Systems & Networks | Saturday, June 9th, 2007
Vista
Microsoft's new OS - a distant view or must have now?
Now that Windows Vista is upon us we are being asked questions by customers, such as;
- What does it do?
- Is it worth upgrading?
- Should we avoid it?
Our general impressions and recommendations so far are as follows.
What Does it Do?
Vista offers most users nothing of great interest that they can’t already do in XP. So there is no compelling reason to use it at the moment.
In fact, the average user will find it a little confusing at first since many of the features and controls that they are used to in XP are now found in a different place and/or given a different name. For example “Add and Remove Programmes” is now called “Programs and Features” and is buried among a lot of other shiny new icons in the Control Panel.
It’s a bit like learning to drive a new car, but worse, since the pedals and the gear lever have all moved around.
The much-vaunted “Aero Glass” user interface requires more graphics power than most current business PCs are likely to have, and is (in our opinion) deeply underwhelming. Fortunately, you don’t have to enable it in order to run Vista quite happily. However, it is advisable to have 1Gb or more of RAM.
Is it Worth Upgrading?
Since you will probably need to upgrade exisitng PCs’ hardware to run Vista, our general recommendation would be NOT to upgrade. If you MUST upgrade an existing PC for any reason we would recommend a clean install rather than an in- place upgrade. This will minimise problems caused by incompatibilities with existing installed programs.
As mentioned previously, we would suggest a minimum of 1Gb RAM, and a processor rated at 2GHz or better.
Should We Avoid it?
There are many programs that have incompatibilities, to a greater or lesser extent, with Vista. Many manufacturers approach to this is not to produce a free patch, but offer a paid-for upgrade to the next version. Two such examples are Adobe Photoshop Elements V4, and CyberLink PowerDVD V6.
Other problems that have been reported involve anti-virus and security products; in fact anything that needs to get close to the operating system.
As well as programs, there are many pieces of hardware that (so far) will not work with Vista. These include things like Bluetooth dongles, Webcams, and older printers. Whether there will ever be Vista compatible drivers for these remains to be seen.
Some optical drives also need firmware updates for Vista. In these cases Vista reports discs as being blank when they aren’t.
So if you adopt Vista, be prepared for some programs and devices to be inoperable. Naturally this will get better as time goes by – and you may remember that when XP was introduced there were some problems with device drivers!
Consequently, if you can avoid Vista for about 6 months (or until the first Service Pack is released!) then do so.
I Still Want it Now!
If you still want to get Vista we strongly recommend that you get it pre- installed on a new PC, which will minimise any driver and hardware compatibility problems – and don’t settle for less than 1Gb of RAM.
Which Version?
Avoid the Home Basic and Home Premium versions for business use. Specify the Business Edition. The Ultimate Edition is overpriced and is a hybrid of the Business and Home Premium versions. Think of it as a Media Centre that can join a domain (and avoid it unless you have a domain controller and network at home).
Vista can be installed as a 32-bit or a 64-bit operating system. All the problems with driver and device incompatibility that exist with the 32-bit version exist in Spades with the 64-bit, which will only allow you to install signed 64-bit drivers for your hardware. These can be scarce.
Tags: upgrade, vista, windows, windows xp