[Bubba]

If MS detect a non-genuine version of Vista, it will shut down your copy so that all you can use is a browser.

Reduced functionality mode in Windows Vista will allow the user to use the browser after the reduced functionality mode has begun

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2006/oct06/10-04SoftwareProtection.mspx

Looks like many of us will be sticking with XP then...

[Jim]

there will always be a way around it, thats the beauty of t'interweb

[slackline]

Could always try out GNU/Linux, I switched a few years back for work, and have never looked back.  Everything you need is available, just requires a bit of hunting to find the app, but there are good resources for that.

If your new to it all then your best bet is to go with Ubuntu http://www.ubuntu.com/ as the hardware detection is very good.  Download and burn a liveCD ISO, leave it in the CD-ROM, reboot and boot from the CD instead of your HD, should detect everything automagically (unless you have bleeding edge).  Documentation and forums are really good (I've heard, I use gentoo where docs/forum are definately superb).

[Bubba]

Everything you need is available, just requires a bit of hunting to find the app, but there are good resources for that.

That's the problem for me - with Windows there is so much software available one click away.

You can't run Photoshop/Lightroom on Linux unless you want to run it through an emulator.

You can't run many games.

I like Linux on the webserver but it's not a viable desktop replacement...yet.

One of the reasons for wanting Vista is for playing Halo 2 on dedicated servers. You're not ever going to be able to do that on Linux...

[Control freak]

If MS detect a non-genuine version of Vista, it will shut down your copy so that all you can use is a browser.

Reduced functionality mode in Windows Vista will allow the user to use the browser after the reduced functionality mode has begun

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2006/oct06/10-04SoftwareProtection.mspx

Looks like many of us will be sticking with XP then...

Er... thats not strictly true. It will first turn off all the nice graphics stuff (which to be honest is a bag of crap anyway and I turn it off straight away) and then it will restrict browser use to 1 hour a day.

As far as Im aware you shoudl be able to use other software as normal

[Bubba]

I bet you get those annoying popups all the time as well.

Does Vista run significantly faster than XP?

[Control freak]

Im running RC1 (5600) at the mo and probably wont upgrade now (RC2 is out ) till the corporate release in November. Ive found it to be significantly faster and more stable than XP SP2. The install time is quicker, the boot time is quicker and strangely it seems to download much faster than XP. Theres still a few annoyances - the main one being the UAC which is still a little bit in your face, but much improved on previous releases(you can turn it off but Im trying to work with it ).

On the whole tho Im really happy with this release and for the past month or so now Ive been using vista as my main operating system for all my development work. Oh yeah - one other annoying thing is it doesnt run Virtual Pc 2004 which is a shame as I use virtual PCs alot for setting up different development and test environments

Over all tho its thumbs up