Poll: What?s your personal experience with Vista?

OK When are you coming over!!
I'm afraid I'm an old computer illiterate, & don't like to fool around, as I don't know what I'm doing. For me, MSN is NOT really user friendly.
When buying a computer, you should not be having to remove stuff. You should be given an explanation of
what you can install after. THEN LIFE WOULD BE EASIER FOR ME! Nor should you need to install over 100 updates.
Certainly there are great features I enjoy with Vista, if only I wasn't faced with all the problems AND Tech Support was helpfull.

I'd love to come over! Thats what I do. I go to my friends and families houses and make their computers run. I do it as a hobby. I never charge. I'm 41 with no colledge degree. I used to drive a school bus. I did this for 10 years. Now I run the dispatchers office.

About 6 years ago I got my first computer. I didn't even know what a windows was. I became obsessed with the technology. I taught myself everything, with a push in the right direction from a friend.

You ever want to know anything you poke around, explore your computer. Don't change anything. Just check it out. It's an amazing machine.

When I don't know something I search the internet. Everything is right there for you. My point being you are never to young or old to learn anything about anything!!!

Bon

Trouble is most times I poke around, something goes wrong.
I think I'll wait for my next visit with my son! Thanks & take care

I'm having to borrow husband's computer to look around on here for help. This is a cryin' shame.

I bought HP Pavilion Media Center with Vista. We live far in the country, so had to get internet access through satellite. Husband has Netgear wireless, so I bought for my Vista HP, a Netgear RangeMax Wireless USB 2.0 Adapter which says on the box "Windows Vista Customers: Software Upgrade Ready." I bought a Canon ip6700D printer which said on the front "Certified for Windows Vista." The bad news: Neither the adapter nor the printer will work with Vista. So I am stuck with a brand new machine that I cannot access internet nor print from. I can only use it as a file cabinet for my pictures.

I don't know if updates are even available which would help, since I can't access internet to get updates!

Any advise for me? Is there a way I can hookup to the internet someway other then using that wireless adapter? I'm not a geek or too savvy on the inner workings. However, I am sure smart enough to figure out I've been screwed, glued and tattooed by Vista.

The 'thick white fog' is Windows detecting the application is not responding and alerting you, with the spinning circle indicating the application is busy, a more generic status. It could be a glitch in the program itself, a plugin, your security software holding it back, another process taking up all of the CPU cycles, etc. Unfortunately there's no simple way of determining what caused it at any given time, but it's not much different than with XP, except that Vista 'whitens' the window while XP would give no indication.

John

This is like a temporary locking up. It freezes for 30 sec. to a min. and then unfreezes. No indication why. Not when I'm starting a new app. No indication that I can see that some new process has kicked in. It just happens. It's very annoying.

My friend had a dell 1.8 pentium 4 running xp and norton, hung up so bad he was ready to buy an apple. We removed norton, put on avg, used the start, run, msconfig, startup menus to disable a few unnecessary processes and no more random 20 second pauses while browsing the net, norton is a prime example of the cure being worse than the disease.

In the past I always made the mistake of using the Mcafee antivirus software that came with Dell computers and then realized how slow it made them. I downloaded Symantec, a Norton product if I'm not mistaken, and it runs great. I've used Avast and AVG as well just to see which application worked better performance-wise and symantec worked better for me. On a side note, both computers that I've done this on have been pretty powerful, a Dell XPS 720 with quadcore and 4 gb RAM and a Macbook Pro with dual core processor and 4 gb ram, both running Vista Ultimate x64.

I too have many problems with Vista. MSN Tech. Support is a really bad joke. I have HP laptop, & they (HP)are a "little" helpful.
Next time, for me - APPLE!!!
No 110 updates with MSN in 6 months! Everything works as it's suppsed to. My eldest son uses Apple for his company & trouble free performance.
My other son warned me, but I thought I could revert to XP - HP advises NO!

karendea,

How close are you to a Best Buy? The Geek Squad, Best Buy's service division, will downgrade you to XP for $140.

How close, physically, is your computer to the wireless router? Or can you move it? Most wireless routers have Ethernet ports so you can connect with an Ethernet cable. This would get around the incompatibility with the wireless device and get you on the internet, at least. Netgear's support is not very helpful, I have experience with them and I didn't learn anything, plus they called me back in the middle of the night to supposedly help me some more -- my husband was really not thrilled to answer the phone in the dead of night and find it's a man calling to talk to me.

Did you try calling the computer or printer manufacturer's support line to get help getting the printer to work? HP will only help you get another HP product to work with their computers, unless you pay for support. My husband bought a Lexmark printer to work with his Vista HP computer and we had an older HP printer. I called support and they wouldn't help me set up the Lexmark to print with the HP but they would help me set up an HP printer, so I switched printers.

You *should* be able to network the printer so you can print to it from another computer, or print to the printer your husband's computer is hooked up to (if there is one), but I still haven't managed to get my Vista computers to print a printer on my home network, so it must be hard to do. If you can get your computer and your husband's networked, you could save files to his computer when you wanted to print, and then print from there. Or email them to him (if the Ethernet cable idea gets you on the net). Or put them on a USB thumb drive and copy them to his computer that way. These are all annoying workarounds that I have used to get things to print when I can't get it to work the way it should.

The biggest thing is to get on the internet, it will give you many more things you will be able to do with your computer. If the Ethernet cable idea doesn't work, check in various forums to find out about known compatibility issues and find a wireless router/adapter model that is known to work with Vista. We have had no trouble with our USB wireless adapter from Belkin (our router is Belkin, too). I wonder if the store would exchange it for you since it doesn't work with your computer?

Good luck!

Throw your useless Vista Operating system in the garbage where it belongs and save your money..! Ubuntu is free and kicks Vista's ***..! It's way more intuitive to use, has a fully automatic installation and all components can be recognized and installed properly. Ubuntu is about 10 times faster than Vista because it is a Linux operating system and does not require a babysitter nor an antivirus, nor a huge 2 gigabyte chunk of memory for a shiny ******** interface. Did you know that there are approximately 280,000 viruses for Windows operating systems which can trash your system and there are virtually no viruses for Linux. Hmmm... Did you ever notice how you are constantly bombarded with fear tactic sales pitches when you do anything with Windows or go to a store to ask questions about your Windows problems. They do this to sell you all kinds of crap like firewalls, antivirus, spyware removers, adware removers, registry cleaners, tools, and more crap. As well, technicians at these fix-it places pay Microsoft for certifications in order to format and re-install your PC. Sure there is a lot of free do-it-yourself fix-it software tools, but if you value your time like real people do, even having to mess around with all this crap that you have no interest in using is a huge pain in the A. I'm surprised Windows hasn't included a credit card requirement in the operating system setup. This is basically where you are sitting when you use such a horrible time wasting money draining operating system like Windows Vista. Say you want to burn a CD, well get your credit card out cause you will need it to buy CD burning software. This type of software which has been around for over 10 years, is available for free with the Linux operating system. I mean my god where does it end? It doesn't... you are just a friggin milk cow if you use any kind of Windows operating system. Seriously, if you want some unbeatable security, all be best software available free and super easy to access, then just use Ubuntu. It can take literally 30 minutes to set up if you have experience putting a CD in your CD drive. All the Linux software is viewable and installable right from within the Linux operating system itself via a package manager. This is absolutely excellent. If you have never seen it before you will
be amazed how easy this is to use. Don't be a sucker, and don't be a milk cow. Microsoft would have you believe Vista and Windows XP are your only options as an operating system, but that is a false dichotomy. Microsoft would have you believe that free operating systems like Ubuntu Linux are too hard for an average person to use, but that is about 10 years ago. Ubuntu is actually way easier to use than Vista, more secure, and there are literally dozens of viable options for operating systems to use with your computer these days other than Windows XP or Vista.

Go to www.ubuntu.com for some light reading.

Ubuntu with is a flavour of Linux is completely free and it is supported by professionals, governments, and enterprises around the world like universities. Over 10,000 PhD computing scientists have contributed to the creation of Linus Torvald's Linux over the last 10 years and it is becoming stronger each day, month, year. Mark Shuttleworth one of the founders of another flavour of Linux, personally contributed more than $20 million dollars to the development of Ubuntu Linux.

You should know that Microsoft is very afraid of Linux by now, so just be aware of the fear campaign from some camps. However, keep in mind, it is simple and free to try Linux, while it is costly and contractual to try Windows.

Happy computing.

I consider myself a very competent computer user. I am very comfortable installing software and doing most computer maintenance tasks. However, I tried to install Ubuntu on an old ThinkPad and failed miserably. And I have an Asus Eee PC that runs some form of Linux and, while I've been able to use it, I'm far from comfortable with the OS.

Ubuntu has some compatibility issues as well, doesn't it? And not everyone is up to the task of installing a new OS and getting it working with all of their peripherals. It's not like you can go to the average office supply store and buy a computer that already has Linux installed. I strongly considered getting Linux when my old laptop died, but I decided it would probably be as least as much of a hassle for me as trying Vista. Not everyone is a techie or wants to or has the knowledge to sit and figure out how to install and run a new OS. Many people just want to buy a computer that works. It's too bad Microsoft can't seem to understand that.

How did you fail miserably? Do you think your thinkpad was just a tad too old? If you are talking about a pentium 1 or 486 or something like that, it can go in the garbage with the Vista trash. In North America pentium 3's and 4's are thrown out or given away since they don't have the balls to run Vista.

If you are asking if "Ubuntu has some compatibility issues as well, doesn't it?" Well beelissa, not really... It's amazing what a 20 million dollar investment to an operating system development will do, plus all the regular contributions from Universities, professors, corporate enterprises etc. I have experienced less compatibility problems than Windows Vista with Ubuntu beyond any doubt. No software is perfect that is universal. Software is written by human beings and human beings make mistakes by nature.

You said, "some form of Linux" which obviously is not Ubuntu Linux, and if you don't even know which operating system you are using it would not surprise me that you have problems with it.

You say "it would probably be as least as much of a hassle", however, that comment tells us that you in fact did not try it, so therefore, your judgement is only prejudice there. You should try Ubuntu then, since it is super easy to try and/or use.

You say not everyone is a techie. Precisely..!! This is why everyone can use Ubuntu, because you do not need to be a techie to use it.!! That is a major quality of the operating system and why it is becoming super popular.

There's nothing to sit and figure out.... it just works...

www.ubuntu.com

. . . but, I think installing any OS is not for everyone. karendea specifically said she isn't very techie, and I worry about people recommending various forms of Linux to mainstream people who might not be ready for it.

My Thinkpad should be able to run Ubuntu just fine. It runs Win XP, it has 256 mb of RAM, I forget which processor chip or speed it has. I decided to try to partition the disk so it could dual boot, and got over my head. It's off visiting with a friend of mine, he teaches a computer hardware class at a local high school and the techies in training there are going to take a stab at fixing it. I probably should have just gone with installing Ubuntu by itself, I don't know much about disk partitions.

The Asus Eee PC actually has, I believe, 2 forms of Linux. You're right, I'm not that familiar with Linux, but I don't think I have to be to make my point (see below). Out of the box, the Asus has an easy desktop, which is a customisation, I believe, of Xandros. Not totally sure about that. Then there is what this setup refers to as the "advanced desktop" which is KDE. That's what I use, mostly, except there are a couple of apps that I can find easily from the easy desktop and can't find on KDE. One of the games seems to have totally vanished when you're in KDE and I only recently discovered where the web cam app was hiding itself, though they're both easy to find in the easy mode. The Asus Eee PC comes with these versions on Linux pre-installed and all the apps already loaded, and still I have heard people say they have a tough time learning how to use it. This brings me to my point.

It's not about which OS is better, unfortunately. I would much prefer it if some form of Linux was the #1 OS and everyone used it and knew how, but unfortunately, Windows is standard and most people are not like you and me. We like tech toys and we like to learn new apps and are curious about new OS's. Most people are more like my husband, and karendea, who just want it to work. They view it as a tool, a way to do the work they need to do, like a hammer or a vacuum cleaner. My husband needs help installing applications and has never set his own email up on a new computer -- I always do that for him. He would be lost trying to install an OS, and would not be interested in trying. "Why are we doing this again? Why can't I just use Windows?" would be what he would say, even though he suffers with the infernal Vista machine that rivals karendea's machine as the worst computer purchase ever made. We were just lucky that we didn't get incompatible peripherals -- he has a printer that works, and his wireless internet was pretty easy to install (by me, not him, he didn't even know how to buy it). It's slow as molasses and I can't stand to use it, but he isn't bothered as long as it works.

What I am saying is, if we encourage people to try a new OS, and they get in over their heads, they will just get frustrated and mad. I wish there were an easier way, but I don't see what it is. Until a major computer manufacturer starts selling equal quantities of Linux machines vs. how many Windows machines they sell, Windows will be stuck in the top spot and most people will use it, no matter how bad it is. People what their OS pre-installed and compatible with all of their peripherals. I think the day will come when Grandma can go to Wal-Mart or Best Buy and get a Linux machine and go home and use it, without having to call tech support 4 times, but that day isn't here yet, and telling a non-techie to install Ubuntu as a solution to her problems with Vista won't make it come any faster.

Sorry, the 2nd to last sentence in the last paragraph of my post above is supposed to read:

People want their OS pre-installed and compatible with all of their peripherals.

". . . but, I think"

"I worry about people recommending..." - isn't this what you are doing?

My Thinkpad should be able to run Ubuntu just fine....

Again... YOU WERE NOT AND ARE NOT USING UBUNTU... So until you try it, you are wasting your time responding, and you are wasting our time, the readers of this forum. Ubuntu is the most popular because Mark Shuttleworth paid more than $20,000,000 of his own money to help develop a version of Linux that even a poor African child could install or use without ever having used a computer before in their lives.

Disk partitioning with the Ubuntu install disk is a cake walk. You can even resize your Windows partition so that you can fit both together on your hard drive, if you want.

"You're right, I'm not that familiar with Linux, but I don't think..."

"It's not about which OS is better, unfortunately." - actually it is

"I would much prefer it if some form of Linux was the #1 OS and everyone used it and knew how..." - Ha this is total BS... If you preferred it you would be using it. Why don't you burn an Ubuntu CD and try it out, you will not even have to partition or install it to your hard drive. Then post back here Mrs. "We like tech toys and we like to learn new apps and are curious about new OS's"

"What I am saying is, if we encourage people to try a new OS, and they get in over their heads, they will just get frustrated and mad. I wish there were an easier way, but I don't see what it is." - It's called Ubuntu, which is an African word for Humanity to Others...

What I am saying is you have gone in a complete circle and never progressed. Microsoft is ripping you off and alot of other people off. How much did you spend on your Microsoft Office? $100..? $200..? $300..? Guess what... Open Office created by Sun Microsystems, the inventor of the Java programming language which is in use on every computer, provides this Office Suite of programs completely free for you and it beats Microsoft hands down, if not for it's functionality, but also because since it does the exact same things and more and it's free, to use Microsoft Office you are getting ripped off.

"People what their OS pre-installed and compatible with all of their peripherals. I think the day will come when Grandma can go to Wal-Mart or Best Buy and get a Linux machine and go home and use it, without having to call tech support 4 times, but that day isn't here yet, and telling a non-techie to install Ubuntu as a solution to her problems with Vista won't make it come any faster." - Hey, you need to wake up cause it's 2008 not 1998.!! You can buy Linux computers in Walmart like 4 years ago.!!!!!!

http://news.cnet.com/Wal-Mart-debuts-498-Linux-laptop/2100-1044_3-5498006.html

Since then Ubuntu has taken the computing world by storm because you do not have to call tech support (A comment from an obvious Windows user). Ubuntu is supported by 1000's of people around the world for free.

www.ubuntu.com

I stand corrected, you are right that Walmart does sell both laptops and desktops with Linux, at least on their online site. The article you linked to is from Dec. 2004 and I thought I had read they had problems with people not understanding it wasn't a Windows machine, or at least that they stopped selling them. It may have been a particular brand that they stopped selling. I know I have not seen a Linux PC at my local Walmart, but maybe they don't sell them in all stores.

I think you are wrong to say that my experience with Linux is not enough to allow me to state an informed opinion about this subject, however. My experience is that:

(1) I tried to install it on a ThinkPad and I was unable to do it, though you claim it should be a cakewalk. I am not a computer novice. I tried going back through the install process several times, and before I even tried it I did quite a bit of research. If I had trouble, how can I in good conscience recommend it to someone who has substantially less technical knowledge and experience than I do? I can't, at least not if they have to install it themselves.

(2) The Asus Eee PC should be very easy to use. And it is, mostly. But I have found some glitches. For instance, though I was able to set up my own home wireless connection easily, it now can't sniff out open wifi spots. I have been in 3 different places where they have free, open wifi and the darn thing was unable to find it. At my local library, I asked for assistance. They were able to confirm that the one encripted wifi signal the machine could see was a neighbor's encripted wifi, not theirs. Their's did not even come up on the list, despite the fact that I seemed to be doing what I was supposed to do to get it to work. I went to the Asus forum and asked, I tried it several times and disabled to option to automatically recognized my home wifi, rebooted, tried again, and it still didn't see it. The library staff was unfamiliar with Linux and couldn't help me further. I am able to do basic things with this computer but I still have no idea how to install new software and have minor questions about why strange things happen -- like, I can see the Asus from the desktop computer in my kitchen, I can open files and save them using the kitchen computer, but I can't access the kitchen computer from the Asus over the network. Why? I don't know. I am more comfortable with Windows Vista, though I've only had my new HP laptop less than a month, it's my first Vista machine not counting the limited experience I had helping my husband get his Vista computer set up. So again, I hesitate to actually recommend Linux. If this were my only computer and I had to use it for everything, I would be selling it on eBay to buy something else. It does what I bought it to do, so I'm not disappointed, but it's helped me learn that learning Linux isn't as easy as I had been led to believe.

You have obviously had good experiences with Ubuntu. I'm glad. I was looking forward to using it and I'm hoping I will be able to if it ever gets working on my ThinkPad. But my experiences have made me realize some of the things that are keeping Ubuntu from being mainstream. I sincerely hope things change, but in the meantime, I need a computer that will run the software I want to use and communicate with other computers in my house. I'm not ready to switch.

I know you're going to say I have no experience with the software that runs on Linux. I have used The Gimp quite a lot, but I still find Paint Shop Pro preferable and am considering upgrading to a version of it that will run on Vista (i've got The Gimp on my HP laptop right now, I've tried to use it several times and ended up back on my old Win 2000 Dell that has an old version of PSP on it because I found The Gimp too hard to use). And I've also tried Scribus. Microsoft Publisher is a much better program for desktop publishing. I made a multi-page document in Scribus a year ago and had lots of problems, I don't want to use it again. I use Open Office all the time, I don't have a complaint about that, but I still need PSP and a desktop publishing program, and have not found a substitute that looks like it will satisfy me. So there's another reason not to switch.

These are, of course, my opinions. I acknowledge your right to have different ones. But I don't think I've gone off and spoken without knowing what I'm talking about, and I think my opinion is valid, too.

if you but games on the side (big games are only for Windows on the PC platform) Vista and Ubuntu can do the same pretty much (you can run Photoshop CS3 on Ubuntu using Wine, at least I did) but I have a Creative X-FI sound card with a punch of programs that comes with it to use it and they don't work on either Vista or Ubuntu. Also I got an HP printer and scanner(which will never work on Vista according to HP but it works fine on Ubuntu) My point is this: go with the OS that works best with your hardware, for me XP SP3 is great with my desktop, and for my EeePC I got a modified Ubuntu version that works fine (still you will need to learn few text commands to get around in Linux but I got it alright

You mentioned there are no startup programs, but that shouldn't make a difference. You can browse to C:\My Documents and copy-and-paste your files to a flash drive or other portable media, then copy them from that to the C:\Users directory on your new Vista computer. If you have a program that automates the process you can run it manually from the Start Menu.

If you cannot boot your old OS, you can connect the hard drive to your new computer as a secondary drive (internally, or using an external hard drive enclosure) and browse the contents by booting to Vista, copying the files directly from the old location to the new.

Hope this helps,
John

Hi, that's where I ran into problems as Vista appears to have started to install itself and then stopped. I had the drives hooked internally and then it froze with a restart Vista shows and the old drive has no program files showing. So no programs to look at and only files that we did recover are not pics that I want...blesssings and thanks RJ

burn a copy of the Ubuntu Install / Live CD from www.ubuntu.com

If you boot up your system with the Ubuntu Live CD or Install disk you will be able to mount the Windows partition from the "Places" menu. Ubuntu recognizes Windows partitions without having to do anything at all, just "click it" and open up the mounted drive. If you have a blank DVD you can also burn all those photos and files straight to disk with Brasero or K3B. Brasero is a CD/DVD burning software that comes with Ubuntu. Isn't it nice how all the software you actually need comes with Linux for free.

Enjoy the simplicity.

So, you are telling everybody, unbutu is better than vista, but is it better than XP too?

I'm asking this, cuz i'm a professional musician that uses a lot of software aplications for windows (some are for Mac too). But sometimes i ran into an ocean of problems, and sometimes i think is XP's fool. But sometimes are hardware issues.

I use XP professional. I use mainly, Acid Pro 6, Cubase LE, Live 6, Kinetic and Music Creator and a large number of VST plugins and instruments, and DXi too. I own Kore of NI.

So tell me, Unbutu will handle all this software? will it give me the stability that i need?

I'm asking to you all this, cuz i realize that you are a hard defender of unbutu, but you need think about something: much people actually use their Pc systems to work professonally and sometimes we don't have time and don't need to experiment with new OSs. So Tell Me, Ubutu is really the "Great" OS, that actually you are promising?

I gotta tell you, i don't like Vista, and i said before, that i don't change to vista until it should be really necesary and i have no choice. Until then, I will use XP. A lot of people, if not the mayority, thinks XP are the best OS of all times.

To EVERYBODY. There are a limited quantity of new computers, laptops and desktops with XP home or professional OS in some internet shopping sites... you know what to do, if you dont want Vista