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Listen to the podcast: Vista, one year
later.. 
Transcript
This is Leo Notenboom for askleo.info.
An anniversary quietly slipped by this week, mostly unnoticed.
Windows Vista is one year old.
A question I get very regularly, particularly from friends and acquaintances who are in the process of figuring out what kind of new machine to get, is "should I get it with Vista?".
Unfortunately, at best all I can really do is shrug my shoulders. As I've stated before, Vista's nice, but not compelling. A year later, factor in the most common complaint of hardware compatibility issues for hardware that's not really that old, and that's still where I land.
It's nice. But ... "eh".
I think that if I were purchasing a new machine today and I had the option, I'd be seriously tempted to stay with Windows XP. If Vista was my only option, then I'd certainly take it. It's not like I consider it a disaster, per se. But all other things being equal, I'd still pick XP for a while longer. Perhaps a long while longer.
Don't get me wrong, Vista's a fine OS. In fact as I've mentioned before, I've been running it on my laptop since shortly after it became publicly available. I certainly don't feel a pressing need to reformat that machine. It's just that it doesn't feel as ready for prime time as XP still does.
Vista is no doubt the future. But it's kind of like a what a friend once said about software he had been working on. It was so-called "leading edge" because it demanded more than current hardware could provide. Someday, when hardware caught up it would be just fine. That was his excuse, anyway, for having written big and slow software.
Vista doesn't suffer the "big and slow" issue compared to XP, but in some ways it's in much the same boat. Hardware compatibility issues will slowly disappear as more and more old hardware gets cycled out and all new hardware is naturally Vista compatible. Vista itself is relatively stable for a first release of a major revision, and it will will continue to stabilize as SP1 (now rumored for sometime early next year) and eventually SP2 come out.
But that's "someday in the future".
For people wanting to get things done today, XP still seems to me to be the way to go, particularly if you're upgrading. It works and it works well. Vista's just not that compelling for the average user.
A year after its release, I find that not just disappointing but actually kind of sad.
I'd love to hear what you think. Visit askleo.info and enter 12005 in the go to article number box to access the show notes, the transcript and to leave me a comment. While you're there, browse the hundreds of technical questions and answers on the site.
Till next time, I'm Leo Notenboom, for askleo.info.
Article C3208 - November 10, 2007
Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.
Russ - maybe you should just use a typewiter??? J/K. I have found only 1 hardware issue with Vista (webcam), and most software runs perfectly with the compatibility wizard (remember that from XP?). I love the interface - what's with the Olive Green in XP anyway??? LOL.
Posted by: Carl R. Goodwin at November 17, 2007 11:03 AMI acquired a Vista machine in July of this year. I upgraded the Vista Home to Vista Ultimate so I would have all the features I want to be able to use.
Out of the box I had problems with the BSOD (Blue Screen of Death). The same applies to the upgrade (which is the full version and was done as a clean install).
My main complaint with Vista is that it is entirely to easy to crash it! Just get a driver that it doesn't like and it will go on strike.
XP Pro was very good and forgiving. Vista really needs a fix in this area. I am sure that MS has, or can hire programmers that can make Vista more friendly without compromising the OS in any way.
I have discovered some things I really like. Some tools are really good and have been very helpful to me in troubleshooting problems. MS should make some of these more obvious, like the system performance area. I think they semi-hid some of Vista's best features instead of making them very obvious and making sure buyers would be aware of them.
If I had things to do over and had a suitable one been available , I would have purchased an XP Pro machine because XP currently is more reliable OS (as it should be since it may be the best OS they have done to date).
Posted by: Norm at November 18, 2007 12:15 AMI suspect we will see something very familiar happen with Vista in a couple years (or less). I just hope they will reduce the number of flavors of Vista (and the price) when they release "Vista SE." That will be the Vista to get.
Final comment: When it works, Vista is nice. Hopefully SP1 for Vista will cure some of the problems it currently has, though from what I have read, I may be tilting at windmills.
I was forced into Vista when I upgraded my laptop a few months back. My main problem is still incompatibility. I have a hp2840 printer which is about 12 months old and still cannot print successfully from Vista. Colours tend to come out all red. Every time I start Dreamweaver MX I get a warning asking me to confirm I actually want to run it. Several other programs such as Wise Installer just don't run at all. If I rate XP as a 10, Vista is probably 11 for looks, 11 for functionality, 8 for compatibility and 7 for frustration.
Posted by: Neville at November 18, 2007 2:12 PMHow come that hardly anyone has a good thing to say about Vista but if you want to buy a new computer it is almost impossible to avoid it?
Posted by: Frank Wagner at January 12, 2008 2:27 PMI just tried vista for about 4 months and can't stand it anymore. I just took it to Best Buy to get a downgrade to XP. I learned it but things are hidden too deep and I turned off many pop ups but they still tend to drive me nuts. I may try it again like you say but it will be a long long time.
Posted by: Karen Smith at August 22, 2008 3:36 PM