Vista

[miriam_e]

Had my first look at Vista last night on my nephew, Dan's, computer. My first 2 reactions were "Oooh, pretty!" and "No use to me whatsoever."

I spend all my computing time doing a few things:

• writing text files (as articles or stories or programs
  
• viewing pictures and video files
  
• creating pictures and video files
  
• playing sound files (talks and music)
  
• recording sound files
  
• creating and programming virtual worlds

Vista doesn't help with any of these and potentially impedes some of them.

• viewing video files could become a problem because of restrictive digital locks
  
• playing sound files could likewise become more difficult
  
• running virtual worlds may be more difficult as the operating system sucks so much power it could slow VR rendering. Dan hasn't seen any slowing of his blisteringly fast machine, but my much slower computers would likely be brought to their knees by Vista.
  
• apparently Vista encrypts your hard drive, which I think means there is no chance of sharing with Linux.

So, like I say, not any use to me.

I wonder how many people get sucked in by the pretty surface and become shackled to the restrictive monster lurking underneath.

Comments

[flemco.livejournal.com]

If MS does NOT release, in the next two years, an OS that is closer to what I like (Win98SE, WinXP) - I will most certainly move to Linux. This is not meant as a threat. People who know me are aware that I'm actually a big MS Fan. Windows 98 SE was possibly the greatest Operating System known to mankind, and I was really upset when it fell by the wayside.

But we have two Vista boxes in the lab next to my cube. I've played with both 32-bit running on a dual core and 64 bit running on a HELLISHLY well-endowed machine.

Vista. Is. Shit.

I have put it through the paces. I have played with it. I have tried to like it.

There is no liking it. There's no stomaching it. Nobody should be forced to render a fucking 3d desktop. Any OS should allow the user, when they know what they're doing, FULL CONTROL OF THE SYSTEM FILES. And jesus fucking christ, there is just no good goddamned reason on earth a fucking Dual Core Pentium at 3.1 ghz per with 3 GB ram and a fast-access SATA drive should kludge, grind and stall like this poor beast does.

FUCK Vista. I'm about to upgrade my desktop this year, and if I buy one that comes with Vista pre-loaded, that motherfucker is getting low-level formatted before I slap XP on it.

[damien-wise.livejournal.com]

And jesus fucking christ, there is just no good goddamned reason on earth a fucking Dual Core Pentium at 3.1 ghz per with 3 GB ram and a fast-access SATA drive should kludge, grind and stall like this poor beast does.

You're saying you don't want to tow a big, shiny caravan along Teh Information Stuporhighway hitched to the back of your Ferrari? Spoil-sport! ;)

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

I run Several computers at home. I use AmigaOS, Win98SE, Puppy Linux, and a recent Debian Linux distribution called 64-Studio. I've gradually been removing all my Win98 installations and making a concerted effort to find a Linux distro that is as easy to use. The best OS of all time, as far as I'm concerned is AmigaOS, but its lack of easy networking relegates it simply to certain tasks that are complex and not easily performed by the other OSes. Win98 has a lot going for it in lightweight easy usability, but is so fragile and crashes so much that in the long run it is probably not worth the trouble. XP is more stable but has backdoors built in and is another step down the road to dependence upon the dark side.

Puppy is the easiest, fastest Linux I've used. It is not pretty or glossy (though I've fiddled with my desktop settings to make it rather attractive), but it is like greased lightning and damn easy to use.

You may be interested in 64-Studio. It comes with a whole slew of graphics, sound, video, and other multimedia editing programs. It is all free. Unfortunately, unlike Puppy you can't try it out on live CD before deciding to install. With 64-Studio in order to try it you have to install it on a partition. With a Linux or Win98 based machine this poses no great problems, but with XP it is difficult (XP doesn't like to play nice with others) and with Vista it becomes impossible.

64 Studio is at http://64studio.com
Puppy is at http://www.puppyos.com and http://www.puppylinux.org

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

I should have added that there is a special version of Puppy that I also use. It is called GrafPup, and is designed by an artist specifically for artists.
http://grafpup.com

[xxclovergrrlxx.livejournal.com]

i got free vista with my new laptop, although it came with XP installed. i never got around to "upgrading" it because i was afraid of stuff like this.

Vista, etc.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm pretty sure the harddrive-encryption is an option for paranoid business types frightened of their laptops falling into the "wrong" hands, and isn't set by default.

The DRM features of Vista cheese me off bigtime, and is the main reason why I won't touch the O/S. (I'd also have to upgrade my motherboard, RAM, etc. - and can't be bothered with that, nor can I afford it at the moment.)

When did the transition in perception from computer-users as creators, to computer-users as consumers occur? (Like you I have a lot of self-created stuff on my computer - stories, websites, artwork, musical compositions, photographs.) Vista is an O/S for "consumers" not "creators."

Don't know what my next computer will run. (I'm using XP and AmigaDOS at the moment.) Linux seems scary - but may get more user-friendly in the next few years; MacOS looks cool on my friend's machine - but I'm not sure it's "me."

Regards,
MFG.