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I got the OS on the day of release and I am happy. And I know at least 100 people at my school that also made the change and they also are happy with VISTA.

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Heyall NO!!! The OS makes good PCs operate poorly and has a lot of features that you won't even use. I've had to remove it off two systems already and the whole experience has driven me to use Ubuntu on one of my computers. I figured if I'm going to have problems with an OS at least I will have a legion of people online that can help me.

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To me vista does not offer anything xp did not do already.

Actually, my disapointment with vista was what finally convinced me to switch to ubuntu. I know linux is not for everyone, but for me ubuntu is far superior, efficient and easy to use than vista.

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Don't upgrade your existing PC but don't avoid buying a Vista one is my solution.

Vista doesn't offer enough to justify upgrading a current PC, especially since it has greater hardware needs.

BUT, I use it and its perfectly stable, the UI is nice and the few features it does add, are good. So it would be quite stupid to buy an XP PC, unless you're going extremely low-end (512MB memory) then get Vista!

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I also bought Vista for home and work immediately upon release. I'm generally happy with it at home, but I've gone back and forth at work. I manage 3,000 desktops and 100 servers so not being able to use all of the MS management tools on Vista is a massive inconvenience. I've done the "hacks" to get the 2003 SP1 admin pack working but all of the snap-ins still don't run. I need to leave a virtual machine running XP up all day or run the programs as published apps from Citrix. I finally reinstalled XP at work last weekend and I'm planning on leaving it on for the foreseeable future. It's great to have all of programs running properly again.

As a side note, I'm not planning on deploying Vista anywhere at work for at least another year. When we buy new machines, we purchase a Vista license and then reinstall XP Pro with our volume license.

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"Now what does that say about a new OS compared to a six year old one?"

It says that the decade old business plan of "locking" everyone into a single vendor desktop operating system ( where all applications are dependent on low level resources instead of residing in kernel ) is officially dead.

Everyday across the globe, thousands switch to one of the Open Source distros of Linux everyday - NO ONE ever switches from Linux to Windows. Extrapolate this out a few years and we will all finally be free of Redmond's grip.

Windows is dead. The Zune failed. Vista is the biggest product failure in history ( based on development time and costs ). You had a good run Mr. Gates, time to close up shop and go home.

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For the average computer user who has learned how to use XP, Vista would be a mistake as Vista inexplicably changes the UI. Nothing new there, MS does that routinely. And what do you get for your trouble if you do go with Vista, a buggier experience. For example, XP is not great with going in and out of sleep, but it does not completely wig-out the system the way Vista can. So why 'upgrade' to a less stable OS?

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"...NO ONE ever switches from Linux to Windows."

I actually did. I do like Linux, but some of my hardware-- my printer and my graphic tablet-- isn't compatable, and I had to keep Windows around for games. I dual-booted XP and Ubuntu for about six months and found Ubunu very fun to use, but went back to just Windows because rebooting every time I wanted to print something got annoying fast.

If I ever get a new printer, I'll be sure to get one with Linu drivers and try it again.

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I switched to Vista on my main pc about four or five months ago. I have not regretted it at all. The system runs great, I don't have any problems doing what I need to do, and all the programs I use are compatible with Vista. I think the "hardest" thing I had to figure was if my TV tuner had new Vista drivers.

XP is a good operating system. XP has been around for quite some time, and many corporations aren't like many customers which have to have the newest and the best. Why aren't XP users buying Vista? I'd probably wager price. With the exception of the people who are comfortable with tinkering with their pc, most people aren't going to be looking at all the information, they will be looking at price. And why pay for a new OS when theres works the way it needs to?

"thousands switch to one of the Open Source distros of Linux everyday"

But it isn't the thousands of people that will really need to switch to spell doom for Microsoft or Apple. If Redmond or Cupertino were to get scared, it would have to be millions, and the installation process would have to be completely painless. No messing about with partitions, no "live" cds, a truly painless installation process. I've tried getting some of my friends to switch to Ubuntu, but to the most of my friends, what's the point? The OS they have works, and it works for them well.

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@Bryan

Obviously your friends are using pirated copies of XP and Vista.

The "point" is Ubuntu is $0.00 forever. Vista is $239.00 per person. And you have to buy a unique, licensed copy of each person that wants to play Halo 3 inside the same house.

Any other questions?

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Avoid Vista until the Service pack.

I got a new Lenovo T61 laptop from work. Vista preinstalled. Every day I have to do the following dance:

1. deliberately boot into safe mode
2. uninstall the video driver
3. reboot normally

If I don't do this, the screen is totally dark. Noises and such tell me that the OS is booting but invisibly. There is a fundamental problem in the interface between the OS and the video driver. Who knows which is to blame? But this is absolutely not an unusual hardware configuration, so lack of operability implies everyone is going to have issues.

Crapware. Avoid. Give it time to mature.

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avoid Vista, that is all.

No service pack, no patches, just say no.

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Bottom Line: Vista is OK for you, but I don't like supporting other users running Vista.

If you are getting Vista for yourself, go ahead, but do it on new hardware. If you are supporting computers, stick with XP; you'll be glad you did.

I support a 25-user church network, and recently purchased three laptops. On the Dell XPS I got Vista Business for a pastor. Most of his applications are O.K., but when there has been a problem, it is flat-out unsolvable. For example, there still isn't a viable solutions for users of Palm PDAs.

Personally, I ran Vista during RC2 and currently run Vista Business on a 12-month-old Toshiba laptop. Aside from some printer driver issues, it is working OK for me, with no performance issues. Aero is overrated, though; that got old after 24 hours.

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What's Vista got that XP doesn't?

I have only endured the misfortune of working with Vista one time. A friend of mine bought a new Toshiba A135-S4656 with vista preinstalled and i spent a week UPgrading to xp pro because even with a ram upgrade vista was simply unusable. it is far too power hungry and clunky for current hardware standards with no trade off. If they had kept, well, ANY of the features Longhorn was supposed to have, I'd be more willing to help Beta test it (which is essentially what all Vista users are doing its first year of release). I will cling to the functionality of my XP Pro and Ubuntu until such time as I recieve my first prompt from a new peice of non-microsoft hardware or software that requires me to have Vista and that i can't find a workaround for. Even then, i will re-evaluate the importance of said ware.

I survived WinME, i will survive Vista.

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