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Vista gonna be a contender?

Acriku

By Acriku
in Technical Issues, News, & Reviews

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Andrew

Andrew

Posted
Posted

Posted this at fark.com forum thread about vista. Basically I was at a friends place tonight trying to get vista to work and it worked like crap.

Original Post:

I just got back from a friends place.

He bought a tower with Vista Home premium on it.

So we uninstalled crapware and installed some of our software.

I tried to update video and audio driver yet it would not work. Oddly I have a computer with similar hardware, but using winxp pro and installing drivers is very simple and easy to do.

I went into msconfig and unchecked a couple things that startup when windows starts (java and some autoupdate crap). Restart windows and windows defender is saying that stuff is not running. Yah I know this. I couldnt find anywheres in windows defender to turn off this notification. So I ended up turning back on the unneeded software.

I also enjoyed the allow or deny constantly popping up when starting software or installing/uninstalling stuff. Very annoying. Yes I know I can disable this. I couldnt find it while I was there, also could not find where to turn off aero, or to switch back to winxp theme (only had vista and classic WTF?)

It took two minutes to start this brand new computer. With winxp pro I know for a fact it would start in less than 1 minute. Also it ran extremely slow. Click on something, such as opening control panel and it would take many seconds to open it (you would see a progress bar at the top moving across slowly).

Vista is a piece of crap. My friend will be installing winxp shortly.

I have seen vista run on two laptops as well and they ran like crap.

gryphon

gryphon

Posted
Posted

Didn't know how to turn of Aero or change the Windows interface. Let alone properly disable startup applications. Sounds like a guy who's opinion I trust about this.

Don't forget to use the word "crap" a lot. Makes you look smart and knowledgeable about the subject...

Andrew

Andrew

Posted
Posted

Thanks for the reply.

One app that was listed in startup was java update thingy. In win XP I just go to msconfig->startup->uncheck whatever I want disabled, apply and restart computer. When computer is restarted it notifies me that startup has changed. I click box to not notify me again and I never see it again until I change startup again.

With vista I did the same thing. But the difference is that windows defender popped up on every reboot saying startup had changed. So I click on the popup and it opens windows defender. It lists things that startup when windows does. The things I disabled do not show up there, and no option anywheres to disable this from popping up every time the computer is started. And the programs I was disabling as far as I can tell do not have a "do not run when windows starts" option. They are the hidden programs that you don't see running in systray.

As for aero, I looked for a while and didn't see anything related to it (guess I should have googled, as google shows it as being labelled "transparency" and not aero.). As for theme, it only had vista and classic (win95/98 style) listed. I am not sure why there was no XP theme listed, I would think there would be one.

Opening control panel should not take 10 seconds. It does not take that long on the 5 year old computer.

I was baffled that I could not install an intel video driver and a realtek audio driver. I have same manufacturer, and can easily install them. I didn't have 2 hours to figure out why they would not install.

My friend was frustrated. Clicking on something and then waiting for vista to do the action for a very simple task.

I can already tell that my friend and I are in the habit of clicking allow every time it pops up, whether or not it would be a virus. Having to click that every minute when doing stuff is pretty annoying. With one program it would pop up every time it was started. Sure it can be disabled, but I thought that was the almighty security feature of vista? Adding allow/deny to everything you do gets very mundane. For the 2 hours I was there, we would have encountered this maybe 50 times.

His new computer took 2 minutes to boot (timed it). With nothing big starting up when computer does other than antivirus and antispyware (needed for average non techie windows user, AVG and spybot). And the things I tried disabling from starting up such as java update gave me the windows defender problem. We had his 5 year old computer right next to us with winxp and it started in less than 2 minutes. I think it ran slightly slower, even though it was a bad computer.

EDIT:

I think it is quite frustrating when you go and buy a new computer and it runs just as slow as your 5 year old computer.

Yes the computer he bought was a low end computer, but I don't see why it should run as fast as a 5 year old low end computer. Most likely has to do with the OS, since both vista and xp he had the same software installed. I'm not sure of any benefits of vista that he would actually notice and use over XP

gryphon

gryphon

Posted
Posted

Vista will be at SP1 soon. And SP3 for WinXP is in it's final stages to.

About the speed and system specs I can only agree.

For the weird things with Vista. How come people spend hours on Linux support sites figuring out how to play a DVD, setting Apache or Samba let alone setup a network printer in Linux. And then for Windows you expect it to work with 1 click and in 2 seconds. The MS knowledgebase is actually very good. Don't expect to intuitively know a new OS when it comes out just because you have experience with it's predecessor.

Apple OSX often gets credit for Vista's origin. So is the case with that pop-up for your permissing 50 times an hour. OSX users have the same pop-up with installing hardware, software and some other common stuff. Ok maybe not 50 time but certainly 40 times. Strange that with OSX no one ever complained.

Andrew

Andrew

Posted
Posted

I never used Apple products. :)

Doubt I will since for the same hardware they are much more expensive compared to normal PC.

But people still buy it so something must be good with it.

People don't usually buy linux, so if stuff needs to work they cant complain that they spent $x for an OS that doesn't work. (copyright/patents prevent dvd playback from being installed at start for certain distros).

About a DVD not working, my friend was on the phone with girlfriend last night when I was over and she couldn't get a dvd to work on vista. :P Not sure why since it was over the phone. I guess it wouldn't auto play. And non techies don't know enough to open programs and tell it to play dvd. Or what programs to try.

gryphon

gryphon

Posted
Posted

But people still buy it so something must be good with it.

Don't be convinced about that. I have Apple products and still don't know.

People don't usually buy Linux, so if stuff needs to work they cant complain that they spent $x for an OS that doesn't work. (copyright/patents prevent DVD playback from being installed at start for certain distros).

Can I read that as "people don't want to read the manual if they pay have payed money for it".

About a DVD not working.....

I remember Windows not being shipped with the DVD codex in mediaplayer. Some thing to do with "unnecessary applications you get with Windows" you hear everyone complaining about.

Now you don't have 'em. And it's not good either ? ;)

(don't know if they are really shipping Windows without DVD codex tough)

You might want to try out VLC (look at the Software topic). From the sound if it that works. ;)

Andrew, my bad for the sarcasm. It would be easy-er if Windows could be used like OSX. Just click to get things working and easy to understand interfaces. Think Windows98 was the version for that. And although Windows is a application for every household. Using it will require some patience in learning how to use it.

(it took me 10 minutes on Vista to figure out how to turn back Aero on. Then I laughed, bumped myself on the head and went on. First time I installed in on my laptop the 3Com WLAN card didn't work. never got it working  due to the fact 3Com hasn't released any Vista drivers yet. Both situations bad luck, that's why they invented a supported hardware list and knowledge base :) )

Andrew

Andrew

Posted
Posted

Can I read that as "people don't want to read the manual if they pay have payed money for it".

I don't remember if my computer came with a manual for windows. If it did, it wasn't that big (book). Although I'm sure it came with help software.

I remember Windows not being shipped with the DVD codex in mediaplayer. Some thing to do with "unnecessary applications you get with Windows" you hear everyone complaining about.

Now you don't have 'em. And it's not good either ? ;)

(don't know if they are really shipping Windows without DVD codex tough)

I'm pretty sure with default windows you can play dvds. It was probably a software problem (no autoplay), or dvd malfunction (physical or drm crap)

You might want to try out VLC (look at the Software topic). From the sound if it that works. ;)

I actually did recommend that. But being a long distance away and non techie, I doubt they will use it. They expect something as simple as a dvd to work when inserted. Especially when microsoft supplies software to do this (windows media player, windows media center).

Andrew

Andrew

Posted
Posted

Interestingly a class action lawsuit is going ahead against MS for the vista capable marketing campaign. I'll have to agree with the lawsuit. It said vista capable, doesn't mention which version of vista the computer was capable of, nor the performance. Since the marketing campaign said vista capable, people should be able to run the best vista on it with all the bells and whistles.

'Vista Capable' lawsuit against Microsoft now a class action

Andrew

Andrew

Posted
Posted

Slashdot article:

Microsoft Internal Emails Show Dismay With Vista

So even MS employees did not like what was happening. There is a 17 page pdf with emails.

I like how they even lowered the min requirements to run vista so Intel could increase its quarterly reports.

I do not think an intel 915 chipset would run vista+aero very well (or at all). Vista was advertised as "wow" aka aero. yet vista "capable" computers could not run these new features. My friend has the 945 chipset and it runs vista poorly with aero on. I can only imagine what the previous version of chipset would run vista like (EDIT: 915 can not run aero).

Reading the emails, it shows that Microsoft only cared about computer sellers (HP, dell, manufacturers, etc), and getting Vista out the door (as shown by another MS slashdot article showing where one of the lead guys left MS for amazon and so MS shipped vista early).

MS does not care about the end users. MS is too big for itself. With an unlimited amount of money, programmers and 5 years to produce an OS, they released something that at the time of release was not much better than their previous OS. I'm sure if you compared linux distros, or the mac over the same 5 year period you would see much more improvements made.

Definitely recommend reading over the pdf file to get an insight into a large company attempting to get an OS out the door.

direct pdf link:

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/library/vistaone3046.pdf

One of the funny parts is:

screenshotvistaone3046pyd7.th.png

and that is exactly how many people feel that bought into the marketing of Vista.

D2k Sardaukar

D2k Sardaukar

Posted
Posted

EU fines Microsoft record 899 mln euros

Microsoft was fined a record 899 million euros (681.6 million pounds) by the European Commission on Wednesday for using high prices to discourage software competition in the latest sanction in their long-running battle.

source: http://www.iht.com/articles/reuters/2008/02/27/business/OUKBS-UK-MICROSOFT-EU.php

edit: sorry, this does not really fit 'Vista' subject.

Andrew

Andrew

Posted
Posted

Yah, but MS probably will not pay the fine. They are now doing campaigns saying they will be more "open" and creating new licenses that will provide "free" non commercial software. They are doing it to try to stay relevant, and to confuse consumers.

  • 1 month later...

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