[Stringent]

How many of you have it and use it? How many of you have tried and not like it and gone back to XP?

[Zorchenhimer]

I tried it, and hated it. I still hate it. I absolutely hate working with it or trying to fix it for someone (freelance IT stuff). From what I hear, Win7 is what Vista was meant to be, but I'm not holding my breath. And personally, I'm trying to migrate away from Windows completely.

[Stringent]

What did you hate about it?

I am using Windows 7 RC1 and its great, apart from a few issues. You won't ever migrate away from Windows, you will always have to run it in some sort of virtual machine!

[Raptor]

I've never put it on my own machine, but I've had to use it (school and fixing it for other people). I personally hated it.

I haven't touched 7 yet, I'm waiting for an actual release.

[Zorchenhimer]

What did you hate about it?

[Almost] everything. Mainly: UAC, moving everything in every bloody dialog box, and a bunch of miscellaneous small things that just get on my nerves. However, there are two things that I actually liked. First was the ability to control the volume from individual applications, and the renaming of the personal folders to not contain "My" as well as renaming "Documents and Settings" to simply "Users." That stuff always got on my nerves in XP.

[Raptor]

I also like that "Services" has been added to the Task Manager. I always wished it was there in XP.

but yeah, UAC is the dumbest thing M$ ever did.

[Zorchenhimer]

And from what I've read, they screwed up the UAC in Win7 Opening up a monstrous security hole. [link]

[Stringent]

Actually UAC isn't dumb if you think about it. Its to prevent the running of malicious programs without the users knowledge. Unless you have something like Kaspersky Internet Security, you don't know whats being run and whats not. UAC tries to avoid this. Also it gives a more secure layer on users which do not have admin rights from running stupid programs. It is annoying, and I think its implemented wrongly in Vista, however they have got there in 7. While that hole will probably be plugged in later builds, I think the UAC is a good thing.

It is a fine line between automation and user control. There are some which want a choice done for them every step, and then there are people like me who want more awareness as to what is going on.

Admittedly when Vista first came out it was rubbish and very badly supported. The support wasn't necessarily Microsoft's fault, but 3rd party driver support, who were too darn lazy to develop drivers for it. Since SP1 its been better. Haven't tried SP2 I am testing 7 at the moment, but I have put it on a few work peoples laptops and they haven't come back screaming at me!

[Zorchenhimer]

Don't get me wrong, the concept behind the UAC is awesome, Micro$oft just did it wrong. Ubuntu uses something rather similar (lots of details that i wont get into), but basically it asks for a password for administrative tasks. Usually the current user's password, but again many details I'm not explaining. It's not the least bit annoying and very secure. The UAC, however, is a royal pain in the a$$. And as I mentioned before, Windows 7 has a massive security hole because M$ did something stupid (follow the link ). I hope that hole is fixed before the final release.

[Xyie]

How many of you have it and use it? How many of you have tried and not like it and gone back to XP?

I have tried it, on others' computers, when trying to help someone with a relatively simple task. In order: my grandpa, a classmate, and my father. I was unable to perform said simple task without incredible frustration if at all due to the differences between XP and Vista. I see that Vista has some nice features, but the usability of it for users coming from XP has gone off the deep end into oblivion. It may appeal to someone who's never had a computer before because they're not trying to build from previous experience.

I personally had a wonderful experience when presented with Linux Mint. This was much more inviting than Vista and didn't require re-learning anything. In fact, most of the time when I wanted to find a feature it was exactly where I expected it. Unlike Vista. Once XP peters out to become obsolete, I'll be completely moving to Linux Mint, with no more Windows.

[Stringent]

Linux Mint, a breath of fresh air. Hehe. Haven't tried that distro yet, I mainly use Ubuntu for Linux orientated tasks.

So how are you going to manage with those Windows Only apps then?

[Zorchenhimer]

Nothing is Windows only if you try hard enough.

[Raven]

I personally liked using Vista. It wasn't that difficult to use for me. I think I would actually choose it over any Mac OS.

[Raptor]

Don't get me wrong, the concept behind the UAC is awesome, Micro$oft just did it wrong.

I'll agree with that. It's very annoying when I want to run x program, and Microsoft asks me at every step "are you sure you want to run x?"

[Xyie]

So how are you going to manage with those Windows Only apps then?

Windows only is a lie.

Wine takes care of it.

Everything else has a suitable replacement for me.

[Zorchenhimer]

Windows only is a lie.

A lie created by Micro$oft.

[Stringent]

Windows is a lie, hmm ...

I doubt many of the things we have today would not have been possible if it wasn't for Windows. I mean even Linux is striving to be more user friendly, why? Windows. Its getting there, but not yet to be unleashed on the below average consumer!

WINE is very buggy and particular about what it runs. You are really better off with a Virtual Machine.

[Zorchenhimer]

I doubt many of the things we have today would not have been possible if it wasn't for Windows.

Doesn't mean I can't disagree with their methods.

[Xyie]

Windows is a lie, hmm ...

I said "windows only" is a lie. not "windows is a lie"

Meant that many programs can run on other operating systems, even if you have to "force" them to do so. (Crossover, Wine, virtual machine programs.) Otherwise, many programs also are putting out versions that you can run on Linux as well as Mac. The Mac market is growing, and programmers are following the growth of users with compatible programs. Same with Linux.

BTW, OpenSolaris looks fairly nice...I just couldn't run it. Takes more resources than my computer has to run off the Live CD. If I had a spare 10GB or so hard drive I might experiment with it.

[Raven]

This is my take on it. If I had two choices and absolutely had to pick either Mac or Vista...I'd pick Vista. I personally like Vista more. I like the aesthetics, I like how easy it was to use for me, and I just liked it overall. I took the time to learn how to use it...all fifteen minutes.

It could be I'm just cynical (and possibly highly annoyed by Mac commercials), but it seems like most criticism of Vista is all bandwagon.