Finished installing SP1, much better, slightly faster. My overall experience with Vista has been positive for the past year.

I'm waiting for the MSFT BoD to install it successfully. Unlike, say, last time it was released.

It's been glowering at me in Windows Update for about an hour now. I got wise over the weekend and changed the settings to "Notify Only; Thou shalt not download" while I wait for some friends to guinea pig it first.

6 months into my very first "real world" job I started rolling out NT4 SP2. I'm feeling a lot of deja vu. All over again. :)

Raw to burned

Costumer: waitress, this bread is half baked!
Manager: Put it in the oven again
Chef: The problem is not the oven, it is the mixture of so much flour(code) and too little yeast (common sense). So it'll go from raw to burned.
-----------

The future belongs to Linux
http://www.cnet.com/8301-13505_1-9892174-16.html

The rising generation of programmers isn't being fed .Net and Windows. It's growing strong on Linux and its associated LAMP stack, as Robert Guth of the Wall Street Journal notes. Microsoft thinks it has an answer to this trend toward Linux. It is very telling how far from reality Microsoft is by its response:

Microsoft hasn't been a player in the Net start-up world, in part because of the cost of its server product. Mr. Hilf tells [the WSJ] that Microsoft is trying to fix that with new licensing schemes that make Windows Server more affordable for start-ups....

The technology has also been a hindrance, which Mr. Hilf says Microsoft tried to overcome by making additions to Windows Server 2008 that might appeal to Linux programmers who want better access to the technical guts of the software. Such changes "will be a big impact to that next-generation Facebook," Mr. Hilf says.

Well, no, Bill. Such changes are largely irrelevant at this point. You've already lost the mindshare war, and tepid changes to Microsoft's server licensing policies won't change things, either. Your company's limp olive branch to the open-source community ("You can use our software royalty-free and without fear of legal retribution...so long as you never make a penny from your efforts") is worse than insulting.

Microsoft's model is perfect for the client/server model that it helped to pioneer. It is irrelevant for the web-enabled future that is being built even as I type. This new world looks more like Firefox: platform agnostic. It doesn't care if people run Windows. Neither should you.

This is pure speculation, but the radio silence from the OEM channel about Vista SP1 could be an indication that there is going to be a big "XP reloaded" moment soon across the PC industry, possibly within weeks coinciding with the final release of XP Service Pack 3. I predicted a few weeks ago on this blog that this would happen sometime in the March/June timeframe. Cautiously optimistic that this could still be the case.

I think the writing has been on the wall for several months that Vista has failed as an operating system. Microsoft risks bringing down their company by sticking to the current failed strategy. Steve Ballmer trying to buy Yahoo reminds me of the dictator that invades another country to distract people from the problems in his own country.

I have installed Vista 64 bit Ultimate about 4 days ago.
it's my first time with Vista 64 bit Ultimate, and I am already hating it in some ways.

I love the way it looks, and its eye candy stuff, BUT...>!!

1 - everything you do has to be verified and approved. (too many buttons to press just to get one thing done).

2 - My Cell Phone (Internet Sharing) to use the internet,
can not be used and each time I try my cell phone
reboots on its own.

I never had a problem with this on XP and in fact,
this is how I am on the internet now and logged on now typing this and posting this. (via XP and my cell phone).

BUT..>!! I can NOT get the same thing to work on Vista 64 bit Ultimate Edition.
So I havee to find a way to download Vista SP1 for 64 bit,
on my XP computer, so then I can burn it to CD,
and pass it over to Vista 64 bit Ultimate.

Because Vista wont let me get on the net.,
I even hate Technicians look at my system, and they don't know why it wont get on the net.
They tell me it may be because Vista is locking it down,
and won't let it go for use. - LONG STORY...

NEXT...
3 - Every time I leave the computer alone for 30 minutes,
my screen garbles up and the screen is unreadable.
I have to force reboot the computer, to get my screen to work
properly, because you can't see anything to even attempt to fix it..

And yes I have installed my drivers and a 400 dollar video card,
Radeon HD-3870-X2 and all its drivers and software (brand spanking new).

I tested my card and there is no problems,
in fact I also did a Benchmark and the score for the Benchmark is,
98.347 FPS (frames Per Second)

So I am hoping that SP1 for 64 bit fixes these problem's I am having now.

Good lord help me......

Jason wrote

This is pure speculation, but the radio silence from the OEM channel about Vista SP1 could be an indication that there is going to be a big "XP reloaded" moment soon across the PC industry, possibly within weeks coinciding with the final release of XP Service Pack 3. I predicted a few weeks ago on this blog that this would happen sometime in the March/June timeframe. Cautiously optimistic that this could still be the case.
--------------------------------------------------

Maybe there will be a announcement that XP will be continued at least till Windows 7. Wishful thinking? A story within a story...

Big news the other day about the EePC

"(Asus) predicts the Eee PC it has started selling with Microsoft Windows XP Home edition on board will outsell the original Linux-based version by a ratio of 6 to 4 in the market by the end of this year"

"Asus could ship around 3 million [M] Windows Eee PCs and 2 million [M] Linux ones"

I think Asus let the cat out of the bag...so to speak on the future of XP. Tell me how XP that is "supposed" to be "discontinued" in three months, yet it will be in three million computers in the future?

So there you have it, XP will NOT be discontinued. How come no one picked up on this story???

He,he
Ralph:"So there you have it, XP will NOT be discontinued. How come no one picked up on this story???"
Somebody with some neurons know that Ms has no alternative. Also, Chips, some time ago, developed on the theme.

After 11 months of superb Vista Ultimate experience I just installed SP1, smoothly as expected. I fully agree with mailbox01, just positive! Unfortunately, my other laptop, a 5 years old Dell Inspiron, cannot be upgraded to Vista, so unfortunately, it needs to stay with XP SP2, which feels a bit "yesterday".....

@Ralph

The MS take on the Eee laptop XP version, was that it needed a special make of XP in order to run on solid state drives, instead of hard drives. So sort of PR about it needed special timing fo those drives. More likely, it needed to be stripped down, as XP had its own bloat, (nothing compared to Vista) and needed at least an 2.1 gb hard drive to install on. The Eee laptop I believe came with a 2.0 solid state flash type drive. I have commented on the fact that MS is going be selling at least this version part the deadline date.

Also, I cannot see M$ giving up the low end of computers to Linux. Vi$ta is not going be suitable for most sub five hundred dollar laptops.

The other thing is, SP1 for Vista, might be MS last attempt to really push Vista on the market. There have been signs that perhaps even MS knows that Vista is a hopeless cause, and they should abandon it like they did Millennium. Sadly, Windows Seven will be more Vista, or more likely Vista SP2 with new wallpaper.

Well, now HP
HP to sell Linux laptops and PCs
http://reseller.co.nz/reseller.nsf/news/29FCD3C3436DDF1CCC257410000AD5EA
HP is planning to introduce desktop and laptop computers that come with Novell's Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop operating system preinstalled.

Systems are scheduled to start shipping worldwide in select geographies in the second quarter of this year, according to a source familiar with the matter. The two vendors will jointly develop software drivers and provide support to end-users

Linux is becoming an increasingly viable alternative to Windows on the desktop, Levy argued. The operating system has all the features required by enterprises, including support for common business applications such as Active Directory and Exchange. Productivity software such as Open Office too has reached a maturity level that satisfies enterprise demands.

Lastly, Novell is banking on concerns about Windows Vista, said Levy. The operating system has high demands on hardware and is suffering from poor driver support. "Vista has left more questions in people's mind than past generations [of Windows] in terms of the value proposition."

Anyone using Realtek '97 sound drivers? That'd be the standard driver for motherboards that have built-in sound and was VERY common before the Azalea boards. If you are so lucky, guess what? Microsoft STILL hasn't resolved the issue(s) with it and SP1, and you will not get access to SP1 via Windows Update. So don't let MS' PR about "a small number of drivers" fool you into thinking a small number of people will be affected.

I don't get a lot of this "Vista is a failure" stuff. I've run Vista for almost a year on my old Dell 600m laptop, no issues. I have it on my new ThinkPad, no issues. And I have it on my dual Opteron machine at home, no issues. It is stable, fast and works with all my software.

I think the key is making sure you have the memory and CPU to run it. If you do it works fine.

All the complaining about the UAC is silly. Just shut it off if you don't like it!!!! People talk like UAC is some huge problem and can't be controlled. Just shut is off for pete's sake!