Windows Vista - Beta Progress Report

Some folks may be interested in Microsoft's new 10GB OS "Gorilla" called Vista... I've had troubles with our two test mules, both are the "Ultimate" version of the install. Pretty Aero interfaces, some new security "features" and IPv6 and a tabbed browser. So far it doesn't run Adobe graphics products as well as it should for the daily tasks... a lot buggy... most likely memory timing issues more geared toward the older XP OS. It works... just very slowly. Uh, it's really heavily geared towards online services, I'm thinking Mr. Bill wants his apps online as billable services... I may be wrong.

I must say that in our month or two experience with Vista the kernel is extremely stable on both Opteron and Socket 779 Intel boards and haven't had any spontaneous reboots and no hung apps in the event viewer, yet... for those who'd like to read a professional's more indepth appraisal of Vista Tom's hardware Guide has a very good "not too heavy" read available here.

Thanx,

V. Kaminski

I've heard that only about 40% of WinXP apps will work on the new Vista OS. Since you seem to be testing the Vista Beta, I was wondering if you could confirm this.

The only non-MS apps we have "working" that are in daily office use are Adobe Acrobat Writer 7 Pro and Photoshop... we had a heck of a time with the start up of both apps... we used Office 12 and it works well enough, other than that they haven't crashed... so far the 64 bit apps do not exist to any great extent... but they will... a true 64 bit file system is what I'm more interested in for long address archiving and it won't be in the first two releases of Vista regardless of the different grades as mentioned in other ATS threads.

It is "fat" (over double a fat XP build size-wise) and way loaded down with as yet unsed stuff. XML is everywhere in this thing... Uh, I've got some learnin' to do... debug is gonna be quite a process for some I'd imagine... oh yeah, it contacts MS by default on an internet enabled restart, perhaps a software "dongle" or registry point for the new DotNet 2.0 framework?

Biggest gripe? None of our trusted non-MS remote desktop tools work on it (which is very handy in a large office), yet... the networking is OK... but only just. When I clicked on Network Neighbourhood within Windows Explorer on the AMD it takes too long and doesn't show all the machine's all the time... reboots fix this and may be a master browser thing... but there is no entry in the Event Viewer and the service is turned on.

It took "forever" to install on Intel... AMD not so much (I didn't do the loads or anything so I can't guess a figure) but I have kept up with their progress every few days or so... not much to report really - pretty and slow - the article cited in my first post really explains much of the "Vista" experience.

Suffice it to say this is the largest most complex bit of OS software ever... is it any better? Nope, long way from it. When in goes RTM (release to manufacturing) don't just think you can load it on your current trusty PC either, expect to do some research, and still then expect hassles for a half a decade. LOL.

'If" and it's a big "if" we choose to use Vista in the common office environment it will be on OEM certified hardware compatible "new" boxes rather than retrofits... that'd just be too scary, most likely in ones-ese and twos-ese till the price drops. I forsee little advantage in productivity gains compared to current stuff but it is in fairness a Beta and ours isn't even as new as the most recent RC release candidate named in the Tom's Hardware Guide article. The tabbed browser seems useful (and everybody else already has that) as standard software.

BTW. drivers weren't an issue so far... it's just slow... Vista (or laughingly WINSIX? or WINSICKS? No, WIN6, Windows v6, whatever) doesn't have the "snap" of a crisp XP machine and neither has as friendly a Windows Explorer or network browsing as WIN98SE. LOL!

Seems they'll have corporate boxes in Nov and the various distros of consumer stuff after Christmas most likely March or later timeframe. Not ready for prime time till at least then.

Thanx, if we get any interesting bits on those 2 boxes when I'm talking to tech I'll be sure and report them to this thread. I think these ones will most likely be reloaded with XP when the Beta trial is concluded.

No one who signs cheques here really wants to run out and switch over infrastructure till it's much more solid and well understood and even then only after the machine life-cycle dictates the swaitch as being cost effective.

Thanx,

Victor K.

[edit on 1-6-2006 by V Kaminski]

I had no problems installing Vista on a Athlon 1900+ with 512MB of RAM.

It is a little slow, but nothing special.

I did not try installing anything in it yet.