It has been over 2 years since the next generation operating system has been in development and there are many voices saying that Windows Vista has too much eye-candy then our CPU and RAM can afford. And they seem to be true. Bill Gates and Microsoft seem to forget that we don't have 52 billion $ to spend on hi-tech computers. I have a AMD Athlon64 3000+, 1GB RAM, nVIDIA 6600 128Mb Video Card and I don't even dream to change my computer (or some part of it) for at least an year.
Returning to the subject ... I downloaded the lastest Windows Vista build (5308) which is thought to have all the features that the final version will have (for those of you that forgot ... Windows Vista is due for launch at the end of 2006 - beginning of 2007). And since I have an AMD Athlon64 CPU I said that I should try the x64 build. Compared to the last build I tried which had 1,5GB (a November build), this Vista build has over 3,5 GB (that means the final version will probably have a full DVD). You are probably wondering if the extra 2 GB are worth the extra time necessary to download it. The answer is NO. I have found out that the extra 2GB is nothing but tons of x64 drivers (which means they are garbage). I have an normal computer nothing to fancy about it. A Lexmark x1190 Printer and a TV Tuner (and the basic stuff). There isn't any Microsoft drivers for those two even in Windows Xp not to mention in Windows Vista x64 Edition so you can see why the extra 2GB are worthless.
I tried to install Vista. I had some serious problems just after the first boot, some 40 minutes of installing. There was no fancy Windows Vista icon to welcome me into the next generation OS, just a BSOD (for those not familiar to the term, even though i'm sure everyone has seen one BSOD is the Blue Screen Of Death... the screen that shows you that Windows has crashed and that there is nothing you can do to stop it ). So yeah just after the first boot I got this BSOD. Booted again and after a minute or so a BSOD again. And no matter how much I tried after I a minute or so a BSOD teminated the next generation OS. I'm currently downloading the x86 version (which I hope will work better). Well there was one thing I noticed in that minute I had the Vista desktop infront of my eyes. It sure has a lot of eye-candy. Aero Glass and the transparency (which is now turned on by default... if you have a new video card) make Windows Vista look fancy. In other words the UI is great. But regarding the rest of the features... well that's another story. it ate 500mb from my ram whithout any software installed and the CPU was at 10% in idle.
So the question is... Will you give over 150$ for a more fancy Windows? Do you value performance over eye-candy?
all over thsi thread I said "next generation OS", but is seems it is only next generation by the eye candy and the number of huge bugs it has (another Windows Millennium maybe).
I hope that if the x86 version will work as supposed to I will have more information for you regarding this build.

This post has been edited by adriantc: Mar 18 2006, 01:52 PM

I shan't be buying Vista for a while yet. Partly because my system isn't good enough to run the operating system, and also because I want to wait for everyone else to find the bugs and then purchase Vista SP1! I should point out that as you are fully aware, this product is in beta and so will have bugs. Upon it's release in November, I highly doubt the OS will be as buggy or resource hungry. At least I hope not anyway.

And Vista has many new features, it isn't merely a new look for Windows XP!

I won't get Vista for a while yet, and that's only if they stop support for Windows XP, which they have done in the past with other OSs. Yes, their new theme looks nice, but it's not really necessary, and if it's eating a load of resources then theres no point. As a matter of fact, you can download a shell pack for Windows XP to make it look like the Aero Glass theme, but I can't remember where to download it.

you can download it at www.crystalxp.net

I will install final version of vista when it come out to market , at this time i have installed a beta version but still exists some programs that don´t run in windows xp.

My dads on the windows whate ever you call it where we can get the stuff straing for them while paying money per month... or at least his work is but he got vista for me so i could test it!!!

(i like to test new things and that sort of stuff)

its crap... just windows xp all over again with a few things like a mac... its really lame lol

a few things i found i liked were

under the drives and stuff it told you how full it was with a cool bar that fills up!!!
nicer/cleaner aspect very nice task bar and stuff

the task bar is pretty cool instead of having that anoying bars that keep poping out and stuff it just opens a list in taht part and does that till you get to what you want i think its cool at least lol...



things i hated or dislike...
unstable (expected with beta stuff)
tooo much like windows xp... we need a revolution here not a evolution as someone put it.... (i think it was me...)
theres jsut way to many things lol... so ill stop here before i just go on flaming microsoft like i normaly do...

This is an update to my last post...

Well I downloaded and (tried) to install Windows Vixta (x86). Once again, just after the install process has ended and before the first boot I got a BSOD. Just like with the last (x64) version there was no way I could run it for more then a minute or so. It seems it has Microsoft written all over it...
After searching all over the internet for people experiencing the same problems with me it seems there is a pattern for this problems. Most of the people (99%) can install and run Windows normally (or at least as you would expect for a beta release), but there is a small group of people that have a AMD CPU and share the same problems. That is the element that seems to be the root of the problem.

Still there is no valid explination for why the november build worked just fine... ...Guess I'll have to wait until the end of the year to finaaly check Vista...

Thanks. I was trying to find a URL for that. I want to try out Vista some time and this might just be my chance.

In my house we generally don't buy computers with very new operating systems (only one exception). I got my XP machine in 2005 - that shows it. I don't think I will see Vista on a desktop in my house for quite a while, especially since my father probably isn't ready to support it. I sort of like Aero Glass, but really - how does it improve the way you work (or play, in which case it may do more harm than good) on your machine?