I got Vista Ultimate, used it wonderfully for about 3 months, then suddenly IE stopped working. I put firefox on there and it worked wonderfully. I tried to do a system restore, but alas the system restore "couldn't be read" from the volume. I tried to do a repair using the emergency repair console and even after that no IE (but Firefox was working wonderfully).

So System Repair was completely corrupted somehow (I have no idea why, the hard drive was/is not damaged in any way.)

I finally tried SP 1 (Beta) and that put the whole machine into a tail spin.

So I am back to XP and everything is working as it should be for a few months now.

installed windows (took around 2 hours) and worked fine. Had a few things to update from windows update and restarted my computer. turned on.... "BLUE SCREEN" (A.K.A blue screen on death) had to go through safe mode to system restore!

Mine's simple. Aside from being a pundit, I'm a fully employed consultant with an LA firm. We manage approximately 25 companies with over 3,000 employees combined. About 8 of our clients are schools, most of which are on Macs. Administration, however, tends to use Windows-based systems. While we've been able to convince our business clients that they don't need to downgrade to Vista, many of the school's insisted on it, mostly on pressure from their benefactors or endowment spending requirements. One school, which will remain nameless, demanded that we move all of the Windows users (an admin staff of around 40) to new Windows Vista machines. After we experienced 10 HP desktop systems being replaced due to non-working power supplies, Vista became our problem. No matter what we do, Vista, despite being bound to the domain (a function which securely connects the computer to the network)will not load any network drives for at least 10 minutes. This problem causes a number of network applications to fail on launch, necessitating the use of a batch file (yeah, those old things) to load the network shares.

That was our first client to have that issue after demanding Vista. Now, most of our other school clients have also jumped on that bandwagon, despite our warning (they pay so they get final say). We now have approximately 150 Windows Vista Business Edition clients having to use batch files to load network shares.

Wow! That's real advancement, Microsoft!

PS: I'm forced to test Vista in order to know how to support it. The best, fastest, most reliable environment I run Vista in is on a MacBook Pro in Boot Camp. Irony is cool!

I bought a laptop in April of 2007 with Vista Home Basic preinstalled. Despite being a Linux fanboy, I was determined to give Microsoft the chance to prove their competence. Little did I know that I was in for six weeks of hell.

For the first week or so, I was dazzled by the flashy display and apparent straightforwardness of Vista. After that week, I began to notice that my learning curve had dropped into a chasm. It seems that in Vista, the only way to access certain features is via 7+ mouse clicks; being a keyboard-oriented user, I would awake late at night with a feeling of utter dread.

My horror increased with every program I installed. Many of the essential programs I use for school would not function. Games I enjoyed couldn't find my video card. Several times, I received the infamous "Blue Screen of Death" after running a game for a whopping 17 seconds.

Finally, when I thought I'd masterd Vista with patience and persistance, I discovered Microsoft's secret weapon: automatic updates. I like to keep on top of current updates, but I had to call Microsoft Technical Support three times to resolve three separate issues with Windows Update. I was flabbergasted that such an important aspect of this operating system would be its ability to update. When this happened for the fourth time, I tried the same solutions I had been given before. This time, User Account Control would not allow me to make the necessary changes. It was the last straw.

I installed an old copy of XP the next day.

It's been eight months, and I've mostly recovered from the trauma known as Vista. My psyciatrist says that I'll heal, but I'm skeptical. The nightmares still linger; just last night I dreamt of the Vista Start button, just standing there, like the monolith in "2001: A Space Odyssey." I woke as it was about to crush me.

I really need to get out more.

I Bought Vista a couple weeks after it came out, and have had it ever since.

I dont have any complaints or regrets.

It was home premium, but it had the "basic" look, but a couple months after I bought it, I upgraded/updated my video card and no it still looks all purdy.

I get the occasional "APPCRASH" I would guestimate once a week, but nothing I cant live with.

I've tried macs....but I just to used to windows.
I've tried linux (ubuntu), but got sick of the fact that all my programs and things I'm used to couldn't run on it. I like Office 2007, open office...not so much.

theres several reasons why I personally think Vista is the best OS currently out there. and So far I have installed Vista (instead of XP) on 3 computers other then my own 2. And all are running just fine.

I dont run into many problems because I'm kinda a computer nerd.
most people dont like to accept that 9 times out of 10, its not the computer that F*cked up, its the user.

OH my goodness. People need to understand the meaning of the word "capable". It simply means it can do something... not that it does it the best. I am "capable" of playing the piano, with a little effort, but i am no Mozart, not by a million miles.
So it is with "Vista Capable". These machines can run Vista, but won't run it like a master. But they CAN run it, therefore, they are "capable" by the very definition of the word.
People need to go learn English. UGH!

Just like MURC, I've had two copies of Vista running almost since it came out, with little to no issues. Also my brother, and my dad are both running Vista, on their computers, also with no issues. Me and my brother are both professional techies, but my dad is not, and even he can manage to use it just fine.

The only issue i had was when a NIC went bad and kept crashing it. A new NIC solved that.

Vista is not bad, if people would bother to learn. Granted, a few things are a bit peculiar, like the removal of being able to easily change file-type verbs. But all in all, it is NOT all the horror people make it out to be.

Mac may be nice, but their machines are crazy-expensive, ... and linux, just is not meant for casual use. I know of at least three techies (myself included) who tried linux, and decided it was WAY too much work to get a machine up and running... between usable software, and drivers.

My first computer, purchased 8.5 years ago, came with Windows 98. I kept it updated, never clicked on emails from addresses I didn't know, defragged regularly, etc. At the time, I was using dialup. It eventually got to the point where I couldn't stay online for more than 15 minutes. Windows 98 would freeze, forcing a hard reboot, followed by more wasted time in dialing in again to get online.

After a year and a half of this, I made up my mind I would not put up with Windows any longer. I honestly couldn't understand why anyone was running it. I certainly couldn't understand why businesses were actually buying Windows and paying for it. I began searching the internet (in 15 minute increments between Windows 98 freezes) for alternatives. I quickly began to learn about Linux. Not long after this, I bought a copy of Mandrake (now Mandriva) 7.0. It installed and ran like a dream. All of a sudden, I learned I could connect to the internet via dialup and stay connected for hours. I even fell asleep one night while connected and was still connected 10 hours later when I finally checked the machine. It took me 3 months to realize I didn't have to reboot a computer daily. I played around with different Linux versions for awhile after that, finally settling on Gentoo.

In other words, Windows 98 was my Microsoft horror story. I know nothing of Windows ME, except it was far worse than 98, having helped friends deal with it. I certainly haven't a clue about Windows 2000. I distinctly remember having 80 copies of Klez in my inbox, which could do no harm on my Linux box, but that was in the early virus whore days of Windows XP when Klez was all of the rage. Today, we are all seeing the Vista debacle and the deserved aftermath of the class-action lawsuit.

What, exactly, does it take for the public to finally cop a clue? How much more do they need to see?

1. Windows 98 = screwed up memory management leading to BSOD
2. Windows ME - 98 in a k-hole
3. Windows XP = virus whore pre-SP2
4. Vista = Hindenburg of OSes

Excuse me, but isn't #4 above the most logical and natural expectation, given the preceeding #s 1-3? No thanks, I learned my lesson on Windows 98. I certainly am not so hard-headed as to beat my head against the wall with every MS OS released since 98.

I have accelerated graphics/UI and transparency NOW, with an onboard Nvidia graphics chip, no less. (Thank you compiz-fusion!) I run a 64 bit OS NOW. I have every application I might ever need NOW, including office software, image editing, THE BEST web browser ever written (Konqueror), as well as superior accounting software in the form of GNUcash. Additionally, with Gentoo, I can build my system out however I d*mn well please WITHOUT paying license fees to ANYONE! Why would I pay money for Vista, even if it did work and I HADN'T learned the lesson about MS products on 98?

Oh well, back I go to celebrating exactly 7 years of virus-free, crash-free, dependable, stable and a very smoothly operating OS, as I wonder why those who have been repeatedly burned by MS OS still bother with MS at all.

Well i was so excited to use vista, it looked super awesome but then the horrow show began!
Half the time IE would just pop up 50 times for no reason and there was nothing I could do but hope and pray. I would then have to begin the tedious process of closing all the windows.

Now to cap all this off my 'windows broke'. I do mean that literally not the operating system but the actual border around applications (you know the one that has the Minimize, maximize and close button on the top left) ya that thing became disattached for some odd reason and so my application had no 'window'/border. I mean honestly how does that happen!

I grudgingly bought a laptop in summer of 2007 with Vista pre-installed. The idea was to wait until SP1 was released, but alas, that didn't come until last month. So there I was, with my Vista computer, being a user of XP on my desktop, fidgeting horribly at the new interface of Vista.

Oh no! My "Up one level" button was gone! My beautiful silver theme was gone. The Start menu was rearranged and a mouse scroll wheel wouldn't scroll through it. But the worst was yet to come.

I bought an HP printer alongside my HP laptop for a discounted price. Seemed like a good deal. But what I didn't count on was the incompatibility. Somehow, HP didn't like coupling with its own hardware, so I had to return the HP printer. I'd already started using my computer and porting my files over, so imagine my horror to realize that I'd have to either buy a new printer or reformat my computer.

So I did the logical thing, I bought a new printer. So I got that hooked up and working fine. Now the problem? My USB ports wouldn't work. More accurately, Vista wouldn't recognize any peripheral at all, besides my printer, power cord and ethernet. It simply wouldn't install the driver.

I had a wireless mouse to use, that wouldn't work. Digital camera? Fat chance. Flash drive, probably the worst thing to be stuck without, wouldn't work!

It's been two months since I switched back to XP, and I'm sleeping like a baby now. I'm saving money by not needing further sessions with my shrink and I can finally recycle that load of CD-RWs I'd been saving around for transferring information between my computer and someone else' (since I couldn't well use a flash drive).

Oh yeah, and one more thing: Vista wouldn't let any virtual drives work, so I had to physically burn CDs and DVDs of downloaded software (free or paid for, of course, not pirated).

My parents had been happily using 2000 for years and my dad was itching to get a new computer. He had some gift certificates, and decided to go for it. this was about 3 months after the initial release, and I hadn't heard any horror stories. We got the comp, upgraded the RAM and Video card and that baby hummed. Then it started slowing down and clogging our internet. Well, we thought it was the routers, then the wireless, then my computer. I spent hours and hours with wireless text support, finally I had to fly, had to go overseas for my job. 4 months later, same problem. While I am gone, my dad finds out it is CA internet security suite. He uninstalls it, and back to normal. I head home for christmas and try to install the newest version of CA, it craps out. So now my dad is using AVG for antivirus, and stuck with Windows Firewall. I told him next time I go home I can downgrade him to XP, but he is sick of the problems.
I will be the last person to own XP, I am thinking of stocking a couple of legit licenses just to be on the safe side!

I story has to do with the fact that I use vista on a Toshiba laptop. Mostly it works well, but something has been happening when I use Firefox (my preferred browser). Whenever I go to a new site IE reads the URL (if there is something searchable like "job postings") opens itself up, does a search using the URL text on a random search site and gives the results. It dominates the desktop to the point that you have to roll over and close it. It does this several times an hour so it gets really frustrating.

Lately, not only has that happened, but right after it happens Firefox auto-minimizes itself.

I don't know the logic behind this. Is Bill Gates so insecure that he has to force us to use his products?

Swell, it just did it when I was writing this.

I have an Alien 7700m.. One of the fastest laptops that ever hit the road. This thing smoked! Or it did till I tried to upgrade to Vista. Eventhough the conponents were all top draw, Vista hated everything and rendered the laptop into one very expensive paperwieght! Even after going out and buying the full version and trying to load it to a virgin drive...bubkus, nada, nuttin'.. except a wonderfull parade of blue screens that made it necessary to finally replace the drives themselves So I could reinstall the former OS XP Pro..which will be on it till Vista service Pack 200! (I only replaced the drives to keep from throw the whole machine in the street, it was an easy way out!)

I have an Alien 7700m.. One of the fastest laptops that ever hit the road. This thing smoked! Or it did till I tried to upgrade to Vista. Eventhough the conponents were all top draw, Vista hated everything and rendered the laptop into one very expensive paperwieght! Even after going out and buying the full version and trying to load it to a virgin drive...bubkus, nada, nuttin'.. except a wonderfull parade of blue screens that made it necessary to finally replace the drives themselves So I could reinstall the former OS XP Pro..which will be on it till Vista service Pack 200! (I only replaced the drives to keep from throw the whole machine in the street, it was an easy way out!)

Vista killed my mother, and raped my father! =(

I worked for a small company with around 50 computers (after all was said and done).
Each computer was purchased when a new person was hired (the 2 years I was there, they never fired anyone)
Each had Windows XP on it. I should say that the boss was VERY paranoid about piracy, so when they made the "executive decision" to upgrade all the workstations to Vista, he refused to purchased a volume license (since he refused to listen to me when I tried to explain what it was). He purchased individual licenses.
Well, after 6 days of installing individual licenses, and updating all the different models of computers drivers, very few of the proprietary programs would run.
Since we couldn't give all members admin access and just turn off UAC, I had to set every one of their individual programs to run with admin permissions (if they ran at all).
Almost each user had unique programs on their box, quite a few of which broke on the downgrade so I had to reinstall them.
Pretty damn soon each of the downgraded Vista systems started to crawl and freeze when running programs.
On top of that, the day that I got everyone situated application wise, the network started to crawl. A lot of the applications involved file collaboration and Vista is HORRIBLE with network file transfers. In the middle of the day they were lucky to get a file transfer over 50Kbps (these files could be from 2GB to 50GB).
Needless to say, I was brought in to see the boss about my "botched upgrade job."
I explained in length that Vista was not ready for prime time (which I told him before he forced the downgrade to Vista) and that I pretty much warned him that this would happen.
Finally, I convinced him to downgrade back to XP. Since again, each box was purchased as a new employee came in, there was no volume licensing.
So another 6 days of reinstalling XP, and reinstalling the programs now (Windows didn't have a downgrade option), I was called back into the bosses office. He informed me that he expected me to contact Microsoft and get a refund for the software (around 10 grand). Which obviously didn't fly with Microsoft.
So all in all, Vista cost my ex-employer:
$2,400 in normal wages for me
$720 in Overtime for me
$10,000 in Vista software license
$200,000 in lost sales
= $213,120 for arount 2 1/2 weeks

We bought a dell with vista installed for a gift to my wifes sister. It was the same laptop I had running XP. Dual Core with 1gig of ram.

It arrived and I took it out of the box and was going to set it up so when she turned it on all she had to do was use her password. I turned it on and it welcomed me with whats the serial number and a few other setup things. I entered it in and clicked OK. Blue Screen Of Death. Rebooted the Laptop an it told me my OS had an issue and I needed to either repair it or use the Restore CD. 2 hours later it finally restored its self and I was welcomed with the same box asking for my serial number.

After performing this little task of Restoring the OS 3 times. Thats right 3 times I was finally able to use it. I placed the machine side by side with mine running XP and it literally took 4times longer to boot. Needless to say Microsoft you need to stop coming up with new stuff and fix your other broken stuff.

After my parents' house fire, they were allowed to get two new PCs, and they decided to give one to me. It was a great feeling to finally get a new PC instead of trying to scrounge up some used junk. Both PCs came pre-loaded with Vista Home Basic.

Just for fun, I booted up my parents' PC and let Vista do its installation thing. It took about an hour for it to install which in my opinion was a little much. After it installed, I gave it a bit of a whirl. I could NOT believe how slow the PC booted and shut down. I also couldn't find anything because the entire interface had been revamped. Where the hell was the control panel so I could remove the junkware?

I eventually decided that if I was going to support my parents' PC, it needed to be something that I knew how to work, and my parents are not connected to the internet which leaves them no opportunity to get Windows updates, and me no opportunity to find fixes for problems. So I wiped Vista and installed a pirated copy of XP. Hey, we already paid for Windows once, so why should we pay for it again? Good thing I installed XP because my mother bought a book on how to work her PC, and guess what OS it was written for?

Now, the other PC which I took as my own is a different story. After reading about all the trouble people were having with Vista and hearing the PC salesman tell me how crappy it was, I had decided that I did not want to run Vista, so I installed Win2k dual booting with Ubuntu Linux. After installing Ubuntu, it showed me that I had a hidden partition of about 6 Gigs of information... it was Vista's hiding spot. Now, 6 Gigs is a lot of space to store MP3s and even .wav files. IT HAD TO GO. I booted up Gparted and tacked the old vista partition onto my Windows partition. It ended up breaking Windows, and I had to install Win2k and Ubuntu all over again. Thanks, Microsoft! A simple DVD with Vista on it would have saved me that headache! Oh yeah, I did get a DVD with the PC, but it was some stupid upgrade advisor thing. I got to test out my new shredder which came with a slot for shredding CDs. The disc went through without a problem.

The Microsoft label on the side of the PC was the worst part. Simply peeling off the Genuine Official Microsoft label with the CD Key on it doesn't work. It left a disgusting mess on the side of my PC. I had tried EVERYTHING to remove the label mess. Scrubbing didn't work, dishsoap didn't work, Windex, Fantastik, and Lysol wouldn't do the job. While I was contemplating taking a torch to get the label off the side of my PC, my official Ubuntu CDs came in the mail with some nice Ubuntu stickers. The Windows label mess is now covered with a tidy-looking Ubuntu sticker!

Now, a year later, I've almost completely moved to Ubuntu after Windows became infected with a nasty trojan or piece of spyware - Spyware and AV software keeps telling me it's different things. I've tried removing the infections for three weeks straight with little success - and people say Linux takes too much time to get working! My Windows partition is now simply sitting there diseased and rotting, while my Ubuntu partition keeps reliably chugging away like it's supposed to; virus, trojan, and spyware free. Files copy swiftly over my home network even with other Windows PCs, no blue screens, no slow boot or shutdown times, and most of my must-have Windows software works in Wine. I'd have to say that I'm very happy with my new PC!

BTW, does that MP3 player play .ogg files? ;)

My story is'nt nearly as bad as some of these, but I've had my share of problems with WinVista. I recently bought a laptop for use in college, unfortunately, windows xp was not available... Fist mistake on Microsofts part. As soon as I got home, I tried to install my virus-protection of choice, ZoneAlarm. I know, I know, the newest version is not compatible... could've told me sooner... 20 minutes after I brought it home, BRAND NEW, OUT OF THE BOX, I had to do a system restore... thanks for nothing Bill Gates...

Dear Bill:

I feel that I can call you Bill, and after purchasing a computer with Windows Vista on it as I have come to know you on a personal level. I think about all the time, and you even haunt my dreams. I imagine the day you come to my house and magically fix my computer’s operating system with one magic stroke of your finger across my keys.

You see, I am humble servant of the Windows world, as I am too scared to join the crusade of rightousness toward the Shangri-la world of Mac. You have injected the fear of god in my soul that if I switch I will somehow be destined for the underworld with no salvation.

Anyway Bill, I feel that you and I have a connection because when I started my new computer with Vista, I felt the promise of thousand voices from above telling me that I had chosen the correct path. However, as I started added peripherals and programs to the wonderfulness of Vista, my joy turned to disgust and anger. Screen after screen turned blue with computer blood. I was assaulted with phrases like “spooler apps has been terminated”, “your environment will shut down in 10 seconds and all buffers will be erased”, and the coup de gras, “your system has suffered a fatal error and will be shut down”. Additionally, I can tell you how many times Vista has told me that my video card driver could not be loaded.

Bill, I feel that we have become very close after this very religious experience. How many times did I pray to the almighty windows gods to appease them in hopes of bringing my system back from the dead? Clearly I tainted your pristine god-like Vista environment with the filth and infection of my own personal apps and peripherals I thought I held dear. Shame on me.

Thank you for your time Mr. Gates, and I look forward to your personal visit.

Well, I chose to upgrade my PC to Vista Ultimate beacuse I needed to learn it for my job, I of course wanted the latest and greatest, and I wanted DirectX 10. I love gaming and I had a pretty good rig at the time that put out some pretty good fps. Upon installing Vista, I noticed a considerable drop in performance. So, rather than going back to XP, I decided to buy a second 7800GT video card for $178 so that I could put it into SLI and get the boost in performance back. After receiving the new video card, i installed it only to find my computer not accepting it, because there were no Vista drivers that made SLI work. And there weren't any drivers released that made it work until 4 months of my having Vista passed. When they did come out they were unstable and didnt do much of anything for my FPS. Shortly after that, my hard drive crashed, and I went back to XP, saying F you and bye bye to Vista.
Needless to say, I am back on Vista after upgrading processor, mobo, ram, and video card to some of the best stuff out there. Vista actually works really well now ($1000 later). Some really wierd things have still happened, but I can handle it. I am a glutton for punishment I guess.

I've had a company laptops for the last 10 years. Finally, I bought my new own with the latest MS Vista Home edition installed. It had a 120GB hard drive and had 80GB free. Over the next 3 months I loaded about a dozen programs. I admit so were pretty big, like the MS dev suite. After about 2 months I checked and had about 60GB free. Loaded a couple more small programs and a month later I had about 5GB free. My God! What Happened! I checked the directories, counted all the sizes up, and it did not add up. I emptied the trash, deleted tmp folders, and did everything I copuld think of, but I only gained about 5GB. Turns out, one of Vista new features is to do auto check points and 100s of users are having this problem. Most were able to recover the space by turning the feature off. In my case I have permenently lost at least 30GB or a quarter of my disk.

Thanks Bill,

Another one which happened when I was just finishing up a C++ project and had forgotten to save the last crucial 10 minutes - automatic updates.

This isn't the "blue screen of death" (which I could understand somewhat as it's a programming accident), this ain't no central IT services of your company restarting your computer to update it (as it is their computer and they usually give you a short amount of time to save crucial data). No, this is done INTENTIONALLY and WITH NO WARNING.

Your computer just shuts down.

You have just solved that problem on your project that has kept you up for the last few nights. You had a game open that you used to take breaks on, which you switch in and out of using the windows key. And you were writing a very important and detailed email to your project lead on your project. Plus you had some 10 surfing windows open on your browser.

And then they just... disappear.

Not pop, like old windows. But fade and shrink, giving you the impression that your precious data, game and surfs are being sucked into a deep, dark hole in the monitor that Bill Gates controls.

Frak!

Besides the usual “My programs do not work in VISTA”. I have the built in fax modem in my factory installed vista machine useless, as there are no vista drivers, I also can not use my USB thumb drive. The thumb drive manufacturer lists Vista compatible on the package. Tech support says they are swamped with calls and noted the Vista has a lot of problems with USB devises. Something that is supposed to be cross platform so you can take your storage anywhere.

I went to the University Of Northwestern Ohio, in Lima, Ohio about 2 years ago for a microsoft certified systems engineering degree. I never went all through school but I went and did about 2/3 of the degree. I ran out of money and its a very complicated story. From there I worked on computers for friends. developed my own website company and built multiple machines for people. One thing I learned when I was younger is how to setup a network on your pc. I had to, we had 8 computers in the house and someone needed to know how to keep them all connected. Through the years I learned more and more eventually even learning how to setup my own webserver and such. I recently moved into a apartment complex which my friends live in 2 of the 4 apartments, I live in the 3rd and someone ridiculous lives in the 4th. Both friends bought a brand new laptop two different brand names. I can't remmember which because I'm tired. Both were preinstalled with vista Home. It ran decently but lagged from time to time and wouldn't run to many programs. No problem I just used its compatibility. But then came the nightmare. We had decided to get a router and hook up all the computers in the 3 apartments together. Some running cords the laptops running wirelessly. No problem I said, I was in for a hellish week. We got the router. everyone connected fine. except for the vista machines. I had to go through and manually set them up. Normally this wouldn't be a problem as I know all the settings that need to be set. I stepped foot in the vista world from Xp, and I felt like a child who knew nothing of the world and was afraid... very... afraid. I couldn't find anything. I spent 4 hours, just locating what I needed to find and running through the troubleshooter in vista. Finally I found the settings I needed to set. I set them up and.. *drum roll*... nothing. The vista computers could not see the XP computers. come to find out, the vista computers were running off of a different work group. So I changed the work group and the file permissions. Ok now we're connected and sharing. But no one can access the vista computers from xp computers. So then after another frustrating 3 hours they can finally share files. 2 days later. Both laptops crash almost simultaneously. with in 8 hours of each other. So we ordered new hard drives for them as that was the problem. Both my friends instisted on vista again. after much slapping and cursing. I installed vista set everything up again. and now another one of the laptops are experiencing slow problems and regular crashes. And the other one went into a activation loop after it was activated over the phone. I'm about ready to just through the cd's away and give them cracked xp cd's. I'll proudly admit, I've never spent a dime on windows software. Why buy something thats not reliable. and when it finally gets reliable, Microsoft wants to force you to move to another unreliable OS. On top of that, there are better, free, and more reliable OS's out there. Misrosoft is slowely going down hill. It won't take long for someone to make something that will apeal to the mass majority and over ride microsofts dominance. and in those final days of the microsoft collapse, I will rejoice and dance naked in the streets on the burnt and shattered pieces of many windows cd's.

I needed a new computer, so I decided to buy an Alienware laptop. I wanted it to have all of the latest technology. People warned me not to get Vista with it, but I said no. I would just have to upgrade later anyway. When I got my computer, I contacted my ISP to connect it to the internet. It didn't work. I called the ISP company back and after about 45 mins of guiding me through EVERYTHING that could be causing the problem, the man told me to contact Alienware because the problem was on their end. So, I contacted Alienware and after over 2 hours of trying to help me, the man on the phone told me that the problem was with the ISP. So, I called the ISP back and the man on phone had me try a few other things. They didn't work. I was mad. I decided that if I couldn't get on the internet then I would learn French. I had just bought the French version of the Rosetta Stone and wanted to try it in my new computer. It wouldn't download. Defeated, I decided to take a nap. The next day, I went to Best Buy with my computer and asked if they knew what was wrong. They told me that my ISP was not capable with Vista yet, and that I needed to get Netzero since it was the only ISP that was Vista capable. They were also able to make the Rosetta Stone compatible with Vista. Finally, I had Vista, Netzero, and Internet Explorer. I was happy. Until IE started to kick me off every five mins. So I downloaded Firefox, which, knock on wood, is working okay. I love Alienware, but next time I may go with a MAC.

I've had Vista for about 3 months now. Not by choice, my other computer died. 3 months, and I have had to reinstall Vista 10 times so far. When I first booted into I sat there for a good 30 minutes while it went through it's first boot up and set things up. I sat there wondering why the heck this is taking so long. Within that time period I could of installed Opensuse and been using the computer, but I didn't want to screw with the warranty. Finally getting into Vista I found what can only be a nightmare, a slow OS. It took me about 10 minutes to decide to screw the warranty, purchased a second Hard Drive, removed the warranty sticker on the back and installed it, then installed Opensuse onto that Hard Drive. Vista just doesn't compare. I have to wait a good minute and a half for Vista to boot up. Takes Opensuse 20 seconds to boot up and for me to be using it. I've installed Sp1 on Vista to see if that makes it any better. And can honestly not see that it has made any difference. Oh, and this isn't a computer that is Vista Capable like most people brought, this is a computer that was designed to run Vista, as I said, it is only a couple of months old. Thank God for OpenSUSE, because I hardly ever boot into vista now.

I alpha and beta tested Longhorn/Vista for 3 years. In the beginning the project was full of hope. A beautiful dream we tried/wanted to keep alive. Early builds of longhorn were promising, and a site to behold! I felt like Admiral kirk seeing the newly rebuilt enterprise from a space shuttle in space! Then, something internally went wrong inside 'the federation'. Too much had been envisioned inside microsoft, features like a revolutionary new file system dubbed 'WinFX' were cut out. Finally, the Longhorn project was canceled alltogether. When Vista began I enthusiastically began testing early builds, hoping for the best. Features like UAC (user account control) in early stages would actually delete shortcuts and freeze up the PC. Much work was needed. Unfortunately mismangement inside microsoft doomed Vista. Too much was promised with no way to deliver it due to poor inside management. Jim Allchin, a Windows core programmer called it quits and retired the day Vista was released to the public. In his own words from an internal email released "I am not sure how the company lost sight of what matters to our customers (both business and home) the most, but in my view we lost our way. I think our teams lost sight of what bug-free means, what resilience means, what full scenarios mean, what security means, what performance means, how important current applications are, and really understanding what the most important problems [our] customers face are. I see lots of random features and some great vision, but that doesn’t translate onto great products.

I would buy a Mac today if I was not working at Microsoft." unquote. Later, an anoymous blogger on CNET wrote: mismanagement and corporate bloat. I had over a 10 year career at microsoft and watched windows and windows nt grow up. when vista (longhorn, cairo, etc.) was being made, I watched the bloated microsoft machine fail worse each time. and with vista, saw them literally have to throw the code away, get a new vp, and start over. years of work thrown away. then they started over with the windows server 2003 codebase and wrote as fast as they could again from the beginning while throwing out all the innovative features.

vista is nothing other than nt with a new coat of paint because of that. and that is another reason why I left microsoft. I had, unfortunately, missed that they already jumped the shark.
Vista actually has no reason to even exist. Anything Vista can do XP pro can do better, smoother and with grace and style. Even direct X 10 is a flop. I have personally tested games like Crysis, Bioshock on identical hardware. Direct X 9 is smoother and a better experiance. Until Microsoft gets new leadership (many feel Steve ballmer should gbe fired for mismangement of Windows) windows will suffer. I'll stay with XP pro becuase it works.

My wife bought a Vista compatible Acer laptop. after Vista was released, we tried installing it with no luck, the system locked up both times, so we kept XP. I recently bought a MacPro, and decided to try Vista under Boot Camp, it ran OK until last week when there was an automatic update, it locked up, and would only boot in safe mode, neither system restore nor windows repair would fix the problem. I've ordered XP Pro. For my next Laptop, if I can only get Vista, i'll go Mac instead.