Help Is Vista still super sucky?

[Furr]

Getting my new lappy on Tuesday, I have nooo real experience with Vista, been XP all the way with a dabbling in Linux.

However, it comes with vista home premium, for software development is Vista going to hinder me in anyway? Java, C++, Apache, MySQL, ProLog etc

Should I stick XP/Linux on it instead?

 

[nath]

I answered before I read the question properly :\. I don't know anything about software development, but for day to day use, vista is actually very decent. I now prefer it to XP - I find it's more stable, just as quick and has no real niggles.

 

[Raven]

No idea whether it is good for what you want but it works ok for me now, you have to mess about with quite a lot of stuff just to get it to work properly and it devours ram. Not to bad though.

 

[Helme]

It's abit hard to get used to it, but when you have - you really don't want to switch back to XP again. Just something as small as instant alt-tabbing with games makes it worth the upgrade

I'm not really sure tho about the software dev programs, if they were made with some sort of support for 64bit they should work just fine - I haven't encountered anything other than my 3 year old soundcard drivers not working on Vista.

 

[pikeh]

I love Vista.

 

[ECA]

Been using vista since release, just a bunch of tards hating it due to not knowing how to switch off UAC.

 

[throdgrain]

The thing I hate about it on my laptop is when it operates programs when I leave the cursor on it rather than clicking. I've never properly been able to fix this.

 

[Sharma]

Vista isn't that bad now tbfh.

Just got myself sorted with a new lappie and all that which came with Vista and I spent a bit of time turning off the annoying crap that comes with it and it's working rather nicely now.

Doesn't seem to be anywhere near as bug ridden as what it used to be.

 

[wyrd_fish]

java works

not sure about the rest

 

[Kryten]

I use it and like it. On a high end desktop, it's *better* than XP in performance and reliability terms on something like 90% of hardware setups. Laptops have only really just started to turn the corner where Vista is usable, but that's as a majority have a decent on-board graphics system and dual core setup these days.

 

[kirennia]

So long as you have at least 2gigs of ram and I do really mean at the very least, you can strip out all the crap that comes with it so it only uses 600megs idle or so and then it'll be fine.

Use jdeveloper, visual studios and others on there and haven't had any glaring problems on it... that said, I do have ubuntu on there as well just in case ...and XP on my desktop just in case...

There were a large number of problems on there which casual users wouldn't necessarily find but they've mostly been ironed out now. Stupid things still exist like trying to get it to network properly with an XP machine, having to install a hidden windows update on the XP machine to get it to work etc etc but for most of the problems, there are fixes if you look in the right place.

I'd still say XP is better but if I had to pay for one of them now, I'd probably go for vista due to it being a technology which will quite likely end up being supported for a longer period of time from now and if you're doing directx programming like I'm having to start this year, it's nice to have the option to use dx10 too Note I got marked down on a project for saying this 6 months ago though...lol.

 

[old.user4556]

I love it.

 

[Cadelin]

Getting my new lappy on Tuesday, I have nooo real experience with Vista, been XP all the way with a dabbling in Linux.

However, it comes with vista home premium, for software development is Vista going to hinder me in anyway? Java, C++, Apache, MySQL, ProLog etc

Should I stick XP/Linux on it instead?

Its a badly phrased question. Vista has been out for a while now, so the major problems have been ironed out (ie it doesn't suck).

You need to look at what you need from your Operating System. If you are used to XP and it does everything you need then do you need to get Vista? XP will be supported for a few more years at least. If you are getting a cheap laptop, it might well perform better in general with XP. Laptops can't be upgraded much and in 3 years you can either get a new laptop or put Linux on it which will in general run on older machines.

 

[Bodhi]

I'm running it on my new lappy. Was initially planning to put XP Pro on, but I've turned UAC off and have warmed to Vista immensely. Seems snappy enough with a Core2Duo, 4Gig of RAM and a 9600GS. Havent had to reset due to a system crash yet and it seems to have no problems with games and VMware.

 

[Xandax]

The suckiness is usually located about 50 cm to 1meter in front of the computer screen.

 

[Furr]

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T5800 (2.00GHz, 800Mhz FSB, 2MB cache)
3072MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [1x2048+1x1024]
128MB nVidia® GeForce® 8400M GS
250GB (5400RPM) SATA Hard Drive
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium SP1- English
Fixed 8x DVD+/-RW Slim Slot Load Drive, including SW
Intel® Next-Gen Wireless-N Mini-Card - Europe - Core 2 Duo Processors
Dell™ TrueMobile 355 internal Bluetooth Module - European
Primary 9-cell Lithium-Ion Battery (85 WHr)
Biometric Fingerprint Reader
Tuxedo Black & 0.3 mega pixel Camera for White-LED Display
13.3" UltraSharp™ WXGA (1280x800) White-LED Display (300 nits) with TrueLife

These are the system specs, its a Dell m1330. From the sound of it should be fine, might just stick and installation of xp and linux on anyway and run them using VM software. Stick WAMP on it for standard server features, personally use Eclipse for most of my coding, but hey! as long as it works right, thanks for the help.

 

[kirennia]

Sounds like a very solid machine for software development; nice sized HD, good processor, nice amount of ram (that'll help no end with vista) and the graphics card should be okay for it too although wont be brilliant for games. Plentiful for Eclipse though; rue the day I ended up doing my java projects in jdeveloper instead of that, heh.

How much was it if you don't mind me asking? Just so I know whether to recommend it to people or not

 

[Furr]

Altogether its £ 768.99

Upgraded the screen to the thinner lighter LED display and changed the wireless to Wireless N since I have a wireless N network at home. Although I have read worrying things about the Graphics card... but we'll see how that pans out. Got the 9 cell battery which means the laptop will look like this:

instead of this

Not that fussed about whether or not it makes it look odd shapen, I wanted a reasonably priced, smallish, portable laptop with a large battery usage time and not so underpowered I'd rip my hair out.

 

[Bodhi]

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T5800 (2.00GHz, 800Mhz FSB, 2MB cache)
3072MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [1x2048+1x1024]
128MB nVidia® GeForce® 8400M GS
250GB (5400RPM) SATA Hard Drive
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium SP1- English
Fixed 8x DVD+/-RW Slim Slot Load Drive, including SW
Intel® Next-Gen Wireless-N Mini-Card - Europe - Core 2 Duo Processors
Dell™ TrueMobile 355 internal Bluetooth Module - European
Primary 9-cell Lithium-Ion Battery (85 WHr)
Biometric Fingerprint Reader
Tuxedo Black & 0.3 mega pixel Camera for White-LED Display
13.3" UltraSharp™ WXGA (1280x800) White-LED Display (300 nits) with TrueLife

These are the system specs, its a Dell m1330. From the sound of it should be fine, might just stick and installation of xp and linux on anyway and run them using VM software. Stick WAMP on it for standard server features, personally use Eclipse for most of my coding, but hey! as long as it works right, thanks for the help.

Thats a very similar spec to mine. Differences are P7350 CPU (Same clock higher FSB I believe), 4 Gb of RAM, a 9600GS GPU a 15.4" display and a Samsung Badge on it. Was 690 with a case and MS Optical mouse. I have no problems running a couple of virtual machines at a time, also runs games etc fine. Only has two problems that I can see.

1) NVIDIA haven't done a driver for the 9600GS on their website that I can see, I'm having to use Samsung's.

2)Samsung deemed it sensible to put 32-bit Vista on a machine with 4Gb of RAM, so the extra 1Gb is wasted. I'm interested in putting Ultimate 64-bit on, but can I upgrade to this with a full version of Ultimate?

 

[Kryten]

2)Samsung deemed it sensible to put 32-bit Vista on a machine with 4Gb of RAM, so the extra 1Gb is wasted. I'm interested in putting Ultimate 64-bit on, but can I upgrade to this with a full version of Ultimate?

There's no upgrade path available from 32bit to 64, so I'm afraid it's a format and start again job :|

 

[Bodhi]

There's no upgrade path available from 32bit to 64, so I'm afraid it's a format and start again job :|

In which case Microsoft not only have aids, but they have gay aids.


Of the soul.



Or something.

 

[Furr]

So far do good, the UAC thing pisses me off a bit, will turn it off soon. It sure is pretty though! although doing more advanced setting changes and the like seems to require shit loads more button pressing that is necessary before it "allows" you to see the options you want to change.

Laptop itself is pretty nifty! fast, battery lasts forever, and quite light. the large battery pack was worth it, even if it does make the lappy less pretty that it could be.

 

[Raven]

stuck 8 gig of ram in my PC yesterday, Vista is awesome now

 

[yaruar]

2)Samsung deemed it sensible to put 32-bit Vista on a machine with 4Gb of RAM, so the extra 1Gb is wasted. I'm interested in putting Ultimate 64-bit on, but can I upgrade to this with a full version of Ultimate?

64 bit eats disk space in a horrible fashion, it stores all the 32 bit dlls, ets individually for every program installed and the folder it stored them in is protected so that even the admin account can't tamper with it.... Mine at last count was over 15gb
Support isn't fully there (i'm looking at you adobe...) worked like a dream on my lappy (4gb ram 7700 processor Quadro 1600m gfx [essentially a 8700 rejigged]) I need to replace the hard drive though as 120 gb doesn't last very long.
It looks lovely on the 1920x1200 laptop screen though

 

[Aoami]

I'd avoid 64 bit vista like the plague and stick with 32.

 

[kallikukur]

i dont understand whats so bad about vista .. i see nothing wrong with it

 

[Kryten]

Being honest and blunt, you'd be a bit fucking daft to be buying a 32bit OS in this day and age. Anyone suggesting that the 64bit version is in the slightest bit worse needs shooting. Yeah, there's more disk space usage due to the backward compatibility, but as we're so behind anyway that's to be expected. And whats 5 extra gb on your shiney cheap 1tb drive?

 

[Raven]

Being honest and blunt, you'd be a bit fucking daft to be buying a 32bit OS in this day and age. Anyone suggesting that the 64bit version is in the slightest bit worse needs shooting. Yeah, there's more disk space usage due to the backward compatibility, but as we're so behind anyway that's to be expected. And whats 5 extra gb on your shiney cheap 1tb drive?

exactly, there is no reason to hamstring yourself with a 32bit OS and only 3 gig of ram, then going through the hassle of reinstalling to the 64 bit one down the line. Both RAM and HD storage are so cheap these days there is no reason to get 32 bit.