Why do people hate me for using a Mac...

[jonnyd]

I'm still a little worried about your first statement. Pushes to upgrade, as inconvenient as it may be, work wonders in encouraging innovation and decreases in prices. Sure, Vista is not many people's favourite OS, but it has done wonders in driving down costs in hardware and at the time, encouraged better efficiency from computers.

Fair point, but I suspect in the case of Vista this really isn't happening. Seems to me that people have taken a look at Vista and decided the gain they'll get for uprgading all their hardware isn't worth the cost.

As I say, I haven't even tried it, but are there actually any benefits to Vista over XP? Again, absolutely the worng place to ask, but would anybody care to defend Vista?

[cwa107]

Fair point, but I suspect in the case of Vista this really isn't happening. Seems to me that people have taken a look at Vista and decided the gain they'll get for uprgading all their hardware isn't worth the cost.

As I say, I haven't even tried it, but are there actually any benefits to Vista over XP? Again, absolutely the worng place to ask, but would anybody care to defend Vista?

Although there is nothing major under the hood, there are a few significant things:

1. The entire GDI was overhauled. This allows Windows to do dynamic scaling of icons and text without pixelation or distortion. This is very important if you're running a very high resolution display and you need to scale font and image size up (like when reading web pages).

2. DirectX 10 is exclusive to Vista (call me a conspiracy theorist, but I believe this was a deliberate move to push the gamers into upgrading).

3. UAC, love it or hate it, DOES add some degree of security to what was otherwise a free-for-all for malware. Now I've since read that there are ways for programs to get around it, but certainly less sophisticated spyware/adware will be defeated by it if the user is vigilant.

Aside from the UI changes (Gadgets, ribbon interfaces and the Aero interface), those are the major differences. Whether it's worth the upgrade for the average user is dubious, but there are some substantial differences.

[the8thark]

cwa107 I agree with you totally. But for those who want to move from XP to vista, do they get the home or the business or the premium etc edition? And which editions have these new features and which don't. Still confuses me a little.

[cwa107]

cwa107 I agree with you totally. But for those who want to move from XP to vista, do they get the home or the business or the premium etc edition? And which editions have these new features and which don't. Still confuses me a little.

That seems absolutely absurd to me still. I understand the reason they wanted to market it that way, but in my opinion, they shot themselves in the foot. Seeing stuff like that completely turns off the retail market. It also confuses the heck out of new PC shoppers, who don't see Windows as a "feature", as much as they do a means to an end.

In my opinion, it makes very little sense to market an operating system the way you would a traditional software package (like Office).

[dtravis7]

All I know for sure about the Vista versions is Home Basic has no AERO interface. I am sure it's missing a few other features also.

[clayneal]

Oh but the money I have made over the last 2 years upgrading hardware for the people who just had to have vista on their 3 year old gateways and dells !!!!!!!!!!

[smartyMAC]

Neighbours Envy..... Owner's Pride.... Mac is the way to go.

[December]

All I know for sure about the Vista versions is Home Basic has no AERO interface. I am sure it's missing a few other features also.

Eh, it's decent. I'm not sure what the whole "Aero" interface is exactly anyway, but it doesn't seem like something one would miss terribly.

[vansmith]

Eh, it's decent. I'm not sure what the whole "Aero" interface is exactly anyway, but it doesn't seem like something one would miss terribly.

Here you go.

While I agree that UI improvements are hardly a reason to switch, many people use them as a selling point (think about the recognition Macs get for looking the way they do). If you believe Mark Shuttleworth, "pretty" is a feature.

There are some useful features of Aero that I would like to see incorporated, primarily a preview of the window when you mouse over a minimized app (live thumbnails). Most other features are simply eye-candy but do make Windows look nice.

[dtravis7]

Flip-3d is the closest Windows has some to Expose on OSX. It's better than nothing. I do like the icon preview also. The rest I can take or leave.

[Village Idiot]

So I purchased a new "computer" today.

HP media smart server with Windows Home Server. It's NAS for my Vista box, XP box, and primarily my MBP.

Is this considered an identity crisis by your guys?

[dtravis7]

So I purchased a new "computer" today.

HP media smart server with Windows Home Server. It's NAS for my Vista box, XP box, and primarily my MBP.

Is this considered an identity crisis by your guys?

Well.... You could have purchased an Apple XServe for ONLY $3,599.00

JK

How much did the HP set you back? Are the HP server products pretty nice? I just don't like some of the cheaper HP systems that much but I am sure the better stuff is fine.

What is Windows Home Server like? Never got to mess with it.

My server here at the house is an home built AMD system that runs Windows 2k server. Been a very reliable system.

[Village Idiot]

Well.... You could have purchased an Apple XServe for only $3,599.00

JK

How much did the HP set you back? Are the HP server products pretty nice? I just don't like some of the cheaper HP systems that much but I am sure the better stuff is fine.

What is Windows Home Server like? Never got to mess with it.

My server here at the house is an home built AMD system that runs Windows 2k server. Been a very reliable system.

$499.99 shipped. I had to add something $0.01 or greater to my order to qualify for 6 months non interest so I got a 2gb stick of ddr3 RAM for my MBP.

It's based on Server 2003 SP2, but it's more user friendly. When you had drives, it adds them to a collective pool showing how much free space you have instead of assigning drive letters and having to manually setup RAID configurations. It also uses something like RAID 1, so if you're using more than one drive and a drive fails, you don't lose data. I'm going to upgrade to four 1tb drives eventually.

[dtravis7]

Sounds nice to me and nice price also! I might have to check out home server for my network here.

[fatkid808]

Easy..they are jealous....