attn: computer geeks windows vista??

[mimitabby]

hi. just got a new computer. it has windows vista. i am seriously thinking of flattening it and putting XP on it; my sons are trying to talk me into Linux with an XP emulator.

comments, suggestions?

i have had the thing plugged in for 15 minutes and windows is still checking my system.. grrr
thanks

[KnottedYet]

Linux.

(just cuz SKnot talks about it. I know nothing, actually.)

[kelownagirl]

Trade it in for a Mac? :D :D

[KnottedYet]

Trade it in for a Mac? :D :D

Yeah, there's the idea!

Knot-liiiiiikes-her-Mac

[Zen]

Linux/XP

[salsabike]

Chris has XP with a Linux emulator called Cygwin.

I agree with dumping Vista for XP, until ALLLLLL the Vista bugs are gone. Chris says that Linux is more secure/less likely to be hacked, but requires more geek-y type work than Windows, though.

[Eden]

Macs really run on a Linux platform these days :D :D :D

[kelownagirl]

Linux is good. :)

[CycleTherapy]

I'll chime in too...... M-A-C :D
'nuf said.

[Mr. Bloom]

Linux is more secure/less likely to be hacked, but requires more geek-y type work than Windows, though.

MAC isn't an option for me and I don't have the ability to do geek-y type work...

I do have an unstalled upgrade to Vista sitting on my dresser. I'm not afraid of bugs, but whether or not it will impact the operation of my existing programs (like Word, Excel, etc)

So, for me the question is XP or Vista upgrade...what do you think?

[pll]

I'm running Vista since my school is "upgrading" everything to Vista and Office 2007. It is OK, but I would not run with less than 2GB of RAM, preferably with 3 or 4GB. I have 4Gb on my laptop and the minimum configuration at school comes with 3GB. I would definitely stick to XP if I did not have to upgrade.

Vista makes connecting to networks more obscure to me, it has a few niceties, but in general it is not a substantial change. It is a bit of a pain with some software that has not been updated for Vista (for example, SAS), forcing one to install and run in WinXP compatibility mode as an administrator. It won't affect Office 2003, but if you upgrade to Office 2007, there is a learning curve: the programs look very different. And then there is the "65535" display bug in Excel... multiplying 850*77.1 results in 100,000, not 65535. It is only a display error (if you use the result in another calculation, the result will be correct), but it makes me wonder what else is broken.

[DeniseGoldberg]

I've been running Vista at home for months now, probably since about April. Yes, it does take a little adjusting at first, but I really like it.

So - I'd recommend giving it a chance.

--- Denise

[SouthernBelle]

I have Vista on my newest desktop. I've gotten used to it, but really don't care for it. But as time moves along, newer programs will require it so I'm hanging with it.

[Torrilin]

hi. just got a new computer. it has windows vista. i am seriously thinking of flattening it and putting XP on it; my sons are trying to talk me into Linux with an XP emulator.

comments, suggestions?

i have had the thing plugged in for 15 minutes and windows is still checking my system.. grrr
thanks

The right answer depends on what you want to do with your computer. Linux does not play well with most computer games. Many Linux distributions will feel awkward to someone used to Windows or a Mac if you need anything beyond a word processor, spreadsheet, email, web browsing, computer programming and image editing. In other programs things won't be laid out the way you expect, and the documentation can be confusing. In (rare) cases, you might not be able to do what you need at all.

For me, Linux is not a good choice right now for my primary box. I do lots of computer gaming, and my games of choice do not have good Linux support. Wouldn't work well for my mom either... she'd be mad because *her* games wouldn't work. My dad mostly does computer aided drafting and spreadsheets on his computer, so he might be able to make the switch. He'd probably need to run his CAD programs in emulation, but it wouldn't be a major hassle the way games are.

Going to Vista makes sense (eventually) for most people. If you've got a machine that came with Vista installed, it's probably not worth switching back unless you've found a program that you need to have that Vista can't run.

[Triskeliongirl]

I tried Linux with a win2000 emulator some time ago, and found it very frustrating, as not all windows apps that I use at work would run. Linux is great for Linux apps, but not if you need to use a lot of windows apps, in my opinion (we have a lot of instruments with software written for windows).

I have no personal experience with vista, but recently bought both my kids vista boxes and they love them, very stable, but I did get them high end configs in terms of lots of memory, fast dual processors, etc (from IBM/lenovo). Also, they have the current office2007 vs the earlier versions which may be important (but data can be saved in office2003 to send to colleagues running earlier versions). They use theirs on the MIT and Wellesley networks, and have not experienced any problems. Maybe you just need to get used to it, or upgrade some memory and/or softward.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Aside from the Mac jokes (lots of possibly work-necessary programs don't work with Mac either!)....

Lots of important programs don't work with Vista yet. Even HP has not updated drivers to Vista. Vista's release was way too premature, despite its many delays.
Windows XP is way more stable and useful right now.
I would suggest getting Vista disabled or uninstalled, and putting good old reliable XP on your new computer. The people you bought it from might be willing to give you an option to switch. Many people are angry with Vista's lameness and demanding XP instead, and sellers are listening.

[Tater]

I got a new laptop for work applications (can't do Mac, unfortunately) and it came installed with Vista. I haven't had any problems with it yet. It has some interesting quirks, asks for permission for a lot of things, but has ran smooth since I got it in July. It worked with both printers at the office and both here at home. I haven't had it not work with anything yet. Oh, and my laptop is an HP.

[mimitabby]

okay you Mac freaks. getting a mac is NOT an option, i just bought a windows machine!
not to mention the cost of buying a mac, i'd also have to buy all new software which i really DO NOT want to do.. but thanks for thinking of me.

I think i'm going to XP.

I have unix at work, so i am already used to working with it; but i'm not sure an XP emulator is going to be as nice as what i have at work and that isn't so great either.
thank you all; you have convinced me. My new computer has 1 Gig of memory and it is BARELY enough for vista. Maybe new apps are going to need vista, but i don't need new apps. I have microsoft office, paintshop pro and firefox.
I have a few small app's like the gizmo that downloads pictures from my cellphone, but I don't do games at all. thanks very much, you helped me make a decision.

[smilingcat]

At office:
Linux Redhat enterprise
instead of WORD and other MS OFFICE junk I run Open Office (freebie) and can inmport export WORD docs and almost all other MS documents. It can also generate pdf files.

also have XP emulator by VMware. Occasional glitches but minor.

If you want a freebie try Fedora 8 release with Open Office. Or other freebie Linux. Only thing you have to watch out for is hardware support.

At home:
Windows XP wih Open Office (yes it can run on Linux, Windows, MAC, Solaris...) and the files are portable to other platforms. My printer, Wireless G+ MIMO and other peripheral all support Linux and MAC. We do this because when we switch over to MAC/Linux box we don't have to send it to the garaveyard.

My next machine WILL BE A MAC LAPTOP. NO MORE DESKTOPS.
It has things I need and it comes pre-installed.
Objective-C, Ruby, TCL/TK, just need to load Open Office. etc.

Can't run my dreamweaver on MAC or Linux but Ruby on Rails should be able to handle what I need.

Almost all my software are open source freebie or very cheap. Its very reliable more so than windows or other stuff from MS. And I save ungodly amount of money. :D :D

The bad thing with Vista is once you upgrade, you can't go back. (that is what I was told) So we have zelch intention of upgrading to Vista. Besides, you have to decide which flavor you want. And you can't switch from one to other.

smilingcat

[Fredwina]

Ok here my rundown
At work at Pentium 4 runing Windows NT4:eek: Yes, you tax dollars at work.
I have a laptop with XP and desktop with Linux(Ubuntu Fiesty Fawn). The laptop used to be dual-boot, but the wireless card doesn't work w/ the penguin (Acer Aspire 3500) No hands-on with Vista yet.
I'll echo Similing Cat's ensdorment of OpenOffice.org (two guesses as to their website) and "Free" software in general.
An Example - The laptop has a copy of Intellij(about $300) installed, but I like Eclipse much better.
I'll also agree that that desktops are dying.
Linux tends to have less attacks, but as to wether it's markety share or Structure...:confused:
and OS/X is based on Unix, as in Linux, in Geek talk*nix.

[sandra]

Dump Vista and go with XP. It will be a while before Vista works all the kinks out.

I bought a Sony VAIO laptop right after Vista came out (and you could hardly find anything XP). I dumped the Vista for XP.

[mimitabby]

thanks Sandra; that's what i'm going to do. It's not like i buy new s/w all the time..

[boy in a kilt]

Vista is the reason I'm going back to Mac when my laptop dies.

I'll get a copy of bootcamp so I can run Mac for most things, winders for the stuff that I need to (for instance, logging on to military web sites) and linux when I'm feeling geeky. I ran RedHat most of the way through grad school, particulary for programming.

[light_sabe_r]

Vista ate my Word documents!!!

Word has become aa nightmare!!! I don't care if the music's upgraded and the backgrounds pretty and there's this funky clock on the sidebar! IT'S CRAP!!!!

I'm a real Microsoft access nutcase. I love the damn thing! The 2003 version that is. It's the one thing I'm really good at in my job! Why does microsoft have to change everything to make it so MOUSE reliant! None of my shortcuts work. >_< AND I hate how it's vistified everything.

Plus it ate my network card and all my SIMS files.

Screw this. I want to upgrade - To a mac.

[anakiwa]

Another vote for XP.

I recently bought a new computer and went with XP- I talked to the folks at work about being to access stuff at home- I wouldn't be able to do it with Vista and they have too many other projects right now that it will be a while before they get around to making everything work with Vista.