Vista (was Re: Re: [MAGNet] Dual-booting Macs in computer labs)

Roy A. Baril wrote:
>
> My Vista message:

There hasn't been much talk about Vista on this list so I'm
glad you brought this up.

> This new operating system (in my opinion) is more trouble than its worth. I
> have a working (not exactly) version in my office and it is really
> intolerable. Absolutely everything has changed. You will need to buy new
> hardware and software to upgrade and if you purchase a new PC with Vista
> installed, then you will have a very sharp learning curve to make things
> work the way you want.

When talking about Vista, or any other new operating system, it's
important to be objective.

The above statement, as a general claim, is clearly false. There are
many people, myself included, who run Vista on older hardware.
True, upgrading drivers is a real problem, but in my experience
the usermode software I run works as well on Vista as it does elsewhere.

> My recommendation is: Do not buy Vista. Do not upgrade to Vista. If
> you purchase a new PC, ask the vendor if you have a choice between
> Microsoft XP and Vista. If you do, get XP!

The recommendation I give is that if you're happy with XP on your
running system, there's no compelling reason to upgrade to Vista.
If you're getting a new system that comes with Vista, then chances
are the driver issue I mentioned above doesn't apply, so there's
nothing to fear with Vista. However, the one issue I agree with
is that the UI in Vista is different enough from XP that many
non-technical users might be confused. Microsoft didn't do for
Vista what they did for XP, which could be made to look just
like its predecessor OS (Windows 2000). However, this was
a deliberate choice so it shouldn't be a surprise to anybody.
(Indeed, I suspect the fact that Microsoft also made the same choice
with Office 2007 will have a much greater adverse effect.)

> As is typical to most Microsoft major updates, you will spend a lot of
> money to get your machine to accept the new operating system (new video
> cards,

Unless you're interested in the new Aero interface, this isn't true.

more memory, etc.),

True for memory. As far the "etc", Microsoft has a free program that
you can run on XP that will tell you what your hardware problems
will be so none of this will be a surprise. I don't know about you,
but it's the surprises that worry me the most.

> and you will probably have to replace several
> computer third party programs because of incompatibility.

Again, although this might be true in special cases, it's not
generally true.

> It is just not
> worth it right now. I have talked to several computer support people at
> different computer stores and none of them were able to answer any of my
> questions saying that the software was too new and they did not have
> enough experience in supporting it.

That only says something about how new Vista is, not how good (or bad)
it is.

> Possibly, in about 6-8 months, there will be a substantial user base
> and maybe alot of the problems will have been ironed out. But, I repeat,
> if possible, do not buy Vista!!"

It will be interesting to see how Vista matures, just as it will
be interesting to see how Mac OS X 10.5 matures, once it's released.
A major new OS release is nothing to take lightly, but the examination
of the new release should be based on easily verifiable facts,
not innuendo.

(This is being posted from my own 1 year old Dell currently
running Vista with absolutely no problems except a missing
3rd party driver.)

Cordially,

-- 
Jon Forrest
Unix Computing Support
College of Chemistry
173 Tan Hall
University of California Berkeley
Berkeley, CA
94720-1460
510-643-1032
jlforrest_at_berkeley.edu
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