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Freezebyte
2[H]4U
- Joined
- Sep 21, 2008
- Messages
- 2,403
Well, I'm still amazed I made the jump. After the long hoolah and jabbering about Vista from haters and lovers from its beta days, to its unclimatic and tainted launch, the barrage of MAC hate adds about Vistas flaws to the updated opinions of folks on here about it after being fixed and tweaked and learning that some things simply needed to be "tried" before you can "judge" I decided that it was time to say goodbye to my faithful old friend, Windows XP Pro for the last time.
Me and XP go back to spring of 2002. I had built my first machine in the summer of 01 with 98 SE *Hey, I was learning back then!* After building my first machine and using it, I began to become VERY aware of the faults with the old OS to the point where I felt it was time to get something more stable and future proof. With some store credit and a student discount, I managed to snag the "Upgrade" of XP Pro for about $75. Thanks to the "trick" during install, I did a full rebuild on my system with the new XP and never looked back.
Today, I am amazed and thankful to the amount Windows XP has tought me about PC, Networks, machines, OS, software, drivers, compatibility ect..ect... From starting off with no knowledge of basic OS functions or differences to helping users ranging from mom and dad walkins at my first IT job to the multimillion dollar investment company IT structure that spans the globe that I help build/manage today, XP has been a big part of my life both personal and professional. I've seen the slow transformation of XP from the "red headed step child" of the OS during its youthful days to seeing the "dedicated" base of users who will not part with it at any cost. Amazing how time and use can change opinions, especially in the IT world.
To many of us and me included, we almost seem to encase our selfs in a "shell" of saftey and "comfort" after using an OS that we finally "mastered" understanding its flaws and utilizing its positivies. We don't like leaving that shell and when Vista began to threaten our "comfort" way of PC usage, it was such an easy target to compare the two intitially, even if that person had no first hand knowledge and/or experience with Vista, they just simply jumped on hate bandwagons like everyone else did, *me included*
Other then moving the mouse cursor a few times at store displays, I never gave Vista a fair try or decent sit down and use experience. Like many haters, I poo pooed it just cause it was the "in" thing to do *cough, MAC adds*. However, my viewpoint started to change with my plans for a new system build after 3 years since my last. With so much that had changed in 3 years to the hardware aspect, 6.5 years is a lifetime for an OS and after digging deeper into the mindsets of Vista users, I felt maybe it was time to give myself a new training course in a different and new OS. I had basically mastered XP in all the areas I needed to, but was feeling that if I didnt' expand my horizons and take on the challenge of trying the "new" OS of the future, I felt I was doing myself a disservice as well as limiting my learning potential and free training for my current and future jobs that will be including Vista usage for our clients.
Feeling it was time to give it the college try, I went all out and decided to also do the big "64 bit" move and join the revolution as it were in PC software, so I went with the Vista Home Premium OEM 64bit. It's time to find out about this 64bit world that AMD worked so hard to push for years ago with the Athlon 64 launch.
After my final parts arrived for my build Friday, I set out early Saturday morning to build my new rig. Once I had achieved *and breathed a sigh of relief* that my new machine booted up, I unwrapped the white box, popped open the case and slide the DVD into my machine and wondered how much time I was gonna spend troubleshooting/taking aspirin to get my machine running with this new OS.
To my amazement and damn near shock, the install went without a hitch. No strange error messages, no weird lockups other then some palm sweating black screen moments during the install, no strange layout or continual Yes/no setup procedure. Before I knew it, I was staring the Aero login screen in the face. Wow, allright then, but lets see what happens when we start to do the "driver" installs that people all over have stated have caused them to give up on ever using Vista again.
Once again, I didnt' receive one strange install message or abnormal behavior. Everything went streamingly smooth and much to my amazement, the install times were much faster then I had expected. I thought I was maybe loosing sense of time from staring at the monitor for the past 6 hours. However, I was surprised once again to find then when I installed my programs, the time it normally took with XP took damn nearly only half the time with Vista and launching was damn near insane as far as responsiveness. Wow, is this what the 64 bit buzz is all about? I could get use to this.
Before I knew it, my machine was fully loaded and operational. Wow, new hardware all around on a brand spanking new OS that I had no previous experience with and not a single lockup? A crash not in sight? No strange crypted BSOD? No under breath swearing trying multiple versions of drivers? This was almost....too easy!
Then I began the somewhat daunting task of familiarizing myself with the new "functions" and "layout" of Vista. I was impressed with everything seemingly in its "place" and even easier to do then I thought possible in XP. The only canveat was the half and hour trying to figure how to put in manual IP addresses in the "My Network" that I was so used to in XP world had no bearing in Vista land. That and the fact I couldn't get internet for a freaking hour no matter what I checked up until I decided to reboot did it come up functioning. Only then did I realize I shoulda did a reboot after installing the gigabit LAN driver earlier to prevent this
To give myself a helping hand, I pulled out some older issues of Maximum PC and walked through the journey of learning Vista's way of doing things, as well as "tweaking/removing" some minor annoyances, like that mother fucking UAC. Jesus Christ Microsoft, did it ever occur to you that most users don't like continual yes/no questions?
Now i'm happily surfing, web browsing, listening to MP3's, watching my sidebar gadget for CPU/RAM usage while my machine chugs happily away with the smell of new silicon still in the air. I'm flipping through multiple windows with Flip 3D wondering how I managed without this. I have relocated and reorganized folders/gigs of pictures and movies that took mere minutes on the new windows layout and shortcuts. My game installs have gone flawlessy and even faster then I imagined. My system responsiveness and application loading is freaking light speed that I wondered how I managed to deal with XP all this time.
Needless to say, I'm one happy Vista user and I'm looking forward to beginning the next part of my life/career with this OS for years to come.
Windows XP Pro
First loaded: March 2002
Last removal: Nov 2008
"It was an XP era, and it was good"
Me and XP go back to spring of 2002. I had built my first machine in the summer of 01 with 98 SE *Hey, I was learning back then!* After building my first machine and using it, I began to become VERY aware of the faults with the old OS to the point where I felt it was time to get something more stable and future proof. With some store credit and a student discount, I managed to snag the "Upgrade" of XP Pro for about $75. Thanks to the "trick" during install, I did a full rebuild on my system with the new XP and never looked back.
Today, I am amazed and thankful to the amount Windows XP has tought me about PC, Networks, machines, OS, software, drivers, compatibility ect..ect... From starting off with no knowledge of basic OS functions or differences to helping users ranging from mom and dad walkins at my first IT job to the multimillion dollar investment company IT structure that spans the globe that I help build/manage today, XP has been a big part of my life both personal and professional. I've seen the slow transformation of XP from the "red headed step child" of the OS during its youthful days to seeing the "dedicated" base of users who will not part with it at any cost. Amazing how time and use can change opinions, especially in the IT world.
To many of us and me included, we almost seem to encase our selfs in a "shell" of saftey and "comfort" after using an OS that we finally "mastered" understanding its flaws and utilizing its positivies. We don't like leaving that shell and when Vista began to threaten our "comfort" way of PC usage, it was such an easy target to compare the two intitially, even if that person had no first hand knowledge and/or experience with Vista, they just simply jumped on hate bandwagons like everyone else did, *me included*
Other then moving the mouse cursor a few times at store displays, I never gave Vista a fair try or decent sit down and use experience. Like many haters, I poo pooed it just cause it was the "in" thing to do *cough, MAC adds*. However, my viewpoint started to change with my plans for a new system build after 3 years since my last. With so much that had changed in 3 years to the hardware aspect, 6.5 years is a lifetime for an OS and after digging deeper into the mindsets of Vista users, I felt maybe it was time to give myself a new training course in a different and new OS. I had basically mastered XP in all the areas I needed to, but was feeling that if I didnt' expand my horizons and take on the challenge of trying the "new" OS of the future, I felt I was doing myself a disservice as well as limiting my learning potential and free training for my current and future jobs that will be including Vista usage for our clients.
Feeling it was time to give it the college try, I went all out and decided to also do the big "64 bit" move and join the revolution as it were in PC software, so I went with the Vista Home Premium OEM 64bit. It's time to find out about this 64bit world that AMD worked so hard to push for years ago with the Athlon 64 launch.
After my final parts arrived for my build Friday, I set out early Saturday morning to build my new rig. Once I had achieved *and breathed a sigh of relief* that my new machine booted up, I unwrapped the white box, popped open the case and slide the DVD into my machine and wondered how much time I was gonna spend troubleshooting/taking aspirin to get my machine running with this new OS.
To my amazement and damn near shock, the install went without a hitch. No strange error messages, no weird lockups other then some palm sweating black screen moments during the install, no strange layout or continual Yes/no setup procedure. Before I knew it, I was staring the Aero login screen in the face. Wow, allright then, but lets see what happens when we start to do the "driver" installs that people all over have stated have caused them to give up on ever using Vista again.
Once again, I didnt' receive one strange install message or abnormal behavior. Everything went streamingly smooth and much to my amazement, the install times were much faster then I had expected. I thought I was maybe loosing sense of time from staring at the monitor for the past 6 hours. However, I was surprised once again to find then when I installed my programs, the time it normally took with XP took damn nearly only half the time with Vista and launching was damn near insane as far as responsiveness. Wow, is this what the 64 bit buzz is all about? I could get use to this.
Before I knew it, my machine was fully loaded and operational. Wow, new hardware all around on a brand spanking new OS that I had no previous experience with and not a single lockup? A crash not in sight? No strange crypted BSOD? No under breath swearing trying multiple versions of drivers? This was almost....too easy!
Then I began the somewhat daunting task of familiarizing myself with the new "functions" and "layout" of Vista. I was impressed with everything seemingly in its "place" and even easier to do then I thought possible in XP. The only canveat was the half and hour trying to figure how to put in manual IP addresses in the "My Network" that I was so used to in XP world had no bearing in Vista land. That and the fact I couldn't get internet for a freaking hour no matter what I checked up until I decided to reboot did it come up functioning. Only then did I realize I shoulda did a reboot after installing the gigabit LAN driver earlier to prevent this
To give myself a helping hand, I pulled out some older issues of Maximum PC and walked through the journey of learning Vista's way of doing things, as well as "tweaking/removing" some minor annoyances, like that mother fucking UAC.
Jesus Christ Microsoft, did it ever occur to you that most users don't like continual yes/no questions?Now i'm happily surfing, web browsing, listening to MP3's, watching my sidebar gadget for CPU/RAM usage while my machine chugs happily away with the smell of new silicon still in the air. I'm flipping through multiple windows with Flip 3D wondering how I managed without this. I have relocated and reorganized folders/gigs of pictures and movies that took mere minutes on the new windows layout and shortcuts. My game installs have gone flawlessy and even faster then I imagined. My system responsiveness and application loading is freaking light speed that I wondered how I managed to deal with XP all this time.
Needless to say, I'm one happy Vista user and I'm looking forward to beginning the next part of my life/career with this OS for years to come.
Windows XP Pro
First loaded: March 2002
Last removal: Nov 2008
"It was an XP era, and it was good"
