Vista is more irritating than anything, lots of nagging popups asking if you are sure you want to take a certain action.
It has killed Opera, Netscape, Maxthon and Slimbrowser, plus another who's name I forget, wouldn't even run after installation.
Internet Exploder can bog off. The most irritating browser I have encountered.
Windows 7 is scheduled for release in late '09 currently. XP keeps getting extensions due to the lack of enthusiasm for Vista.
I have Vista on my laptop because it came with it installed and if you have to make a warranty claim, even for a hardware fault, they will not honour it if you have buggered with the OS.
As my warranty is now up I have an Ubuntu 8.4 disc here ready to install - well it was here a while ago, seems to have crawled into the general heap of crap that has set up home here.
I'm procrastinating a bit as I'm considering putting a bigger HD in but the battery is about shot now. Budgeting dilemma as the Aircon on the C5 needs attention too.
One really stupid thing is that after about six months, Vista decided that certain operations with Spybot Search & Destroy could only be run by an administratior (Immunize, Hosts file, System Internals), where it had allowed them previously.
Although I have an administrator account, I have to log out and log in as Administrator to run those operations. It will however let me do the system internals (trash the Registry) with CCleaner, no bother?
Ubuntu never gives me any of this crap, just asks for a password before permitting any potentially destructive operations, and is far more discrete about proffering downloads etc that I might care to install, at my convenience. It also gives a fairly thorough description of the downloads and a simple checkbox selection of those I want/don't want.
Vista just stuffs them down my throat, sometimes without asking or saying what they might be - Service pack 1 being a prime example.
The dopey Windows Defender is always breaking and then kicks up a stink because the damned thing is busted and can't update - Vista seems to be terminally blind to the fact the there is Avast Antivirus, Superantispyware, Adaware, Spybot Search & Destroy and Comodo Firewall installed and running. Ubuntu of course has none of the above and is all the better for it. I just use a sandbox account to check out anything potentially harmfull, which is very rare.
There is an Antivirus program - Clam TK, that scans for any Windows viruses that I may have acquired in Windows files and could pass on to other Windows users.
