Loaded her up yesterday, and what a beautiful piece of kit it is - and already found some very useful features - direct copying of data to DVD with a click of a button in Explorer and lots of other things too.... it seems they have incorporated a lot of functionality that you used to have to use extra software for.

I'm sure there are those that will also just avoid Bills products, but so far, I for one am impressed.

Office 2007 has some great new features too.... I love the way that you get a small window pop up when an email arrives with the first few lines shown, you can then choose to delete, ignore or open even when using other programmes - very nice.....

jasper,
I'm glad you are happy but I for one won't be going near it due to the ridiculous license terms Microsoft have attached to the product. Have you read the EULA (End User Licence Agreement)?

Here's a taste from one of numerous articles on the subject:

http://www.theregister.com/2006/11/22/vista_eula_worries/

Good luck!
Craig.

That may all be very interesting - but I can't see how it will affect me and my single home PC...... maybe I'm being niave .....

Jasper,
It might not but I would object to paying for something (assuming you have paid for it) and then be forced to accept a licence agreement which is biased 99.9999999% in favour of the vendor and which expressly denies you rights which any reasonable person would expect to have to use the product lawfully as intended without hindrance. In fact, many of the terms of the EULA actually break the law in some countries and even some states of America.

Crazy stuff and IMHO Microsoft are treating their customers with utter contempt which is why I for one will absolutely not be using Vista.

Sorry for the rant...
Craig.

got any sexy screenshots so we can all see how wonderful it is jaspy?

Ned.

I have an 'evaluation copy' so no intention of paying for it, I just paid of an OEM XP with my home PC.... £60 was all I was willing tp pay to Bill

I totally understand what you're talking about - and I do think that Microsoft have way too much power and abuse it - yada yada yada - but if it works well then I'm still gonna use it, sad but true

that article (if its the one i'm thinking about it, haven't got time to read it) is out of date. MS changed its mind a bit about the EULA - although its still a little draconian, no where near as bad.

quote:

---

Originally posted by ned
got any sexy screenshots so we can all see how wonderful it is jaspy?

Ned.

---

print screen button on your keyboard then paste into art programme, reduce size and upload.

shimpel

Cheers mate - talking of 'shimpel' - off to see the new Bond Film tonight - should be a good one from what I hear

seen it, you shouldn't be disappointed.

Ned.

quote:

---

Originally posted by MikeR
that article (if its the one i'm thinking about it, haven't got time to read it) is out of date. MS changed its mind a bit about the EULA - although its still a little draconian, no where near as bad.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by iank

quote:

---

Originally posted by MikeR[/i

p.s. Jasper - the 'evaluation copy' will almost certainly stop working soon after the official launch.
The 'new improved' remote activation stuff they put in checks in periodically with M$ not just when you change hardware.

---

Be interesting to see if it does, apparently it shouldn't do with what I've done, the offical end time is May07, so I've a minimum of 6 moths, and probably longer .....

---

David Jenkins - 24/11/06 at 04:59 PM

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jasper
I've a minimum of 6 moths,

---

Mothballs are quite effective... or a bright light...

---

Jasper - 24/11/06 at 06:32 PM

Here you go .....
Rescued attachment Project1.jpg

---

Noodle - 24/11/06 at 06:44 PM

Looks very Linuxy-KDEey with the semi-transparent menus.

Has anyone had a look at XGL yet? Looks groovy. (And it's free)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xgl


http://www .novell.com/products/desktop/features/xgl/

---

craig1410 - 24/11/06 at 09:20 PM

Yeah XGL is what Vista might have been if Microsoft hadn't cut out most of the innovative stuff out.

Here is Vista:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uszzfAybmsI

Here is XGL:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cz_2vKq5cZk

Make sure you watch the XGL video beyond the 2m20s mark as this is where it gets really "cool". Sorry I hate using that word but it is the only word which I can think of to describe it! BTW, this was done on a low end nVidia card described as a $20 video card.

Which one would you say is a step forward and which is a bl00dy great leap forward???

Cheers,
Craig.

ps. It's well worth reading some of the comments in this site which actually linked me to the above videos.
http://www.dotavery.com/blog/archive/2006/09/06/20016.aspx


[Edited on 24/11/2006 by craig1410]

---

Jasper - 24/11/06 at 11:53 PM

It does look great - that's for sure, but will it run games and other Windows based software? My home PC is basically an entertainment PC, everything else is done on my work PC.....

---

Noodle - 25/11/06 at 10:36 AM

It'll run some games through Cedega, but it's by no means a perfect solution - and of course there's MythTV for TV stuff.

They're a bit of a pain to setup, but I can run Dreamweaver and various other programs through Wine. All are a bit fiddly to be honest and I wouldn't necessarily recommend them.

It depends how much of a pervert you are. Some of us actually enjoy doing that stuff. Isn't that why we're building our own cars?

Thanks for the link Craig, that YouTube video actually had my wife interested - it was that good!

Neil.

---

Jasper - 25/11/06 at 10:57 AM

I like a bit of 'setting' up and finding out new things - but really I just want it to work and do what I need it to do ....

---

Noodle - 25/11/06 at 11:37 AM

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jasper
I like a bit of 'setting' up and finding out new things - but really I just want it to work and do what I need it to do ....

---

Fair enough.

---

craig1410 - 25/11/06 at 12:50 PM

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jasper
I like a bit of 'setting' up and finding out new things - but really I just want it to work and do what I need it to do ....

---

I can't argue with that...

Noodle is right about Linux still being a bit fiddly at times but there are some distributions out there which are geared towards the less experienced (from a Linux persp.) user. I use Fedora Linux which is more of a full-fat enthusiasts distribution but even it is dead easy to set up and there is a wealth of information available to help you if you get stuck.

As for games, to be honest that is all I use Windows XP for these days and I just dual-boot into Windows for the odd racing sim or game of Counter-Strike. I use Fedora for everything else. In many ways I might as well get an X-Box as it is just a cut-down PC with a cut-down version of windows for playing games. I fancy a PS3 though as they are way more advanced technically.

In general though, if someone wants a computer which "just works" and is low maintenance with high reliability and immune from 99% of the security problems which Windows suffers from then I would recommend an Apple Mac! They are reasonably priced these days and are Intel based. I don't have one myself yet but I can say with 80% certainty that my next PC will be a Mac. You can even dual-boot them into Windows XP to play any games which you simply can't live without.

Anyway, good luck with Vista - I hope it isn't as bad as some of the analysts have recently been suggesting.
Craig.

---

Noodle - 25/11/06 at 03:02 PM

I was so inspired by this thread that I installed XGL on my Ubuntu laptop partition while the kids were having lunch.

It's very good. Most amusing. I recommend it!

Cheers,

Neil.

---

craig1410 - 26/11/06 at 04:52 PM

Noodle,
Same here, I ended up doing a fresh install of Fedora Core 6 onto my main desktop. It's taken me a while to do the required backups and installation and post-installation setup but I'm nearly there now. I could have just done an upgrade but I wanted a clean slate this time. I have just this minute completed the setup and now have wibbly wobbly windows and spinning cubes. I can confirm that it runs very smoothly even on what is now an old PC (Athlon 1.4G/1GB RAM/nV 5600FX graphics)

Most impressive!
Craig.

---