5 ms·

i really loved Vista, don't really get the hate. I recently used a computer with vista, and oh boy it is BEAUTIFUL! more prettier than modern flat bland paint-m

i really loved Vista, don't really get the hate. I recently used a computer with vista, and oh boy it is BEAUTIFUL! more prettier than modern flat bland paint-made Windows

iforgotpassword 4y ago
Ok then, but in which ways was it better than 7? I'm firmly in the "Vista was pretty unpolished" camp, and it wasn't helped by the fact that like the majority of people, I first experienced it on underpowered hardware, adding insult to injury. The story goes that during development, Microsoft overestimated the advances that would be made regarding raw computing power, extrapolated from previous years where we did in fact move crazy fast. So when 7 rolled along, half of the performance issues were solved by hw finally catching up, the other half were tweaks and fixes by MS. The UI I think was improved across the board. So that's why I'm curious what the Vista fans loved so much about it compared to 7.
- lmm 4y ago
  > Ok then, but in which ways was it better than 7? The way I remember it it was less gratuitously flashy, or at least easier to switch back into a win2k-like mode. Doesn't 7 force you to use a GPU-accelerated desktop or something?
  - layer8 4y ago
    You could still switch to the classic look & feel on Windows 7, which turned off DWM (GPU acceleration). It was Windows 8 that removed that option, forcing DWM.
- mavhc 4y ago
  Vista was a multi year beta test for 7
  - mst 4y ago
    Vista had a lot of genuine security improvements for corporates, the extent to which you could create a much more reliable environment with judicious use of group policy was actually genuinely impressive. Honestly, apart from the horrible mistake they made around UAC prompting, most of the rough edges didn't bother me and once I got used to it and could just follow the paths I'd beaten previously to get it to do what I wanted it to, for me it was "mostly just another slightly different Windows UI atop a kernel+OS layer that for my purposes appeared to Just Work. I am well aware this was not the experience a lot of people had with Vista.
    - fishtacos 4y ago
      What horrible mistake was made with UAC prompting? The alternative is admin-privileged programs do not run. See Linux and sudo for an actual terrible decision in privilege escalation in terms of desktop usage.
      - mavhc 4y ago
        Vista prompted for everything, so much so you'd get fatigued and auto click yes, making it useless. What's up with sudo?
        fishtacos 4y ago
        Sudo is unusable in a GUI. Simple as that. It's unintuitive to create a user with sudo rights, and it is unintuitive to run a program with admin rights in a DE. Vista upgraded the security expectations, although rather harshly compared to XP, but much more useful than anything Linux had or still has. Being prompted vs. looking up commands in manpages/wikis/blogs are two very different things. Pretending that blindly typing "sudo" in a terminal prompt anytime a command doesn't work without it doesn't make it any better than UAC.
        mavhc 4y ago
        If I try to run, say, software updates on Ubuntu, it prompts me for my password/fingerprint, isn't that the same?
- chungy 4y ago
  > but in which ways was it better than 7? Vista lets you turn off ClearType, has the classic start menu, still retains the older quick launch, has the fully-featured classic theme customization, Paint and WordPad didn't get assaulted with a ribbon facelift yet. Windows 7 isn't unworkable with the addition of some third-party customization apps, but you could do a lot more to smack sense into Vista without reaching for them.
- philliphaydon 4y ago
  I didn’t hate vista. It was the same as 7 just that 7 was without the drm and a new coat of paint. Vista mainly got a bad rap in the beginning cos driver support sucked. Had 7 come out instead of vista then the same driver issues would have existed. However when all the drivers were out 7 came out and used all those same drivers and people were like “omg it’s soooo much better” even tho it was basically the same thing.
tstrimple 4y ago
Based on my admittedly shoddy memory, I believe most of the hate against Vista was due to its early release and lack of drivers with moving to a new model requiring signing. This broke a lot of legacy drivers and thus the hardware no longer worked without the manufacturers providing an update. I was mostly on newer hardware so didn't have the compatibility issues a number of users experienced with that migration.

i really loved Vista, don't really get the hate. I recently used a computer with vista, and oh boy it is BEAUTIFUL! more prettier than modern flat bland paint-made Windows

iforgotpassword 4y ago

Ok then, but in which ways was it better than 7? I'm firmly in the "Vista was pretty unpolished" camp, and it wasn't helped by the fact that like the majority of people, I first experienced it on underpowered hardware, adding insult to injury. The story goes that during development, Microsoft overestimated the advances that would be made regarding raw computing power, extrapolated from previous years where we did in fact move crazy fast. So when 7 rolled along, half of the performance issues were solved by hw finally catching up, the other half were tweaks and fixes by MS. The UI I think was improved across the board. So that's why I'm curious what the Vista fans loved so much about it compared to 7.

lmm 4y ago
> Ok then, but in which ways was it better than 7? The way I remember it it was less gratuitously flashy, or at least easier to switch back into a win2k-like mode. Doesn't 7 force you to use a GPU-accelerated desktop or something?
- layer8 4y ago
  You could still switch to the classic look & feel on Windows 7, which turned off DWM (GPU acceleration). It was Windows 8 that removed that option, forcing DWM.
mavhc 4y ago
Vista was a multi year beta test for 7
- mst 4y ago
  Vista had a lot of genuine security improvements for corporates, the extent to which you could create a much more reliable environment with judicious use of group policy was actually genuinely impressive. Honestly, apart from the horrible mistake they made around UAC prompting, most of the rough edges didn't bother me and once I got used to it and could just follow the paths I'd beaten previously to get it to do what I wanted it to, for me it was "mostly just another slightly different Windows UI atop a kernel+OS layer that for my purposes appeared to Just Work. I am well aware this was not the experience a lot of people had with Vista.
  - fishtacos 4y ago
    What horrible mistake was made with UAC prompting? The alternative is admin-privileged programs do not run. See Linux and sudo for an actual terrible decision in privilege escalation in terms of desktop usage.
    - mavhc 4y ago
      Vista prompted for everything, so much so you'd get fatigued and auto click yes, making it useless. What's up with sudo?
      - fishtacos 4y ago
        Sudo is unusable in a GUI. Simple as that. It's unintuitive to create a user with sudo rights, and it is unintuitive to run a program with admin rights in a DE. Vista upgraded the security expectations, although rather harshly compared to XP, but much more useful than anything Linux had or still has. Being prompted vs. looking up commands in manpages/wikis/blogs are two very different things. Pretending that blindly typing "sudo" in a terminal prompt anytime a command doesn't work without it doesn't make it any better than UAC.
        mavhc 4y ago
        If I try to run, say, software updates on Ubuntu, it prompts me for my password/fingerprint, isn't that the same?
chungy 4y ago
> but in which ways was it better than 7? Vista lets you turn off ClearType, has the classic start menu, still retains the older quick launch, has the fully-featured classic theme customization, Paint and WordPad didn't get assaulted with a ribbon facelift yet. Windows 7 isn't unworkable with the addition of some third-party customization apps, but you could do a lot more to smack sense into Vista without reaching for them.
philliphaydon 4y ago
I didn’t hate vista. It was the same as 7 just that 7 was without the drm and a new coat of paint. Vista mainly got a bad rap in the beginning cos driver support sucked. Had 7 come out instead of vista then the same driver issues would have existed. However when all the drivers were out 7 came out and used all those same drivers and people were like “omg it’s soooo much better” even tho it was basically the same thing.

tstrimple 4y ago

Based on my admittedly shoddy memory, I believe most of the hate against Vista was due to its early release and lack of drivers with moving to a new model requiring signing. This broke a lot of legacy drivers and thus the hardware no longer worked without the manufacturers providing an update. I was mostly on newer hardware so didn't have the compatibility issues a number of users experienced with that migration.