Windows Vista

[A18]

Any users here?

I have no intention of upgrading, but I'm curious as to what its advantages over XP are, as well as any draw backs.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

It sucks.

[King]

From what I hear, don't buy it.

I'm a Mac user anyway.  I hear Leopard is nice, but I'm still not upgrading as I like my current system.

[Speed of Sound]

Heas what Ive found from using it for 4 months:

Pros: Neat start icon

Cons: Everything else

[Joe Republic]

I've also been using it for about four months, and yeah, it's pretty crappy.  Sure it looks swish, but it's really awkward to use.  The "new and improved" start menu is one such example.  Another thing is when you adjust the size of a folder window, and adjust the file view and attributes, etc, by the time you close and re-open it again, it's back to the default view.  There are several more examples, but I can't think right now.

Stick with Win XP, or switch to a Mac OS if you want to (I've never used one so I wouldn't know about it).

[Keystone Phil]

Heas what Ive found from using it for 4 months:

Pros: Neat start icon

Cons: Everything else

Haha, exactly. I have Vista at works and it screwed up my computer.

[Hash]

From what I've been told, it sucks.

[Gabu]

The first step to using Windows Vista is to uninstall Windows Vista, apologize to the universe for having ever installed it in the first place, and then go reinstall XP.

[John Dibble]

I've been using it, and for the most part it's fine - basically XP with some fancy doodads. It's certainly not perfect.

Pros:
1. Doesn't crash nearly as much as XP does. I've had it crash maybe twice, and both times it happened was when I was coming out of sleep mode so it wasn't like I was in the middle of something. Most of the little quirks my copy of XP had don't exist in Vista.
2. A few neat new features in the interface. Whether you use them or not depends on what type of user you are.

Cons:
1. The damn thing doesn't remember my custom folder settings. This is my biggest gripe about Vista. Supposedly this is going to be fixed in the first service pack.
2. I don't like the start menu as much, especially in "My Programs".
3. You're forced to use IE7. IE6 was alright with me, but I made a permanent switch to Firefox for all my browsing once I got a Vista machine. IE7 has a crappy user interface.
4. Minor gripe - if you use foreign language programs there can be difficulty unless you've got the Office or Ultimate versions because many of the language packs aren't available. There is a workaround that uses a program meant for XP though.

My advice is don't upgrade unless you're doing so with a new computer. There really is no point in upgrading just the OS to get what's on Vista, and Vista requires a good machine to run smoothly anyways.

[afleitch]

I've got it.

It hates media, goes a bit odd after about 6 hours runtime and programmes can stop working

HOWEVER, it is good at fixing itself. In the past when a driver crashed, XP would go down too. Vista can not only stay running but fix the problem.

[MAS117]

Had it for 30 days and got rid of it. It's horrible, wait longer for newer versions to come out.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

It sucks.

Doesn't even begin to describe it.

[Padfoot]

I got a new computer with Vista and I can't say I see a marked difference between the two systems but I use my computer mostly for recreation and the internet and I don't usually go beyond that.  The only thing that bugs me is the start menu.

[MODU]

I have had it for a year now (came with my laptop) and haven't had any issues with it.  No real pro's or con's, other than the menu options have changed (classic Microsoft).  With the exposures that the program has though, I wouldn't recommend buying it if you simply want to upgrade.  Stick with XP for now.