I have read a lot of feedbacks about Vista all over the Internet, and I found almost 98% of them cursing this poor Operating System. Before buying my HP laptop, I insisted on getting an XP version of windows to be installed on my machine. But I was told that this particular model of mine cannot run any old version of Windows, which is true. I was furious then. I thought, how can Microsoft decide which OS should I be using. I even tried installing XP on my machine, but without any success. I really don't understand the reason why I cannot do this. I thought of installing Xubuntu, a Linux based OS, but then as I have heard from so many people of the problems it might cause to my other partitions, I was a bit reluctant. On many occasions, I have seen people crying over their lost data in the process of experimenting with their Operating Systems. With Vista, I didn't want to take any chances.
So, I wrote to the manufacturer of my laptop asking them this weird question. "Can I install Linux as a second OS on my laptop which is already running on Windows Vista? And where do I get the drivers for all my devices for Linux".
The reply I got was,
"Your laptop is designed to work with Vista only. You might not even be able to install XP. And regarding the drivers for Linux, you won't find them anywhere. We don’t support Linux as yet. The best thing we can suggest if you plan to install Linux is to BACK UP YOUR DATA FIRST.
We will inform you once the drivers for Linux are available.
Do let us know your experience since no one else has ever came up with this query. Your feedback might help us to help others."
WOW....I was both happy and disappointed with their reply. "Happy" because, I consulted them before taking that would-have-been fateful step, and disappointed because, there were no drivers for Linux. And without the drivers, I wouldn't get the optimal performance with Linux. So, what’s the point of even trying? This goes for Windows XP as well.
By the time I decided not to play with my laptop as far as the OS was concerned, it had already been a year with my Laptop and Vista. And I have no major complaints. There were some minor problems which I had in the beginning, but when I kept updating my OS with the free updates being released by Microsoft almost every day, those problems seem to have vanished, quite surprising, isn't it?
The first few weeks with Vista were the most difficult ones. On the fourth day of my Laptops Life, Vista crashed. Fortunately, I had my recovery CDs with me. Didn't lose much data then. I had once more crash after about a month when I lost all my data. I was now getting terrified of it. The Recovery CDs helped me again.
Now, it’s been 1 whole year, and except for the 2 hiccups in the early days, I have had a very pleasant experience with My Vista.
The one problem with vista, which so many people complain about, is that it's a resource hog. I don't understand why people feel so. My Laptop came with a mere 512MB RAM. But I had upgraded it by adding one 1GB of RAM. That was the max I could have done. So with 1.5GB of RAM, I have never seen the used memory going beyond 800MB. Of course, 512MB wasn't enough, but if you want to buy a laptop today, the minimum RAM that any average model will be providing would be at least 1GB. With 1GB of RAM, Vista would never stall (At least the Home versions).
Come on guys!!!! Vista is a baby now, just launched. It will surely grow up to be stable and one of the best OSes that Microsoft has come up with. I would suggest you to regularly update your OS from Microsoft. These will surely help you raising this little baby into a cute and charming boy. I can't compare it with Linux or MAC, since I haven't had long experiences with them. I have never seen any MAC OSes, but have heard about its brilliance. I have definitely seen and used Linux, the most recent versions as well, and I would give both of them 9 out of 10 (Linux and Vista).
