Link for free Windows Vista RC1

[RagingSamster]

Downtime for upgrade! I will be reloading the OS this afternoon. there's built in Media Center support, hopefully it's compatible with my tuner card. To put MS to the official "OMG" test, I will try to upgrade to vista, if the upgrade goes well, I know the end of the world is near.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/preview.mspx

The link for any other stalwart souls who love pain and grief

[Ghryphen]

Good luck :D

[RagingSamster]

It's up. trying to get media center functionality working (currently D/Ling 2 weeks worth of TV listings. The build is the "ultimate" version basically includes everything in the windows OS pile, it can be tailored for a corporate active directory environment or for home use. Now to see if wow works out of the box...

[Ghryphen]

Nice, I've been talking to a few people who are using Vista, they appear to like it. I have media center on my laptop, I <3 it :D

[RagingSamster]

Both Wow and the TV tuner work - at the same time!

Although framerates for the TV did not slow, wow slowed to 5-10FPS

Some incompatibilities on the driver front, my wireless card is down - still looking for drivers and the realtec AC97 sound keeps beeping at me telling me to DL a new version and my AVG antivirus is kaput for now... but this is still better than any other "upgrade" I've done. I think my next project will be a fresh load and put the user data/ programs back on afterwards.

[Nizuttz]

Yeah I have been beta testing Vista for the last year and a half. The new RC1 is definately the most stable and compatible so far. I have it dual booted right now as there are a few enterprise level applications it still has some issues with.

[RagingSamster]

I figure that since RC1 doesn't expire until next June, I'll stay with it until they launch, then go with the "Ultimate" version (I know a guy in MS-doesn't everyone??)

Vista will take a while to get used to, the move from 9X-win2K to XP seemed a lot less challenging than Vista. It seems like they've "dumbed down" security and settings enough that everything is difficult to configure. I'm wading through the system looking for ways to accomplish chores that should come naturally but that's the pain of learning any new system. (this time it's much more akin to linux in it's attempt to bury core settings like network protocols and wireless settings - pita for those used to pre-Vista MS

[Nizuttz]

Vista certainly is very much like linux in a lot of ways.

[RagingSamster]

Linux like indeed. I found out how to have wireless connectivity after boot. For some strange reason the WLAN service was set to "manual" in Services, I set it to automatic and badda-boom badda-bing it works. While that does aid in security, not providing a power cord would provide security in the same manner.

My Free AVG does not work with Vista, but AVAST works fine so far. I actually was going to download McAfee (Comcast customers get it for free) But Vista is wiser than that, and even adding McAfee to the trusted sites in IE Vista would not let me get near the download area, (Vista redeemed itself from the wireless problem a little with that.)

[Nizuttz]

McAfee is not compatible either, there is a wiki that can show you the compatibility.

[PsychomanX]

So this is a free trial OS until it releases?

[SilverTalon]

;37312']So this is a free trial OS until it releases?

Basically, at which point it will become a "pay for" trial OS in the tradition of all Windows OSes.

[Ghryphen]

I really like MS OneCare, it is clean, very quiet and unobtrusive and I really like the Windows firewall enhancements. I've gone through Norton, AVG and Avast. Never liked Mcafee.

[Nizuttz]

Yeah MS has stepped it up a bit on this one, I don't know that its enough yet though.

[SilverTalon]

My only concern is that Microsoft is in a no-win situation.

If they don't do a thorough job, people will blast them for not doing it. If they do a good job, places like Norton and McAfee will sue them for being a monopoly and trying to drive them out of business.

[Nizuttz]

Well thats goes into my whole rant about there is no right to be in business.

If you wanna be in business and stay in business then suck it up and do what it takes... stop being little whiney pussy's and adapt.

[RagingSamster]

It is scheduled to deactivate in June 2007... that's a long time to go without a format and reload on an MS platform lol...
I'm little by little picking up the pieces I need to make it workable, I think I will actually buy Ultimate when it comes out. Because the most important feature is already there right out of the box... It runs WoW quite well.

Another reason is the MS Media Center functionality - I can resize the TV to takeover whatever screen real estate I give it. The Powercolor's software will not shrink it down far enough for my liking, I haven't tried Myth TV or any of the others, so I don't have much room to talk but the VDR and the guide work really well, I still need to dig deeper into it to see about recording filesize/customization etc but me likey!