The Coburn Blog

Well, I got around to installing Windows Vista on my Compaq Presario V5305WM the other day. I first had to upgrade the RAM to meet the 1GB requirement. I normally run Windows XP on a gig of RAM anyway, but I wanted to get up as close to 2 gig as I could, so I was able to get 1.5 gig in there using the existing 512 I had, plus a 1024 mb stick that I happened to have for it. Because video RAM shares system RAM, I had 1.37 GB (1.5 - 128) to play with, which I was hoping would be enough for now. They say 2 gig is recommended, which now I agree 2 gig would probably be my recommendation as well, even though it did run ok on 1.37 gig without a problem. I think 1.0 gig would have been too little.

I was suprised the Areo Interface worked on 128 mb shared video, but all the new visual effects seem to work on the ATI Radon 128 thats in there without a problem.

The installer is greatly improved over previous versions. Its got a nicer GUI installer, rather you perform an upgrade install, or a clean install booting from the DVD, the GUI installer still exists, which is nice. Also, typing in the product key is MUCH easier in Vista, then in previous versions. As you type in the product key, the dashes are put in for you, so you don’t have to worry about tabbing or mousing over, like you had to in previous versions, that part was nice.

After the installer reboots a couple of times detecting hardware, a screen comes up asking you for a username, and default picture, and wallpaper on the next screen. I was rather surprised that the installer didn’t let you browse for a custom avatar, and wallpaper, so basically, you just had a choice of the avatars and wallpapers presented to you, which was only like 5-6 to choose from, not too much of a choice really, so I changed those 2 things right away after install was done.

The Sidebar Gadget thing is kinda nifty, but looks TOO much like Yahoo Gadgets if you ask me, or the OSX Gadgets, which I suppose would be nice if they were compatible with eachother, but there not.. You can turn off the sidebar and move your Gadgets around on the desktop, but the Gadget sidebar must still be loaded with Windows, otherwise your Gadgets will disappear the next time you restart Windows. That was kinda annoying, but at least u could hide the sidebar, because displaying the sidebar only limits where you can move Gadgets to on the desktop.. but it is nice that they don’t make you use Gadgets. You can always turn the sidebar off so none of that stuff is running. My only gripe, is I wish there were more Gadgets to choose from, and the clock Gadget for instance, I wish it had a black face on white numbers. There were other options for the face, but none with a black face with white numbers like I wanted.

Also, the start menu is organized differently. The “all programs” menu no longer flies up at you anymore. Apparently they at M$ think this is a good thing. I personally thought it was a BAD thing, because it makes locating programs more difficult, so to compensate for that, M$ added a desktop search bar, which I suppose helps a little, but I still prefer the old fly up and over menu way. You can, however, change it back to the classic way, but not the XP way, only the old 95/98/Me way, which personally I thought if you wanted a classic view of the start menu, you’d also want the XP classic view, but that wasn’t added, which annoyed me too.

Otherwise, it seems to run fairly stable… My hyperbowl Arcade bowling game isn’t compatible with it, which was my #1 gripe. Its perdy and everything, but if it don’t run my games, forget it. hehe but unfortunately, thats the way M$ is going. Each version of Windows now has what they call an “end of life” term now, which basically means, once that particular version of Windows hits the 5 year mark (date since its release date) support for that version is gone.. Windows 95 and 98 are both at the end of their life cycle, and Windows ME and XP are scheduled for the coming years, so eventually we’ll “all” have to upgrade to Vista, rather we have the money to or not, or use linux or OS/X, but those are our only choices anymore. If you choose to keep your OS past its 5 year mark, then M$ will no longer let you get Windows updates, so like, all those security patches and crap, you won’t be able to get no more unless you upgrade, which in my view is a crappy idea, its as if there forcing you to shell out their $200-$500 bucks for an OS every 5 years… Leave it to Billy for that.

So, what I did, I whipped out Vista off my laptop after I had my fun playing with it, and put Debian on it instead. Least with Debian, I can browse the web, do email, design, and all that stuff.. I can’t play my games on Debian, or OS/X if I had a Mac, but I can do everything else, which is better then Vista anyday if you ask me. Only thing about Linux with laptops though, I had trouble finding drivers to support my Broadcom BCM4318 wireless nic card, but I was able to find instructions on how to set up ndiswrapper on Fedora Mobile, ndiswrapper is a project that reads Windows .inf hardware driver files, so I went that route to get my wireless nic in the laptop to work in linux, for now anyway until I can figure out a better way to do it.. Right now, the BCMxxx family of cards are being reverse engineered (disassembled back into C code) to make linux drivers for them, but I immagine that will be a lengthy process, so the ndiswrapper method may just have to do for awhile, because I’m definitely not going back to Vista.. but I can always put XP back on, which I probably will once I get done playing with these other distros.

but anyway, thats my babble review of Windows Vista… If you have the RAM video and HD space to run it its perdy to look at, but for those thinking of purchasing it, I’d at least wait until SP1 is released first later on in August, because SP1 is supposed to fix alot of these problems with games, and other such bugs.. You could purchase it now I suppose, but then everytime you reinstalled it, you’d have to reinstall SP1 too using another disk, so I would suggest, to just wait until SP1 is released later on this year, because by then, Vista will be shipped with SP1 already on it, so you won’t have to worry about having to install something else, or slipstreaming your copy later on.

but if you enjoy working with computers, and all you do is surf the web, read email, and instant message, then my suggestion would be to ditch Windows, and install Linux instead, because Linux can do all that, and even comes with some pretty nifty games too, or if your in the market for a computer, buy a Mac. seriously, because OS/X runs FreeBSD in the background, which is a much more stable Operating System anyway, next to Debian, and if all you do is surf the internet and read email, a Mac is great for those things.

have a good day everyone