Vista available for public download

[slgrieb]

Well, RG, I did notice the evaluations were on notebooks, and I think that's a pretty good test of whether an OS is ready for prime time or not. I think the observations on overall Vista performance are going to carry through to desktops.

Right now I see Vista as most likely having heavier hardware requirements than MS would like us to think, as well as being less mature than it should be. I mean, it was supposed to be released this year after all.

At the moment, it seems likely that upgrading from XP (let alone W2K) is going to require a pretty heavy investment in hardware and time. Not to mention the cost of the OS itself. BTW, could MS make the various versions just a bit more numerous and confusing?

Anyway, while I like the security enhancements and some other things in Vista, I really can't see how I could reccomend it as an upgrade for most of my customers.

[houseisland]

Bear in mind that that realistic hardware minimums for "good" performance are a 3 GHz processor, 2 Gbs of RAM, and a fast SATA hard drive.

Be prepared for driver pain. On my Vista system, I have no support for my sound card, scanner, ink jet printer, TV/Vid capture card (all from major mainstream manufacturers).