Barely a little over one year since it’s release, how does Windows Vista add up as the next gen operating system?
You may not be aware, but today, there are various choices we have when it comes to choosing the type of operating system that we can run on our computers. For years the local stores have been crowded with computers that contain mainly the only operating system we’ve come to know - Microsoft Windows.
Microsoft has come a very long way in developing strong software solutions for everyone’s needs. On the home user side, Microsoft went from DOS, to Windows 3.1, to Windows 95, to Windows 98, to Windows ME, then Windows XP, and nearly 7 years after Windows XP, we currently have Windows Vista.
I think it’s safe to say that most of us have come to enjoy the stability and security of Windows XP. But is it time to move on to Vista?
Yes, it’s true, Vista is more secure. It has the virtual registry and UAC among other things that make it very secure. There are many other details I could go into in comparing Vista to it’s predecessor Operating Systems, but I’m going to give my opinion from a user’s standpoint.
From the start, you’re going to need a computer with newer hardware to run it. You’ll also need a minimum of 2GB of RAM for Vista. So, before you run out and buy the software off the shelf, make sure your computer can handle it.
In my experience, I have had Vista Business Edition on my laptop for close to one year. The laptop is almost 3 years old. It has a 2.0 Ghz Pentium D processor and I bumped the RAM to the max it will hold at 2GB. Vista is the best looking OS that Microsoft has put out. On my laptop it runs fairly decent. I loaded my essential applications (Adobe Suite, Office 2007, Development tools, etc.) on it.
Bluetooth - Getting bluetooth to work on Vista was a pain. Microsoft doesn’t support bluetooth. Luckily, I finally found a driver solution that somebody had posted on the web and used that package. Still. I could never really get stability out of my Windows Mobile PDA Phone when it came to syncing via bluetooth. Cabled was the best option for me with Vista.
USB - Everytime I’d plug a USB device into the laptop, Vista wanted to research for and reinstall the drivers for that device. This process could take up to 15 minutes of Windows Searching and installing on some devices.
There are other things that, over time, caused me to get impatient with Vista. Eventually, I found myself clicking and waiting, and waiting, and waiting. Programs began responding slower, and boot up time was taking longer.
Two weeks ago, I made a Ghost backup of Vista, wiped the hard drive, and put on a clean install of XP Pro. Needless to say, I could never be happier using my laptop again. The response times are great. I have stable bluetooth and USB functionality again. No more waiting for drivers to be found and loaded (again and again).
I’m not trying to discourage anyone from making that jump to Vista. I’m just stating my own experience with it.
Today, when we load a Antivirus program or some other software (ehem, HP), that soaks up alot of our available memory (RAM), we call it bloatware, or resource intensive, and then blackball the software program. We inform all of our netizins to stay away from that program. I can’t help but wonder why, then, are we seeing an Operating System come out that takes a minimum of 2GB of RAM to run, and we accept it? To me, Vista IS bloatware, and IS resource intensive. Should we cry wolf on it? As I work on my laptop now, it is only using 498MB of my 2GB of RAM. It rarely goes over 600 MB even when I have heavy programs open. For me, I’m happy staying right where I am with XP.
I’m not alone. Everywhere you go on the web, you’ll find many disgruntled technicians that work on computers such as I. Magazines are filled with comments questioning Vista’s performance. And with the news that Microsoft is hurrying the release of their next OS, Windows 11 , again, I can’t help but ask the question, was Vista a mistake?
Don’t get me wrong. I like the fancier look of Vista. I like the added security that is built in. It’s a step forward. But, given the time it took to release it from their last OS, as well as changing the name from Longhorn to Vista over the course of 7 years, and now we’re awaiting the next Windows release which will be next year, I’m stuck asking “what is Microsoft doing over there?” Is it Windows ME all over again? Windows ME was, indeed, a mistake. Microsoft has quickly forgotten that OS and left it by releasing the much more stable and better XP.
Service Pack 1 for Vista is due out soon. Hopefully this will address many of the performance issues. We’ll load it and find out.
There are other Operating Systems out there that may suit us better. Macintosh Leopard is a highly fine tuned, easy to use system. It is very stable and now with the Intel processors in the Macs, you can run Windows simultaneously with Mac’s OS. There is also any flavor of Linux you can ask for, and Linux is free. Ubuntu is proving to be the choice for ease of use.
I’m not saying Vista is bad. If you get it, I will encourage you to use it on a newer machine with lots of RAM. We still have it loaded on two of our lab machines. But, for me, XP is still the right choice.
Think you can’t get XP on any computers anymore? Think again. While it’s true that one really can’t walk into a local store now and walk out with XP because all the stores only offer Vista. You can, however, still order a computer with XP on it if you order from Dell.
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So, you just bought that 4GB RAM combo deal and you put it into your computer because you want Windows Vista to run faster right? You fire up your computer and immediately go to your system properties to see your new 4GB. Wait? It’s only showing 3.06MB.