Windows Vista - In the market for a laptop

[Jay]

I'm in the market for a new laptop and have my eye on a tasty little Sony Vaio number only problem is obviously Vista

Now at first I understand Vista was a big pile of rubbish and like Millennium Edition all over again but has it got any better with updates etc?

I don't want to waste a fortune if Vista is going to be a nightmare

[MPH]

I'm in the market for a new laptop and have my eye on a tasty little Sony Vaio number only problem is obviously Vista

Now at first I understand Vista was a big pile of rubbish and like Millennium Edition all over again but has it got any better with updates etc?

I don't want to waste a fortune if Vista is going to be a nightmare

if you want a custom built lap top costing 2k go for it.... anything else.. especially anything from PC world with say 1gb of memory.. dont touch it..

[Foxhateram]

I'm in the market for a new laptop and have my eye on a tasty little Sony Vaio number only problem is obviously Vista

Now at first I understand Vista was a big pile of rubbish and like Millennium Edition all over again but has it got any better with updates etc?

I don't want to waste a fortune if Vista is going to be a nightmare

Still alot of bugs in it, but it is much better now then it was. If your going to get Vista then make sure you get the Premium home edition. Defiantly dont get business edition its awful!!

From vast experiance with the damn OS i have learnt to control my frustrations with it. The main problems i still seem to have is with hardware i.e. it doesnt work very well with netgear routers, but there are of course ways around it that takes ages of time.

However it looks good, and the graphical interface is gorgious but do be aware that there are still bugs, and it is likely to be a long trawl to get everythign set up.

P.s. im just talking from personal experiances and opinions, i beleive many people having nothing but praise for it, but i can only assume that they use it for very basic use.

Its not bad, it will get better, still lots of bugs but if you can grit your teeth with it for 6 months or so then you will be fine.

[Daggers]

Business Edition sucks arse and Home Edition doesn't exhibit any bugs other than the odd locking up for me.

I mainly use Linux.

[Guest]

I just get Steve Lynex to do my computing for me.

[Rincewind]

I just have the basic Home edition. Not experienced any major problems although I tried to play LMA earler and a message appeared to say it couldn't find the right graphics card and it may need updating. Another tech issue to bamboozle me.

Updated a couple of things but a video update failed to install. I only have 1G on it which is plenty I thought but never intended to download a lot of stuff and only use the laptop when my PC wasn't available. Best laid plans and all that. My desktop is full of stuff.

[SamL]

Business Edition sucks arse and Home Edition doesn't exhibit any bugs other than the odd locking up for me.

I mainly use Linux.

Linux is genius.

I've got Linux and XP on my computer, mainly use Linux though.

Wireless is a bugger to configure on Linux.

[Ultra]

Unless and until Microsoft release a Service Pack for Vista (which is rumoured to be imminent), I'd advise not to go near it.

It's not worth the extra expense over XP.

[the_bowman]

I'm running Vista Home Premium on my laptop, and I would say neither good nor bad, no problems yet but nothing outstanding either.

Just for reference, my specs are:

Intel Pentium Dual-Core 1.46 GHz

2GB DDR2 RAM

It runs pretty well on that, so no complaints

[Daggers]

Wireless is a bugger to configure on Linux.

Which distro? Sabayon and the latest Ubuntu were a breeze for me as the card was automatically configured. Previous distros I tried were, as you say, a pig to sort out.

[AoWW]

I use Vista Home Premium and have had no major problems. A couple of minor niggles early on but I haven't had any probs recently. Really pleased with it, in fact. Thing that irritates me the most are the 'needs permission to continue' checks that pop up whenever you try to do anything, but you kinda get used to them.

[Daggers]

Thing that irritates me the most are the 'needs permission to continue' checks

It's just Microsoft doing something good for a change - preparing the world for marriage

[Dr The Singh]

The first service pack is due for release or the beta version has been released. It has fixed alot of bugs, but it hasn't solved the issue regarding 'speed'!!

[coale39]

Im very happy with Vista. However you need a good system with 2gb of ram IMO. In my old laptop I had 1 gb but my new pc has 2gb and now Vista works perfectly.

[JadeFalcon]

vista is so shit vista 2 is announced for next year

also people that say vista is not shit, are the people that have not tried to fix something with it when its gone wrong, nothing is simple and nothing is in the right place, they even moved the fecking calculator

the only reason for vista use is dx10, but there are 2 groups working on a converted version to work with xp

[AoWW]

It's just Microsoft doing something good for a change - preparing the world for marriage

Ugghhh, bugger to that... I'd rather turn off my firewall and disable my security software - flying by the seat of my pants is much more entertaining.

[lookwhaticando]

Ugghhh, bugger to that... I'd rather turn off my firewall and disable my security software - flying by the seat of my pants is much more entertaining.

[DB11]

Rubbish if you want it for games (as most of them have some issues)

Other than that the bugs have been fixed and it's pretty decent

[Nationwider]

Hmm. Make sure you do a thorough trawl of driver updates for any peripherals you currently plan on using with your new laptop. Vista's main new feature seems to be Plug'n'Play'SeizeUp'n'Crash'n'BlueScreenOnReboot....

Driver issues aside (and you eventually do get them sorted), it's a pleasent experience.

[Deathside]

I'm in the market for a new laptop and have my eye on a tasty little Sony Vaio number only problem is obviously Vista

Now at first I understand Vista was a big pile of rubbish and like Millennium Edition all over again but has it got any better with updates etc?

I don't want to waste a fortune if Vista is going to be a nightmare

Ay up Jay, Don't know if I'm too late to add to this discussion (IE: Have you already splashed out?)

Anyways,

Firstly - I wouldn't go with Sony, it's still my opinion that you pay an extra £200 for the name

Secondly - as folk here have advised 2GB RAM is highly recommended

Thirdly - not as important as the RAM but aim for 200GB+ HDD, Vista itself is quite sizable, and I found with an 80GB drive I ran out of space in no time (mainly due to keeping a large music library onboard)

Fourthly - which version of Vista to go for? - I'd recommend Vista Ultimate but it's actually quite hard to get hold off (pre-installed) but to be honest Home Premium is fine - Home Basic means you miss out on features such as Aero - And avoid 64-bit version as it seems that there is still bugger all software which is compatible

Right then, brand wise, from the units I've tested recently I would say that HP stands out from the rest in pretty much all areas - Asthetics, performance, price, reliability

So after I've said all that you can pretty much guess what I'm using - Yep that's right, an LG R200 running Home Premium (It's a Nordic model - Which means that the keyboard can be a bit confusing at times - But for a freeby I can't complain)

PS: As mentioned elsewhere in this thread, Service Pack 1 was released to manufacturers this week - But don't expect to see machines on sale with SP1 pre-installed for another 2-3 months (Microsoft gives manufacturers 90 days to implement and currently it is only available in 5 languages and most manufacturers will wait until it is available in all languages before they update their pre-loads)

OK, Can I take my geek hat off now?

[Steven]

Ay up Jay, Don't know if I'm too late to add to this discussion (IE: Have you already splashed out?)

Anyways,

Firstly - I wouldn't go with Sony, it's still my opinion that you pay an extra £200 for the name

Secondly - as folk here have advised 2GB RAM is highly recommended

Thirdly - not as important as the RAM but aim for 200GB+ HDD, Vista itself is quite sizable, and I found with an 80GB drive I ran out of space in no time (mainly due to keeping a large music library onboard)

Fourthly - which version of Vista to go for? - I'd recommend Vista Ultimate but it's actually quite hard to get hold off (pre-installed) but to be honest Home Premium is fine - Home Basic means you miss out on features such as Aero - And avoid 64-bit version as it seems that there is still bugger all software which is compatible

Right then, brand wise, from the units I've tested recently I would say that HP stands out from the rest in pretty much all areas - Asthetics, performance, price, reliability

So after I've said all that you can pretty much guess what I'm using - Yep that's right, an LG R200 running Home Premium (It's a Nordic model - Which means that the keyboard can be a bit confusing at times - But for a freeby I can't complain)

PS: As mentioned elsewhere in this thread, Service Pack 1 was released to manufacturers this week - But don't expect to see machines on sale with SP1 pre-installed for another 2-3 months (Microsoft gives manufacturers 90 days to implement and currently it is only available in 5 languages and most manufacturers will wait until it is available in all languages before they update their pre-loads)

OK, Can I take my geek hat off now?

Although I am not Jay, thanks for that.