Have to agree. Have spent hours online, fiquring out how to turn off all the "enhancements" that Vista supposedly has.

XP I find is fine. Linux I just cannot warm to, always seems too technical to install or update software on it.

The laptop I use came with Vista pre-installed and I don't see any reason to switch back to XP, so that's a roundabout "yes" answer, I guess.

Although at the same time, I still use an XP machine on occasion and don't see any great need or point in updating that.

Windows in general is still my least favourite of the operating systems I use regularly (the others being OS-X on the desktop and Kubuntu duel-booted on the laptop). I don't think Vista in particular has done much to sway that opinion in either direction.

Because when I first arrived in Ireland I had limited cash, I was trying to hold off buying a PC until I really needed it. For an IT person 2-3 months was a long time to wait.

I really wanted to save for a Macbook, but I just couldn't wait and my girlfriend wanted a PC and kinda edged me into buying a "normal" laptop a Toshiba with Vista pre-installed.

At first I was like this is ok, but it didn't take long before I started to really hate it. Pretty much for the same reasons everyone else has stated, but Toshiba have this annoying habbit of installing their own software on your machine. The software is so buddy and frustrating to use I disabled it all from starting up with my machine.

I don't understand why the control panel in Vista was changed so much, its stupid and unneccessary. I installed Ubuntu on a previous machine and really liked it, if Ubuntu could easily run Adobe Software there would be no second guessing I'd switch right now, but unfortunately I need photoshop, illustrator, dreamweaver (well I could live without this one).

So for me, as soon as possible I'm going to buy a Macbook I'm so sick of Microsoft and rubbish bloated software.

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I'm using Vista on my primary gaming (and coding) machine and I love it. Its clean and intuitive. Its shiney and overall nice to use. I could go on.

Of course, I've made a few changes to make my experience better. Like turning off Superfetch, etc. However most users should leave most of these things on because for normal every day tasks, they help alot.

Sure the changes (I read control panel earlier) are annoying but you get used to them very quickly and after thinking about them - they make sense. Maybe not to an IT pro user like most of us but to an idiot user like say my mother, she can do more with Vista then she ever could with XP.

Vista is a fine OS.

I've read reports of first-time PC users being perfectly happy with Vista alright. More so than first-time XP users. It's a friendlier OS.

Plus, if you want to, things like the control panel and the (woeful) new start menu can be switched back to 'Classic' fairly easily. I know I have.

But things that really do bother me about the Vista 'experience' : they've taken the menu bar out of the Microsoft applications and replaced it with.. eh.. nothing at all. Wtf? Luckily I don't use too many MS applications though.

And, yes, the constant (!) stop-everything-and-pay-attention-to-me pop-up warnings. I've really just stopped reading them at this stage... the next one could be asking me "Do you really want to start a nuclear war?" "Really?" "Honestly, no fooling? Launch the nukes?" and I still wouldn't pay any attention because they've effectively cried wolf so many times already.

But again, that's because we're power users. We open alot of admin type windows... Your average joe wouldn't do a fifth of the stuff we do. So for them. Its a once a week occurance(if that) and causes them to pause and take a look at what they're doing.

Granted for us it sucks. I wish it was more modular, i.e. you could set yourself as a superuser and only get notified of special things by the UAC system, rather than making IT pros turn it off altogether. That'd be nice.

my major issue with the pop up security wrt non power users is when it comes to installing applications, which some non power users USED to do when on XP, but a security warning on VISTA usually means ...... oh i dont understand, i better call in a pro .... and really it's just microsoft protecting themselves against lawsuits or something ....

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While that all sounds reasonable enough, I also spend quite a bit of time using OS-X and can't remember the last time I was bothered with an ugly sound and focus-stealing pop-up. It's a design flaw imho.

As I use a MacBook as my primary laptop, I use OS X all the time. and I get a login box any time I try to install something or do an admin task where I've locked the settings. So it does a very very similar thing.

I'm not saying Vista's UAC is perfect. I'm just saying that it is very useful for non-technical people so that they take a better interest in what they are installing etc.

Have been running vista for 2 weeks now. My laptop is duo core 2.4ghz, 4 gigs of ram.

As much as I like the look and feel, I've had 4 BSOD's already which worries me quite a lot. Each one was different... , so I'm no close to finding out if there is anything serious wrong with my machine.

I thought i'd hate the new start menu, but since I'm a "typer" as opposed to a "clicker", I actually love the way you can type the program you are looking to run and it will pop up... sad I know!

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