Re: Vista - Why so many flavors?
 

I also have to agree with Cory on that. All computers are just as reliable as the next, except for Gateway(brand new and has bad cd drive, you have to slam it to close it). It just depends on how people take care of it. A lot of people buy Dells, so chances are there will be a higher number of people with problems. I have a Dell that my dad got from work for free, they were upgrading, and it is a P3. I'm not sure what year though, but it still works great. I also have a 2001 Sony laptop, only problem was the floppy drive and warranty covered it, so I'm happy. The only thing I upgraded was hard disk for more storage. Few of my friends have gotten HPs and they love them. I have a custom built PC that I put about $1000 total into now, I recently upgraded the PSU to 650W because hot weather melted the old 500W.

But back to the OS. I have been a PC guy, and I'm not really a fan of Vista. I was thinking about getting a Sony SZ laptop as my next computer, but the more I work with Vista, the more I hate it. Probably because I used it mostly on the team laptop, which is a Gateway *cough*. Using Vista on my friends' HPs though, I didn't really have a problem, just takes some getting used to. Hanging around the Apple Store more though, I'm beginning to consider a Macbook or Macbook Pro and doing bootcamp.

Re: Vista - Why so many flavors?
 

You see more Dells needing repairs because of the numbers that Dell sells. I see the same thing as a PC tech.
As for different brands, all PCs are made in China anyway and there isn't as much difference between brands as people think. Sure, a home-built PC is going to suit your needs best, but does it have someone a phone call away to help you with problems? That's the reason I stopped building PCs for people.

Vista has compatibility problems for a good reason. Programs can't modify the Vista kernel as easily as they could with XP. That means programs can't mess things up like they used to (are you listening Symantec?), which creates a more stable system. Hardware drivers have to be signed by Microsoft meaning that no name companies can't make a dirt cheap device, pound out a driver, make a quick buck and disappear.

The security in Vista far out weighs it negatives for most users. Of you PC techs out there, how many Vista machines have you seen with spyware and trojans like XP gets?

Anyway, the point of this thread has nothing to do with hardware, just Vista. Vista doesn't fry PCs. Vista doesn't get corrupted like XP does.
If you're buying a new machine, get Vista.

Re: Vista - Why so many flavors?
 

You have had good experience with Dell service, I have only had the worst, maybe their service has changed since then but my experience with dell was them asking for 300 dollars to pay for a new motherboard to correct the problem of a on-board network card not working properly, all that was needed was a driver (the user deleted it by accident). This was not a one time occurrence, this happened with various components inside the machine. As for my comment about Sony, older models are great, I cant argue with that, however the newer models have a very bad habit of overheating and shutting down constantly.

Believe me I have sampled every version of vista on my test machine (core 2 duo 6700, asus sli mobo, 512 mb nvidia video card, 4 gigs of ram) Vista crashes more than XP, has more system errors than XP, and more hdd read-write errors than XP.

I do have to say though, the blue screen of death is prettier :-)

Re: Vista - Why so many flavors?
 

Well, I have a MacBook Pro (Santa Rosa 2.4) and I got vista running on my computer via BootCamp. I think it actually runs Vista better on the MBP than on some other PC laptops.

As for 'why so many flavors' I really have no idea. I like Mac OSX because there's only one version that has everything.

http://www.apple.com/getamac/ads/

View the "Choose a Vista". It's pretty funny.

Re: Vista - Why so many flavors?
 

Anyone considering purchasing a new computer should seriously consider an Apple computer running Parallels Desktop for Mac 3.

With that, you can now run intensive 3D graphics programs and games for Windows at practically native speeds on your Apple computer. So you really can run Inventor through Parallels while booted into Mac OS X. (With Parallels, you can run Windows apps without having to reboot into Windows.)

Purchasing an Apple computer nowadays is not as "locking in" as what it used to be back in the day. Now they are just as flexible - OS and software wise - as any other manufacturer (like HP, Toshiba, Dell, Sony, etc.), but have the added bonus of the Mac OS X operating system and iLife software suite. (Plus Apple has great customer service.)

Re: Vista - Why so many flavors?
 

I agree. I have had a hp laptop in the past and now i have a dell. I have known people with gateways that have complained about the customer service they got when they called. In my own experience with HP I have never had a problem solved with their customer service that was quicker then an hour! Dell has quick and speedy customer service, and actually know what they are talking about

Re: Vista - Why so many flavors?
 

I bought a Dell Laptop in mid-May. The reasoning was because I was so impressed with the laptops my work purchased for their size, weight, feel, and speed that I went to Dell's website and configured one with a better processor/memory/etc for home use. (Core2 Duo T7300 + 2GB RAM) I also got Vista Premium since there was a nice promotion on the website at the time.

The only thing that's a pain in the butt is the version of Solidworks that Battlefield HS uses doesn't work on Vista, so if I want to CAD I have to tote my work and home laptop around since the work laptop has limited (firewalled, proxied, etc) internet access. But once that's settled most everything's fine:

**The internet still runs fine with Firefox.
**The start->type program name->it runs is pretty cool; it keeps you from searching through endless start menu folders
**Eclipse still runs fine
**Matlab R14 still runs fine
**CORBA ORBs setup via Java still run fine for both Server and Client (Premium required for advanced user and port services & settings)
**Office 2007 is TONS better than office 2003, it's much more intuitive and Excel has some really neat (albeit OOXML that's under contraversy atm) new features for formatting and units and 3D surfaces (which makes what I was doing in Matlab semi-obsolete but easier for others to follow)

Some games don't work (Descent II port & Simcity 4) but I also have a desktop with WinXP for those.

My take on Vista: it will be just as good as any other MS OS in a year or two, just like every other MS OS that came before it. I chose to get it now so that I'm not paying for XP now + and upgrade in a year. I can deal with the shortcomings for now, as can most people.

Re: Vista - Why so many flavors?
 

I don't see Vista listed on the list of supported operating systems for Inventor:
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=8410923
On the other hand, they don't officially mention XP Home Edition, and it runs fine.

On hardware problems: some people will have them, some people won't. It really isn't fair to judge the OS's hardware autodetection based on trying it on one machine. The same is true of Linux - sometimes hardware works out of the box, sometimes it doesn't. Apple gets off easy, since they control the hardware (although not all of the peripherals).

Likewise, "new program bugs" will cause problems for some, but not everyone. Large businesses can't afford to take that risk, but many individuals can.

I'm not a mac person, but I found this pretty humorous:
http://news.com.com/1606-2-6190253.html

Re: Vista - Why so many flavors?
 

I Bought a Toshiba laptop a couple of months ago becuase my video card destroyed my mother board on my old desk top. It was one of the Toshiba Satalite series and it came with Vista home premium.

I haven't actually found any problems with it so far that I can't live with. I can run Solidworks 2006 (after a little fidling), and some other CAD-like programs that I use and only one game hasn't worked beautifully, DOD (which I think is actually my video driver). The only thing I don't like is all the extras that Toshiba installed that I don't use and think clutter my start menu.

Plus its so much prittier than XP :p

Re: Vista - Why so many flavors?
 

Thanks for all the advice.....

I understand that when Vista came out it lacked support for serial ports. Is that the case?

Any USB to serial problems?

Re: Vista - Why so many flavors?
 

Nope... I have a USB to Serial adapter for my laptop and it works just fine. I can program the robot controllers, as well as program my BOE-bot without any issues.

Re: Vista - Why so many flavors?
 

Port addressing and communications works perfectly, Microsoft used less components of NT in Vista however they kept the the same component that runs ports,etc.....