24hrs with Vista

[Zebodog]

With Vista Beta 2 available to the public, I decided to download a copy of the x64 version of Ultimate and give it a try.

Given that this is a beta and an x64 beta at that, I can't really comment on driver support. With a few minor exceptions the drivers that are available work relatively well but again, it's a beta, so don't expect any driver support.

Installation was quite slow, taking about 40min although it was about a 5.0GB install. I installed on a machine currently dual booting XP SP2 (C, Ubuntu (D, a single DVD burner and additonal HD. Hardware is an X2 4400, 7800GT, Audigy 2ZS Platinum, 1GB PC3200, Nforce 4 mobo, 2 SATA HD's, and 1 PATA HD. A pretty good mix of hardware, but nothing real fancy.

On first boot, Windows boot loader showed up offering to boot to Windows or Previous Windows. Another option of Windows Memory Test showed up, but I haven't tried that yet. I was using GRUB as my boot loader, but that's now gone. Boot into XP fine and boot in Vista fine, but Ubuntu's gone. Grrrrr... No big deal, but a pain to fix. Mental note...always, always install Linux last.

New UI looks nice and is very responsive given the features, and is in fact a little more responsive than XP. The sidebar is a lot better than what's been floating around the net the last year or so but not much gadgets for it yet.

Vista continually monitors performance and when it notices a drop, can provide you with details about what's causing the performance drop...very nice. DX10 seems to have dropped a lot of the legacy junk from the DX3,4 and 5 days.

Although still early going, I have no intention of using XP with the exception of games (drivers are very immature in Vista, and Creative drivers just plain don't work in X64) Security seems to be greatly increased almost to the point of being slightly annoying, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.


I figured since I was going Beta, I'd grab the Office 2007 beta as well...WOW...what a huge difference! Again, so far so good.

So, anybody else taking a walk on the wild side?

[shamrock_uk]

Tempted [img]smile.gif[/img]

Do things like the quick find on the start menu work yet?

I was so hoping they'd fixed the temptation to monopolise the computer though - why oh why can't they write a bootloader that doesn't erase all traces of other operating systems

[Zebodog]

Just did a local search for Microsoft and it located 419 items in under a second.

The internet search was equivalent to your standard google/msn search.

Actually, the start menu is my least favourite. Everything opens in the left pane, as opposed to the old style menu's.

[Hivetyrant]

Yeah, Vista will be an awesome OS if it is implemented properly and not rushed, which I think Microsoft are doing quite well.

I would not be making my judgement on the Beta 2 though as the OS is changing from release to release and the Public Beta holds back on a few key things, and many small, but not insignificant options.

I would always advise against the x64 version of Vista, even if you have a 64-bit capable CPU as there are plenty of driver issues, but apart from drivers, Vista has got it down packed.

Also, I completely agree on the whole Office 2007 thing, it's unbelieveable, apart from the menu changes, the software is top notch

[ 06-14-2006, 10:32 PM: Message edited by: Hivetyrant ]

[shamrock_uk]

What's different apart from the new layout in Office 2007?

Apart from the dodgy .doc format and its annoying treatment of bullets etc, I always thought MS Word was approaching a 'perfect' word processor...would be interested to hear what you think makes 2007 so top notch in comparison [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Hivetyrant]

Originally posted by shamrock_uk: What's different apart from the new layout in Office 2007? Apart from the dodgy .doc format and its annoying treatment of bullets etc, I always thought MS Word was approaching a 'perfect' word processor...would be interested to hear what you think makes 2007 so top notch in comparison [img]smile.gif[/img]

Every possible option and feature that could be done, is in the suite. The menu's (though filled to the brim) are easy to navigate.
As was expected, searching is easy, it is fast, file size is less of an issue now, all the appilications are interlinked and can communicate seamlessly with each other.
The interface is "attractive" and well laid out.

But you will have to try it to understand it.

[shamrock_uk]

Is it using OfficeXML yet?

I'll certainly give it a whirl I think [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ 06-15-2006, 06:02 PM: Message edited by: shamrock_uk ]