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Ask DLS: Vista SP2 Beta released: Does the public care?
Could SP2 actually take care of some of the irritations that have plagued other Vista users? Perhaps more importantly, does anyone really care? Vista has been taking such a beating in the media that it seems as though no one will. Prevailing sentiment seems to be that Vista should be ignored and left to die while development on Windows 7 continues.
While enhancements like Windows Search 4.0, native Blu-Ray media burning, improved wireless, and Bluetooth 2.1 support are great, I've yet to see any perception-altering features mentioned.
Personally, I've never hated Vista, and I've been able to work through or disable any of the annoyances I've encoutered (like UAC). I recently installed Ultimate x64 and I've been enjoying quite a bit. Photoshop CS4 runs like a dream, and Eset recently released a beta of my favorite internet security suite.
My Vista install is running just fine right now, but if SP2 can tweak my system's performance or squeeze a few more minutes of battery life out of my laptop, then I'm all for it.
What are your thoughts? Do you think Vista SP2 will do anything to really improve the OS, or does it stink of a last-ditch effort to "salvage" the experiment?
Comments
34
Subscribe to commentsEli GundryDec 2nd 2008 10:52PM
What do you mean they're not supposed to have holes!?
TimDec 2nd 2008 9:09PM
Hopefully I can install this one, vista never let me install SP1 :-(
I tried every soloution microsoft offered and I reffuse to pay someone to do it for me.
AyleDec 3rd 2008 3:59PM
Have you tried installing the sp1 file instead of going through MS updates?
TimDec 4th 2008 12:26PM
Yeah, done the standalone and the update no luck followed the whole guide.
SlappyDec 2nd 2008 11:25PM
No, the "public" does not care about beta releases.
skooalDec 3rd 2008 4:59AM
Well,
Vista is Vista, you either love it or hate it and a SP2 won´t make a difference....
It did one good thing to me... being disgusted with Vista I jumped on the Linux train and now run under Linux Mint...
Well done Microsoft!!!
scperiDec 3rd 2008 7:59AM
I think Vista is great and I won't be buying Windows 7 just because it's new. Vista was new once and everybody rushed in and looked what happened.
I bought and set up two Vista Business SP1 machines in the office and neither has put a foot wrong in 6 months of continual operation. If you want to contantly add and remove programs, modify and generally push your pc to the limit then you got to expect it to fail once in awhile.
OwenDec 3rd 2008 9:10AM
I'm really confused by the media trash talk about Vista. I've been running Ultimate 64 for over a year, and it purrs.
Yes, you have to sort out your hardware and make sure your vendors provide good drivers, and until you use hardware that's certified for that purpose, expect it not to work or to cause problems. Especially expect issues if you try to hack around Vista's protections and use hardware that's not certified just because you think you should be able to.
Yes, when everyone complains that Windows isn't secure, you need to put up with Microsoft's response in UAC, which is a fantastic step in the right direction. After agreeing to a few annoying prompts during your first week of application installs, you only really see it when it's important to know it's happening.
Sure, there are other weird issues, ones that are easily livable, but I expect that's what the service packs are designed to affect. I suspect that the primary reason that Vista has such a bad image is because the media focuses on the perceived problems and not their causes.
JimDec 3rd 2008 9:27AM
I care. I have been happy with Vista since it appeared and viewed it as an improvement over xp. SP1 was helpful and I assume SP2 will add some tweaks.
Jim MutdoschDec 3rd 2008 12:33PM
Wow look at all the Vista Fan boys. Sure I would love it too if I shoveled out hundreds of bucks or was my only choice and don't know anything different. Seriously...How can anyone Love Vista? Its OK... It's not better than XP. Its has building blocks that hopefully Windows 7 will use to build what Vista should of been. From what I have seen of Windows 7 it is looking great. And if they fix the glaring problems and annoyances that is Vista then it will be an OS people gain can love.
ShtankyDec 3rd 2008 1:28PM
@Jim Mutdosch: "It's not better than XP."
Maybe not for you, but for those of us who like better security, aesthetics, and stability... not to mention DirectX 10, DWM, live previews, integrated speech recognition and instant search, ReadyBoost and the ability to adjust volume separately for separate devices and programs, it's better.
By the way, Vista is not my only choice. I've got ready access to two Vista licenses and three XP licenses (two Pro, one Media) and what seems like 100 Linux distro's that I've burned to CD over the years... and FreeBSD. I took XP Pro off of one machine to put Vista on it.
"And if they fix the glaring problems and annoyances that is Vista . . ."
Please enumerate these glaring problems and annoyances, because I don't know what you're talking about.
Jim MutdoschDec 3rd 2008 1:45PM
UAC...Well I don't know how prompting you for everything amounts to better security...I mean a basic user will grow accustomed to hitting yes all the time just to get it out of the way. I think it was a good idea but way to sensitive and poorly implemented. I think security begins with knowing what not to download or install. I don't see Vista being any more stable than XP. I have never have any stability problems with XP. The only ones that do usually have other hardware or software problems. XP itself is very stable. DirectX10 was already proven to be a dud..I mean slower frame rates and not much improvement didn't give many gamers the must have upgrade feeling. And all the other stuff is just ad on stuff. Most people don't' want all the junk..I know I don't. I want performance, speed, functionality, and yet be able to run on older machines. Windows 7 looks like it might be the ticket. They are improving the performance. Just like when they released Windows ME ... It had a lot of junk but it also came with problems. Then they came out with XP which was a ME look but improved on. That's what most of us hold outs are hoping for. Not that we all hate Vista..Just that it doesn't have any compelling reason and a lot of negative reasons not to upgrade. You just aren't getting your moneys worth. Now with Windows 7 we might get our moneys worth unless they decide to double the price or don't deliver the goods this time.
ShtankyDec 3rd 2008 7:48PM
@Jim Mutdosch: UAC is very easily disabled, and there are security improvements in Vista other than just that.
DirectX 10 is not a dud, developers just haven't caught up yet. New 3D engines don't get developed overnight... that's hardly a shortcoming of Vista.
I don't know what you mean by "add on" stuff, but the new features in Vista are hardly just bloat... if they are, you can say the same about Windows 7, as it *is* Vista.
If your main priority for an OS is running on older machines, then you must think that 86-DOS is really awesome.
Windows XP did not evolve from Windows Me, and the look of XP was not even remotely close to Me. Me was nearly indistinguishable from 98, which makes sense since it was just a messed up version of 98. Windows XP came from Windows 2000, which came from NT4. Me came up from 3.1, 95, and 98.
You obviously don't have much (perhaps no) experience with Vista, and you don't know very much about how Windows has evolved in general. Sorry, but it's hard for me to take your opinion seriously when you have demonstrated enormous ignorance of the topic and won't provide examples of the "glaring problems and annoyances" that you claim plague Vista.
conorDec 3rd 2008 10:16PM
Glary Utilities made blue screens go the way of the dodo bird. I wonder what my sister did on this? 1,346 registry errors!