So I gave Vista a spin...

[miggols99]

I've been really wanting to try out Vista, and after using it for a few hours, here's what I have to say about it after using Linux for ages.

Good


It looks pretty :)
The games are much better. SVG based?
Control panel is nice
Much better sounds, although they can get annoying
Much better installer
"Home folder" like user folders


Bad


Slow
Takes up all my RAM
Takes ages to install
Fan always whirring away
CPU always high
Have to worry about viruses/spyware etc.
Maintenance! I was so happy with Linux because I didn't have to defragment, scan for viruses and run CCleaner every once in a while to keep it going at a usable speed
Aero not very customizable - e.g. I can't customize how blurry the windows are and how transparent.
Hardly anything works out of the box (if you buy it preinstalled that's different)
Too many tray programs
Stupid UAC bugging me all the time
Voice recognition doesn't recognise hardly anything!


Hmm..seems like the bad points outweigh the good points. Back to Linux for me! They'll never win me over ;) I've finally gotten rid of that annoying "I want Vista!!" feeling :D

[hansdown]

Nice post miggol99. Welcome back.

[Vorian Grey]

Bad


Slow
Takes up all my RAM
Takes ages to install
Fan always whirring away
CPU always high
Have to worry about viruses/spyware etc.
Maintenance! I was so happy with Linux because I didn't have to defragment, scan for viruses and run CCleaner every once in a while to keep it going at a usable speed
Aero not very customizable - e.g. I can't customize how blurry the windows are and how transparent.
Hardly anything works out of the box (if you buy it preinstalled that's different)
Too many tray programs
Stupid UAC bugging me all the time
Voice recognition doesn't recognise hardly anything!




I always said when Vista SP1 came out I would try it and I did. I totally agree with your good and bad points. It does take a lot more resources to run it than it does Linux. My fans ran all the time as well and my CPU was always high. As a whole it works fine, though. I didn't have any problems with any software I tried. I did have a devil of a time getting sound to work, however. I did read where Vista defragmented in the background, so that along with indexing your files is probably why it ran so much.

My problem was my network. One day for no reason it crashed with a blue screen and after that I started losing my network, and therefore my internet connection. The only way to get it back was to reboot.That got old rather quickly so I dumped it.

Same old Microsoft, same old crappy products.

[Vince4Amy]

Are you looking at the Free Memory when you say it takes up all your RAM, Vista cache's stuff so it's normal to have like 5MB Free reported.

UAC is no different from having to enter a root password IMO, good protection to stop people from willingly installing anything they find that wants to change system files.

What do you mean too many tray programs, a clean install of Vista only has Sound & Network.

You can customise the transparency.

Voice Recognition works absolutely fine for me.

If your fans are whirring more than they should then you obviously are getting high temperatures.

I've never had an issue with Viruses/Spyware.

My CPU Usage is 4% with Firefox, WLM & Audacity running.

Most of my stuff works out of the box, it depends on how the manufacturers produce drivers.

[L815]

Are you people who complain about fans being on all the time use Laptops?

The reason I ask is because my fans are on less with Ubuntu, but my laptop gets way hotter than with Vista.

To be honest, as long as my laptop stays cool, I don't care how long the fans are on :P

But I understand everyones differences :)

[neoAnderson]

I always said when Vista SP1 came out I would try it and I did. I totally agree with your good and bad points. It does take a lot more resources to run it than it does Linux. My fans ran all the time as well and my CPU was always high. As a whole it works fine, though. I didn't have any problems with any software I tried. I did have a devil of a time getting sound to work, however. I did read where Vista defragmented in the background, so that along with indexing your files is probably why it ran so much.

My problem was my network. One day for no reason it crashed with a blue screen and after that I started losing my network, and therefore my internet connection. The only way to get it back was to reboot.That got old rather quickly so I dumped it.

Same old Microsoft, same old crappy products.

I am constantly amazed at how much variety there is around, and how different everybody's circumstances are :confused:](*,)
See - my case is so different from yours - my laptop came with Vista, and Vista is solid as a rock - very stable. I have tried dual booting with openSuSE before with no luck, the Linux would just freeze for no reason. Now when I switched to Gutsy I was extremely happy with Ubuntu, but now Hardy freezes randomly too. Every two days I log in to Hardy, it works for a couple hours, and bam! The system becomes totally unresponsive, and I have to do a hard reset. Today it happened again, and all I was doing was reading these forums (no pun intended).
Unbelievable. It's all relative, I guess...
With the way things are going, I can't simply wipe Vista - it's the one thing that works on my laptop!
Being a computer science graduate student, I cannot and don't want to live without Linux, and I am not going to give up; if worse comes to worst I will use Linux under VirtualBox or get another computer and make that Linux-exclusive...
But really, I cannot believe how different it is for different people ;-)

[L815]

I am constantly amazed at how much variety there is around, and how different everybody's circumstances are :confused:](*,)
See - my case is so different from yours - my laptop came with Vista, and Vista is solid as a rock - very stable. I have tried dual booting with openSuSE before with no luck, the Linux would just freeze for no reason. Now when I switched to Gutsy I was extremely happy with Ubuntu, but now Hardy freezes randomly too. Every two days I log in to Hardy, it works for a couple hours, and bam! The system becomes totally unresponsive, and I have to do a hard reset. Today it happened again, and all I was doing was reading these forums (no pun intended).
Unbelievable. It's all relative, I guess...
With the way things are going, I can't simply wipe Vista - it's the one thing that works on my laptop!
Being a computer science graduate student, I cannot and don't want to live without Linux, and I am not going to give up; if worse comes to worst I will use Linux under VirtualBox or get another computer and make that Linux-exclusive...
But really, I cannot believe how different it is for different people ;-)

I'm in the same situation. Vista came preloaded, works very well with my laptop. Ubuntu works Okay, with the exception of laptop being hot, hibernate/sleep, and brightness, and haven't found any solutions yet. Suse worked about the same, and Fedora the same lol

But it's understandable because it's a laptop. Ubuntu ran pretty solid on my previous desktop. All I can say is, I think Linux is going far if it keeps up the course. I just love the fact I don't have to manually install drivers :D

[fiddledd]

I'm in the same situation. Vista came preloaded, works very well with my laptop. Ubuntu works Okay, with the exception of laptop being hot, hibernate/sleep, and brightness, and haven't found any solutions yet. Suse worked about the same, and Fedora the same lol

But it's understandable because it's a laptop. Ubuntu ran pretty solid on my previous desktop. All I can say is, I think Linux is going far if it keeps up the course. I just love the fact I don't have to manually install drivers :D

Yeah, same here, Laptop with Vista pre installed, works perfectly. It seems that there are more problems with Laptops with Linux than Desktops, which is annoying. I use my Desktop for video work so Windows is a must, but the Laptop is mainly for the Internet and programming, so Linux would be ideal. There are a few problems with Laptops that keep me from Linux (one is over publicised so I won't mention it here). But I have hope that pretty soon it will all work perfectly as more people are buying Laptops than Desktops. Until that time I will still hang here and help when I can.

[NE Key]

Bad

[LIST]
Hardly anything works out of the box (if you buy it preinstalled that's different)


An interesting point. Windows is invariably "factory" installed (or installed in a workshop).

Linux distros have to be installed (and work out of the box) bythe not-very-technical (i.e. me).

Considering how many distros do fire up all the bits first time linux distros have to be congratulated for being so useable and easy to install.
(Though we always comment on the failures and we forgetthe successes.)

[Growbag]

Are you people who complain about fans being on all the time use Laptops?

The reason I ask is because my fans are on less with Ubuntu, but my laptop gets way hotter than with Vista.

To be honest, as long as my laptop stays cool, I don't care how long the fans are on :P

But I understand everyones differences :)

...but you will complain BIG TIME when you have to pay for the cooling unit to be replaced because the fan simply wore out!

I don't think your manufacturer will give you any sympathy either, especially if they find out you were running Linux (a lame excuse to wiggle out of warranty!).

A desktop fan is cheap and easy to replace, but a laptop is more complicated, usually you have to buy a whole "cooling unit" when the fan goes.

It might be the video card heating up the system, using 3d effects tends to warm it up a bit unfortunately.

I'm running openSUSE 11, and my laptop runs quite a lot cooler than openSUSE 10.3, maybe a kernel thing. I now run in the low 40's, when previously I ran around 50°. The video (Nvidia) also runs a little cooler at 55° (running Compiz under KDE3).

Although I wouldn't know how hot it runs under Vista, as HP don't provide any temperature software, but I do notice that the fan is on a lot more under Vista, especially when running a game which is understandable.

This laptop also came with Vista, and it runs perfectly, well, as long as I avoid updates like the plague as they completely trashed it last time!

No big deal, as I only use Vista for the games that won't run under Linux :D.

[neoAnderson]

An interesting point. Windows is invariably "factory" installed (or installed in a workshop).

Linux distros have to be installed (and work out of the box) bythe not-very-technical (i.e. me).

Considering how many distros do fire up all the bits first time linux distros have to be congratulated for being so useable and easy to install.
(Though we always comment on the failures and we forgetthe successes.)


Most average every day users are way too much concerned (perfectly reasonably) about their personal lives and about getting things done that would pay them. For most the issue is not who is morally or ethically right, and not what the big picture is, and not what is technically superior, and neither what works for other people.

For most people the real question is what works for them. It can get frustrating sometimes . A computer is a tool to get things done, and if most of the time people must try to make it work instead of getting anything out of it, they forget about the whole open source philosophy. Life is fast, and we must make quick choices.

[miggols99]

Are you people who complain about fans being on all the time use Laptops?

The reason I ask is because my fans are on less with Ubuntu, but my laptop gets way hotter than with Vista.

To be honest, as long as my laptop stays cool, I don't care how long the fans are on :P

But I understand everyones differences :)
Yes, I am using a laptop :) For me, fans whirring means it's getting hot. That means more power used :( and my lap burning :-P

[Sand & Mercury]

That happens to me too. I usually keep it on a desk, but sometimes I find myself on the couch working on something and realise I've broken into a major sweat and my legs are burning like crazy...