I’d like to think of myself as pro-Microsoft. I know it has its fair share of detractors amongst the geek community (at last poll: 95% of them, which had an error rate of +/- 5%), but I figure as long as you know what you’re getting into, as I feel I do (most times) it does the trick. Well, anyway. Last week I upgraded to Vista.
By “upgrade” I mean, I actually bought a new PC as I was sick and tired of using a five year old piece of hardware. Elitest to some, I know, but it had just gotten unimaginably slow to use. I mean, I shuddered every time I right-clicked in explorer because I knew I was in for a 30 second wait. Or, even worse, trying to create a “new folder” in the windows explorer area. That’s about a 45 second wait. As I say, my every day Windows experience, even after defraging and deleting and spyware blasting efforts (and actually much more) had become an abomination.
So, I upgraded my PC, and along with it came Vista Premium.
Now, there are a lot of complaints with Vista, but I think that many of them stem from the fact that its a processor and memory hog. I thought this wouldn’t be a problem with a new PC (quad core, 3 gigs of ram) and its not. But there was one thing I heard about but was still unprepared for. And that was how much stuff — software and hardware — is *not* Vista compatible.
- Some favourite shareware games (have you heard of the Cradle of Rome, perhaps?)
- My new terrabyte external hard drive (I had announced it on Pownce a while back — incidentally I have 5 more invites if you’re interested) from Western Digital.
- My dual VTech Skype phone.
- And — *almost* — the xbox media center. But I got *that* to work, thank God, because Vista’s Media Center is also an abomination when compared to the sleek awesomeness of the Xbox Media Center.
For me, everything else about Vista is pretty solid. I don’t quite understand how it cost *billions* to produce, but that’s a post for another time. I mean, the new “search” function is pretty slick, and so is the aero interface, but this incompatibility thing? Its rendered $600 dollars worth of hardware un-usable, and is actually changing what I have to do and buy because of it. I can’t talk using my VTech phone for skype conversations, so now I have to buy another headset. Thank goodness the external hard drive came from Costco, which has an extended return policy on hardware, so I plan to take it back.
But amongst the many things that Vista *doesn’t* have going for it, the incompatibility thing is one thing that cannot, and should not, be ignored for anyone wishing to upgrade themselves out of Windows XP. Even if you have the latest and greatest hardware running it, incompatibility issues may (as they did for me) change, and make more expensive, your every day computing experience.
[and no, I don’t think upgrading to Vista pre-SP1 will help — although I’m doing that as we speak]
August 11th, 2007 at 7:11 pm | Permalink
I’ve only used Vista on my Mum’s machine since she upgraded, when trying to get her on the Internet and fix up a wireless connection for her, but it annoyed the hell out of me.
Every time the screen went dark and Vista asked whether I was sure or whether a program could run or if I knew what I was doing I wanted to scream. Incompatibility can cost you money as you have pointed out, Tony, but if I “upgraded” to Vista I think I would lose my sanity.
Good thing the new iMacs look good!
August 11th, 2007 at 8:22 pm | Permalink
Heh, heh. Ah yes, the continual “hey, do you *really* want to do this” nag screens. As I said — I’m a patient, man. Rendering previously purchased hardware is where I really draw the line, though. ;)
August 12th, 2007 at 12:15 am | Permalink
My XP box is humming along quite nicely, so I have no need to do anything in the near term, but I do know this: my “Vista Upgrade” is going to be to Mac OSX.
August 12th, 2007 at 12:21 am | Permalink
Yea, one of these days I probably will buy a Mac. I just don’t know when. ;)
August 12th, 2007 at 1:05 am | Permalink
it’s my night to find the great geeky sites! Tony, I am confused by your XBox comments. XBox doesn’t have a media center; it’s just a media extender.
I upgraded to Vista via a new OEM machine in January (though I too am going Mac sometime soon!) and found that the integration with the media extender in Xbox was much more seamless than it was in XP. If you mean that you liked XP’s Media Center interface better you may be able to mess around with the settings of Media Center within Vista and make it more to your liking (in terms of how it displays info).
The compatibility issues stink :( But I’m surprised it doesn’t work with the new WD drive — it’s NEW hardware!
August 12th, 2007 at 1:15 am | Permalink
Ah, Robert, welcome.
When you say “geeky”, this is what *I* mean: When i am talking about the Xbox Media Center, I am referring to the XBMC, which is an open source project that allows your Xbox to play virtually any kind of media source you throw at it — dressed in a very sexy user interface to boot.
http://www.xboxmediacenter.com/info_project.htm
http://www.xboxmediacenter.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page
http://www.productwiki.com/microsoft-xbox/article/how-to-go-from-xbox-to-xbox-media-center-in-30-minutes.html
Basically its a ‘mod’ of the original Xbox programming that either requires a chip, or a backdoor method through a first generation game. Its not real easy to do, but once you get it up and going its better than sliced bread.
… what you’re probably talking about is the media extender for the xbox, which you’re probably referring to:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/mediacenter/extender/owner/mcxkit.mspx
Believe me when I say that I’ve tried Windows Media Center and I’ve tried the Xbox Media Center, and I say this without trace of hyperbole or self-doubt:
The XBMC blows it out of the water. ;)
August 12th, 2007 at 1:21 am | Permalink
Aww man, I’m so behind the times. THANK you. I’ll have to check it out because I don’t love the existing XBOX integration. Mostly to get my media from PC to living room these days I’ve been using the web browser on the PS3 to access my Orb Networks account (orb.com)and streaming that way.
BTW, don’t take that as any love for Sony — they make me miserable in so many ways!
August 12th, 2007 at 1:35 am | Permalink
Believe me, if you find any success with it (and really, checking out your blog, you probably have the chops to do it without any difficulty — all it really takes is for you to purchase a dongle that will allow you to move data onto a save game cartridge) let me know.
Everyone that has tried it really hasn’t gone back. I have pretty much created a catalogue of my movies on a few external hard drives and I use the XBMC as a jukebox for that (has no problems playing ripped DVD’s) and everything else that I have. Its versatile [you can also do some editing with the xml files for greater versatility] and it can stream video from your PC — truly, it is greater than sliced bread. :)
August 12th, 2007 at 1:52 am | Permalink
I think I have the chops for it. Will it stream MP4 video too (non-DRM protected)? If it does, even if it takes me 3 days to figure it out, it will be worth it.
August 12th, 2007 at 2:01 am | Permalink
According to this it does:
http://www.xboxmediacenter.com/info_project.htm
I should warn you though that it does have problems with the h.264 format specifically. If you wander around the forums perhaps there’s a newer solution to it, but I’ve found that it just has a hard time displaying it without dropped frames. My understanding is that the original Xbox is really pretty old hardware and asking it to out put newer formats — or, *full* HD — is pushing it beyond its intended limits.
Let me know how it works out for you though. There are loads of community forums around the XBMC to suit many tastes (and levels of experience).
Cheers!
t @ dji
August 12th, 2007 at 2:01 am | Permalink
I should add that I have viewed mp4’s that have been encoded in the xvid format without any problems.
August 13th, 2007 at 5:24 pm | Permalink
That’s why I subscribe to the two year rule… I don’t use new car/operating systems/whatever designs in the first two years. This doesn’t include cosmetic updates, but rather underlying core systems.
I working in engineering. I see buggy products go out the door because it’s now or never for the marketing window. I don’t want to deal with that crap at home.
August 16th, 2007 at 12:45 am | Permalink
I stumbled across this article this evening looking to see if there was some way to connect my original XBOX to my Vista Ultimate PC. Is that what you are eluding to, or are you referring to the 360? I’m eager to find out as I just spent 3 hours wiring my house to send a cat5 cable to my living room.
Thanks!
August 16th, 2007 at 1:45 am | Permalink
Hey BigDave,
I am alluding to the original xbox. ;)
The Xbox Media Center may be exactly what you’re looking for. Check out those links above and let me know how it works out for you. Its not the easiest thing in the world but if you just wired your house you just may be up to the task!
Good luck!
January 19th, 2008 at 5:00 pm | Permalink
Drivers and compatibility issues are not something I will hold against Microsoft as much as most do. I find it hard to believe it is Microsoft’s fault that no vendors out there had a clue Vista was being released….we only knew about for 5 years! Driver’s that are not and have not been released is by design. Software that is no longer compatible and requires a new version for $xx.xx is by design. Seems vendors thought it was a good time to rake customers across the coals yet again.
I do have my issues with Vista, things that cause me to want to run a Mac and dual boot it with windows but there are positives with Vista as well. If you disable the UAC life gets a little more enjoyable as well. I suspect that Vista may very well be the new “ME” of Microsoft operating systems - the foundation for some future versions capable of some awesome capabilities.
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