had to upgrade, and upgrade software so far | costing over $800 and it still does not perform. Everything from | PowerPoint not shutting down to email not working to programs | disappearing when you have several applications open. This software | is crap and I mean crap. If you buy a new computer make damn sure it | is loaded with Windows XP SP2 if you are going to use Windows. | Whatever you do, do not buy a computer with Windows Vista Home | Premium!

Do not buy an UNDERPOWERED system with Windiws Vista. You need at least 3GB of RAM and at least a dual 2.4 GHz CPU. A good video card is definitely an essential component. Otherwise shut off that glassy-eyed look they turn on by default.

People who know me know I am a big advocate for Linux. But I have used Windows for a few things since Windows 3.1 and have always managed to get it to work. It takes some effort in some cases, unfortunately. Often times it require more resources than the minimum requirements specify (especially on the machines I was using Lotus Notes, MS Project, and Visio at the same time).

I remember a situation I had at one job where I spent 3 days re-installing Windows 95 because I kept finding issues, and figuring out what resource was a culprit. Software needed to be installed in a specific order to work best. I also needed to partition the disk in a specific way (not just C: and D: but also E: and F: as backups) and with specific sizes. After several bad installs I finally got a stable Windows 95 system that never crashed. Turns out when I left it on overnight (which I did a lot), it did not log out of the company Novell servers, held files open as a result, and blocked the daily backups. No one had ever known that would be an issue because no one had Windows that would stay up longer than 2 or 3 days.

And by all means do NOT ever let Windows get to, and especially not be accessible from, the Internet. I read ALL my email in Linux, never Windows. I use Windows for Visio and testing my web programming in Internet Explorer (via a test server on my LAN). Everything else I do in Linux or occaisionally in OpenBSD.

Funny that MS offers a free downgrade option to Win XP from Win Vista Professional. I bought 3 PC's with Win Vista and had all kinds of issues. Fortunately, Win XP drivers were available, so now I am happy with Win XP SP3 on all

3 machines. I don't know which XP problem Win Vista solves, but certainly not mine.

| Funny that MS offers a free downgrade option to Win XP from Win Vista | Professional.

It's not free. At least not in all cases. That's why there's a lawsuit against MSFT.

| I bought 3 PC's with Win Vista and had all kinds of issues. Fortunately, | Win XP drivers were available, so now I am happy with Win XP SP3 on all | 3 machines. I don't know which XP problem Win Vista solves, but | certainly not mine.

It's solves Microsoft's revenue depletion crisis.

Well after upgrading to Vista Ultimate I can now fax. It took about 3 hours for the upgrade to take place right off the DVD disc with no downloading! It only took 2 hours to find why Vista ultimate blocked access to all my My directories like My Documents. It moved the contents to C:\users\name of user\documents How about that? Those sly little India programmers, they just don't have a clue about using a computer to run a business. Now the fax appears in all the print options. Funny, why would HP put a fax card in a machine using Vista Home Premium when it would not let me fax? Anyway, I now have a $240 upgrade that allows me to fax with my computer. Hell,I could have bought a scanner/printer/copier/fax machine for less than that. With the Office for business upgrade and the Vista upgrade I have spent $580 to make this computer do business. This was a deliberate attempt by Microsoft to make sure you cannot use low end products to run a business. They are soo smart. Open Office is looking better and better. These MS people had better watch out, there are other systems out there and I am about to take the leap.

f you post to =A0|

ASAP. =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0|

I have a Pentium quad with 3 gigs of ram. That is not the problem.

Not free. Dell used to offer this for $50 (June 2008).

Now it's $150 (since December 2008). How corrupt is the anti-competitive American commerce system when a corporation can force you to buy something you don't want in order to get something you do want?

I thought it was supposed to be security vulnerabilities. As a practical matter, Vista protects businesses from being able to run many of the applications on which they have built their core processes.

I don't know about Vista Ultimate, but that's not true of Windows Vista Home Basic. I have that running on a 1.8GHz Intel dual core machine (a MacBook) with 2GB or RAM and it runs OK ... for Vista. It's still a pain compared to XP, but it doesn't have excessive lags and it almost never swaps unless I load a boatload of applications. It might be OK at

1 GB. It didn't work at 512MB, though Microsoft claimed it would.

For business, that should be default. Business users want their computers to work, not necessarily look pretty.

Microsoft describes the minimum system on which software will run AT ALL as the minimum configuration. They do not take into account being able to run other programs at the same time. That's essential for operating systems, but they don't tell you that.

Thats excessive paranoia. Windows plus a decent firewall and decent antivirus software plus a cautious user is reasonable protection.

Heck, my KIDS use my computer as a Windows machine and haven't screwed it up in over a year, and they are about as security savvy as a screwdriver.

It's probably simply incompatibility of some of your apps with Vista. It may be that some of them can be patched with new drivers.

Did you do a complete system backup before you switched? You should have. If you did, just restore the backup and go back to XP.

I talked to a reliable person who told me that a major company that purchased Vista had it taken out of all their computers and reinstalled XP. I learned today that Vista Ultimate that I installed locks all the fies to the user unless they are designated share for everyone. What a bitch. I was transferring from the Vista machine to the Xp via exteranl harddrive when I could not see the files with the XP. After several hours I learned how to unlock the files. The major company that trashed Vista said that production time was cut because of so many problems with Vista. Visual Studio 2008 pro that ran in Vista Home Premium will not run in Vista Ultimate after the upgrade. Also, it will not uninstall. Just a litlle bit more that they forgot about at MS. My next computer will nto have Vista in it.