RANT.. ****** Windows Vista!!!

[Slim]

I've just bought a new laptop as my old one took half an hour to boot up. I got a fantastic deal: fast dual core processor, loads of RAM, powerful graphics card, 160GB hard drive and Vista premium.

Great I thought, Vista looks the business. Sleek, stylish and user friendly. Then I came to install my software. First my camera drivers, "operating system not supported"... WHAT?? OK, ok calm down, lets do the printer drivers "operating sytem not supported" You've got to be kidding!!

Right, I know, Fuji and Epson will have new drivers for Vista on their websites. NOPE!!

This new laptop is begining to not be such a good deal. Its going to cost me a new camera and printer.

And Tonight came the straw that broke the camels back. After reading the brief for the UKworkshop competition, I decided to download sketchup and get started. However, SKETCHUP DOES NOT RUN ON VISTA!! This is a disaster. I know sketchup and its taken me a long time to learn all of its features. I am at a loss, I don't want to pay for any CAD software, and I really don't want to have to learn a new program.

So... after paying for a brand new, state of the art laptop, I find myself reverting back to my old snail pace one, and the good old, reliable XP.

Rant over, and I apologise.

 

[mr]

I'd be tempted to try Ubuntu (feisty fawn) with Beryl on top for prettiness and wine to emulate the windows API for Sketchup. I havent tried getting sketchup running under Wine but I hear it works. Failing that Google have confirmed that theyre working on "Goobuntu" which would seem to suggest a linux version of Sketchup sometime in the near future perhaps? Ignoring the Sketchup issue an Ubuntu / Beryl mixture would give you all the the candy you could want and compatibility with your hardware.
After all its a shame to waste a new state of the art laptop on Vista

Cheers Mike

 

[Slim]

Let me get this straight... Feisty Fawn with Beryl on top and some wine? sounds a bit saucy to me :wink:

 

[mr]

http://www.ubuntu.com/ Feisty Fawn
http://www.beryl-project.org/


Hows this for eyecandy ? (Scroll down for some screen shot video)
http://thedarkmaster.wordpress.com/2007/02/27/the-beryl-dream-aquarium/

Compatible with more hardware than Vista (in my experience to date), more stable, probably easier to use and much cheaper

Cheers Mike

 

[Anonymous]

Simon

Just install XP on your new laptop

 

[mailee]

My thinking exactly Tony! Never buy anything new until it is tried and proven is my motto. I may even upgrade to XP soon. :lol:

 

[Slim]

Hi Tony,

Trouble is that my copy of XP can only be installed on an Acer Computer. (new Laptop is a Toshiba). I wonder if I could still buy XP, and if it is any cheaper? hmm, I just off to find out.

 

[Chris Knight]

Simon,
Nothing should restrict your copy of XP being installed anywhere. I suspect though that what you may have ia the OEM's "Backup" disk rather than a proper full copy?

I'd be tempted to get a copy from anywhere and simply use your own serial number to activate it.

 

[paulm]

I've been having similar trouble with a new pc bought for my daughters birthday.

Wanted to buy it with xp pro same as the rest in our household but dell don't ship with anything other than vista these days.

With some things it seems like if yoy right mouse click and run them as administrator then it carries on past the error messages, but I could be wrong.

Very, very frustrating. How can it not be backwards compatible to some degree at least ? Haven't noticed any publicity about problems and not bieng able to run all your existing software. Is there anything to be done about it other than junk it and find an xp pro copy ?

Cheers, Paul.

 

[Lord Nibbo]

I'm using Vista and I'm using Sketchup with no problems. I think I got the same warnings as you not only with sketchup but loads of other programmes as well. I can't remember what I did but every progamme loaded and worked ok, it may well have been what chisel suggested about "Administrater permisions" but as I said Sketchup will work on Vista.

 

[tnimble]

Vista has many problems indeed. So many problems that even Dell has decided to not follow Microsoft any more and sell XP again. Also some large companies and government departments have made statements not going to upgrade to Vista and other new Microsoft products like Office and Internet Explorer.

At www.badvista.org there's also a lot of information about what is wrong.

 

[Adam]

but dell don't ship with anything other than vista these days.

They do now. Due to customer pressure they have rolled out XP across a number of platforms.

Adam

 

[CHJ]

Simon, before you scrap Vista check the following.

I have used Vista on occasions for some time (since Beta) and found very few problems.

Having checked with someone who is running it constantly in a development environment I got this reply.


*************************

"Yes a lot of manufacturers are not updating the drivers for vista,

But this tends to be the older equipment.

When buying a camera it is a good idea to get one that uses standard USB and Does not need a proprietary driver.


So far have only come across one application that does not run and that (involved) DivX.

Vista does support running the applications in XP mode and this has always worked for me.

Also default mode is to run all applications in user mode, some need to be set to run as administrator either for the install or the first time it is run to install Correctly.

*****************************

Hope this helps.

 

[Anonymous]

At work we use Virtual PC to run other operating systems on our PC's:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/virtualpc/default.mspx

I've got windows 2000, xp and server 2003 installed. I tried Sun Solaris but didn't get too far. Haven't tried Linux yet.

Dave

 

[woodshavings]

I have just downloaded sketchup onto my Vista PC.
A Vista System warning come up saying this was not compatible with Vista and asked if it should change the settings so that it will run.

Clicked yes, it then loaded and it appears to run fine.

HTH

John

 

[CHJ]

""SketchUp6 install and runs fine under Vista.
However to install must select setup program to run
In WinXP compatibility mode."

Just got the above confirmation message so I guess that reinforces John's findings.

 

[Slim]

Wow, thanks for the responses guys.

I took your advice and installed it in XP compatabitlity mode ( a feature I had no idea was there) and it installed with no problems.

However everytime I ran the program it stopped responding as soon as it opened. After a quick google of the problem, I discovered that the program has to be run in Windows 98/ME compatibility mode.

So now it works perfectly.

Now to get on with the design for the competition.

Thanks again

 

[mr]

but dell don't ship with anything other than vista these days.

They do now. Due to customer pressure they have rolled out XP across a number of platforms.

Adam

Not only that but they have announced Feisty Fawn as the operating system for their consumer linux range

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6610901.stm
Cheers Mike

 

[tnimble]

but dell don't ship with anything other than vista these days.

They do now. Due to customer pressure they have rolled out XP across a number of platforms.

Adam

Not only that but they have announced Ubuntu (Feisty Fawn) as the operating system for their consumer linux range

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6610901.stm
Cheers Mike

Indeed. Dell is one of the very first bigg companies to actualy speak up and publicly say (and act to it) that they are fed up being forged to supply what Microsoft demands them to sell. Dell now faces legal action which some other companies have managed to avoid buy actually paying Microsoft amounts up to 40 million a year for not having to do each and everything Microsoft demands of everyone else.

 

[paulm]

Only ordered the new pc three weeks or so ago and took delivery a week or so ago and was dissapointed that only vista was listed as an option and not xp. Don't know if I didn't look hard enough or if they have changed since then.......

How do you use the xp compatability mode, just on installing a piece of software, or on running it or on both ?

Wonder if I complained enough if they would ship me some xp discs ?

Cheers, Paul.