This is one of the more retarded threads I've ever seen.
Lots of hear'say and rumour mongering from people who quite frankly don't use Vista.
Don't bullcrap about using it, because frankly if you're experiencing major issues then you've obviously done dumbass things yourself.
Vista is 100% compatible with legacy WDM (Windows 2000/XP) Drivers for everything except graphics and processors. As these aspects were completely rebuilt in a way that is incompatible.
When installing new hardware, on a default set-up it will ask you "do you want Windows to search for new drivers automatically?"; if you click on this then it will search on the online database. Some will then install from Microsoft Reference, if there is no Reference driver then it will provide you with a link to the website for that hardware component.
Networking is a breeze, why? Because it's a simple case of plug-in, install drivers (WinXP in most cases) then watch as Vista automatically sets everything up for you. Don't try to BS me saying it doesn't work that way out of the box, because I've recently installed Vista on 4machines for family members within the last week.. that doesn't use the "installer upgrades" that you can select. This is from release Retail DVD (February 2007).
Belkin, Linksys, and Netgear USB WiFi Adapters, not only detected but installed their drivers automatically (Wireless G 54Mbps) for all except the Belkin one. The drivers for that XP v4, installed and run without issue.. this is connecting to a Linksys and Belkin router/hub.
Given somewhere in the region of 90% of all WiFi hardware is from those three manufacturers and work with their reference drivers, and Vista will detect this fact and recommend them.
What's more is while yes, Vista has less reference drivers for hardware than XP.. the fact it detects the driver requirements and can run XP drivers this is a completely moot issue.
Performance wise. My primary system has been running Vista since Beta 2 (August 2006) and has only been upgraded in February to retail Ultimate. I've not had to reinstall due to issues since.
There has been no performance degredation, in-fact the complete opposite. The system will boot to login within 10seconds (15-60sec if an update has to be configured), loading my user account and note that this also has to load quite a huge amount of services on boot; like Steam, LiveOneCare, BitTorrent (DNA), Messenger, AOL (Gateway Service), Bonjour, Apple Quicklaunch, ReadyBoost, SpeedCache, IIS7, Visual Studio Developer Environment, XDK Developer Environment, Adobe Quicklaunch, Maya/Renderman Render Server, Media Center Background, Live for Windows Games, Media Player QuickLoad, Alcohol 52% DVD-Emulator.
I'm probably missing something, but that's a fairly extreme boot load compared to most peoples systems. Most of which is quite resource heavy.
Yet surprising unlike the Windows XP (just installed) boot time of 5minutes, it loads in under a minute EVERYTHING. Oh and just to reiterate this is after ONE YEAR, still getting decent performance.
And don't think this is because I'm running it one some super charged system. This system current hardware specs is:
Athlon64 X2 3800+ (recently upgraded from Semperon 2800+, and oddly enough very very little performance enhancement)
1GB DDR2 667MHz Memory
GeForce 6100 (on-board 256MB dedicated memory, further 128MB shared)
Western Digital 250GB SATAII (3.0Gb/s)
It's hardly what you'd call a "power house" computer, and in-fact would cost people under £200 to build.
Performance wise, this system is also kept upto date regularly (daily check); while it originally wasn't exactly impressive needing slightly extra resources over XP to perform the same, this has dropped to about equal. This said Service Pack 1, SERIOUSLY improves this. It now runs on the whole a damn sight quicker than XP which has been the fastest gaming Windows to-date.
As for program compatibility, game-wise the only ones I've had problems with are OpenGL games that search for specific EXT_ARB aspects. Due to Vista OpenGL 2.1 driver only supports basic, so without a seperate ICD (like what graphics drivers should come with) itdoesn't detect that it can do things.
Good example is Prenumbre doesn't run, simply because it forces specific extensions to say they're available via OGL rather than via the driver. Doom 3 however which uses much more complex extensions runs just fine.
Desktop Applications and DirectX games, I've not had a single one fail to load in months. There are a few that still need compatibility settings, but most I've found require me to limit them to a single processor (core).
Put simply, if you want to use Vista.. ignore what people claim about it. It is by far the best Windows to date, with far more back compatibility than ever. (Anyone remember the issues moving from Win9x OS to WinNT5 (2000/XP) OS? No, well then try some older programs.. because compatibility was close to nil back with that one.)
If you're going to piss about with the settings always make sure you know what you're doing. Just leave it with default setup and in general you won't get the stupid issues others do.
