Well, a few months have passed since the introduction of Vista and the bickering continues in a way reminiscent of pub arguments between rival BMW and Mercedes owners. Must of the rhetoric tends to try and vindicate either a purchase decision or a reason to retain XP. Luckily, MS made it simple to make comparison by integrating duel-boot as an install option.
For most of us with Vista-Compatible hardware our initial struggles centred upon the availability of drivers. That solved, and with a fully functional set of components and peripherals, the real job of comparison could begin.
First impressions of Vista are largely influenced by the whiz-bang Aveo interface which many agree looks great. However, a quick check of available resources showed this came at a price, and most of my available free ram was consumed before even venturing into a real application. So, Mr Dealer, please put another pair of DDR/667 chips into the shipment comprising my new scanner. Oh, forgot to mention ? just about ever user with a scanner over two years old is faced with this problem (no compatible drivers). So, now we have Vista+Scanner+Memory as basic expenditure.
With all the new bits installed I can now astound my friends with continual on-screen display of the weather, time zones in two continents, exchange rate and so much more. But do I need it? Despite the visual additions, my patience is wearing thin with the constant requests for confirmation with every move, change or installation. I can?t even save to the same ?My Documents? folders created under XP, nor can I seem to set up the permissions to do so. Already I have been forced into two separate locations for my saved files on Vista and XP, and I?m losing track.
Anyway, not to be discouraged, I go in search of the real improvements to my productivity that must surely be just a keystroke away. Firing up the new mail system shows little difference to Outlook express, but why can?t my contact list be permanently displayed as with XP? Previously I become rather used to seeing my contacts and Messenger contacts together with their status displayed in the lower LH pane. No longer is this possible, so minus another point or two.
Next step ? fire up IE7 with all my imported links and soon discover that I can?t download files anymore with the default protected settings. Some sites won?t even load. So, switch off the offending filters and now I have the same functionality as IE7 under XP. No improvement. Minus another point for the hassle as for MS expecting me to be able to live my life with the default settings.
Then, without warning, Vista proudly announces my product is not activated and I have three days to go before it will implode into a little heap of grey dust. Finally, after a brief discussion with a very nice person somewhere in India I am again activated. No explanation however, and the only hardware change since I first activated was the extra memory and scanner.
At this stage I am still convinced that my perseverance will pay off in the medium term. Install Office 2007, no problem. Struggle to find out how to open and print. BIG PROBLEM! (still, in hindsight I understand why Moses spent so ling in the wilderness ? he didn?t ask directions either). Funny how that big round button was so obvious after I pushed it for the first time.
Now I?m liking Office ? it?s intuitive and powerful. Install my Adobe Acrobat 6 Professional. Sorry, not compatible. Arrange Demo of version 8. Mostly compatible, but not entirely happy either. I discover very soon that the files I spent the weekend toiling over could not be read by my earlier version at my office. Yes, I know there is a patch, and Office 2007 has compatibility mode, but that did not help the 08:00 Monday morning presentation to the VP?.
Two months down the track and I think I?m getting the hang of it all. Only two areas to test out. Video capture/edit and games. Well, surprise surprise, my Pinnacle Studio 9 is not Vista compatible. Neither is my Sony Vegas. Connect up the camera and try to capture using Nero?s Vista-compatible editor. What a disaster ? crackling sound corruption. I am now beginning to discover the real constraints with Vista.
Using Nero to burn DVD?s produced a wildly oscillating buffer level display for both the device and the system ? completely different to the stability of XP. I even started to worry it would crash completely. SOMETHING is throttling or demanding resources that stop steady streaming to the writer. It?s reminiscent of running the writher in PIO mode, but actually it?s happily DMA2. (Both HDD?s report DMA5 too)
Now the final check. Load up MS Flight Simulator X (The box says ?Designed for Vista) thinking this should be a fair test. OMG, but it is slow and laggy even with mid-range detail settings. Completely unexpected. Mr Dealer, please deliver an nVidia 8-series card. Easily installed, latest reference drivers. But, compared with my 6600 Ultra, not a massive improvement. Then, try some of the games installed under XP. Sure they run, but you can?t save ? must be the same problem as Office. Something slows them down intermittently too.
Then the real rub. The audio crackles evident under video capture are there in abundance when running games (Realtek HD, latest April drivers are installed) Go on-line ? Yes, other folk are experiencing this. Resolution or comment from MS or Realtek? Zip.
So, to summarise. Video capture and games do not run well under Vista. Maybe there will be patches and drivers, but this is right now and I have no fix. XP has to remain for these tasks. Vista sub-systems are stealing resources (latency issues?) that have become noticeable and audibly unacceptable. I have to make a costly Acrobat upgrade once there is a fully-Vista version. And there will be the need for a new video editor. Should I have bothered? Well, actually, definitely not. Despite all the cost I am not as productive a previously under XP. Sure, I am informed of the weather and currency at all times, but is a flashy interface good enough reason to justify all the expense and hassle?
For those interested, Vistas rates the performance of my PC as ?5?. The specs are:
Pentium D 945 (3.4 Ghz), 4x512Mb /667 Kingston Value-ram DDR2, Gigabyte GA81945G Pro Mobo, WD 150Gb.7200 SATA, WD150Gb/7200 IDE, Gigabyte 8600GTS/256 Graphics running LCD @ 1280×1024, Sony DRU820 DL writer. Nothing is over-clocked. XP is rock-steady. Vista Business edition (XP Professional SP2).