Windows Vista Lounge

I’ve been onboard with Vista as a beta tester, RC tester and early adopter, all the way back to Longhorn. I’ve heard all the jokes and certainly experienced my share of frustrations with the Vista OS, but I wanted to try it out. I literally have two computers side by side on my desk at work, one Vista and the other XP. I say all this to establish myself as a true user of Vista, rather than some hater who wants to sound intelligent by copying other’s insults.

What I like about Vista is it’s ease of start-up and standby, when a PC runs on Vista, you can pretty much leave it on for weeks at a time and it will run fine. With XP–that was impossible unless you want your computer running slower each day.

What I don’t like is the lag when certain programs seem to get lost in mid process, and of course the glitchy nature of Vista in specific applications that I use a LOT, like Outlook, Word, Powerpoint and multiple web browsers.

Using two systems side by side, I have to admit the one directly in front of me is XP, with Vista on the left side as a monitoring system–I get hundreds of emails a day and I need one dedicated computer to keep up, so it’s always in Outlook. This allows me to write and do other things in XP while I’m watching for important emails on the left. Ok enough on that.

My point is, I use XP way more than Vista, and when I get home I often have to shift to my laptop (XP) instead of the fancy Sony Vista system I bought recently. Why? Because graphic programs, especially those rendering things in Flash, hate Vista! They won’t load or will crash when you go to save them. It sucks. And it sucks in a way that forces me to huddle over my laptop just to get something finished.

So, I am asking myself, after truly giving Microsoft a fair chance at winning me over, is it time for a Vista-ectomy? As in cutting the cord from the OS and either reverting to XP or….(gulp)….buying a Mac. That is something I can’t believe I am saying after being with Microsoft since Windows 1.0….yep I’ve been in the IT world that long.

There are alternatives of course, Wait for Windows 7, Try Linux (um no thanks) and other schemes but at the end of the day, I just want the computer to work well, fast, reliably and intuitively…all things Vista was supposed to do! Oh and I want it to work with the programs I use often.

I’m wondering, with all the traffic this site gets and all the wonderful posts we have seen over the years…is anyone else getting to the point of no return? This question is not for the haters, who never really tried Vista,  just the ones who gave it an honest run.

Comments?