I'm afraid of vista

[CoasterMatt]

I'd like to hear exactly WHO is saying that Vista is really unreliable and buggy.
I've been running it since before RC1, and the only really bad experience has been Nvidia's graphics driver support.

As for program compatibility, Vista has a lot of EASY to use ways to run older software - I've even been able to run a few old games in Vista that I couldn't run in XP without some serious trickery/voodoo/blood sacrifice.

[DisneyFan25863]

Originally Posted by CoasterMatt

I'd like to hear exactly WHO is saying that Vista is really unreliable and buggy.
I've been running it since before RC1, and the only really bad experience has been Nvidia's graphics driver support.

As for program compatibility, Vista has a lot of EASY to use ways to run older software - I've even been able to run a few old games in Vista that I couldn't run in XP without some serious trickery/voodoo/blood sacrifice.

If you spend some time on Digg and similar sites, you will find plenty of people having problems with their graphics drivers, to the extent that anything OpenGL on a lot of systems just blue screens.

Not to mention the insane memory requirements of Vista. I couldn't even use the beta on my Dell with 512 MB of RAM since it was so slow.

I think the biggest software incompatibility problems I've heard are DivX (won't even install), AVG Anti-Virus, ZoneAlarm, WS-FTP, Second Life, Adobe Premier, Winamp, WinRAR, Paint Shop Pro, and iTunes.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by DisneyFan25863

If you spend some time on Digg and similar sites, you will find plenty of people having problems with their graphics drivers, to the extent that anything OpenGL on a lot of systems just blue screens.

Are we talking out of the box from Dell, HP, Gateway, etc., or are we talking the latest high end Rage card from Fry's?

[Snowflake]

Originally Posted by DisneyFan25863

If you spend some time on Digg and similar sites, you will find plenty of people having problems with their graphics drivers, to the extent that anything OpenGL on a lot of systems just blue screens.

Not to mention the insane memory requirements of Vista. I couldn't even use the beta on my Dell with 512 MB of RAM since it was so slow.

I think the biggest software incompatibility problems I've heard are DivX (won't even install), AVG Anti-Virus, ZoneAlarm, WS-FTP, Second Life, Adobe Premier, Winamp, WinRAR, Paint Shop Pro, and iTunes.

Well PSP is my graphics program of choice because I can't afford photoshop so if I can't run that, it will be an issue for me. iTunes, yeah, that too.

Thanks to everyone who has responded, I appreciate the feedback.

This just shows me I need to do much more research and also just chill out until it is time to order the new toy. Unless my current, doddering old PC gives up the ghost in between now and the fall, I'm good to go.

[Alex]

Circumstances forced me to buy a new computer earlier this week and unfortunately the one that best mixed gaming ability and HTPC-goodness came preinstalled with Vista.

So far, though, I haven't had a single problem (running 4 days without a reboot) and have installed all of my necessary software for work without any hiccups (even a two-year-old version of HomeSite).

I have a friend who just last night upgraded Alienware (but severely tweaked) machine to Vista and while the install took 2 hours (on a blazing fast machine) it went smoothly and the only already installed software that had problems was AVG, which just required a reinstall.

[Morrigoon]

Originally Posted by Snowflake

Well PSP is my graphics program of choice because I can't afford photoshop

Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa. Snowflake... sweetie... get a copy of Photoshop Elements. They're like $60 and actually easier to use than regular Photoshop, IMHO. I have both, and I typically use PS-E because some of the functions I like best are easier to find.

[mousepod]

Originally Posted by Morrigoon

Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa. Snowflake... sweetie... get a copy of Photoshop Elements. They're like $60 and actually easier to use than regular Photoshop, IMHO. I have both, and I typically use PS-E because some of the functions I like best are easier to find.

Great advice, Morrigoon. My dad has thousands of slides that he's slowly been scanning and 'tweaking' for his archive. I got him a copy of PS-E, and he couldn't be happier.

[Betty]

Originally Posted by CoasterMatt

As for program compatibility, Vista has a lot of EASY to use ways to run older software - I've even been able to run a few old games in Vista that I couldn't run in XP without some serious trickery/voodoo/blood sacrifice.

That would be very cool. We've got 2 copies of vista coming (eventually) from Dell and I would love to be able to run one on my system. I seem to meet the requirements but have one particular program that we were told would not run. (by the manufacturer.) Maybe they are just stupid (not all that far fetched - it's industry software and they... well let's just say it's possible they just didn't know how.) about how they are trying to do it.

That would be cool.