I don't hate Vista. Heck, I've never even used it or installed it. I just plain don't need it. Is it now better than XP? Probably. Do I need it? No. Is it more secure? Probably. Do I need it? No (I have full trust in my security apps and ability to apply common sense to internet usage). Is it now faster in games? Probably. Do I need it? No. A few years ago, I used to spend a lot of money buying computer stuff I didn't need, but those days are past. My single-core CPU, 8800GT video card, 2GB of DDR, and 7 year old OS work just fine for me. My games play beautifully, all apps run just fine, movies play fine. When this system no longer is worthy, I'll spend money to make it better. There are some people who spend money and upgrade for the sake of upgrading, and more power to them. (There are also people who will vehemently defend their decision to spend money they didn't need to...) I personally just don't see any point in it.

all the links are broken now. The thinknet pages don't seem to be available anymore.

Since some people live and die by polls.
http://lifehacker.com/362480/xp-or-vista

61% for XP only 21% for Vista.......

Oh noes, it....can....not....be....true.......

If Windows 7 does not provide an embedded USER-selectable 100% XP-32 backward-compatibility mode for 3rd-party applications, it is going to be another bust like Vista with research institutions, government entities and large public corporations. It seems that Stevie in his Seattle white tower does not understand that in the 6+ years of Windows XP, the PC-business boomed and it stimulated the development of thousands of commercial and custom-built XP-applications now firmly entrenched in many thousands of businesses world-wide. Many of these applications are NOT compatible with Vista and the cost of upgrading and re-evaluating them JUST to be compatible with a new OS consumes significant customer-resources and does not make financial sense. It only makes sense if the Vista upgrade also carries new APPLICATION features that bring tangible benefit to the target customer. The glitzy UI and overblown security-features of Vista bring zero net-benefit to most of the business-customers. Only OK those who only want to run generic Office-style applications. Of course, for those that need the data-memory accessibility of a 64-bit OS, then Vista is the only legitimate current Microsoft candidate-OS. But, then there is always Linux....

Seems that Windows 7 continues down the Vista trail. More superficial glitz. MS still treating those not wanting to move from XP as 'stick-on-the-mud' morons. MS still unwilling to listen/act-on the real reasons for the reluctance to move to Vista. For one key example, Intel has refused to officially deploy Vista. They have many 3rd-party and custom applications developed under XP that are incompatible with Vista.

I think vista was made bad to push windows 7.

Vista owners will never see the small tweaks made to UAC, and other improvements that could easily be added, all for the purpose of pushing the next windows.

Windows 7 is Vista SE/ME.

You don't need a 3rd party firewall for Vista.Its native firewall is far more robust and includes outbound protection so malware can't phone home.
Try operating an XP machine without one and it will be borked in minutes on the Net.

Its simple. Vista is hated for the most part. Its sales come from new consumer PC's (no choice for the user) and from corporate Enterprise Licenses that are not used but are counted.

So lets change a few things in the GUI, or finish them since some things in Vista still use the XP look.

Removes stuff like Mail and movie maker, calendar and make you download the Live versions or buy Office.

Produce hype with these news/beta releases.

Change the name.

Pray the world thinks its NOT Vista and buy it.

Windows 7 = Vista SP2 or Vista R2 or Vista finally finished.

MS peaked its down hill from here. They will never have the market share they once did. They will be a dominant force for years to come but never as much as they were.

Darn MS made him take down all the windows 7 stuff it seems. I missed out on all the hub bub.

This interface looks just like Vista to me, which is simply un-acceptable.

rather than copy and paste my large post from /. over here I'll link to it, it's just one guys opinion but I don't think this looks like an improvement to me at all.

http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=972449&cid=25117199

Why did they release Vista, again? Less than 3 years of being their premier platform makes it seem like they didn't take it very seriously. After that ~7 year long attempt to get it finished, a project that didn't work out so well, I'd say Vista's release was primarily to get back some of that blown R&D money.

Or perhaps they want to be like the Linux world, with a new distro every couple of years. The problem with that for consumers is that Linux is free and MS OSs are very far from free. That also doesn't sound like a way to make driver development easier for companies. We'll have driver packs for XP, XP x64, Vista x86, Vista x64, Windows 7 x86, and Windows x64? lol. (or is there only x64 for Win7?)

Vista will be out there in volume for probably a decade. It's not like the incentive to buy new hardware is increasing for most people. So if they keep dropping releases out the door, we'll end up with lots of Windows editions out in the wild. Seems crazy to me.

Is DX11 only coming for Win7? Wouldn't that be nice. Well that would cause a ridiculous amount of unhappyness so I suppose it can't be the case.

I have a suggestion... What about changing the Windows/Task bar, which is the same since Windows 95? It's enough to take a look at the MacOsX Dock to see why there's a 10 years difference between MacOsX and Windows... And it's not that difficult to find an improvement even to the dock.

This is great. Funny as hell. Windows 7 is just like I thought it would be, Windows Vista with an even higher resource requirements. To all those that skipped Vista in favor of Windows 7, try waiting around for Windows 8.

So new calculator makes new version of Windows, LOL!
How about more fudamental changes?

Why do they keep Paint around, a barebones graphics editor isn't exactly an essential OS function and nobody with half a clue uses it anyway.

Sounds interesting. I'm very satisfied with Windows Vista.

Ribbon toolbars galore.

I see our old friend Calc finally discovered what a Square Root key looks like. I might have to buy it just for that.

same bullshit, why dont they just add the windows xp theme as an option. I hate the vista look.

I think what needs to be said here is this:

Windows XP is truly all anyone ever needs unless they want to play DirectX 10 games. In that case, it would be cheaper to buy a game console than have to upgrade your system to run Vista or Windows 7 better.

Even more is that the reason Windows Xp and 2000 were a success was that they were crash free environments compared to 98 and 95. Once we reached this plateau, there really isn't a need for a new operating system.

It is absolutely pointless to upgrade and pay money for Vista, and the same looks for Windows 7.

#156, So now we know where your poll stuffer training came from huh?

Hehe...notice all the porno spam posts?

It's a poll! It must be true...or something.

Bashing Vista is so 2001.

Wonder how the current Vista V XP poll is doing......?
*checks poll*
No surprises there ..... 90% in favor of Vista.......ouch.

#149,#146 Seriously this whole "OMG" its da poll stufferz is getting lame.
We all know each other's positions vis a vis Vista V XP and they are what they are.
I'll make my arguments where I can but stooping to "he must be cheating" type comments is unworthy of anyone here.
Did you even read the comments each person left?
Think all those in favor of XP were generated by some kind of anti-Vista comment generator do ya?

fanbois wars!!!....:D :D

Just saw the pictures, it looks just like Vista. I have almost every version of Windows, for virtual PC. Windows 96, Windows Neptune, Windows Whistler, Windows FLP, Microsoft BOB. I have 32 different versions in all.

They should have had that functionality years ago. I don't understand why they haven't upgraded the functionality of the calculator with all of the effort they put into other side projects. Is the regular user actually satisfied with the bare-bones calc that is distributed with current windows versions? I know I'd like to finally be able to get my TI-89 off of the desk anytime I want to do some sort of work on the PC.

Microsoft should just make a big Service Pack 2 for Vista...Tada!

Why am I not surprise that "7" preview looks like a refined version of Vista?

Well that is because "7" is going a refined version of Vista.

It further enforces my analogy......

Vista = Windows 95 2.0, Vista SP1 = Windows 95 OSR1 2.0, Vista SP2? = Windows 95 OSR2 2.0?, Windows 7 = Windows 98 2.0

Windows 7 apparently includes a lightweight version of Windows Media Player that starts up almost instantly.

Now windows 7 is PRO pron* ^_^

AWESOME!!! I cant wait to upgrade to Windows 7 so i can use the new calculator!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why does it look like Vista but with different arrangements and names like "Library" vs "My Documents", that's sure to drive people crazy.

I might give a fart if they said that WinFS would be part of Windows 7, and it's seriously been so long since I've heard of WinFS that I wonder how different it is compared to what Mac OS X and Linux uses.

Trying to polish a turd.