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Don't knock Vista
It was with disappointment that I read the Letter of the Month, entitled "Vista - no thanks" (PCW October 2007, Letters). Ralph Bacon has encountered a series of problems using Windows Vista as his operating system and concludes that he likes the design of Vista but prefers the stability of XP.
Of course with a new and complex operating system it is inevitable that some people will experience teething problems, but there is no point looking longingly over the shoulder at XP.
The future is Vista and XP, if not yet dead, is dying. The number of people still using XP, in 12 months time, will have dropped dramatically. I recall that when XP was launched there were those who insisted that Windows 98 was definitely superior and that XP was a backward step.
My own experience with Vista is very different from that of Ralph Bacon. Every piece of software I have thrown at it has worked perfectly and every piece of hardware I have installed has worked immediately and without problem. However, of more importance is the fact that I find Vista totally stable, totally reliable, and both very easy and a pleasure to use.
Windows XP - RIP, your time has passed.
Alex Bruce
Lucky you Alex Bruce. My Vista Ultimate is gradually degrading. First off the media player went defunct, now the computer sometimes needs to be turned on twice before becoming fully operational and the power saving seems to be up the spout. What exciting disasters will it bring me next. Fortunately I still have my sturdy XP computer alongside ready to take the strain.
Posted by Fatman | August 17, 2007 3:41 PM
I bought a new computer just under two months ago with of course Vista on it.In that time I have suffered more problems in that time than in over two years with XP. The XP machine was my first computer and withstood considerable abuse. Now programmes one after another have refused to work properly and that is after downloading the vista patches. My advice wait till after SP1 for Vista is delivered.
Posted by robert | August 24, 2007 10:12 PM
Regarding alt f10 problems with Acer's. I recently fitted a larger hard drive to an Acer SA85. No problems at all were experienced. Of course, there is no hidden partition on the new drive enabling system recovery, but what the heck. How long does it take to press alt/f10 and boot into windows, xp in my case. How was it done? Fit the new drive. Format to either fat32 or ntfs, whatever you prefer, and forget about the fat32 file system not reading drives over a certain gig. It simply isn't correct. You will be left with a drive missing it's pqservice partition. No matter. Install using either the default factory dvd or the user dvd you should have made when first booting your acer. I've tried both and both work. Each time the installation needs to reboot, do the following. At the bios prompt hit alt/f10 together, but be ready to do so. The installation process will continue. Do this each time you need to. When all is done windows will try to boot, but won't. It's easy to assume that alt/f10 is no longer needed, but you would be wrong. Because of the missing pqservice partition you will need to hit alt/f10 each time you switch on, at the bios prompt. Hold both keys down until bios prompt goes, then system will boot, and away you go. Okay, it isn't perfect, but look at it this way. You have a machine that will be difficult to start unless the alt/f10 process is known. What's a couple of seconds of anyone's time. You will need one driver from the driver cd you should have created along with your dvd's, and that's the realtek lan driver.
Posted by Terry | August 29, 2007 3:13 PM
Regarding alt f10 problems with Acer's. I recently fitted a larger hard drive to an Acer SA85. No problems at all were experienced. Of course, there is no hidden partition on the new drive enabling system recovery, but what the heck. How long does it take to press alt/f10 and boot into windows, xp in my case. How was it done? Fit the new drive. Format to either fat32 or ntfs, whatever you prefer, and forget about the fat32 file system not reading drives over a certain gig. It simply isn't correct. You will be left with a drive missing it's pqservice partition. No matter. Install using either the default factory dvd or the user dvd you should have made when first booting your acer. I've tried both and both work. Each time the installation needs to reboot, do the following. At the bios prompt hit alt/f10 together, but be ready to do so. The installation process will continue. Do this each time you need to. When all is done windows will try to boot, but won't. It's easy to assume that alt/f10 is no longer needed, but you would be wrong. Because of the missing pqservice partition you will need to hit alt/f10 each time you switch on, at the bios prompt. Hold both keys down until bios prompt goes, then system will boot, and away you go. Okay, it isn't perfect, but look at it this way. You have a machine that will be difficult to start unless the alt/f10 process is known. What's a couple of seconds of anyone's time. You will need one driver from the driver cd you should have created along with your dvd's, and that's the realtek lan driver.
Posted by Terry | August 29, 2007 3:13 PM
"Of course with a new and complex operating system it is inevitable that some people will experience teething problems"
Well, i don't see remotely as many problems with something like ubuntu as i do with vista. I manage about 10-20 computers with vista and roughly the same with ubuntu. People rarely need any maintenance time with ubuntu, but good god they do with vista.
It's not just because it's different, cause ubuntu is different from xp and i don't see them complaining about that. It's the fact that so many programs don't work anymore, so many programs are just suddenly shuffled around and so many programs have weird bugs.
You must try upgrading an ubuntu machine. It's a joy when seeing it side-by-side with windows machines. :)
Posted by anon | June 27, 2008 10:02 AM