Vista: one month to go.

[Spazmogen]

Vista is set to roll out to the general public in 30 days.

What are your plans?

Are you going to upgrade to Vista this year or stay put?


Me: I'm undecided. I've used the Beta and it was slick, but I'm not sure there is enough there to get me to pry open the wallet.

[aviationwiz]

Well, I use Mac OS X for my main use on my desktop, and I just use Windows in a Virtual Machine for a few apps, and in Boot Camp for gaming (Flight Sim.)

Vista is a huge resource-hog, so no way in a virtual machine, and not in boot camp either, since DirectX 10 wouldn't benefit me...yet... maybe I'd upgrade if I had a DirectX 10 video card.

I wouldn't put it on my laptop either because it would probably hurt my battery life, slow down my system overall, and it wouldn't benefit me at all. It's a nice system too, an HP L2000 laptop.

[Ian]

I've been running the Enterprise version at work for about a month now. I won't upgrade my personal machines until I can get the Ultimate version.

Vista without the aero glass interface is no more a resource hot than XP.

[dolphinius_rex]

I'll probably buy a new system in 2007 which will include Vista I expect. But other then for HD content, I can't think of any reason why I'd want Vista.

[LoneWolf]

I've been running the Enterprise version at work for about a month now. I won't upgrade my personal machines until I can get the Ultimate version.

Vista without the aero glass interface is no more a resource hot than XP.

I'm running RC2 on the following specs at home:

P4 2.8GHz
768MB RAM (dual channel)
AIW Radeon 9700 128MB
120GB 7.2krpm Seagate IDE drive
Intel NIC + DLink Wireless PCI NIC

It's neat, but it doesn't seem all that praiseworthy to me. Maybe I haven't used it enough. It runs fine for all the basic everyday things, and I did like being able to quickly relocate all my home folders to a second partition (so that if I fool around and redo the OS, I don't have to backup first), but I find it hard to see any real benefits. Chances are I'll load MCE 2005 on that box when the timeout period occurs.

Ian, I'm curious: with Aero turned off (i.e., either Aero Basic or Classic interface) have you found anything that makes Vista a worthwhile upgrade over XP? Personally, I haven't seen that much to get excited about when compared to a fully patched XP-Pro SP2 install with WMP 11 and IE7. Then again, maybe there will be plusses revealed when Business/Enterprise versions are coupled with Longhorn Server.

[Ian]

Ian, I'm curious: with Aero turned off (i.e., either Aero Basic or Classic interface) have you found anything that makes Vista a worthwhile upgrade over XP? Personally, I haven't seen that much to get excited about when compared to a fully patched XP-Pro SP2 install with WMP 11 and IE7. Then again, maybe there will be plusses revealed when Business/Enterprise versions are coupled with Longhorn Server.

I think the security enhancements alone are worth upgrading. Then again, if you run as administrator, you might as well stick with XP as you're gonna be SOL eventually anyway.

Honestly though, if you have an older computer, stick with XP until you buy a new one. That way, you'll get the OS bundled with the computer and have hardware capable of running it well. Hopefully, we'll be seeing the new hard drives with memory built into them, as they're supposed to significantly boost performance with Vista.

[LoneWolf]

I think the security enhancements alone are worth upgrading. Then again, if you run as administrator, you might as well stick with XP as you're gonna be SOL eventually anyway.

Honestly though, if you have an older computer, stick with XP until you buy a new one. That way, you'll get the OS bundled with the computer and have hardware capable of running it well. Hopefully, we'll be seeing the new hard drives with memory built into them, as they're supposed to significantly boost performance with Vista.

I admit, while I shouldn't, I run as admin. Then again, I have Symantec AV Corporate and Windows Defender installed, I have the Windows firewall turned on, and I actively run PeerGuardian 2 to block IP's known to contain a lot of junk, and I browse with Firefox rather than IE. I think I've had one attempt at a malware addiction (didn't get very far) since I've had XP installed; it was during the pre-SP2 days. Since then, nothing.

When I obtain Vista, it'll be either through some sort of licensing agreement with work (which would get me Business or Enterprise), or through an academic purchase of Ultimate, or via a MS Action Pack. I build rather than buy machines, so I'll never be an OEM licensee; as for hardware (see sig) running it won't be an issue. That said, I think it'll be late `07 or early `08 before I consider it.

[Alejandra]

Well, I use Mac OS X for my main use on my desktop, and I just use Windows in a Virtual Machine for a few apps, and in Boot Camp for gaming (Flight Sim.)

Vista is a huge resource-hog, so no way in a virtual machine, and not in boot camp either, since DirectX 10 wouldn't benefit me...yet... maybe I'd upgrade if I had a DirectX 10 video card.

Me either, no V for me, I will switch to a Mac Pro and have XP virtualized for some apps. and maybe Boot Camp for games, don't know which ones though

[aviationwiz]

Me either, no V for me, I will switch to a Mac Pro and have XP virtualized for some apps. and maybe Boot Camp for games, don't know which ones though

Great choice! The Mac Pro is an awesome machine!