How Many Of You Are Going To Upgrade To Vista?

[lalaland 10]

As for Vista, the fact that it will stop me from playing me *cough* aquired *cough* music seriously puts me off.

It shouldn't do, I am currently playing MP3s on my Vista PC right now that I've ripped from CDs. It may have more media protection, but you can still play unofficial music on it.

 

XP works for me, doesn't cause me any problems since I stopped buying PC games, and very rarely, if ever, crashes or owt. And I love IE7, much better than that rubbish overrated Firefox malarkey.

Vista seems to be better for being left turned on 24/7.

 

IE7 I'm not so keen on. There are bugs in it that occasionally cause problems and it's not as compatible with some sites and services as IE6 was.

[lalaland 10]

well, lets see, For a start there's my web cam, there's currently no drivers for it (Trust Space C@m 320)

my Ideazon ZBoard is only beta drivers

same as the Razer Diamondback Mouse

 

Soundblaster X-Fi is only beta drivers also

 

as is the Radon x1800 GTO (last I looked atleast)

 

then there's things like the widdcomm drivers for Bluetooth , again only in beta, and my TV Tuner is unsupported in Vista, and the ATI Radeon TV Capture option doesnt work in the vista drivers...

 

so, yeah

I think I've only got a handful of Vista drivers running on mine, XP drivers seem to work fine on Vista so far for me.

 

Even hardware and software that's warned me it won't work on Vista often does.

[Ghozer 112]

Nah, i tried the XP Drivers, you see im using Vista 64bit as im on a 64bit machine, I might as well..

 

i HAVE tried the 32bit version and XP Drivers, but still doesnt work...

 

so i'll be waiting for the drivers to be released before I move over..

[lalaland 10]

Ah, the 64bit version. My machine can also run either but I opted for the 32bit version for compatibility reasons.

[Ghozer 112]

Well, I have a legal XP 64bit, and there's not even some of the drivers available for that, so I stuck with XP 32bit

[esme 10]

I was going to go for as free upgrade to 64bit XP for my laptop but was put off due to lack of drivers

 

I had enough trouble finding all the drivers when I reinstalled 32bit XP, the webcam and the card reader are optional components and weren't on the supplied driver CD, had to go back to the OEM website to find them

[chimaera 10]

I'll upgrade once drvier support is in place (at the moment my videocard has no drivers at all for vista)

[esme 10]

Just out of interest. Me im going to wait till i get a new PC i think, although i've been reading up on it and it is tempting..............Flip 3D Windows!

 

you mean the Flip 3D Windows thats part of the Aero interface ?

 

you do know this is not available on the Windows Vista Home Basic package don't you, you need either a premium,business or ultimate version

 

suggested prices are

 

Home Basic - $199 USD

Home Premium $239 USD

Business - $299 USD

Ultimate - $399 USD

 

so taking into account the relatively weak US dollar and the favourable GBP to USD exchange rate I reckon the price in pounds sterling will be around

 

Home Basic - £199

Home Premium £239

Business - £299

Ultimate - £399

 

roughly, by my calculations, I'm probably on the low side there though

 

so you'll be forking out at least another £40 for the ability to have translucent windows, 3d windows and Flip Windows

 

also you lose out on "Windows Meeting Space" - netconferencing and "Windows Media Center"

 

Windows Vista feature availability chart

[lalaland 10]

you mean the Flip 3D Windows thats part of the Aero interface ?

 

you do know this is not available on the Windows Vista Home Basic package don't you, you need either a premium,business or ultimate version

All versions except home basic have the Aero theme and very nice it is too, although it's not the main reason I got Vista.

 

suggested prices are

 

Home Basic - $199 USD

Home Premium $239 USD

Business - $299 USD

Ultimate - $399 USD

 

so taking into account the relatively weak US dollar and the favourable GBP to USD exchange rate I reckon the price in pounds sterling will be around

 

Home Basic - £199

Home Premium £239

Business - £299

Ultimate - £399

 

roughly, by my calculations, I'm probably on the low side there though

If you visit overclockers they are reported to be selling the OEM version without a hardware purchase for a very low price, all versions.

 

so you'll be forking out at least another £40 for the ability to have translucent windows and Flip Windows

There are a lot more features in the higher versions. I have Ultimate and it has features included that I'd miss on cheaper versions, although not all users use their PCs for the same things.

 

Also you lose out on "Windows Meeting Space" - netconferencing and "Windows Media Center"

Media Centre is built in to Home Premium and Ultimate.

 

Technet Plus Direct and MSDN subscribers will have access to all the Vista versions to download legally from Microsoft's site (I know because I did this). And Action Pack subscribers will have already received their copy of Vista Business edition, although it's only upgrade not full install. All these have restrictions on them though so can't be used for general use at home etc. Through these schemes I've tried most versions now and find Ultimate the one for me, but I use my PC for work and personal use, most home users will be fine with Home Premium which will include media centre edition and the aero theme that people seem keen on.

[esme 10]

All versions except home basic have the Aero theme...

which is what I said

 

If you visit overclockers they are reported to be selling the OEM version without a hardware purchase for a very low price, all versions

well OEM versions are always cheaper for a start and are more restrictive as far as upgrades go, I think you can upgrade the mobo once and once only with OEM Vista but I take your point I got the prices wrong

 

so we have

 

Home Basic - £54.99 (32 or 64bit) or £145.99 (32 and 64 bit + tells you how to get DVD for 64 bit) or upgrade pack for £73.99

Home Premium £61.99 (32 or 64bit) or £179.99 (32 and 64 bit + tells you how to get DVD for 64 bit) or upgrade pack for £179.99

Business - £77.99 (32 or 64bit) or £211.99 (32 and 64 bit + tells you how to get DVD for 64 bit) or upgrade pack for £142.99

Ultimate - £109.99 (32 or 64bit) upgrade pack for £199.99 or full retail (non oem) for £299.99

prices correct at 17:00 26/1/2007 at overclockers

 

There are a lot more features in the higher versions...

again what I said

 

Media Centre is built in to Home Premium and Ultimate

ditto

 

all I said was basic doesn't have certain features that the more expensive versions have and was the OP (SheffDan) aware of that

 

I could add that there are already packages out there that you can add to XP to make it look very much like Vista, SphereXP for example will give a look very much like the Aero interface, plus there are netconferencing tools and things to match all the other selling points of Vista

 

DirectX10 is about the only major piece of software that either an equivalent cannot be found for or won't be ported by M$ to XP and there are no games written for it yet

 

so I don't feel any huge urge to spend money on Vista just yet

[esme 10]

oooo just a thought @ lalaland

 

you've got Ultimate Vista yeah ?, if it's convenient can you do me a small experiment please

 

can you use the machine with Vista but not connect it to the internet for a few days

 

it's just I'm trying to verify a report that Vista drops into reduced functionality mode if it can't connect to Microsoft periodically

 

it's supposed to trigger after about three days and reconnecting the internet will bring it back to normal functionality

 

like I said, only if it's convenient, I'm not trying to get rid of you or anything

[sheffdan 10]

Vista has been designed primarily with the interests of content providers in mind, not the end user. Everything has been locked down at the hardware level to stop people doing things the big corps don't want you to. And that doesn't just mean not being able to play pirated material on your PC, it means not being able to play legitimately purchased content if you don't have hardware Vista considers to be secure enough to play it.

 

There's an interesting analysis here though it's a bit technical in places

 

Ah right, so in many ways its a lot more restrictive than XP