Is vista really that good wots the difference except enhanced visualisations and security?

Answer 1

I have read many reviews. The best feature that I found was "Global File Recognition" (my name for the following feature that I will explain) For the history of windows it has been difficult to find files that were imported into a program like Page Maker, Photo Shop etc. Windows could never globally search the hard drive for all photos and display them simultaneously by type, date, file size etc. So if you imported a photo into Photo Shop or similar and edited it the file would be resident in the sub-directory of that program. Later, if you said say "display all JPEG photos" you would get a display of all JPEG photos that the computer could find on the C: drive (or whatever drive) but it couldn't find a photo that was say C:\Photo Shop\family pet\Fido.JPEG. Macintosh could always display all files by type and kind on the desk top. P.S. Vista looks slick and can display open windows in a fanned out fashion so you can see some content when browsing. It requires a lot of headroom though.

Answer 2

A couple of months ago, my son showed me a superb bit of video. It had someone from Microsoft describing all the fantastic new things that PC users would be able to do using Vista. However the sound had been dubbed and instead of showing the Microsoft demonstration, it showed someone else demonstrating all these things - not using Vista, but Mac OS-X, showing the facilities that Mac users have been able to use for years.
What's fun is when some items are being described as still being in development when the Mac equivalents have been commercially available for some time.
Don't forget that if you have a Mac and don't want to run the Mac version of Microsoft Office, you can actually run Windows on a Mac and use the PC versions of the software. In fact, at a computer event back in June, the demos of Vista and Office 2007 were done on a Mac Powerbook rather than a PC - less chance of a crash in the middle of the show.

Answer 3

Any Linux distribution can do all the eye candy effects on Vista and then some. There is a big catch with Vista, Digital Rights Management. This will not manifest itself until people start wanting to play HD films on Blu-ray. There will be so many limitations and restrictions to stop copying that in all probability Vista will not work. This is to do with the self regulating draconian restrictions that DRM sets up. It means that the film industry will control wjat you do with your PC. There is spyware in Vista that reports back to tell the DRM PPL what you are doing with your PC and will prosecute if you do anything they don't like. Your PC will be controlled by the RIAA (amongst others) Microsoft is deep in the pocket of Hollywood here, people will want to copt HD films but will find that Vista will crash when they try to do so. These restrictions have been called Slo-mo suicide by some industry insiders, nobody will want Vista in about a years time when HD films are more available.
Stick to XP, service pack 3 will be here in about 6 months, support for XP will cease about a year after that. There is a lot of life left in XP, but when Google bring out their Linux OS this year, Microsoft will be squeezed until the pips squeak.

Answer 4

For the average home user the biggest problem is that there is so little to add to what is already available. The three advantages that i can see are:
1. Better security - 2 way firewall and built in AV
2. Looks and Handles better
3. Built in Media Centre (Home premium and up)

However this tends to over look the obvious problems....
1. Windows defender is already installed as an auto update
2. Is the 'Aero interface' that much better is it purely looks?
3. If you want media centre then all likelihood is that you have XP-MCE already!

its gonna be a tough choice and i will certainly be waiting a while for things to settle and looking for real reasons not just cosmetics!

[all this is not helped by the fact that Explorer7 and WMP11 are already out for XP so they dont even come into the equation!. With the release dates being so close to the OS release then hasnt this just removed another couple of reasons to upgrade!?]

Answer 5

From my own review of Vista, unless you feel the need, and have the right hardware, I would not update as yet.
Vista has some good new features, but you have to decide personally if you really need it.
I tend to wait at least 3 to 6 months after a release before I update anything to make sure any issues found are resolved.

Answer 6

It's got some awesome graphics, if you have the hardware to run it; otherwise it crawls on a 2.4GHz PC.

The added security is good until you get tired of clicking OK and turn it off.

The best part is Internet Explorer 7 and now that I have that on XP, there's no reason to hurry up and upgrade. I'm sure everyone will update eventually as Microsoft will stop supporting XP, but I'm going to wait until they make a machine to specifically run Vista.

Answer 7

Vista has many improvements especially in Security BUT wait for at least 6 months before purchasing as there will be some bugs to fix via updates which is normal for any operating system

Answer 8

accessibility!. better visualisations Even easier to use and looks a-lot more professional than XP will ever look!. and because it is the most up to date you'll have no problems with up to date games how ever their is a snag I've been testing it since July time I bought a brand new Lexmark printer (top of the range) and can't use it as Lexmark haven't bought out a driver yet! Plonkers.

Answer 9

Well there is not much more to it than that. Other than you will have to maybe a few upgrades to get it working perfect. I had an issue with the sound card after it was installed but got that fixed. Anyway I have decided to stick with Windows XP for now. I am not too eager beaver when it comes to windows. More than likely there will be a few bugs in it that needs kinking out.

Answer 10

Vista is going to suck. Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard will kick Vista's ***.