SP 1

[panthera]

The general public got SP1 for Vista Tuesday.

This morning, I saw two comments on it at Slashdot which I thought y'all might find interesting (just the comments, go to Slashdot to find the whole thread):

Re:Slow install
I still don't completely understand why SP1 takes 4 times as long to install as Vista itself.

* *
Re:Slow install (Score:5, Funny)

Because the SP1 install has to run on Vista.

Another blogger suggested it took so long because it was removing vista and installing XP...

Personally, I don't see the problem. It took six minutes to download, I set it up just before I went to bed and this morning, eight hours and three cups of breakfast coffee later...it's done. The update, I mean. I'm not touching that computer until the priest arrives.

 

[dj-gabriele]

Oh GOD! And I tought I was going to do that to my sister's computer before she left for the airport in a couple of minutes... too bad!

 

[panthera]

Sorry,

I was exaggerating a bit, but you have to allow at the very least one hour, several re-boots. I have read of overnight installations, but suspect that was a ram problem.
This computer is pretty bog standard and the sys-log showed just under one hour.
It seems like forever tho'.
I did notice an improvement in file transfer rates, but then, who wouldn't...
DVD maker isn't crashing anymore either.

I still won't run Vista on a computer I depend upon for my work. At the University, I have to use MacOS because my colleagues are all Mac fanatics and even the slightest hint of Linux or Sun has them frothing at the mouth. Nobody will even consider Vista, thank goodness. Server 2008 might be ok, our IT managers are happy with their test results so far.

You wouldn't want to send someone you love off with a major Microsoft update and no support anyway, would you?!!!
My own personal opinion - this one has been on our IT support's door for years:

 

[petek]

I'm only a week into my new computer running Vista and so far I still haven't quite figured out what the difference is between it and XP? It all looks much the same. Granted I don't do anything on my pc other than email and look at websites. Only thing I did notice is that when you mouse over the buttons on the bottom taskbar an small version of the page pops up. Haven't had any hang ups either but then my old pc only had about 512 ram and this one has 2g

 

[brant_ix]

Becareful with the upgrade too...

I'm in I.T. and I got an email from Microsoft saying a number of applications lose driver functionality when upgrading to Vista SP1 and you need to download updates from the software manufacturer on your own.

 

[rp2813]

What irks me is that when I needed to buy a new laptop shortly after Vista was launched, I couldn't find one that came with XP. To access my employer's systems from home, I couldn't use Vista as it wasn't compatible. I ended up taking my partner's XP laptop and he got the new one with Vista on it.

Fast forward several months. My partner's daughter needed a new computer and she had no problem finding one with XP. Turns out that since there are many business applications out there that still require XP, they are keeping it available.

So for personal use at home, my partner should really have the better laptop, but that's the one I'm using. It really bugs me that I was brushed off so quickly by sales personnel who told me I couldn't have XP. That is so much BS.

My partner is OK with Vista but every so often he'll whine that I have the better laptop. I'm so disgusted with Microsoft's history of sloppy quality control that I will seriously consider a Mac next time.

 

[panthera]

HP

I understand there have been some problems with HP printers failing to work after the upgrade. One user wrote that de-installation followed by re-installation fixed the problem.
Given the sometimes 300MB+ enormous, gigantic and absurdly long install routines HP forces on us, that would be a major hassle.
So far, everything works which worked before, the two biggest hassles with capturing have remained.
At this point, I regard Vista as similar to Windows ME. There is no way this system is going to have the run NT4 or XP had. The really nasty part is all the hardware which will never be supported...those folks who bought Intel 925 graphics and now can only run a castrated Vista, those capture cards whose makers insist Microschrott changed the code after sending out the developer's kits...

 

[sudsmaster]

Hmm. My home computers are still running W2K, which is fine except when it comes to things like youtube and video (the hardware is somewhat ancient as well, Pentium III's).

Anyway, I have a Toshiba notebook I bought a few months back, it came with Vista home premie installed. I use it for mobile work and also for watching videos (youtube and LOST reruns). After hearing all this I might just wait for SP2 before installing it.

I skipped right over XP, even though I have a free copy at home. I'm planning on upgrading my home computers to a more powerful processor with more memory, at which point I might install XP just for kicks.

 

[conate]

I hated the idea of Vista so much...

after > 20 years on PCs, I bought a mac.

The thought of vista was not good.

 

[nurdlinger]

W2K & YouTube

I run W2K (SP4 I think) on my principal computer at home. It will display videos from YouTube and other sources OK. I want to keep it going as long as practical, since it's the last version of Windows that did not enforce the license provisions. So when the motherboard or drive or ethernet interface fails, as they each have in the last 6 or 7 years, I don't need to convince somebody in Bangladesh to grant me the right to move my own legitimately purchased operating system to a new computer. I had that experience with a different computer for which I had a real, bought-by-me XP Pro system. 1.) Mobo failed. 2.) bought another, transferred the system. 3.) when reassembling computer subsequent to that activity, I pinched a wire carrying power into a card slot with a card inserted over it. resulting short circuit fried new mother board. 4.) had to request another system transfer for a third mobo, in what was adjudged too soon an interval from the last one. 5.) coaxed the individual from MS into permitting it. 6.) third mobo failed within 6 months (had been obtained used on eBay). At that point I abandoned the machine and bought a barebones from a local shop with XP Home, because the upgrade to XP Pro would have driven the price over my limit.

 

[retro-man]

Computer repair businesses around here are offering a special to remove vista and put xp into your computer. I work from home and use 3 systems. My wife has one also. I needed a new laptop so I had to buy one with vista. Well low and behold the other systems I deal with didn't recognize vista. So I gave her the new one and I took her old one, reformatted the hard drive got everything back in working order and now it is running great. She is not impressed with vista either very slow and way too many questions when you are doing operations. Bad call on microsoft for not letting the world in on their new and impoved operating system.
Jon

 

[gansky1]

My PC crashed just before I left for Florida about a month ago. I took it to a guy that determined there was an error on the hard drive and neither of the CD drives were working (I knew that it was only a matter of time before the 4 1/2 year old Compaq collapsed into a smoldering pile of goo) so I decided to "donate" it to him and let him fix it up and give it to a church or a school that needed one.

I bought a standard MacBook two weeks ago and couldn't be more happy with it. Easy to use, no troubles so far. No Vista for me. What's funny is all the accessories I had to buy to go with it. I use Quickbooks and need to replace that for the Mac, I'd like to have an Apple wireless Mighty Mouse for some things and of course, I had to buy a handbag to carry the thing in and now I'm thinking about new shoes and hat ;-)

 

[rp2813]

It just amazes me that Microsoft can get away with this. It seems that they, as well as whatever entity manufactures the vehicle detection loops at traffic signals, can blithely get away with manufacturing a defective product and nobody seems able to take them to task for it.

I never agreed with the AT&T break-up of 1984 (some things are just sacred, you know) but I would sure support something that created more competition than we have now regarding computer operating systems. Would we have confusion with compatibility? Yes, but it would work itself out. I would just hope that unlike the AT&T break-up, things wouldn't come back full circle some 20 years later.

 

[DADoES]

I have a work system that's on the verge of 10 years old, running NT4 on a dual 333Mhz PIII. The video card, an STB Velocity 128 that was a big deal at the time, has a whopping 8 MB of RAM. Replaced one hard drive some years ago and the tape drive a couple times. Monitor (19" CRT) replaced once. Flatbed scanner replaced once. Printer a couple times, from a pair of dot-matrix units, to an HP laser, to another HP laser. The OS has never been reinstalled.

I have an XP system at home for web work, *only* because the latest Adobe Dreamweaver/Photoshop suite won't run on 2K. The system initially intended for this proved to be a dud, so a techie-friend and I swapped the hard drive to another spare system (lotsa spare systems floating around here). Upon boot-up XP protested that the license was invalid due to major hardware changes, do I want to reset/reinitialize? ... which it did by auto-interaction to Microsoft over the 'net. Voila.

My "personal" home system is Win2K. I don't have any trouble with video clips. The NT system, however, generally cannot run Youtube or an increasing number of clips and web sites that use the latest Flash, etc.

 

[retroguy]

Vista

I didn't have any complaints until SP1. My complaint? Vista now needs to be re-activated EVERY TIME I reboot. Are you kidding me? Now THAT is annoying. SP1 installed in an hour for me. Vista seems just as fast as XP so no problems until SP1, but what a problem it is.

I still have an old Compaq P3 running Win 98SE as well. Aside from replacing the hard drive and running the restore disks once, it's never given me a problem. It'll play you tube vids, and do just about anything else as well as Windows XP. I guess I prefer the past for computers as well. My only complaint with Windows 98 is that I cannot download streaming video via real player 11 like I can in XP and Vista. If I could, I'd use the old Compaq religously.

 

[panthera]

You might be able to use the

Realalternative media player to play those streams on WIN98. I didn't start using Windows until NT4, so am not sure, but I think there is a solution.
I hate the mentality behind Real as a company and will always use an alternative when I can. Whose business is it of theirs what I do with my computer? Jerks.
If it works, do let us know.
My personal assessment of current operating systems in terms of user friendliness:
Leopard
XP
Ubuntu
everything else BSD/LINUX/UNIX/solaris
(leave a mile of space here)
Vista

I have to run an up-to-date MAC OS because my colleagues and some clients inhabit the Apple world exclusively and won't exchange data except in their own formats, no exceptions, no cooperation, no g'dam' way. Whenever I specify a course, I make sure we use inter-platform formats - and may the gods help a student who dares to imply their system is better than all the others. Sometimes that is Linux, sometimes it is MAC OS, with the MBA candidates, it is always the latest, greatest Windoze (figures - they also all drive 911s and big, black BMW convertibles. Compensating, much?).
My workhorse runs XP for the simple reason that I have video editing software which only runs on XP. Not on Vista, not on anything else. At all. And no update in sight...
My bedside computer runs Ubuntu and if they ever get the drivers worked out for some of the equipment and software I have to use professionally, it will be goodbye MAC OS, good riddance Windoze.
Personally, I miss OS/2 Warp. Now that was a system which worked.

Real Alternative 2.0.2 Free Download

Download Real Alternative 2.0.2 : Real Alternative is enabling you to play RealMedia files without installing RealPlayer or RealOne Player

www.free-codecs.com

 

[panthera]

oh check out the

Link in my post above, that media player with the right codecs can play streaming RealMedia without the Real-Big_shit.

 

[dj-gabriele]

Oh, OS/2 Warp! I had version 4 and still have the original box with the 3 boot floppy discs and 3 cds, operating system, lotus notes and a demo/shareware disc, plus it had a full manual.
I still miss the fully integrated voice recognition system. It worked wonders even on a 486/66.
Yup, I miss it too!