Thank you for the replies and moderation points. I guess I am a little paranoid about security because I have been hit by viruses and malware on my previous computer which has made me a little cynical of MS security and I have learned to put up defences as it were but if vista has these features built in as was pointed out by omicronish and has a more considered security model rendering such additon software less needed it is certainly a good thing.
My experience so far of vista has been less than an hour and I intend to explore vista alot more over the weekend so I am not writing my comments from proper testing, just my first impressions of the beta.
I will certainly check out the MS newsgroups with regard to compatabiltiy etc because feedback from users is the best way for software to develop and improve although I believe that I am preaching to the converted about the benifits of community feedback.
Despite vowing never to touch vista I decided to try the beta just to see if it is as bad as people claim.
It installed nice and quickly (faster than xp in fact) on my P4 2.4Ghz 2GB ram box duel booting with XP MCE 2005 although vista takes about 4 mins to boot up.
I like the new file explorer interface but from the initial feel it seems to be more about the look than the functionality of the desktop. It is also nice to see an inclusion of a calendar utility which I always thought was lacking from previous windows versions.
Compatability wise; it does not detect my soundblaster pro 5.1 card and will not let me install the drivers for it claiming that windows compatability wont allow me to do so. The same is true of ZoneAlarm Pro and Avast! Anti Virus which I find insulting as a technically minder user but I do understand that most people who use MS products need to be saved from the "lets install anything" mentality.
Open Office and Firefox install perfectly but Vista brings an error halfway through installing Thunderbird.
The display manager will not allow me to set my screen resolution to anything other than 800x600 although the option is there for 1024x768 but nothing happens when the setting is applied and even at 800x600 the screen flickers eratically every few mins.
I have not installed the wireless networking yet but without my firewall, anti-spyware and anti-virus products, I'm not sure that I even want to connect the the internet.
My S-video out is disabled on loading the desktop (closing the analog hole?) which makes the media center funtion useless on my current setup and the DRM is making itself known with periodic popups telling me that x has been disabled quoting "Macrovision corporation" in the details.
Media Center mode in my view has a better interface than MCE 2005 however AVI files will not work (or be added for that matter) in media center mode.
I am going to test the beta out over the weekend but I am currently of the mind that it is buggy bloatware and not something I would trust my fles to but I am open minded enough to accept problems under the fact that it is a beta release and is not supposed to be anything near a proper release candidate.
format and re-install is all well and good pre-xp but now xp users have a limited number of activations so format and re-install is not as trouble free as it once was.
I am downloading from the European Mirror and it took a while to get started and is moving along at 20.3kbs at the moment.
The torrents are still showing Breezy but thats to be expected at this stage.
Currently running PC Linux OS duel boot with xp but hopefuly Drake will replace both on the laptop.
"Google" and "Googling for it" has become part of everyday culture which I didnt really think about until recently when a (non techie) friend of mine got a computer for the first time and has only just had exposure to the internet but one of the first places she went was Google with IE so it was not even the default Firefox homepage.
First computer, never been online...went straight to google. you really have to admire that level of mindshare google has acheived in society.
Slashdot Mirror
Thank you for the replies and moderation points. I guess I am a little paranoid about security because I have been hit by viruses and malware on my previous computer which has made me a little cynical of MS security and I have learned to put up defences as it were but if vista has these features built in as was pointed out by omicronish and has a more considered security model rendering such additon software less needed it is certainly a good thing.
My experience so far of vista has been less than an hour and I intend to explore vista alot more over the weekend so I am not writing my comments from proper testing, just my first impressions of the beta.
I will certainly check out the MS newsgroups with regard to compatabiltiy etc because feedback from users is the best way for software to develop and improve although I believe that I am preaching to the converted about the benifits of community feedback.
Despite vowing never to touch vista I decided to try the beta just to see if it is as bad as people claim.
It installed nice and quickly (faster than xp in fact) on my P4 2.4Ghz 2GB ram box duel booting with XP MCE 2005 although vista takes about 4 mins to boot up.
I like the new file explorer interface but from the initial feel it seems to be more about the look than the functionality of the desktop. It is also nice to see an inclusion of a calendar utility which I always thought was lacking from previous windows versions.
Compatability wise; it does not detect my soundblaster pro 5.1 card and will not let me install the drivers for it claiming that windows compatability wont allow me to do so. The same is true of ZoneAlarm Pro and Avast! Anti Virus which I find insulting as a technically minder user but I do understand that most people who use MS products need to be saved from the "lets install anything" mentality.
Open Office and Firefox install perfectly but Vista brings an error halfway through installing Thunderbird.
The display manager will not allow me to set my screen resolution to anything other than 800x600 although the option is there for 1024x768 but nothing happens when the setting is applied and even at 800x600 the screen flickers eratically every few mins.
I have not installed the wireless networking yet but without my firewall, anti-spyware and anti-virus products, I'm not sure that I even want to connect the the internet.
My S-video out is disabled on loading the desktop (closing the analog hole?) which makes the media center funtion useless on my current setup and the DRM is making itself known with periodic popups telling me that x has been disabled quoting "Macrovision corporation" in the details.
Media Center mode in my view has a better interface than MCE 2005 however AVI files will not work (or be added for that matter) in media center mode.
I am going to test the beta out over the weekend but I am currently of the mind that it is buggy bloatware and not something I would trust my fles to but I am open minded enough to accept problems under the fact that it is a beta release and is not supposed to be anything near a proper release candidate.
format and re-install is all well and good pre-xp but now xp users have a limited number of activations so format and re-install is not as trouble free as it once was.
I am downloading from the European Mirror and it took a while to get started and is moving along at 20.3kbs at the moment. The torrents are still showing Breezy but thats to be expected at this stage. Currently running PC Linux OS duel boot with xp but hopefuly Drake will replace both on the laptop.
Pot Kettle Black!
I think Avast! is a good scanner - I started using it on all of my computers after I dumping Norton Internet Security 2005 ealier in the year.
I've actually seen a sign like that in a shop in Edinburgh (UK.) It reads "Karma is Real so Please Don't Steal from us"
"Google" and "Googling for it" has become part of everyday culture which I didnt really think about until recently when a (non techie) friend of mine got a computer for the first time and has only just had exposure to the internet but one of the first places she went was Google with IE so it was not even the default Firefox homepage. First computer, never been online...went straight to google. you really have to admire that level of mindshare google has acheived in society.