What will Vista do for me?

[ThirdWizard]

I got a new laptop that had vista on it. Anyone else have a heck of atime setting up a network. I started at 8 p.m. saturday and it took me until 4 a.m. to configure it to pick up my workgroups in my home.

Took me about five minutes.

Networking in Vista gets a huge thumbs up from me. My only gripe is that I can't remote desktop into my Home Premium machine, but that's listed on the big freaking checklist of features on the "Compare Vista" page on the MS site.

Yeah, that's annoying.

 

[ssampier]

Is joining a domain more or less the same in Vista?

We use Novell for our file and print sharing, but I do use Windows domain for a few things.

 

[ThirdWizard]

We've had no problems at work joining vista computers onto the domain, both virtual machines and real ones.

 

[Mercule]

Is joining a domain more or less the same in Vista?

I do the workgroup thing at home. Converting an old box to a 2003 server and setting up a domain is on my May todo list, though.

For the network admin types: Any good overview of the process?

 

[DonTadow]

Compusa near my house has vista premium for 110 new and 80 upgrade, I know it seems like a no brainer to some, but should i buy it or wait?

 

[Mercule]

Compusa near my house has vista premium for 110 new and 80 upgrade, I know it seems like a no brainer to some, but should i buy it or wait?

What do you use your computer for?

If it's primarily MS Office type stuff and game planning (even using PCGen), then Vista will work pretty well for you. The exception is Campaign Cartographer 3, which I cannot get to even install on Vista.

If you're a heavy gamer, then you might have some compatibility issues. Civ 4 and Morrowind are working fine on my machine, but I had to tweak the permissions a bit. Same goes for my daughters' cheap Clifford, Mickey, etc. games.

There are also some known issues with Visual Studio 2005 (probably any version, but I'm going by my experience). If you're using VS2005, it's nothing that can't be overcome pretty easily, but it might throw a hobbyist.

Also, if you've got a really old computer (say 4+ years old), or lower end laptop, you aren't going to have the ability to run some of the coolest features of Vista. Your computer shoudn't choke, but you won't be getting much of the advantage of switching to Vista.

In a nutshell, the advice I generally give is: Unless you're a bleeding edger or tinkerer, there's no good reason to go out and buy Vista for an existing computer. On the other hand, if you're getting a new computer, I definitely wouldn't avoid Vista and would probably lean towards getting Vista over XP.

But, in the name of all that's good, do not get Vista Home Basic.

Also, I've heard very bad things about doing an upgrade vs. do a clean install. I wouldn't even consider getting one of the Upgrade products.

 

[DonTadow]

What do you use your computer for?

If it's primarily MS Office type stuff and game planning (even using PCGen), then Vista will work pretty well for you. The exception is Campaign Cartographer 3, which I cannot get to even install on Vista.

If you're a heavy gamer, then you might have some compatibility issues. Civ 4 and Morrowind are working fine on my machine, but I had to tweak the permissions a bit. Same goes for my daughters' cheap Clifford, Mickey, etc. games.

There are also some known issues with Visual Studio 2005 (probably any version, but I'm going by my experience). If you're using VS2005, it's nothing that can't be overcome pretty easily, but it might throw a hobbyist.

Also, if you've got a really old computer (say 4+ years old), or lower end laptop, you aren't going to have the ability to run some of the coolest features of Vista. Your computer shoudn't choke, but you won't be getting much of the advantage of switching to Vista.

In a nutshell, the advice I generally give is: Unless you're a bleeding edger or tinkerer, there's no good reason to go out and buy Vista for an existing computer. On the other hand, if you're getting a new computer, I definitely wouldn't avoid Vista and would probably lean towards getting Vista over XP.

But, in the name of all that's good, do not get Vista Home Basic.

Also, I've heard very bad things about doing an upgrade vs. do a clean install. I wouldn't even consider getting one of the Upgrade products.

I'm a sometimes gamer who does a lot of media stuff (burning, watching dvds). My big worry is that eventually i'll haveto get it, particually within the next 3 years and i'm not going to find it for such a low price.

 

[Mercule]

I'm a sometimes gamer who does a lot of media stuff (burning, watching dvds). My big worry is that eventually i'll haveto get it, particually within the next 3 years and i'm not going to find it for such a low price.

For DRMed movies, especially, you need to have the right hardware, too. Vista pretty much had to bake the DRM into the OS (MPAA put pressure on them, which doesn't necessarily mean MS was opposed to it, anyway). If you don't have the correct, integrated DRM on your video card, the picture resolution will be degraded. Unfortunately, I can't remember the name of the DRM method.

 

[ThirdWizard]

For DRMed movies, especially, you need to have the right hardware, too. Vista pretty much had to bake the DRM into the OS (MPAA put pressure on them, which doesn't necessarily mean MS was opposed to it, anyway). If you don't have the correct, integrated DRM on your video card, the picture resolution will be degraded. Unfortunately, I can't remember the name of the DRM method.

HDCP?

 

[Mercule]

HDCP?

That sounds right. About 95% likely.

When I was shopping for my latest desktop, I almost picked up a new graphics card, too. I don't really watch movies on my PC, though, so the HDCP would be a waste.