Well. I think it's useless because of the amount of processor it uses, just to do the DRM parts of the system. But, I wonder how many people are going to carry on using XP when support is dropped, I'm just off to badger a techie here and see what they're going to do...

Well their next big release will probably be somewhere around 2012 and it will have to fight hard or else it might be the last...

Nope. I just got back from badgering one of the techies. Turns out that the entire school is going to have all the computers upgraded for Vista.
And to top it all off, it's A-level IT course teaches all the people who are new to programming... guess what... Microsoft's Visual BASIC.

How can people be so damn depentant on one vendor?

I just bought my first laptop, yeah i am quite new!! And it has vista, what a nightmare. So much security, it is so absurd, an obsessive compulsive OS, it is so secure that I am connected to the internet but can't really go online because it blocks any homepage even microsoft's....! it is such a headache i really want to just return it!

I have a friend at work that just adores M$. I have gone as far as to bring in my laptop, product discriptions with comparisons and proven that linux is an alternative. my thinking is to get him to admit there are options. then M$ bought novell
.... his comment.. you will be asimilated,
i see it as M$ getting a foot hold in the linux world because they see so many of us users out there.

....his comment... windows has the market share and billions of PCs
but the 13 root servers are *nix and our up time rocks!

Then he praised vista.
2gb of ram. it is a resource hog.. i listed all the legit complaints but all i hear is "well if you dont use the computers resources it is a waist"

DreamerWaves sorry to hear bout your problems.
you can solve the security problem by installing linux

being serious though, is there anythig about vista that you do like? any features that really stand out and grab your attention?

All I know is that when I saw the new Windows vista and used it, it kind of remimded me my old 386, 20 min to start... 20 min to open a menu.... now when that 2.0 Ghz dual core finally loaded the OS... it reminded my to a linux desktop... and of course when a company has so pittyful creativity and can't win in the race, they try to push the other players down. Ballmer is just another rich idiot with a big mouth.

MS did NOT buy Novell, they just made a deal, although i wouldn't put it past them to buy them, if novell were willing...

Well, Vista has some pretty nice graphics, I really like the design. But it is taking me some getting used to, they really changed everything around; from the start menu the desktop features. If you have lets say 7 windows open, there is a button on the tool bar that displays all of them in a really cool way onthe desktop, it kind of looks like a page ontop on a page in a slightly slanted manner so that you may see a good portion of the left side of the page, so that you can see what the contents are, and choose which page you want to return to. Let me try to more specific. Have you ever used an Apple laptop? It is very similar but with a pc twist, and some cooler extra features. I wouldn't buy vista just yet, had i been smarter, i would wait a couple months untill they get all the bugs and ticks figured out; but you probably know that!

Sorry if my description is not only vague but useless!!

I am really new to the whole Computer world, I just became a CS major! I hope you all are willing to bear with me if i ask annoyingly simple and obvious questions! I am really enjoying the CS world, it is so much fun and interesting! And well linux, it is making me use my brain on a different level!!

DreamerWaves.

Well . . . There are different kinds of "buying". No, in a legal sense, MS did not buy Novell. But they paid a lot of money to Novell and I rather suspect MS got what it wanted for that money. And interoperability probably wasn't it! So yeah, I would consider Novell 0wn3d. Of course, your opinion may differ.

About Vista's interface... c'mon! It took me more than 3 years to learn Windows compared to 3 minutes to learn the Aqua (mac) interface. What were they thinking?

You're not the only one.

For my 9th grade, 3 tech classes need to be taken by students, and there's a special fourth one for more advanced students in a special class for math, science, and french.

The three normal tech classes? Fun as hell. Too bad we only have them for 3 months. Mecanics, woodshop, and the dreaded computer class. But computer class is pretty lame compared to what we could be doing, but it's not horrible. You play around with AutoCAD, which is a bit useful I guess since there is other CAD software that work the same way.

But the fourth one... jeez. Powerpoint presentation, flash animation/movie/crap, dreamweaver website. Can you say "WTF Get me a real class!"?.

Thankfully, an admin in the school board wants linux on the PC's.

But damn. Teaching Visual BASIC... I mean, come on, how hard could finding a real teacher who knows C/++ be? (I say C because more people seem to use it. Perl, Java, and Python are good too.)

Vista is has a nice graphics but there are not much different from windows XP except the security features. The security features even make Vista worst that XP. When you playing online games, you will facing many headaches.

Linux is King of OS.

Free, OSS is king of the software market including BSD's, etc.

In the end GNU/Coyotos+Hurd will be the ultimate OS kicking M$ hairy ass employees.

Yeah, I guess it could be the buying as in, buying Novell off, albight in a legal way. I think now that they have this partnership, Microsoft can easily copy ideas from Novell, having the excuse that their partners and whatever else they need to say to brainwash them.