|
|
 - Runs Flawlessly... on a Mac Pro!I've read the reviews, trade articles, and press on Vista. I was fully expecting the worst when I received the Ultimate edition for review. But, on my Mac Pro (2008 model), Vista has been running flawlessly. Out of the box, the installation took 25 minutes, in addition to prepping the drive via Apple's Boot Camp software. I've lived with the OS for about 30 days before writing this review. Every device I connected was instantly recognized - my Canon digital camera, my Canon 4400F scanner, and even my Brother 2070N laser printer. I've installed Maya Unlimited as well, and it seems to launch and work fine without any issues. The user authentication issues doesn't bother me that much - and isn't as annoying as others seem to indicate. My recommendation is to run as a User, not Admin - for security purposes. Aero is a bit distracting, but thankfully I can revert back to the classic Windows look (and free up the GPU for more important tasks). Don't let the hype fool you. Vista is not difficult to use - in fact, I much prefer it over Windows XP. Perhaps running it on a Mac has something to do with it? Rating:  - Vista lost dataI installed this via the Upgrade option, over Windows XP. I had planned to install it via Upgrade and then later run a Clean Install so I could review both methods. The upgrade ran for 6.5 hours once I worked through the pre-install issues (uninstalling incompatible programs, etc.) The first boot of the operating system went fine, but it crashed when I attempted to change the display adapter, and after the reboot, entire directories were missing from My Documents folder. At that point, I restored the clone I had made of my hard drive pre-upgrade, reverting my operating system back to Windows XP sp2 and restoring the lost files. I've thought long and hard about performing a clean install, reformatting the drive entirely, but at this point I don't believe I can trust the file system in Vista regarding data integrity. As a fan of Microsoft's products, it is with great reluctance I have to rate this product with only 1 star. But with lost data, I really can't give it anything more. BY the way, I am no novice at IT. I have been in IT for the last 12 years, and am currently the Senior Systems Engineer for a Systems Integration company. I am responsible for designing solutions for our customers that will serve their business need, integrating software packages from multiple vendors together. I perform the server and client installs and support the systems after the install. I have never before had an issue with a Windows install until Windows Vista. I like the features I hear are present in Vista. I wanted to use this operating system. But if I can't trust it to keep my data intact from one boot to the next, I cannot use it on my main PC. I may try this again on my secondary PC at home, but at this point, I just don't see it happening anytime soon. Rating:  - More features than I needed This is a very hefty product w/ lots of features and it takes up a lot of space. I also purchased the MS Office Home-Student 2007 version for Word, etc. (Amazon had the cheapest price w/ FS), since you need the 2007 versions to work properly w/ spell check, etc. for this operating system. I had finally gotten used to XP, so I will still need more time to get used to this upgrade. I do use my computer for work and play, but remain somewhat of a novice (okay my age is showing here) on functional use of software and all the options available if I just had the knowledge base and skill level. I'm waiting for the latest MS books to come out to assist me with their new products. I've not found their software help to be very user friendly and prefer using a book. Rating: - A full featured evolutionary upgradeIf you have no compelling reason to upgrade your operating system from XP to Vista, such as a new computer or software upgrades that require Vista, then it is probably inadvisable to do so. I have a several year old gaming rig, quite powerful when I purchased it, that ran XP without problems until lately, when it began to slow down as the registry filled up and the newer programs started to balk. I decided to experiment with a Vista Ultimate SP1 upgrade. Installation over XP (the route required by Microsoft) was fairly simple. Vista itself is a visual upgrade but not the revolutionary change originally promised. It will slow down a less powerful PC, shutting off the more advanced Aero features. I noticed a distinct reduction in speed until some of the more graphics intensive windows features were shut down. Performance increased quickly and I've found few incompatibilities with either hardware or software. Everything is running fairly smoothly but without Vista Ultimate's most advanced features. If you want to use them, you'll need a pretty powerful rig: at least a dual core processor with 2 Gigs of RAM. I'm content with Vista as an upgrade and I'm looking forward to using it with a newer, more powerful computer where its more significant features can be sufficiently investigated. Rating:  - So far so good!I got to experience Vista on my boyfriend's computer since last year so now having my own wasn't a traumatic experience. I like the way everything looks, polished and beautified form the inside out and quite honestly I like how my computer is running now. It gets a little annoying when games and programs that I want to use or download aren't Vista compatible but with time that issue should resolve itself. Also the only annoying part is the pop up when you install anything asking to Allow that installation, but hey better safe than sorry, I've had my share of random viruses and crashes in the past but so far that hasn't happened yet. No blue screen for me whit Vista, so far everything is running smooth and I've had the same computer revamped with new hard drives for a few years now, so you don't have to have a brand spankin' new pc to use this. It's nice to finally catch up with the world and have a current version of Windows; I was always s a few years behind on my current version lol.
|
