Vista Service Pack 1

A test drive preview here

Bah, another boring never-ending-Windows-upgrade-debate. I don't even bother reading them anymore.

Apple releases OSX not locked to Macs -> Windows finally ends its miserable life; Microsoft moves over to unstable game consoles, keyboards and robots, where they (shouldn't) belong.
And there will be much rejoicing.

Anyone else expecting that one?

I've just about finished cramming XP and Vista onto my laptop (XP still isn't happy about me enabling SLI though). Irritatingly, I got no restore disc with my laptop. I never intended to do a restore anyway, but maybe I would have liked a Vista disc because the one I downloaded (fully intending to enter the license code printed on the sticker on the bottom of the unit) decided not to let me choose which edition to install.

Someone (un)helpfully slipstreamed a license code for Ultimate into the disc. I will, at some undertmined future point, install from a 'clean' ISO of Vista and use my license. This may well happen just after I install SP1, because it's possible I will get WGA nagging me about being a dodgy pirate.

I'm off now to install Kubuntu on the third partition I had the foresight to create when I wiped this thing clean last week.

Pickles: No if apple had to support for more than 6 configurations, their OS would fail miserably ^10 or worse.

Apple supports a few dozen configurations with their.
MS a few million configurations ... thats not a small difference, thats like day and night.

If you think this is crap then think about why most users still uninstall linux again after they don't get their hardware working.

Vinyl: Careful you dont resize that Windows partition with Ubuntu's installer!
I made the mistake, and it nuked Vista. You can only use the strange puzzle that is Vista's own built in partitioner, because Microsoft changed their file system just enough to break all the old partitioners. (You will see what I mean by "puzzle" shortly).

I do realize that Apple has very few pieces of hardware to support. It's a nice dream, though :P

When I wiped the machine, I made four partitions. Three primary 34GB (fit on maximum 8 blank DVD's for backup) and one extended+logical taking up the rest (of 250GB).

XP is on the first. Vista is on the second. Kubuntu is installing now onto a 32GB root + 2GB swap which replaced the third partition.

GRUB is now going to be a pain in the ass until I figure out how to configure it to let me triple-boot. Hope I won't have Vista's bootloader being a pain in the ass as well, but I expect it will be. *sigh*

Quite surprised Kubuntu picked up all the hardware in this thing, especially the wireless networking and bluetooth. Even sound. Much better than Windows. Vista wouldn't even work without me supplying SATA drivers. It installed, but BSOD'ed on boot.

Vista is still cack and slow compared to XP (shockingly so, my jaw was on the floor when I started using XP on this thing). Maybe the service pack will resolve some problems, but I doubt it. It took XP to get to SP2 before it got good, maybe the same applies to Vista.

Oh how I wish I could dump Windows and got Linux native :(

Ubuntu is certainly getting dangerous (to windows that is)

For everyone else, its great :)

Those performance stats are crappy. Gotta admit my partner's Vista laptop is a bit sluggish depsite the Core 2 Duo CPU and 2Gig RAM and Big HD and good video card I made sure it had.

Mind you my XP is so bogged down with crap after 3 years no re-install it needs cleaning out too...

It's easy to create a OS when your hardware choice is almost as strict as a gaming console... Apple couldn't unlock MacOS even if they wanted to.

I think it'll be more like, "Wal-Mart starts selling sub-$200 desktop systems with Ubuntu as the bundled OS. The $200 computers fly off the shelves and introduce a whole slew of entry-level users to the new generation of Linux desktops and free/affordable productivity software."

Oh, wait, that's happening right now.

Edit:


Lol, I'm lucky if I manage to go ninety days without finding an excuse to do a fresh install. I've called Microsoft so many times to activate Windows XP, I think they finally made a special exception for me on their validation server, because now it lets me do it automatically every time. As I type this, I am plotting to wipe this disk for partitioning so I can go back to multi-booting Windows and my favorite flavors of Linux. Windows install off the starboard bow!

SpaceAce

haha :-) Thing is a reinstall with all the drivers and apps and Internet settings takes a whole day and is SOOO tedious, I can't bring myself to do it.

I got lucky! After nosing around under "My Computer", I discovered an empty 250GB hard drive (I have a lot of hard drives in this machine.) So, I was able to install Linux without having to wreck my Windows installation. I am typing this through Firefox under Ubuntu. I am very, very impressed with this latest incarnation of Ubuntu. If I can get my one or two unavoidably Windows-based applications running with Wine or Crossover Desktop, I may never boot into Windows, again. I think Ubuntu has a chance of becoming a legitimate threat in the OS market.

SpaceAce

I have partition magic if I change my mind on partitioning.

Haven't reinstalled my Windows never more than once on any system between "bought" and "sold" (I normally sell my notebooks after 2 years again with 1 year of remaining waranty), which means that I do it as often as my collegue with his PowerBook and OSX 10.4 :)

And I think Ubuntu is nice ... but compared to the attempts of Mandriva and XandrOS, it is just a "click your OS" like any other Linux.

If you want a full windows replacement as regular home users, I highly suggest having a look at those two.

I actually own Xandros and I definitely like this Ubuntu release (7.10) better. Mandriva I am not familiar with, but I have used just about every other reasonably well-known Linux distribution aimed at a desktop environment. I even used SuSE Linux exclusively for at least a year, and as my primary OS for several more. I think the current Ubuntu is the best I've seen. This is coming from someone who uninstalled his last Ubuntu distribution with disgust and waited for more than a major version to go by before trying it, again.

I guess the danger is that a popular desktop Linux will bloat its way up to a Windows-style monstrosity, but for now, I am just really happy to see a flashy, full-featured, hands-off-everything-installs-itself Linux making headway.

Edit: I just realized I might have sounded a little bit down on Xandros. I'm editing to add that Xandros is a quality product, I just think the latest Ubuntu is significantly better.

Edit the second: Where the hell does that "n" keep coming from? Ubuntu. Ubuntu. Ubuntu. Ubuntu.

SpaceAce

Kubuntu (Ubuntu with KDE) is nice. It's lacking the eye-candy of mainstream Ubuntu, but I only like eye-candy that aids productivity.

I shall look forward to an official KDE4+Ubuntu release. Eye candy aplenty and with fewer resources than KDE3.

I have heard that this new service pack fixs quite a lot of issues, although from this article it's clearly not that great.

Here's a top quote though:-

"A recent InformationWeek survey found that 30% of businesses have no plans to upgrade their computers to Vista -- ever."

Interesting read. I was thinking of upgrading but it seems I don't have any advantages in doing so.

hopefully i'll get vista + Xp running nicely together tonight. Here's hoping.

Vista with 2GB is a lot nicer experience than Vista with 1GB. It may not affect benchmwarking but it does very much affect the responsiveness of the OS when performing some common tasks. It also means it doesn't lag horrendously when exiting games.

It still does lag, but it doesn't do it so much that you feel like poking your eyes out with rusty spoons.

XP with 2GB is an absolute dream. Much like having an Amiga with 16MB of FastRAM, back in the day ;)

**EDIT** I should add, I fired up my desktop system (1GB) the other day and booted into Vista. It was a complete ball-ache. I hated and despised it and all I was doing was looking a ta few web pages whilst installing various OS'es on my laptop (and retrieving some of my registration codes). Switching back to the laptop (2GB) was an absolute relief!