My first post in this group! -- Rick is dead on IMHO.
They are essentially the same with some distinct differences but I hope we dont go through the 98 vs ME vs XP debates/wars again people hate change and Microsoft doesnt hate you and want to destroy your life by downgrading every edition of their next operating system they spent years and billions of dollars to develop. The important distinction is 32 bit version vs the 64 bit -- on the 64 bit side the driver support is really lagging, so I would stick with the 32 bit because of the backward compatibility of drivers and speaking of backwards it is ALWAYS the ham radio stuff that has problems with the next gen op sys Longhorn the beta version of Vista, has been available to developers for over 2 ½ years so they could develop their software and drivers and have them all ready for vista release . People on the commercial side with bucks to bet on took the hint and got ready. But enough of that what I have done, is something interesting that some folks might try download the FREE copy of virtual PC 2007 from Microsoft. Run XP AND VISTA AND LINUX all at the same time on the same computer and any variation thereof. Its very easy to set up , and it is fun. Y ou can have an xp window, and vista window open just like app windows. If you have the inclination or time play with that I did because I had a bunch of Edgport (now digi) USB to serial converter boxes for my radios and they wouldnt release a vista driver for ever (they now do). So I first decided to keep the computer at XP , then said to hell with it, and put in virtual 2007 . I tried VMWare also it works just about the same -- - either way, virtual computing is the nex-gen technology- might as well get used to it, and sigh when everyone else is forced to. It really is incredibly easy to install, and use and it is free and you can have your cake and eat it too - - have XP and Vista (and unix) -- running on the same computer they are just different vitrual machines that run in their own windows. Cheers From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Rick Sent: Saturday, October 20, 2007 5:02 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [digitalradio] Vista Digital System Navigation for Hardware Setting and Info I am a bit surprised at the comments about Vista vs. XP. I have two computers in my shack that are side by side with a KVM switch so I can access either of them from my main control point. I mostly use XP for backward compatibility since all amateur radio programs that I use will run on XP without crashing or having any incompatibilities. I run XP because almost all new computers here in the U.S. come with Vista. In fact, I overheard a conversation at a BestBuy store where the customer (an elderly woman obviously fearful of incompatibility issues) wanted XP rather than Vista but the clerk said they no longer had any machines that they could get with XP. He recommended they look at their web site and consider switching to MAC if she did not want to go with Vista. I wonder if she realized what that meant in terms of incompatibility:( Vista is pretty much XP with some window dressing and increased security, and unfortunately some decreased practical use for the end user due to the DRM issues. However, that does not affect amateur radio programs. Thus far I have been repeatedly surprised how well Vista works after hearing all the horror stories about how bad it would be. It runs most of the ham software that I use (DX Lab suite of programs, Multipsk, Ham Radio Deluxe with the Digital Master 780 digital program), and runs any of my normal programs which are primarily FLOSS (Free/Libre/Open Source Software) which include the Open Office suite, Thunderbird e-mail. Firefox browser, MediaMonkey library/catalog/player system that can handle open standards such as FLAC and of course ogg vorbis, Google Earth, Adobe Reader, and AVG Anti Virus. Some exceptions might be the virtual stuff, but after trying some of that with XP, I have decided it is probably not going to work for me anyway. 73, Rick, KV9U WD8ARZ Comcast wrote: > Navigating can be such a pain when going from xp to vista. Both worlds > have there plus and minus properties and I am not advocating or > bashing either. Just happen to use em and other operating systems, and > I am glad to share that experience. >
