MS Vista Beta 2

[OneWorld22]

I've been using it since Saturday last.

Build 5384

It's pretty good, but is it power hungry...It's taken me to this time to fully get everything up to speed, had to take out.re-install the sound cards, get new Beta drivers from ATI etc etc

Everything seems to work fine, media files, Photo's, dcuments, MS Office still OK....

It's pretty, very Mac like graphics. And it comes with Widgets. 3-D browsing enabled with multiple folders open.

But get past the pretty graphics and it's the same ol Windows, nothing really that stand outs and I read now that Mcafee have slated it for it's poor security so it looks like a haven for virus writers once again. And my bloody Zone Alarm doesn't work!

Anyone else trying it??

[Cheerio]

My troublemaker is using the Vista shell on XP, and it looks like a OSX clone to me!

[None of the above]

Installed it a couple of weeks ago on a spare hard drive (and plugged in when required) which was never going to be the most practical of methods.
Just this evening I've tidied up arrangements by partitioning (without tears!) the C drive with XP at one end and Vista at the other.
It took a woefully long time to install, especially with the PCcillin anti-virus and Win updates being such substantial downloads. In all honesty despite being above minimum spec, I don't think that this machine is really up to the job. It will be easier to use under the new arrangements so I'll be able to form a considered view over the next few days. First impressions are that it's SLOW.

[ExSimGuy]

Sounds like the old story "Designed for Windoze XP" on computers with only 256M of RAM. First thing you do is to upgrade to 512, and then (if you like to have several apps running at the same time) to even more!

So what is the "quoted minimum" for Vista (not that I'm likely to upgrade my Acer with a 1.6G Centrino and 1.2GB just at the moment ;) )

[Gonzo]

I think MS' take on the min spec for a Vista PC is 800MHz, 512MB, SVGA 800x600, 20GB HD and a CD-ROM.

Anyone going to try the Beta with that lot then??? :p

[Saab Dastard]

Setting a new standard in ambiguity, MS has in effect got 2 x minimum specs for Vista.

There is the minimum spec to get it on to the PC and drag itself into existence and be able to do basic tasks. There is effectively a second minimum spec. to be able to use the "all-singing, all-dancing" Vista GUI, with translucency and errr... other essential stuff.

To be able to then do anything productive while supporting this feast of eye-candy one needs an even more powerful processor / graphics card and more RAM and bigger hard disk.

Or a Mac (apparently). ;)

Someone please tell me I've got it all wrong.

SD

[ExSimGuy]

I think MS' take on the min spec for a Vista PC is 800MHz, 512MB, SVGA 800x600, 20GB HD and a CD-ROM.
I think I'd be reluctant to even try XP on that spec! - More suited to good old 98R2 :eek:

[IO540]

One Q re IE7: does it print what you see on screen?

I recall Firefox has such a feature; an absolutely amazing feat of programming (not!) which has eluded micro$oft for all those years.

The result is that most web pages print with the RH edge cut off, although there is a subtle way around this which can be implemented in the website design; something to do with the width of the widest graphic I think...

[OneWorld22]

Well my PC is a 3.0GHZ PIV, 2GB Ram, ATI Radeon 9800 graphics card.

And my system is wheezing with the Beta.

Takes an age to come on even from hibernation. Major driver issues etc

Put it this way, I ordered an iMac this morning!

[None of the above]

I've removed Vista from my system this morning (it occupied approx 50% of my C drive) and I don't think I'll be bothering with it again for the time being.
The CPU is an AMD Sempron 2800+ with 1,024mb of RAM so perhaps I had unrealistic expectations, but it was very slow.
It's also on a spare HDD, so if I get (very) bored I might plug that in and have a tinker............... on the other hand I might format it and install Ubuntu Linux instead!

Edit: More accurately, the Vista partition (not the OS itself) occupied approx 50% of my C drive

[OneWorld22]

I only gave it a try because I'm getting a mac!

Even starting up from hibernation now takes an age.....

MS are in trouble on this, their rollout date is being pushed back all the time, even Gates wouldn't commit to a January date...There must be major problems with it.