[Desert Tyrant]

Might as well use this forum for it's intended purpose. If I started this in the Pub, there'd be all sorts of problems with people yelling "ZOMG VISTA SUX!" and "STFU N()()|3! VISTA IS TEH ****1!!". All I want is an answer to a simple question:
What do you like/dislike about Vista?

Personally, I'd love to see that new "3D window tabbing" removed. It's just a pretty form of Alt-Tab, and I don't see a point. One of my biggest complaints about OSX is the "Hey, you move the mouse here, and all your windows scrunch up and hide until you click one of them." You don't even have to click for it to happen.

I'd like to see it replaced by something like Linux's Multi-desktop feature. Got a media player running in the background, cluttering up your task bar/Alt-Tab menu? Throw it onto desktop 3 and have it out of your way. Running the FreeSpace Open Installer, and waiting for it to download all that is FreeSpace? Put it on desktop 4, let it do it's thing, and continue surfing the web on desktop 1. I personally feel it successfully does what the 3D select claims to be able to do: Reduce the time spent trying to navigate between windows. By allowing you to move windows you don't need to look at often onto other desktops, it allows you to concentrate on the important windows, without having to Alt-Tab past your media player, bit torrent client, download manager,  etc. Best of all, it's unobtrusive. Down in it's little corner, it takes up about as much space as one desktop icon.

Actually, I do like Vista.  It's shiny, and the security is anal as hell

[Polpolion]

What if FSO didn't work on Vista?

I'm pretty sure it works. IIRC, Taris or someone has it.

[IceFire]

I haven't used the final edition of Vista that is in everyones hands now but I still use a RC1 version at work for testing until we can afford to get a new machine with a real version actually installed.  So I have some experience with it.

I find RC1 has some bugs, occasionally a temporary folder seems to fall under some sort of shared status between administrator and users on the system so you get a warning all the time.  I'm sure they fixed that.  Might be something I did in fiddling with it.  The UAC is fine if it didn't ask a half dozen times about something doing something.  I understand that was toned down after RC1.  The visual interface is both good and bad. 

The good is that its about bloody time they leveraged the 3D cards power...Linux distros just started working on this too and MacOS X has been doing it for years now.  Its smart, I'm a sucker for shiny things, and I'm right pissed off with WinXP and Win2000 not drawing the screen properly when the CPU is busy or having to refresh icons on my desktop because in Windows explorer I clicked on the CD drive.

Its also a bit of a memory hog but I understand that has allot to do with aggressive caching of software which is fine with me.  Load times on the same dual booting laptop are much better in Vista RC1 than WinXP for things like Firefox, Quicktime, and some of the other software apps that we use.  No games at work so no idea how that goes over personally...I hear the initial reports were terrible but things are improving as the video and audio drivers get updated.

Judging from reports and charts...there's a performance peak where any computer with a certain set of abilities is faster in Vista than XP because of optimization for new technologies.  You can patch old software to a point but I do think its good to go back and re-write stuff which they did apparently do.  The charts seem to agree...anything that I've seen.  On the other hand older machines are choking on it. Ultimately its the same Microsoft arrogant mega corporation attitude with a mix of occasionally doing the right thing and a dose of mismanagement tossed in there.

[Polpolion]

From what you know, can you answer these questions?

What amount of memory do you recommend having if you're going to run Vista?
Have you had any trouble with compatibility?

[jr2]

Personally, I'd think 2GB, based on the rather sluggish performance of two of my friends' comps running 1GB, plus the fact that 1GB is the min required RAM to run Vista with full Aero features.  I like 1GB for XP