60 Days of Vista
I’ve written in the past about Windows Vista, back when it was still in beta or even the release candidates. Around late November I found a link on Slashdot or Neowin for a Microsoft promotion called “Power Together” that offered training videos on some of the features for the new operating system, as well as the new Microsoft Office 2007.
After watching three videos in their entirety (and believe me, they were BORING), you get a free copy of either Vista Business or Office 2007 Pro, of if you watched six, you get both.
I finished the videos and sometime around late January I received both copies of my free software, valued over $600 or so. Just to show my appreciation for Microsoft’s good will, I even did the “anytime upgrade” to Vista Ultimate so I could use the Media Center functions that are only available on Home Premium and Ultimate versions.
Now after almost two months of using Windows Vista, I have finally reached a final verdict about the shiny new operating system: It blows.
What, really? Not expecting that answer from me, since I’ve been a virtual fanboy for the new version since they announced it a few years ago? I’m as surprised as you are, and let me break down the top five reasons why I am disowning myself from the heap of overcoded junk:
1. Hardware support. Sure, if you have a pre-configured system like a Dell or Gateway, Vista runs okay. Just “okay.” However if you have a custom built PC like myself and so many other techies, the operating system just can’t handle it. The video drivers took a month to work correctly with all my games, and every time I turned off my machine and then turned it back on, it would want to reinstall the drivers for EVERY PCI device in my system. Why was it losing this information? XP and XP MCE never had this problem. I don’t even want to get started on my sound card problems, with its constant popping and clicking.
2. Software support. For basically being a straight upgrade from WindowsXP, software compatibility is downright dismal. Some software had to have completely new versions written for it, some only patches, and some after new versions AND patches still refuse to work correctly.
3. Performance. Dear GOD is this OS slow. How slow is it? I shelled out $140 for 2gb of DDR2 ram for my system, hoping a memory upgrade would help the OS chug along at a faster pace. It didn’t help a damn thing. Every application loaded slower, every game FPS was 20% lower than XP. Even turning off the cheesy Sidebar and any glass effects didn’t help much at all.
4. Bugs. For an operating system over five years in development, that had TWO public betas, you would think they would have ironed out the bugs in the system. Not so. Explorer crashes almost regularly, and many times programs wouldn’t even work without a complete system reboot.
5. Visual Enhancements. Strange that I should list this under features I didn’t like in the system, but there it is. The Aero Glass, the Flip 3D, and the application taskbar previews all are nice, but incredible system hogs. Not only that, but they didn’t help my productivity at all. Installing Windowblinds and a few other Stardock products on WindowsXP achieves the same goals, and don’t take up half the amount of memory.
There you have it. As of 7pm last night I have officially removed Vista from my PC and gone back to Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005. With the new memory upgrade, my system is performing even better than it ever has before, and EVERYTHING works. No terrible audio popping while watching TV or listening to iTunes, no random explorer crashes on viewing a folder with videos in it, and my games are all screaming at max FPS with all the settings turned on.
I may move back to Vista around the first Service Pack release, which is god knows when. I’ll miss out on a few of the DirectX 10 games like Halo 2 & 3 and Shadowrun, but I’ll live. I’d rather have a stable, functioning, fast system and miss out on a couple overhyped video games than have something that crashes on a daily basis just because it’s “prettier.”
Boo Microsoft. Boo Vista. Just boo. Thank god I didn’t pay for it.
On a side note, Office 2007 Professional is kick ass, and I haven’t had a single problem with it. It even works better on XP. This is the only recent product of Microsoft’s that I am recommending to anyone.
And for those interested in what I have in my system, for either comparison or to pick it apart, here ya go:
Asus P5VDC-X Motherboard (w/SPDIF out, 10/100 LAN, USB 2.0)
Intel Pentium D 2.66ghz
2gb Kingston DDR2 Memory
160gb SATA HDD, 120gb EIDE HDD
ATI Radeon X1300 256mb PCI-X
Soundblaster Audigy LS
eVGA NVTV TV Tuner Card
19″ Widescreen LCD Monitor
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