Vista continues to "rock" or is that wobble

OK: I've read and listened
Have gone out and paid for 3 XPPro CDs for new home & office networking

( get em while you can )
There are just too many pundits playing Vista down.

Another one: ( no idea if there is abackground agenda ,heh)
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2171472,00.asp
from slash dot by Louderback:

and for due process; a rebuttal:
http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2007/08/back_at_louderb.html
but he has his doubts:
http://www.informationweek.com/blog...l;jsessionid=HFVTGVDP1KBRQQSNDLPSKHSCJUNN2JVN


wot's a man/or girl to do?

Any comments welcome, Just thought I'd drop these here for general info.

 

Ive moved to Vista and its just humming along. There are some quirks here and there, but nothing thats gonna make me switch back to XP.

 

I wonder when SP1 will be available.

 

Well I fiddled around reinstalling Xp, even Xp x64 and the graphics look like piss, compared to Vistas (Sorry for the Graphic Detail but its true) I'm off to throw out XP forever, back tomorrow to report back in

 

Vista is not so fast as XP. I reallt hate slow OS. Are there any improvements after recent patches? Thanks

 

KB938194 (Vista Compatibility and Reliability Pack) and KB938979 (Vista Performance and Reliability Pack) supposedly resolve several issues though I have yet to try them myself.

 

LOL can any one say unaccessable hidden remote account(s) ¿ LOL. Sorry but VISTAs graphics aint "drop dead" Awesome enough to justify an upgrade.
Im a hardcore gamer and sorry, until I see some real advances in the games that have yet to be made available to the public its a no go for me. Besides I like to have some sense of control + workability to the programs that I use.

 

I find it very odd that Vista frowners don't just turn their nice XP (Home/Pro) units into Vista like many others like myself have. Transformation Packs notwithstanding, there are plenty of mods long already fashioned, VistaMizer for one, and nearly everything else including the eye-candy Flip 3-D.

Even the Segoe UI fonts & Vista Media Sounds. What else do you need? It's already done by some very talented developers and most are FREEWARE!!!

I for one will "NEVER" fall for Vista, it has no improvements whatsoever that justify it's purchase price and certainly has no fanfare now that many users have sampled it for themselves.

My XP Pro (Vista Enhanced) is quick as a whip with Iron-Clad Security that Washington, DC would be envious of.

 

EASTER, I also doubt that I upgrade my XP machine since Linux has become my favourite OS, anyhow. But I had the opportunity to test Vista on another PC for quite some time, and I must say: not bad, not bad ...

It's true that there are still problems, in many cases related to missing or sub-optimal drivers (this will improve in the coming months). But I stop short of saying that there are "no improvements whatsoever that justify its purchase price" (I would purchase a cheaper systembuilder version, anyhow). As a matter of fact, there are plenty of security-related improvements:

• User Account Control - while annoying at times, it's definitely an important security measure.
• Protected mode for IE. This can also be enabled for other applications, e.g., Firefox as described in this post.
• Unlike in XP, only few services run in the context of the allmighty LocalSystem account but rather in the context of accounts like LocalService and NetworkService with limited access to the system. Thus, a compromised service can't cause that much harm as in previous Windows versions.
• There is a security leak in previous versions when system services produced a window on the desktop (contrary to the recommendations by Microsoft) thus enabling any application to communicate with this high-privilege system window. This could be misused by so-called Shatter Attacks. (This is the decisive reason why the DropMyRights approach is insecure in XP, as, e.g., an infected IE running with lower privileges would still be able to communicate with processes running with higher privileges.) This is no longer possible in Vista.
• Windows Resource Protection (WRP) protects important registry keys and files against manipulation even by LocalSystem and Administrator.
• PatchGuard (Kernel Patch Protection) and signed drivers in the 64bit versions.
• A considerably improved firewall.
• Better protection against Buffer Overflows as Microsoft used a special compiler option to make large parts of the Vista code more robust (e.g. by applying so-called Stack Cookies).
• If nevertheless malicious code gained access to the system, an additional barrier is Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR).

This list is probably not complete. There are surely other reasons against upgrading to Vista. But its impressive security improvements don't belong to them.

 

I tried both of them and didn't notice any improvements at all.

 

Vista can be quite annoying, eg. reporting, that a program stopped working, just because it was installed it in 5 sec or closed fast, so reliability monitor decreases Vista's score. Also there are almost no games, that works, but most of the software does, so it is quite reliable and secure system for a common usage.

 

I also recalled not too long ago the same comments were said of Windows XP when Microsoft shifts away from Windows 98/ME.

 

Till the moment they drop support,but then the advances in virtualisation development are that perfect that then there is no need anymore for security patches i guess. Besides that Vista is under constant development[SP 1 soon !?!]and will becomes ever better,so after a maybe a year we write love songs on Vista !

 

If I remember correctly, Microsoft extended support for XP some time ago till 2014. Who knows if anybody will remember Vista at that time since everybody will be using Linux

 

If you are right, then i become an XP collector !!

And maybe to dig somewhat in the several Linux flavors, or maybe at that time i am a Mac evangelist !

 

Hi and Greets tlu

Of course one can easily see the attempted security improvement Vista has implimented into that O/S, but from a personal standpoint i must in all honesty take quite the exception to even those related additions to Vista.

For the common keeping up with the jones user, yes, Vista is a reasonable if not favorable choice regarding security along with the desktop enhancements etc. Still, that O/S is not exactly a hallmark or flagship O/S destined for ultimate satisfaction.

I merely point out that most more experienced users and even Wilder's membership can easily & strongly shield XP equally if not even more so than Vista without the additional overhead of turning to a higher-end system just to have Vista run at full efficiency as intended.

This is in large part thanks to ALL the Expert Security Developers we now enjoy of their work, who continue to IMO, greatly outpace the malware/rootkit designers efforts to disrupt the normal operation of XP.

 

Concerning the latter part of your post, Nobody knows how this ongoing daily battle between the good and the baddies will evolve,let alone the final outcome,if there is any.I guess this battle will never end as long as there are humans on this planet.

 

All I can say about Vista is, it looks pretty but I'm not switching, just based on what a buddy who runs a computer repair shop in a nearby town is STILL telling me. People around here are getting new computers with Vista, or buying Vista and installing it. Enough of them are asking for XP that he's considering hiring somebody just to take up that slack. He's way behind in his repair work.

What that tells me, at least for this area, is that Vista is selling, but it isn't staying on the computers, and those getting new boxes soon want it gone.

 

I checked it - it is true. Look here, here and here. Mainstream Support will be until 2009, Extended Support (= security updates only) until 2014.

 

But, EASTER, keep in mind that these 3rd party products can also have security leaks. I remember having read a couple of news concerning buffer overflows in several AV products only in the past months. And you probably remember the discussion here about the failure of various HIPS in protecting against a special type of malware. This supports my conviction that AV and HIPS programmes add up to the built-in security of Windows but don't replace it. And it's the decisive reason why I'm a strong evangelist of a limited user account as an additonal protection against those threats where 3rd party software might fail and/or zero-day attacks. In any case, I prefer having a secure and hardened OS instead of adding more and more HIPS.

Nevertheless, I concede that Vista probably isn't really mature yet and it's wise to wait for SP1.

 

There's not really much new in Vista under the hood apart from the security enhancements mentioned above and certainly not enough for alot of users to upgrade from XP. Vista is still from the same family of Windows and mostly built from existing XP code which means that Vista may suffer from the same sort of problems if Vista's heightened security does not protect the vulnerable code.

 

But many improvements do protect the vulnerable code (see posting #10), and a couple of weaknesses in previous Windows versions are gone. I don't say that Vista is perfect, but the improvements are remarkable. Although I'm definitely not a Microsoft supporter (my favourite OS is Linux as mentioned above), I don't think that one should run down these improvements.

 

Oh I agree tlu, Vista isn't just XP with a fancy coat on and I'm not one for running down any improvements infact I applaued, but MS will still have to patch exploits that Vista will not protect against as they had to in the recent first serious exploits.

 

I have heard that Vista is slower is XP, but this is not true on my comp. Vista runs every bit as fast as XP. And I am not having problems with program compatability either. everything on my comp that worked on XP work just fine with Vista. I have not had an issue with Vista since I did a full install of Vista Home Premium. So far everything I have tried with Vista that I care to have on my comp had worked perfectly, except Delta Force black hawk Down. It is supposed to be compatable but it just won't install. Really not that big a loss.

bigc