What's your Windows Vista experience?

[CycleRob]

I just bought an HP dv9320us 17" notebook. The display backlite on my old VAIO NoteBook went black and using an external monitor took up too much living room space. Check out the new one here (scroll down): http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/hp-pavi ... 01546.html.

No, I did NOT want to trash my extensive PC investment and buy a MAC. Even if I know it was the smarter thing to do. My new HP Pavilion NoteBook has 2GB DDR II SDRAM, DVD LightScribe drive, 5 card reader slot, 4 USB 2.0 ports, built-in WebCam with twin microphones, a 1GB L2 cache 120GB HDD with an open motherboard pocket for a second HDD and the graphics is handled by an NVIDIA GeForce Go 6150. All that stuff is really great and just what I wanted for $999 plus tax. I did not install the software for the Vista AERO interface video bells and whistles that slow things down.

-HOWEVER-

The operating system is Windows Vista Home Premium. It came from CompUSA via my internet order with NO recovery disks, but there's a Recovery Disk creation prgm and compressed files on drive D to burn your own recovery disks, be it 2 DVD's -or- 10 CDR's. Yes 10 CDR disks!! Vista occupies 8.1GB on drive C. In checking around, having no supplied recovery disks is popular with many mfgr's. On the plus side, the Vista DeskTop SideBar's many configurable "Gadgets" are classy and useful. Many many to choose from and more are being added by 3rd parties. There when you want them . . . or gone when you don't. My analog clock gadget now says "BMW" on the face (looks Great!) and on other gadgets I can see DJ's temp & weather in Melbourne, among other placess, at a glance.

Compared to Win XP on my 5 years older, slower, smaller and dumber Sony VAIO laptop it is not a good OS move. First off, my 2 favorite must have programs; TurboNavigator file manager and IrfanView photo editor will crash and abort about 3 out of 10 times. WebSurfing is actually slower using the same FireFox2 browser. FlashDrives plugged into it are continuously scanned (flashing) for up to a half hour, every boot, whether you like it or not. I could not de-configure Vista's scanning by searching it's many menus from repeatedly, needlessly eroding their 1 million cycle service lives. My 1 year old HP 4215 All-in-1 printer/fax/scan/copy machine is now just a printer!!! An HP NoteBook using an HP printer and over 75% of it's functions are missing. The printer's software install CDR aborted with an "operating system incompatible" and "driver unavailable" errors. The Vista printer install wizard's "HP4200 series" driver(s) only allow printing. Happy F-ing birthday! The HP 4215 Vista Drivers will be coming . . . . (soon?) . . . .

This HP dv9320us NoteBook is a very capable, versatile machine held back by Vista (Home Premium), what has to be the all time king of dysfunctional bloatware. I give Microsoft an F. A huge opportunity for MS to prosper and benefit with a high security do-it-all new OS has been killed by it's hostility and deafness to the phrase "Backwards Compatibility". I am accepting no excuses from MS. They blew it BigTime.

[ruddy]

The look and feel of Vista is very similar to Linux. Why not bunch it altogether and switch? Try ubuntu, it's the up and coming Linux distro these days. Dell is now offering it as an alternative to Vista on new computers.

[R4R&R]

My newest computer came with a free upgrade when it was released, so I partitioned my hard drive and have it split: XP Pro and Vista Home premium. XP does everything I need it to, so it's hard for me to commit to Vista. Plus, my network situation at home would force me to use one of the Business versions of Vista (I use active directory/servers at home; yeah, I'm a geek). I know there's a learnign curve which I haven't really started on. My daughter uses it, but only to play the games it comes with and browse the internet.

I've heard of some hardware driver issues, but nothing major. I would give it a try, but be ready to roll back if you have problems with hardware that you need.

[Capt. Blackadder]

I have to agree with CycleRob. Although the revamped Search feature is very useful, it looks like the development team spent most of its time making the new OS look pretty. The size of this thing, installed, is an embarrassment, to say nothing of the prices MS is charging. Months after its launch the hardware driver situation still leaves much to be desired. I would recommend WinXP over Vista for at least a year from now, because of its stability, refinement, software compatibility and hardware driver availability.

[rdsmith3]

We bought our last computer late last year before Vista was available. I am so glad that it worked out that way.

My laptop has had a hard drive crash and a mother board go bad in the last six months, but I have spent the money on repairing it rather than get a new one.

I will delay the "upgrade" to Vista as long as possible.

P.S. I have an old computer at home that still runs Windows 98.

[Dr. Strangelove]

I will have no windows vista experience.
When my Windows 2000 machine goes out (love Win2k, btw), it will be MAC time for me. I have already switched over my wife's desktop to a Mac and my son's laptop to a macbook, and have not looked back

John

[wncbmw]

One of the main reasons I bought a Mac for the home computer was avoiding Vista!

Now we are shopping for my wife a laptop and she is leaning toward a small, cheap PC. I would be willing to spend the money to get a Mac and buy Windows for it but we shall see! It's going to be her machine and our travel computer.