computerworld.com — This column is not a review of Windows Vista. I'm not here to tell you what's great about Vista or what's wrong with it. This article is for those of you who are about to download or purchase Windows Vista and install it on a PC. I'm here to talk you out of it. Just say no to LeBron James and Windows Vista -- for now. Here's why.
Jan 27, 2007 View in Crawl 4
aurathJan 27, 2007
Normally I would agree, but I'm a gamer... I needs my dx10
demonsofgoetiaJan 27, 2007
I used Windows from 3.11 up to XP, I was never happy with any of them.I am happy with Ubuntu Linux which is sent to you for free without cost to you:<a class="user" href="https://shipit.ubuntu.com/">https://shipit.ubuntu.com/</a>Beryl and Compiz, whichever you choose, make your Ubuntu desktop look so much better, IMO, than Vista, and you pay nothing. Maybe I want to use the Gnome desktop, KDE desktop, XFCE desktop, or choose from various window managers like Fluxbox, Openbox, Blackbox, etc. I have that freedom with Linux. If I choose to use another distribution instead of Ubuntu, I can, I have that freedom with hundreds of them available.Open source is so much more rewarding to use, I enjoy using my computer again.
revenge7Jan 27, 2007
If you are a gamer, Windows is the ONLY choice. Most games don't work on Linux or Mac.That said, you should wait before getting Vista. Games run worse on Vista than XP. Once better video card drivers come out, Vista will be better for gaming, but for now, stick with XP.
Closed AccountJan 28, 2007
[demonsofgoetia] "And whose fault would that be? Tell the game companies and graphics card makers to stop developing for DirectX": It's not a question of what's free, or who's fault the fact companies don't make as good drivers for graphics cards on Linux, or that are optimized for DirectX. The fact is, they are, and currently, Windows is *far* better than Linux/BSD/OS X for gaming. Sure, WINE is free, but the games it works on isn't that huge, and the ones that do aren't always very stable - Of course WINE is far from completed (And what it does currently is still impressive), and for some people (I.e those who, say, only play WoW - which works fine as far as I'm aware) it's a great solution, but for people who play a lot of games (particularly newer games), it's not really a substitute..Anyway, all bar one of these arguments are fairly crappy. "Windows XP isn't obsolete" is about the only one that is a valid reason not to switch to Vista. XP still works fine, most games that come out for the next few years will still work fine on XP. Sure, DX10 is Vista only, but it'll be quite a while till there's many games that *only* work on DX10 hardware (Even now, a lot of games, Half life 2 for example, still works on DX8 and older cards..)"Vista is incomplete" - Most software is complete, people already whined enough about Vista's release date slipping, if they kept working on it till it was "perfect", it'd be.. erm, Duke Nuken Forever"Vista is expensive" - Of course it is, it's a brand new operating system Microsoft have spent a lot of money developing/advertising and such, it'll come down in price quickly, and besides, most new computers will come with Vista included in the price (Quite a few are coming with "Free Vista upgrades" already)"Vista wants a new PC" - Again, of course, it's a brand new OS with lots of shiny UI improvements, but even still, one of the betas (The first pulic-beta) ran smoothly on my 1.8GHz Pentium M laptop with 512MB RAM.. And the shiny 3D stuff can be disabled.. Pretty much any machine running XP can run Vista, I'd say.."Vista is time-consuming" - And buying an Mac and learning an entire new OS isn't? Of course getting used to Vista will take a while, I thought the exact same thing going form Windows ME (Yes yes, I know, I'm cursed to hell for using WinME and such..) to XP.."Vista may be the best reason yet to buy a Mac" - Not too bad an argument, I'll admit - Epically since the newer Macs can run Windows (I doubt it'll be long till you can install Vista easily on the Intel Mac's). But really, most people won't want to switch to Mac's, if nothing else, they are pretty expensive compared to PC's, you will be forced to learn a totally different OS (Compared to Vista, which is similar to XP, and can run all the software you use on XP currently)- Ben
sexycommandoJan 28, 2007
He also lost me when he said "If you want your system to crash less, run with fewer hassles and fewer security breaches, then buy a Mac."I used to own a Macbook, and let me tell you that thing crashed more than even my Sony Vaio laptop (Sony Vaio, of all brands!). Whoever thinks Macs never crash is kidding him/herself. And security breaches? I haven't had a single security breach on any of the 5 Windows computers my family uses since I forced everyone to use Firefox, AVG Antivirus, Spybot, and Adaware. Are they resource hogs? Nope. AVG updates and scans in the middle of the night, and I run spybot and adaware once every other week. It's a small hassle, sure, and I wish I didn't have to, but it isn't as big a deal as people make it out to be.It's also funny how Mac users recommend buying 2GB of RAM, saying how Mac OSX "uses memory very well". But when people say Vista runs best at 2GB RAM, it's a resource hog! BTW my Macbook ran like crap when it had 512MB RAM (beachballs everywhere), but I haven't seen any problems on Windows XP computers using 512MB RAM running similar tasks.
foxhoundadminJan 28, 2007
you know what's funny? i JUST unsubscribed from getting computerworld emails, and the site i was taken to had the same gold and blue banner. funny thing is, i never subscribed in the first place!got spam? dvorak doesn't. too bad i do. my solution is to ACTUALLY unsubscribe from the emails, rather than to just send them to my spam box. i try to avoid spam altogether by setting up a spam email account, but, y'know, s**t happens. :
jrbauer01Feb 22, 2007
This advice is so true! I am packing up my brand new Dell Dimension 9200 and sending it back to Dell because Vista was SO UNSTABLE! It locked up 3-4 times per day. Dell's diagnosis? I was installing incompatible programs - like ITunes, McAfee and Palm Treo software - all the programs I use daily. Their "fix" was to reinstall the original image and not use any of the 3rd party programs I use every day! So they'll take it back and I'll wait... (Like you should!)