I ran Vista evaluation edition RC2 for a couple of weeks and have finally got rid of it today.

It looked very cool and worked faster, but I couldn't honestly see what the main benefits of it were, other than aesthetically. The 'gadgets' were blatantly nicked from Mac OSX, and nowhere near as good. I didn't really experience the OS gathering all the media files in one place, it was the same as XP but slightly differently displayed IMO.

The final straw was after the 27th time spending over 3 hours looking for updated drivers on the net as apparently, absolutely nowt is compatible with Vista. I lost Norton Internet security, Zonelabs firewall, and all my wireless capability as the software dint work.

I can see Vista becoming an extremely useful tool in the future, it has the ability to fix bugs itsself and seems a lot more rugged than previous incarnations, but until they get compatibility (and lisence issues) sorted, then it's not for me.

Good luck to the other evaluees, you'll need it!

Thats a little harsh! I've been running Vista RC2 (32bit) on a laptop for a few weeks now and have had not major problems at all. Drivers are all fine, and the machine seems quite happy. As soon as ATI release proper Video drivers for RC2, I'll be turning my attention to give Crossfire a go. I'll be using the 64bit version this time, which I know is locked down by signed drivers, but I would not have it any other way.

I did the same as Royston. I'll give the final release another go after Christmas but I just got fed up with it.

My HP laser printer didn't even work before RC2!

Plus I got weird things, like a couple of times all the keyboard shortcuts broke in Explorer. Presseing delete locked the desktop completetly for example!!

Apparently, Microsoft have backtracked on the licensing issues - they've changed it to the standard open-ended license ie. if you buy one copy, you can use it on any hardware you have, as long as it's only installed on one thing at a time.

Yeah, noticed the change in the licensing. That's big of them isn't it, thanks Microsoft! Allowing us to buy your software, then not being completely restrained from moving it if we need to

I'll be waiting a while me thinks, maybe until SP1? Just doesn't seem that new and interesting. XP does all I need and is pretty good at what I ask of it.

I hear the call of Linux and Apple OS-X ever more too. We'll see what happens....

Steve

In all honesty I reckon the license change is very important, otherwise a lot of people will spend time working around the licensing. If they keep it reasonable, more people will be inclined to upgrade/purchase eventually.

Yeah, noticed the change in the licensing. That's big of them isn't it, thanks Microsoft! Allowing us to buy your software, then not being completely restrained from moving it if we need to

I'll be waiting a while me thinks, maybe until SP1? Just doesn't seem that new and interesting. XP does all I need and is pretty good at what I ask of it.

I hear the call of Linux and Apple OS-X ever more too. We'll see what happens....

Steve

We're in the process of moving 1600 PCs over to XP where I work - don't think Vista's gonna get a look in for at least 3 years. Unless you like to be an early adopter, you should always wait for a couple of service packs to be released before migrating...

I'll be waiting a while me thinks, maybe until SP1? Just doesn't seem that new and interesting. XP does all I need and is pretty good at what I ask of it.

The trouble is they need people to be using it at the first official release so they can find out what needs to be fixed in SP1. Things have moved on a long way since the dodgy released of NT sp2 (iirc).

They'll find plenty of willing, paying guinea pigs I have a feeling! Plus they'll get all the business from normal buyers picking up machines from PC World, Dell, etc, who won't have any real choice in what they run.

I'm in exactly the same position at work Mumphie. It's been decreeded on high that we won't get it until sometime 2008 I think. In fact, we're only running XP across the board because we had a complete system shift in 2004, and they decided on XP to be the standard, involving 6000+ PCs

Steve

I wouldn't go near it in a corporate environment for a minimum of nine months.

But I'll definitely be having a play at home, in dual boot at first until I get used to it.

Work is a XP with a couple of win 2k machines.

Most engineers also have at least 1 linux box too and our IT department are actually starting to consider linux, with a couple of them even running it

linux... the begining of the end for your company then ;-)

We intend to install it in our IT section as soon as its available for download from MS. We need to test the OS for compatibility with the customers own applications before rolling out, and if its the same as XP we started deploying it within a couple of months of release. We have had RC2 installed on a test pc for a while now and it seems ok so far.

No linux is saving us a lot of money for some machines where all that is needed is a web browser and a VT100.

Means no windows license, no office, no VT100 software to buy?

i ran RC2 on my laptop for a while, looked ace and ran really well apart from battery life and my wireless didn't perform that well as i couldn't get upto date drivers for it. as soon as decent drivers are available for most hardware i will put it back on as it looks and runs soooo much nicer

We've had it on development for a short while, and nothing really grabbed me about it. Except the minimum specs for running it!

The other thing is Office 2007/12 or whatever they'll call it. What a flippin' wet bowl of chips!!

Been running Vista for a bit on one of my own machines. No good for me as it doesnt support Daemon Tools etc or Nero. So its been on the machine the wife uses for surfin / music etc.

It sure is pretty, but im not a fan.

No one has mentioned that with Vista MS are locking the Kernel so you CANT use 3rd party firewall, pop up blockers, anti virus etc.

It appears that the EU will smack MS even harder in this case that they did when MS were forced to unbundle IE explorer.

MS are taking the excrement with this type of monopolisation.