More and more people are coming around to Vista, and for some good reasons. Most opinions seem to still be based on the reviews and press from release time over 18 months ago, when hardware and software support were still lacking and there were some lingering performance issues. That and the goofy Mac ads. I would be willing to bet that 60% of those who say Vista is horrible have never tried it.
Migrating to Vista is easier than migrating to a Mac, though I don't think it's perceived that way. When a user switches to a Mac, he or she expects differences - anything that's easy to learn because it works the same way in both OSes is a bonus. When upgrading to a new version of Windows, the same user might consider any difference that's not an obvious improvement to be an annoyance. I've been using Vista since January, and I love it. I used to use a 3rd-party file manager (FreeCommander) and copy handler (TeraCopy), but Explorer improvements have made them unnecessary. UAC can be adjusted to be hardly obtrusive, and it works. A German company called AV-Test wanted to compare Anti-virus applications' performance against rootkits on XP and Vista. Though they got all of them installed on XP (and the antivirus apps didn't perform very well), they could only install 6 of them on Vista, and had to turn UAC off to do even that <http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/146256/vistas_despised_uac_nails_rootkits_tests_find.html> I disagree even more strongly with Bill that installing XP would be risky. XP should work fine with 99% of the manufacturer's "Vista-ready" hardware configurations you'll find. An option to cover your second concern, but not the first, would be to buy the Mac and install Parallels - especially if your school offers low-cost Windows OS installation media to students (mine were $12). That way you could run Mac and XP (or Vista) software side-by-side. Cheers, Joe On Mon, Aug 11, 2008 at 6:23 PM, Bill Silvert <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Scott is right, Vista is a good reason to move to a Mac. However I might > point out that PC makers are beginning to offer XP again. The high end Sony > Vaios actually come with both, including an optional "downgrade" from Vista > to XP, and I suspect that by the end of the year most suppliers will be > offering XP. > > So all is not lost. A PC with XP is a useful machine, a PC with Vista is > nothing but a headache. > > Of course if you have a desktop machine, you can simply install XP. However > the operating systems for laptops are usually tweaked for the hardware, so > if you have a laptop with Vista, you are screwed - installing XP is a risky > option. > > Bill Silvert > > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Scott D Lapoint" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[email protected]> > Sent: Monday, August 11, 2008 6:47 PM > Subject: [ECOLOG-L] moving from a PC to a Mac??? > > >> Hello Ecologers, >> >> It's time for me to invest in a new computer. I've long been a fan of >> Dell computers and PCs in general, but because of the issues I've seen with >> Vista, I've been considering a switch to Mac. > -- Joe Ledvina Clemson University Forestry and Natural Resources 864.656.3054 | [EMAIL PROTECTED]
