Vista................there be dragons!

[Martin]

I've just had my first close (and I hope the last) acquaintance with the unutterably dreadful Microcrap Vista.........
It is appalling........my partner-in-crime acquired a new "basic" laptop sporting Vista, and he asked me to set it up for him................it is frighteningly slow, looks like a tijuana taxi on acid, and apparently reports EVERYTHING you do on the computer to Microsoft (even uploads the photos off your hard drive!!!!!) - try a simple task like downloading a decent browser (Firefox), and it will put every obstacle it can in your way - any newbie would give up and stick with what they're given, having been sledgehammered into believing any open source software is of the devil, and YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO DOWNLOAD IT! (takes half an hour of switching off all the so-called "safety features" before you can do so) - an utter, utter disgrace!
It's just been awarded the second "Martin's Chocolate Teapot Award"
My advice? - steer VERY clear - stick with XP, or insist the your new computer has Ubuntu installed!

[mybarnconversion]

And XP won't be available on new machines at all after January >> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6551429.stm

...good old M$

[Welsh Girls Allotment]

My mam bought me lap top a few months back when Aldis had a deal on, it was programmed with Vista - I will admit I was already wary of it after reading so much negative stuff, but I thought I'd give it a chance - I hated it - when you try do anything it keeps popping up 'helpful' ideas for you to try - I am trying to type an assignment and it keeps telling you to do this try that and when you want to turn it off it takes about about 7 clicks - do you want to? are you really sure? ooh your going to turn off if you click this button? oh dear now its really going to go off
in the end I took it back to the shop and the manager said it would go back to head office and be skipped

[Martin]

the thing that made me most cross is the whole "this is Microsoft's computer, you will do as you're told" attitude...........
I think they've shot themselves in the foot on this one - the word is out how rubbish it is, and bright companies like Dell are now offering the eminently superior Ubuntu fitted for FREE on their new computers - my prediction for Christmas is that the retailers/Microsoft's helplines will collapse under the strain of complaints, and Apple will sell like hot cakes.........(shame Bill Gates makes money out of them too......)
I think it may be that we are observing "Peak Bill" - past this point, Microsoft spirals downwards..................

[eccentric_emma]

i had vista on the laptop im on now, and like everyone else have had a really bad time with it. in fact i think i only used it once whilst it had vista installed until a very kind friend uninstalled it and put XP on instead, now actually runs at a decent speed! when it had vista, it just froze whenever i tried to turn it off. stupid stupid vista.

[mrsflibble]

how easy is it for a very techie person to remove vista and put xp on? I'm willing to fork out for a true copy of XP (I have one on this comp but dont know if it's transferrable-was an OEM copy) but all the cheap new machines in various shops only have vista on. I refuse to use vista purely because I value my privacy (and certain software I have which happens to have a peg leg, parrot and says "arrrr me hearties" a lot ). I don't like the big brother culture we seem to have right now.

Even if i can't do it myself, I'm willing to pay someone to do it for me!

it's just I've been told that rather than get me something which costs £20 but will end up on a shelf somewhere, my hubby would rather get me a new pc for a joint birthday and xmas pressie.... and asda's have some which look good. I've been checking out the processor on their £200 model and originally there were problems with AMD processors and the use of photoshop... but now it seems those problems have been ironed out... I'll go be a geek in the corner now.

[eccentric_emma]

i'm not exactly sure how easy it is for a techie person to remove vista. but i lent my laptop to a friend to do it for me (and he's not really a massive techie really) and i had it back in two days, and havent had a single problem with it, whereas everytime i tried to move the mouse when i had vista it had 100% CPU usage on the task manager. eeep. im very glad i didnt stick with it (well it was impossible to use the computer anyway as it took fifteen minutes to open up a browser window), but i didnt have a clue about all the big brother stuff though. it just sounds a bit illegal really, although im sure they'd argue that they do it to make sure the law isnt being broke at the users end.

[Welsh Girls Allotment]

but i didnt have a clue about all the big brother stuff though. it just sounds a bit illegal really, although im sure they'd argue that they do it to make sure the law isnt being broke at the users end.

Welcome to Bush's America, allegedly M$ asked the FBI and CIA how could they help with anti terrorism national security etc and this is what they come up with, all part of the surveillance bills brought in by congress along with unwarranted wiretapping being justified - if I find the article I will post it for you.

[Martin]

time I think for a blatant plug for Dell, who've had the bottle to stick two fingers in the air, and offer Ubuntu as standard fitting - a basic laptop for £329, which not only has a BETTER operating system than Vista (not difficult), but saves around £70, because it's FREE
http://search.euro.dell.com/results.asp ... tu&cat=all
-lets hope other makers follow their lead!

[Martin]

ps, I reckon they're swamped with orders................"two weeks extra lead time on Ubuntu laptops"

[Millymollymandy]

My OH has just bought a new laptop which has Vista on, and no probs so far. The good news is that his brother (who works for MS) is sending him some program which goes with it where you can change it to any language, so he can change it to English. That's a good thing!

XP required installing a whole new English version then deleting the French version, which was fraught with probs.

[eccentric_emma]

Welcome to Bush's America, allegedly M$ asked the FBI and CIA how could they help with anti terrorism national security etc and this is what they come up with, all part of the surveillance bills brought in by congress along with unwarranted wiretapping being justified - if I find the article I will post it for you.

i would be very interested to see that article if you do find it, thanks

[Martin]

http://tinyurl.com/2ptclh
in the vernacular, be afraid - be very afraid. Apparently the US homeland security people wrote parts of Vista..........................operating systems, written by the US spymasters!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[mrsflibble]

ubuntu wont support the crap i need to stick on a pc and £329 is way outa my price range lol!!!

[Martin]

what do you need in the way of software? (there's almost always an excellent Linux version)