Refund

[EaglePC]

It's a lemon.

going to send it back to ms and get full refund.

Now, I like Microsoft as a company. They've put together impressive products and they can do some amazing things. I believe that while they've done both good and ill, the karmic scales of the company weigh more towards the good. I might get personally frustrated with their products and disapprove of certain business decisions, but I also believe that without Microsoft providing a de facto standard for operating systems on the desktop, it would have been harder to achieve the broad information age that we have today. Windows XP Service Pack 2 is a very good operating system because it is stable, works with most hardware, and is easy to use.

I say this to impart that this is not a thoughtless slam or heedless rant against Microsoft, which can often be an inviting target.

Based on my personal experiences with Vista over a 30 day period, I found it to be a dangerously unstable operating system, which has caused me to lose data. The 64-bit version is slightly better (which, frankly, surprised the hell out of us and makes us wonder if Microsoft didn't make a mistake in choosing to only distribute Home Premium 32-bit in the retail channel), but it still has stability problems.

Any consideration of the fine details comes in second to that one inescapable conclusion. This is an unstable operating system.

When Microsoft moved from the DOS to the NT based architecture for its consumer products, they did so primarily because users were tired of operating systems that had poor stability. The move from Windows 98 to 2000 brought that stability to the masses. Now, users are tired of operating systems with poor security, and in an attempt to bring that security to them, Microsoft has undermined the operating system's stability and overall utility.

I can see what Microsoft was trying to do, but it may be that keeping Windows backwards compatible and making it more secure, all while trying to keep the OS stable may be an impossible task. I don't know if Vista will be improved with the next service pack, but the problems I found seem to stem not from flaws in code, but flaws in design.

I don't want to give into hyperbole, but at the end of the 30 days, I begged Managing Editor Jason Wall to let me reformat my computer and stop testing.

I really did want to like Vista. Yes, it is possible to enjoy both Windows and Linux - but unfortunately this product is unfit for any user. I still intend to keep a Windows XP partition on my computer for gaming and some multimedia editing, but as of the time of this publication, I have removed Vista entirely.

Editor-in-Chief's Note: The fact is that Vista is far from "unfit for any user," and this statement by the author is simply incorrect. If you read the discussion thread linked below you will find there are many Vista users that are having positive experiences. The author's experiences are his own and I think a great look into just some of the complications that can come with upgrading to Vista. Some have had worse experiences and some have had better. -EaglePC

Source: HardOCP

Next time give credit where credit is due or get banned.

Edited April 23, 2007 by xper

[gunsmokingman]

I have not had any problems using Vista, it been stable and fast. I do not play to many games but UT 2004 runs better then it did on the same machine using XP. Stability can be cause by programs or drivers not written for Vista, or are just written badly drivers or applications. Microsoft does try to include a compadibility mode to try and fix these problems. In the end it not Microsoft responsibilty to re-write other programs or drivers to make them work proper on Vista. Blame the software and hardware makers for the problems they may cause when using Vista.

[kartel]

I have been running vista since RC1 and then RC2 until a few days ago, then I purchased Vista Ultimate.

It works great, it's way more stable than XP by far, and if a application does crash, the whole OS doesn't go down with it.

Maybe you have some hardware that doesn't work good with it.

[nightthief]

I have been using Vista since it's Alpha stage. While early versions of the OS wee defiitely buggy and unstable, the same is not true of the retail release. Vista, as it stands today, is more mature and stable than Windows XP SP2 ever was.

If you are experiencing instability, the only reasons I can postulate are that you are using unstable device drivers (nVidia's graphics drivers are among the worst as they are not fully developed yet) or you are running older utilities which are incompatable with Vista. If you performed an upgrade install of Vista over your XP installation, you likely brought over a number of less than reliable drivers and older utilities - which will make the system unstable. If you perform a clean install of VIsta and install only reliable drivers written for Vista, your system will be as rock solid as Ubuntu is.

[mcrvdl]

Vista i think would be better if you had the tech support from MS...eaglePC why not check out technet...if offers all these support which stabilises your OS. You can check it from here:

http://www.microsoft.com/australia/technet/subscription.mspx

[Gary7]

I have been using Vista for over a year and never had a BSOD. It is very stable if run on the proper equipment. Good luck with trying to get a refund.

[amit_talkin]

i m running Vista as primary OS now....havent used XP since December 2006!

[Jaser]

I'm no computer geek and know little about Operating systems and whats different in each version. But, I will say this, I like Vista. I am only frustrated that Lexmark has not released drivers for my printer.

Well thats my 2cents worth

[jcarle]

Vista gives me motion sickness.

[XPerties]

It is very stable if run on the proper equipment.

I would hate to disagree but I have to. I purposely built a new system just for Vista with all the latest hardware and speed:

- Intel Duo Core 2 e6600 cooled by Sunbeam Tuniq Tower 120

- Asus p4B Premium Vista Edition

- 4 gigs of Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400C4 DDR2-800 XMS2-6400 Xtreme Performance Memory

- 2 Western Digital Raptor WD1500AHFD 150GB Serial ATA 10,000RPM Hard Drive w/16MB Buffer running in Raid 0

- 1 Western Digital Raptor 74GB Serial ATA 10,000RPM Hard Drive w/16MB Buffer

- BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC 320MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Video Card

- Powered by Thermaltake W0117RU Toughpower 750W Power Supply w/Active PFC

I ran Vista for about a week and gave me nothing but issues. Sure the OS itself is stable but with constant disk searching it was screaming my drives every second for hours and yes I tweaked it and turned a lot of crap off. No software works on it such as dreamweaver, photoshop and Office 2007 outlook locks up during mail checking. Software may not be Vista problem but it's unwilling to adapt to how things run makes it an overall POS. I went back to XP and just been screaming along on my new pc.

The fact is out of the box vista isn't all the great for the normal end user. Gaming, don't get me started on that.

[amit_talkin]

It is very stable if run on the proper equipment.

I would hate to disagree but I have to. I purposely built a new system just for Vista with all the latest hardware and speed:

- Intel Duo Core 2 e6600 cooled by Sunbeam Tuniq Tower 120

- Asus p4B Premium Vista Edition

- 4 gigs of Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400C4 DDR2-800 XMS2-6400 Xtreme Performance Memory

- 2 Western Digital Raptor WD1500AHFD 150GB Serial ATA 10,000RPM Hard Drive w/16MB Buffer running in Raid 0

- 1 Western Digital Raptor 74GB Serial ATA 10,000RPM Hard Drive w/16MB Buffer

- BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC 320MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Video Card

- Powered by Thermaltake W0117RU Toughpower 750W Power Supply w/Active PFC

I ran Vista for about a week and gave me nothing but issues. Sure the OS itself is stable but with constant disk searching it was screaming my drives every second for hours and yes I tweaked it and turned a lot of crap off. No software works on it such as dreamweaver, photoshop and Office 2007 outlook locks up during mail checking. Software may not be Vista problem but it's unwilling to adapt to how things run makes it an overall POS. I went back to XP and just been screaming along on my new pc.

The fact is out of the box vista isn't all the great for the normal end user. Gaming, don't get me started on that.

i m not agree with you.

i have following configuration

>Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 1.86 GHz @ 3.01 GHz( OClocked) + Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro + Arctic Silver 5 Thermal paste applied

>ASUS P5B Deluxe Motherboard Rev 1.xx and bios 1101

>2 GB OCZ EL Platinum XTC DDR2- 1000 Mhz @1076 Mhz 5-5-5-8 RAM

>250 GB Seagate SATA2 HDD + 250 GB USB External HDD

>ATI X1800XT 512 MB @702/1604 ( Core/memory )

> 400 W iBall PSU

i m running vista for last 3 months without any error or any compatibility issue with games like counter strike, Black Hawk Down, Company of heroes, warhammer 40k, etc.. and applications like autocad, 3dsmax, office 2007, photoshop, etc....i havent even used XP since i have installed Vista. i m a hardcore overclocker...so while playing with hardwares to overclock, vista had rebooted many times with BSODs caz of overclocking...though it never failed to start again with next reboot and without any performance decrease!

yes...nvidia having crappy driver issue with vista, so beware of it...its not fault of vista.....anyways i m not telling u to use vista...just clarifying tht vista is not bad at all!

Edited April 19, 2007 by amit_talkin

[nightthief]

I ran Vista for about a week and gave me nothing but issues. Sure the OS itself is stable but with constant disk searching it was screaming my drives every second for hours

When I fist installed Vista, the indexing service began indexing my drives and files. The process took a few hours and ran in the background, providing me with somewhat sluggish performance while it was going on. Once that indexing was complete, however, Vista only indexes files as I add or change them - making it service completely unoticable. In exchange for putting up with it for a little bit of time, I now have instantaneous virtually searches across over a half a terabyte of data, much of it within compressed archives. Quite frankly, performing a single search across my entire system would have taken almostas long as the indexing service took, and would have made my use of the computer unbearable until it was done. The tradeoff of giving up some resources at the beginning for unlimited, instantaneous searches which annot only be saved, but which automatically track new additions and changes to my files is more than worth it.,

No software works on it such as dreamweaver, photoshop and Office 2007

Strange... I am running Photoshop CS2 and Outlook 2007 without the slightest problem.

Gaming, don't get me started on that.

Some gaming problems do exist - and most of those are caused by poor quality graphics drivers from nVidia and ATI. (Although, to be fair, ATI's sem to be somewhat better than their competitor's are.) Very few gaming problems are a result of Vista itself, with the notable exception of incompatability with the Creative Lab's proprietary EAX sound system which some earlier games relied upon. (Using Creative Lab's ALchemy project will fix many of those, even on non-Creative cards - although the latter is not documented.)

yes I tweaked it and turned a lot of crap off.

Well, there you have it... Without knowing nada about how Vista works, you took it upon yourself to tinker under the hood to "tweak and turn things off." And then you wonder why your performance was poor and incompatability was introduced.

The fact is out of the box vista isn't all the great for the normal end user.

How could you even make that claim when you never even attempted to use Vista as a 'normal end user'?

[[deXter]]

Aren't you guys being too harsh? Why don't you wait till SP1 and see how it turns out? Every new OS is bound to have bugs. Especially more so with Vista with all the big changes. By the time SP1 is out (november?) the hardware manufacturers, software makers, users, Microsoft.. everyone would have enough time to iron out the bugs.

My point is, its too early to pass any harsh judgement on Vista.

[amocanu]

Windows [Whatever] RTM= Alpha quality Software

Windows [Whatever] SP1 = Beta Quality Software

Windows [Whatever] SP2 = Finished product (RTM quality)

so..every Microsoft operating system will run at an acceptable rate only after it's second service pack

Edited April 20, 2007 by amocanu

[jcarle]

I saved myself the pain. I just refuse to buy it.

Anyways, XP will continue to be supported officially (which means windows updates as well) until April 8th, 2014. They have 7 years to get Vista fixed and I'm not in a hurry to switch.