After my previous short first impressions 'review' of Windows Vista Build 6000, the final build, I promised you a full review which would look a bit deeper into the system, focussing on less obvious matters than appearance alone. Since there are so many new features in Windows Vista, it is very easy to lose track of them. Hence, this review will follow (where possible) a much linked-to page on Wikipedia: Features new to Windows Vista.
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Member since:2005-07-06
Member since:2006-03-26
Member since:2006-01-28
Why should bad drivers bring down an entire OS? And wasn't this one of the much-touted improvements of Vista, the fact that the entired driver stack had been re-written from graphic to sound card drivers?
I honestly find it amusing the kinds of excuses some of you can come up for the lack of quality assurance and proper design principles in Microsoft products.
Member since:2005-12-28
One of the main points with a client-server based OS is that no device driver should be able to pull down the OS.
It is a very typical reaction to blame everything on anything but Windows.
If it is an out-of-the-box driver as I suspect, then it also is certified. Should a certified driver behave this way ?
Member since:2005-07-06
Member since:2006-06-02
I concur with CPUGuy... almost certainly driver problems.
Additonally, keep the price of Ultimate in perspective.
Barring discounts, the most expensive version of XP (XP Professional) was only $299.00 (barring discounts). This product is analogous to Windows Vista Business which is also $299.00. Ultimate adds a whole slew of new features.
Seems like a fair price to me.
Member since:2005-08-12
Member since:2006-04-11
I have an extreme distaste for Windows.
That said, this is a brand new Operating System and it is bound to have flaws that need to be fixed here and there. Given the extremely vast amount of 3rd party hardware out there, it is not unusual to have some flaky hardware cause problems.
Not that I'll ever know, I'm already free.
Member since:2006-08-01
Hey, you know what happens when I call the wrong driver on my system? I get a shell. After a quick 'sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf' I am back up and running in my sweet Gnome world. Know what happens when you use the wrong driver in Vista? BSOD!
j/k 
I do think that Vista is a massive step forward and I hope that it truly is as stable and secure in the real world as it is on paper.
It is kinda strange though, that in this day & age we don't have more systems that can live through a bad driver and will ultimately result in a BSOD and/or a complete inability to boot the system.
Member since:2006-06-24
Member since:
2006-03-26
Final conclusion of the review: windows vista final is an improvement over windows vista beta. Real observant
I have vista final, and honestly, its not really all that great. In fact it seems like a step DOWN from xp to me. In the little time ive had it installed its taken to doing a blue screen of death on every boot (and no, its not my hardware). Its certainly not worth the almost $600 they want for ultimate. I'll stick with xp for now.
Edited 2006-12-04 00:42