14 DAY TRIAL // Upgrading from Windows XP to Windows Vista can be a total nightmare. What started as an average migration to Windows Vista, in an apparent optimal context, ended up revealing the full horror of Microsoft's latest operating system. This is the perspective that Transit, the company that made the switch from XP to Vista felt necessary to share with the world. The conclusion of upgrading to Vista is sad to say the least.
"So far, Transit has been using Vista Business full-time for a fortnight. And so far, we've found nothing that works better than in Windows XP, dozens of things that are annoyingly different without being a functional improvement, and several things that work at best intermittently and at worst not at all. On the whole, we wish we'd never moved," revealed Angus Kidman.
Transit has made what it seems to be a testimony from the hell of Windows Vista. Windows vista Business, that is, pre-installed on a Lenovo machine with nothing but the basic software installed. The only good aspect of the upgrade is captured in these lines by Kidman: "We're writing this on the Vista machine, so a bare minimum of functionality has, arguably, been achieved. But that is, quite literally, the nicest thing we can say about Microsoft's newest operating system."
Transit claims that Windows Vista is "hideously slow" despite running on a system with a powerful processor and a consistent amount of RAM. The company only implies this; it does not deliver the actual hardware configuration.
Transit's list of Windows Vista fault goes on inexorably... Applications crash often, Office 2007 crashes the most, networking capabilities are dead, a Vista certified Linksys wireless router does not work with Vista. The paroxysms come when Transit claims that Internet Explorer 7 in Windows Vista has convinced them to switch to Firefox.
"In a burst of curiosity, we decided to run Microsoft's Vista Upgrade Advisor, to see if our machine was actually up to the task. The first thing it told us was that we didn't have enough drive space (apparently, it's not intelligent enough to realize that Vista is already installed). The second thing it told us was that our display and sound card weren't certified for Vista. The third thing it told us was that none of the Lenovo utilities on the machine were Vista-ready. So much for certification," Kidman added.
Is there any truth to this? I mean the conclusions delivered by Vista Upgrade Advisor seem to point to the hardware and not to Windows Vista. In that case this is an isolated case courtesy of Lenovo and not the fault of Windows Vista.
Coincidentally, I have also been running Windows Vista Business and even for a little more than just two weeks. I only upgraded the RAM, adding 1 GB, on the computer; the rest is the same old hardware that was running Windows XP. I even included my complete system information, having blurred just some non-conclusive areas.
As you can see, my Windows Experience Index is only a modest 3.0. Barely enough to run Aero. I could do with a graphic card upgrade, I know, but the fact of the matter is that I don't need it. Windows Vista Business runs great. Because of Aero it is indeed a tad, slower than Windows XP, but no more than a second. I never experienced any networking problems, but then again, I do know my way around a network... My Vista Business never crashed. I kind of miss the old blue screens. And Internet Explorer 7 convinced me to switch back to IE from Firefox.
