just how bad is Vista?

I have a friend in the computer security business and one thing he was emphatic on was DO NOT BUY THE VOSTRO! He works on a lot of machines and he said that the Vostro had given them more problems and more of them had to be returned to Dell than all the others combined.:eek:

Just my 2 cents.

I think I'll just go back to bed. :(

Actually, thanks for the heads-up. Back to square one, I guess.
The Vostro offered more and better features for the same money at the small business side of the Dell web site than the Inspiron on the home side.
I know a top level IT guy in Little Rock whose personal computers come from Wal-Mart. He buys the cheapest E-Machine he can find and discards annually. Says he avoids a lot of problems that way and stays up with the times. I tend to keep things a long time, that would not be a good approach for me.
 
Grrrrrrr

Well, I went to the Dell website and built my computer. :type: An Inspiron 530S. Then I called a sales rep to get a couple questions answered. All was well, they will give the OS disks and I decided on XP. Got all my options lined up fine. Then she started adding up the prices. $29.95 for shipping. That's OK, I expected it. But, then came a bundle of "fees" totaling almost $50.00. Wowa ole hoss, wats that? Never got a straight answer. Said forget it. I'll probably get a near identical 'puter from Wal-Mart I saw there this a.m. but will have to get Vista. I'll probably lose use of my printer, older version of PhotoShop Elements, Print Shop and who knows what else. But, I will get a big new monitor, which we don't need. My attitude at the moment cannot be expressed in FW suitable language. :bang: This purchase will wait.
 
Frank,

Go to www.dell.com.
Click on Home and home office on the right side of the screen.
Find the Dell Outlet pull down menu and click on desktops or laptops.
Look for a button that says "Check Availability and Prices" Don't worry about what type of computer it's attached to.
Now reset all the checkboxes and choices to what you are looking for. This will show you the current scratch and dents, refurbs, demo units, etc. that are available that day. This list is CONSTANTLY changing.

Shop around. I have bought several systems this way over the years and I have not regretted a one. And I have saved significantly over ordering from the web site. And, with the corporate discount I get, I can often buy new cheaper than Dell employees (according to the ones that work on site with me). The outlet is still a better place to shop. Yes, you are a bit more limited on what you can and can't get with it than designing from scratch but ... well just spend a few days checking it out each morning and see if you don't find something you want at a price you like.
 
Frank,

Go to www.dell.com.
Click on Home and home office on the right side of the screen.
Find the Dell Outlet pull down menu and click on desktops or laptops.
Look for a button that says "Check Availability and Prices" Don't worry about what type of computer it's attached to.
Now reset all the checkboxes and choices to what you are looking for. This will show you the current scratch and dents, refurbs, demo units, etc. that are available that day. This list is CONSTANTLY changing.

Shop around. I have bought several systems this way over the years and I have not regretted a one. And I have saved significantly over ordering from the web site. And, with the corporate discount I get, I can often buy new cheaper than Dell employees (according to the ones that work on site with me). The outlet is still a better place to shop. Yes, you are a bit more limited on what you can and can't get with it than designing from scratch but ... well just spend a few days checking it out each morning and see if you don't find something you want at a price you like.


Thanks for the tip. I will probably check it out later. Their "fees" should have been stated up front. This was not a pleasant surprise. Right now, the word 'Dell' is four lettered to me and just saying it leaves an unpleasant taste in my mouth.
 
...I'll probably lose use of my printer, older version of PhotoShop Elements, Print Shop and who knows what else...
I may be wrong on this, but I suspect your copies of Photoshop and Print Shop should be fine on Vista. What make and model is your printer? (I seem to recall that you got it fairly recently.) It's probably pretty easy to check and see if the manufacturer has Vista drivers for it.
 
my 2 cents

I've had a HP notebook with VISTA for a little over a year. At first some difficulties but exponentially fewer month by month. A few additions to earlier comments: HP has had some trouble with "freezes" and "no power" (I was a victim but could not have asked for more in the way of customer satisfaction in resolving the problem) and I understand it is on nearly all pavilion series. The suggestion that Vista needs at least 2GB is true and I suspect that many unhappy users of VISTA have less + may have Home basic which is clumsy as Home Premium is the sweet spot. The security features touted by VISTA are not proving to be as secure as hoped yet still an improvement (so they say). Finally, you mentioned earlier about staying up with the times...my main reason for going with VISTA was a secret vow not to be the last to move forward ( for once ). Oh yeah, Had no trouble updating driver software for my wife's Lexmark printer/scanner/copier that was at least 3 years old at the time and VISTA has been out long enough now that I suspect updated drivers are available for all but all peripherals. Almost as bad as buying a car heh?:dunno:
 
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"I'm thinking too that a lot of the people ragging on Vista have short memories: pre-SP2 XP was no walk in the park either."

Lee,

I couldn't agree more. Anyone who hangs out with sysops long enough learns their strange customs. The North American Spotted Sysop can always be heard calling throughout the forest "New! Bad! I was just getting used to the last one!" over and over, for months, whenever a new OS comes out, and whispers dark things from behind the trees about drivers and outdated apps.

Then, as soon as the service pack comes out, so do the birds. The sun starts shining again. It turns out the sky didn't actually fall, the earth didn't open up and swallow the entire population, heck, even the volcano calmed down. At least until the next release... ;)

Thanks,

Bill
 
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Like Lee, we had a very expensive Epson printer that wouldn't work on XP until SP2 was released. This printer is not supported by Vista but may be at some time in the future.

One other consideration is how long Microsoft supports the OS. Microsoft released XP in 2003 IIRC. This means that they will probably drop support for XP in the 2010-2011 time frame.

FYI-MS ended support for Wiindows ME in July of 2006 for software released in2000.


Good luck,
Dick
 
I may be wrong on this, but I suspect your copies of Photoshop and Print Shop should be fine on Vista. What make and model is your printer? (I seem to recall that you got it fairly recently.) It's probably pretty easy to check and see if the manufacturer has Vista drivers for it.

The printer is an all-in-one HP F4180 that I was planning on replacing anyhow. It only cost about $60.00 new but I spend about $30.00 a month replacing the tiny (5ml) black ink cartridges.
I have decided to get the computer sold at Wal-Mart. It is a Dell Inspiron with the horsepower I had on the one I almost ordered. It will be a little more money but comes with a 22" flat monitor. Since my wife is retired from WM, we get a 10% discount and that really helps. I read Kim Komandos column today, and other advice sources. XP will no longer be supported by MS. I don't know how long Dell might give support. I believe I have to risk losing use of some of my software to stay current.
BTW, I have always been happy with XP. For me, it has proven rock solid.
 
Frank,
MS just announced support for XP through 2014 so you're in luck and my last post means nothing!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20080624/tc_nf/60443;_ylt=ArIzV6xOk2Kkgwemz0rOy06s0NUE

I caught that later on Yahoo news. But, it is Dell support I'm worried about. They have always been good but the comments by their sales rep yesterday clearly indicated they want nothing more to do with it. If they announce no support, there isn't anything a customer can do about that. I don't really want to jump out of the airplane, but, at least, I'll be wearing a parachute. :eek:
 
Frank,
If you stay with the microsoft platform, Vista vs XP will be a moot point soon... I read that Microsoft will discontinue the XP platform support about spring next year. And I also read that they new machines were being loaded Vista and XP wasn't being offered at all.
I don't know anything about Vista, have heard pros and cons... more cons.

Personally, I'm not fond of Dell... I bought one when I retired because I had planned to do some consulting work and thought I needed something a little more powerful than the eMachine my wife runs... right now the fans are going and sounds like a small Cessna about to take off. I've called Dell support and talked with several local techs... Dell support in Bangaladesh or Mumbai, or where ever, immediately said I needed to reformat the hard drive and reload Windows.... no other explaination, no other suggestion... my son who makes his living on computers had a good laugh on that one, but he didn't have any suggestion either. So I put up with the Cessna.

If I were doing it again, and since I scrapped the consulting ideas, I think I would have stuck with the eMachine. I used one in my last job for about 8 years, running Melineum (SP??) and never had a moments problem with it. It was connected with an interface to the main frame in the office (An HP running on Linux), plus I reported and filed all of my export documents via the internet to Uncle Sam..
 
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Chuck, on the fans, most computers come with at least one cooling fan, many now come with two, they can certainly be noisy. You can buy replacement fans that move just as much air, but are WAY quieter.

Cheers!
 
I think if Chuck defragged his hard disk, and/or did other disk cleanup chores, the fans might stop running all the time. I have a feeling the disk is searching here and there a lot for data and is getting hot running. :huh:
 
Dell support in Bangaladesh or Mumbai, or where ever, immediately said I needed to reformat the hard drive and reload Windows.... no other explaination, no other suggestion...
I had to really chuckle over your comment. When I had a problem with my HP, I got routed to India and that was the solution they wanted to offer me. They don't have any idea what the real solution is and they tell you to re-load because it takes you forever to do so, especially since you have to re-install all your applications and get your data transferred again.

Absolutely miserable support.

Mike

[The big heat generator in a PC is the processor. The disk, even if it's working all the time, does not generate a whole lot of heat. What laptops do (most of them) is slow down the clock when the processor is not very busy, which greatly reduces the heat. If you're running Vista, click on the the start button, then in the search box type "performance monitor" without the "". This will startup a program that will allow you to see how much disk and cpu activity you have.]
 
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