Vista. How bad is it?

[Jeff Lebowski]

I am looking to get a new desktop PC for the home office. It appears that it now costs an extra $150 to get XP installed rather than Vista (stinkin' Microsoft). I have thus far avoided Vista but my inner cheap bastard recoils at the thought of an extra 150 bucks. So my question is, should I hold my nose and go with Vista? Or shell out the extra money?

[FMCoug]

Vista is fine. Much better than XP. There were lots of issues early on but SP2 is solid. I run it on all my PC's except for the ones where I'm running the beta of Windows 7.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

We got a new desktop for Christmas. I really tried to push my wife to get a Mac but she didn't want it. I had heard all the horrible rumors about Vista, and thought it would be the worst thing ever.

I have had no problems with it. Given it really isn't used for any amazing computing, Word, Excel, Photoshop, internet, maybe one or two more things, but it has been no problem.

[Solon]

We got a new desktop for Christmas. I really tried to push my wife to get a Mac but she didn't want it. I had heard all the horrible rumors about Vista, and thought it would be the worst thing ever.

I have had no problems with it. Given it really isn't used for any amazing computing, Word, Excel, Photoshop, internet, maybe one or two more things, but it has been no problem.

I've been running Vista for 18 months. The first six months was hell. The last year has been great. Make sure you get a lot of memory, though (I'd say minimum 2 gigs, since Vista requires pretty much a gig just to run itself).

[kccougar]

I've been using for about 18 months as well on three machines. No issues.

[beefytee]

I am looking to get a new desktop PC for the home office. It appears that it now costs an extra $150 to get XP installed rather than Vista (stinkin' Microsoft). I have thus far avoided Vista but my inner cheap bastard recoils at the thought of an extra 150 bucks. So my question is, should I hold my nose and go with Vista? Or shell out the extra money?

I like it.

My machine freezes up more than my old XP machine, but I'm thinking it is my crappy hardware.

[FMCoug]

I had heard all the horrible rumors about Vista, and thought it would be the worst thing ever.

That's the problem. It got so much bad press (rightly so) when it first release that even though it's great now, people are still scared of it.

Windows 7 is even better but it's still beta.

[Coach McGuirk]

That's the problem. It got so much bad press (rightly so) when it first release that even though it's great now, people are still scared of it.

Windows 7 is even better but it's still beta.

The result of vista sucking out of the gate is our IT department said no way. By the time they felt, ok we can switch now, rumors of windows 7 were flying. Now they are running that beta. So MS will have to wait till that launch until our company migrates.

[il Padrino Ute]

Vista is fine. Much better than XP. There were lots of issues early on but SP2 is solid. I run it on all my PC's except for the ones where I'm running the beta of Windows 7.

I guess I ought to download and install this service pack, because I think Vista sucks. I despise it and want to smash my machine into millions of pieces several times each week.

[FMCoug]

I guess I ought to download and install this service pack, because I think Vista sucks. I despise it and want to smash my machine into millions of pieces several times each week.

If you don't have automatic updates turned on you have a lot bigger problems than just that service pack.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

So a follow up question. I need a windows machine for my home office, how far away is this windows 7? I am willing to hold off another 6 months or so, is it worth the wait? What will all the differences be?

[Donuthole]

I just bought a computer two weeks ago (thanks, to FM and other CUFers for oking the make and model) and Vista is great. My only complaint is that the toolbar format in Word is totally strange, but i'm sure I can set it back to the old view if I take 3 minutes and figure it out. Our machine came with 4 Gigs of memory, which, from what I understand, is more than necessary to comfortably run Vista.

[Jeff Lebowski]

I just bought a computer two weeks ago (thanks, to FM and other CUFers for oking the make and model) and Vista is great. My only complaint is that the toolbar format in Word is totally strange, but i'm sure I can set it back to the old view if I take 3 minutes and figure it out. Our machine came with 4 Gigs of memory, which, from what I understand, is more than necessary to comfortably run Vista.

You are probably using Word 2007. No, you cannot change it back. But you will get used to it after a while.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

My only complaint is that the toolbar format in Word is totally strange, but i'm sure I can set it back to the old view if I take 3 minutes and figure it out.

If you do take the time and figure this out let me know how. I took a minute on my wife's and couldn't figure it out. She would think I am a really amazing person if I fixed it for her.

[beelzebabette]

If you do take the time and figure this out let me know how. I took a minute on my wife's and couldn't figure it out. She would think I am a really amazing person if I fixed it for her.

The old keyboard shortcuts still work, but the menus are what they are now. I temporarily switched back to the old version while I was doing last year's reports because I didn't have time to figure it out, but now that I've gotten used to it I like the new menus better. They make more sense.