Electronic Music 411 - Whats your verdict on Vista?

04/07/08 + lysdexic

About to purchase a dedicated live & studio rig, running live & cubase. Wondering whether to format and install Win XP or not.

realistically, we can't run XP forever. Are there any advantages to keeping vista?

Recent Blog: slsk 1 second massacre

04/07/08 + celibacyclub

theres still plenty of stuff that doesnt work with vista.

id say get xp if u need it and make a dual boot setup.

Recent blogs: last day for mixit, daw pics, germans love to chat

04/08/08 + Otterfan

I've been using Vista at work lately (on an iMac), and I like it quite a bit.

It's the first Windows interface that isn't ass-ugly. Staring at XP makes me wince.

It also has some real user efficiency improvements. Flip--the MS analog Expose on OS X--and task bar thumbnails save me easily three to five minutes a day (I keep a lot of windows open). The new search is great.

If you're going to connect to the Internet on the machine, Vista is definitely better. The security situation is much improved. People complain about User Account Control popping up too often, but if you've used just about any non-Windows OS (Linux, OS X) you'll be used to that by now.

Recent blogs: AOL Data Release

04/08/08 + mongo

full of bugs and ugly as hell, don't go vista, make a dual boot if you have to

04/08/08 + Fredo

I heard that Microsoft will be releasing a new os in 2009. I was led to believe this would not share any relationship with Vista. That seems crazy! Does anyone know if there is any truth to that rumor?

Recent blogs: very bizarre and awesome video, Ugly mofo!!!, Martha, lovely sweet Martha

04/08/08 + lematt

i will NEVER EVER believe Micromoft again.

Recent blogs: I missed the Lottery !, tenori on disapointing, stfu marseille flyers

04/08/08 + race4prize

link

Recent blogs: sponsor my bare foot drive to dundee, ooh the 90s rave., nineteeneightyfour

04/08/08 + license

I use it at work and I don't care for it. It seems slow, bloated, and the things it does to improve ease of use just make it awkward IMHO.
FWIW, as far as aesthetics: within a week of first using XP, I switched to Windows Classic view and that's how I've been rolling ever since. It's been no different in Vista.

Recent blogs: Friends' computer troubles, Milkytracker now open source, Cheap, Portable Fun?

04/08/08 + dkarma

vista is crap...as w/ all M$ products it is full of security holes. I'll NEVER use it. My buddy does and when I pulled my usb drive from his comp w/out "safely removing" it it fried all 4gb!!!
Why on fucking earth should anyone have to "safely remove" a hot swap device when it is not in use????

Here's a tip Microsoft crew: how about fixing your old OS instead of trying to reinvent the wheel (and failing) every 4 years.

I use xp because I rarely have probs w/ it.

04/08/08 + race4prize

i use vista, and its not too bad. a few problems here and there, but runs smoother for me with cubase and live then xp did. it can be annoying at points but i'm not going out of my way to revert to xp, especially when it'll mean switching back to vista in a year or so...

Recent blogs: sponsor my bare foot drive to dundee, ooh the 90s rave., nineteeneightyfour

edited: Apr 08 2008 + ejectorset

i haven't used it much first hand, i use a mac, but there are a couple of computers at work with it. it seems pretty weird to me. weird as in computers and especially your operating system are supposed to make things easier not harder. some examples:
someone wanted their homepage in IE changed and asked me if i could help. they knew they should be able to go to Tools -> Options to change it, but now the only way to get into internet options is via the Control Panel, even though since Internet Explorer 1 it has been available in the program.

it asks me twice if i am sure i want to do things like change the homepage or install a program. i use macs and osx for work and at home. 10 years ago i was a unix system admin with a room full of BSDi boxes, so i am no stranger to non-windows OS, there is no reason to ask me twice. once is enough. verify with my system password or make me su or sudo, but there is no reason to ask twice. the funny thing is it just asks me, it doesn't require a password on the vista machines i've used. people get used to ignoring prompts like that and they are useless. at least stupid people usually have to stop and think about what their password is. (and maybe pay attention to what they are doing)

my friend called me friday night trying to figure out how to put his old harddrive from his old XP machine into his new vista machine. i walk him through hooking up the ide and power cables and we boot up and it found it. then when he wants to go to his photos vista gets all up in his way and won't let him do it. all he wants to do is copy/paste to his new drive. finally after telling vista to take ownership (recursively with full privileges) of the files (4 or 5 times) he gets read access and can view a list of them, but then whenever he double clicks on one he gets more no-no's about how he doesn't have the right to access the image location in the filesystem. even though in vista's filesystem browser he is able to browse their location. weird cryptic messages. ive switched drives between all kinds of XP machines, 98 to XP, etc and never had any of that hassle. at least in *nix if you had a problem like that, which you probably wouldn't since the files would have all been in the same user group, but if you did you would only have to run chown once as root and you would be all fixed up.

Recent blogs: adventures in blogging, I cares, binary solo

04/08/08 + mlbot

bugs?
Software that doesn't run on it?

I've yet to see any evidence of that.
Vista, with a little tuning, runs Ableton Live just as well as XP. Plays all my old and new games. It does the internets.
what else do you want?

Finding XP drivers for new hardware seems like more of a hassle than anything... and for what benefit??

Make sure your soundcard has Vista drivers, thats the biggest issue Ive seen. Not software.

Recent blogs: Dumb Machine LP - Maces of Disruption, Puppy, Best Synths For Not Making Music

04/08/08 + license

mlbot said: "Vista, with a little tuning, runs Ableton Live just as well as XP."

this is what is acceptable for a new OS? for it to run as well as an older one, after some tuning?

Recent blogs: Friends' computer troubles, Milkytracker now open source, Cheap, Portable Fun?

04/08/08 + race4prize

license said: "

mlbot said: "Vista, with a little tuning, runs Ableton Live just as well as XP."

this is what is acceptable for a new OS? for it to run as well as an older one, after some tuning?"

i sort of expect a new os not to run perfectly with software designed for older ones. take OSX, everytime a new one comes out, jaguar, tiger, leopard or whatever, always always always caused me headaches at college.

Recent blogs: sponsor my bare foot drive to dundee, ooh the 90s rave., nineteeneightyfour

04/08/08 + ShaunRyder

ejectorset said: "someone wanted their homepage in IE changed and asked me if i could help. they knew they should be able to go to Tools -> Options to change it, but now the only way to get into internet options is via the Control Panel, even though since Internet Explorer 1 it has been available in the program."

umm, hit 'alt'...