Well, Despite my install of Gentoo linux now looking mighty fine and purdy, it just doesn't have the speed that XP does So keeping that on my 2nd HD and installing the Feb test version of Windows Vista on another partition.

Currently installing, looks like it's going to take a while tho if the progress bar is anything to go by, but so far, I like the look of the installation screen!

Argh, it's using IE7!!!!! 

First impressions, looks nice, 64bit version doesn't detect most my stuff like XP64, so graphics card isn't currently working. New layout of stuff...confusing...but I'll see if it clicks into place later

Oh but what's kind of weird, is the theme on Vista at the mo is sort of similar to the new forum theme i made! I'll post some pics up later

i would love a copy of this! where did you get it?

Well, the legal answer is that I was able to beta test it being part of the MSDN subscriber network - http://msdn.microsoft.com/windowsvista/

However, I'll PM you

Update on how I'm finding it - I'm stuck at a low resolution as the old graphics card I'm using doesn't work I think/half know it'll work in the 32bit version, but NVidia haven't got a Vista driver suitable

Not sure I can be bothered to download the 32bit version

edit: ok I got the graphics card working, forced an install of a similar card and it seems to have done the trick Just a word of warning for anyone thinking of installing it in its current state (full version might be different) - I have just started up my computer and have started up IE7 to type this, memory usage as reported by Task Manager is currently 670-700MB Bit of a change from 350-400MB on my XP64 version!!

Screenshot of the main Vista desktop with the new startbar design (before I got my graphics card working):

Looks totally different from the beginnign. Everything seems seamless.

Oh yes, any bugs so far? been using IE7 with Windows Live Mail Beta. It's way cool, just like outlook. Huge capacity for free  Sadly, my desktop computer ain't due for an upgrade, even though it's been 5years and counting.

ive got msn messenger live beta but what is Windows Live Mail Beta? is it like outlook express?

Live Beta is supposedly having a feel of Outlook or Outlook Express. You can, however, change it to the original hotmail scheme. The best part though is having 2GB worth of email space... without having to pay for them 

You can use right-clicking functions on the emails, drag-and-drop. One thing I don't really like about it is being limited to 1 uploading at a time (which can be a real pain if you file is huge as it's reallllllyyyy sloooowwww  )

I've only used it a little bit because I have the proper Outlook on my laptop, but i must say i'm quite impressed with it, and imo it's better than gmail

Might try using it again later today actually!

i might sign up unless someone has an invite they would like to send me?

It's currently in Beta form, thus, it's free registration based on invitation. I can send you that link if you provide me with your email address. 

Of course, I won't be paying for it if need to, as I have a couple of huge capacity email accounts floating around. 

http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/

looky looky

On phone at the mo - what's it link to? I was going to guess how to put XP on a Mac, but they'd never stick that up on their site.

Posted via WAP (http:///forum/index.php/topic,494.0.html) - Nokia6230i

It's a beta offering by apple of how to install windows on your mac.

Posted via WAP (http:///forum/index.php/topic,494.0.html) - Nokia3200

Put the public beta on - sooo much better than the alpha version I tried, but what on earth have they done with IE7!? It destroys perfectly working and valid sites Shame as otherwise I'd switch back to IE7+ in an instant as seems even faster than FF.

Anyway, installed the 32bit version instead this time as fed up of not being able to install programs to proper drivers as nothing much is 64-compatible yet Seems nice, altho I preferred the Media Player from the alpha version.

I need to get a new graphics card too...my Vista performance rating is a massive...1 That's mainly thanks to the graphics card (32mb geforce2 mx card) being rated as 2, and "gaming" graphics as none-existant, so given a 1!

I finished downloading the public beta earlier today, only for firefox to crash whilst compiling the finished file 

Now I've gotta download all 3GB worth again 

argh!! funnily enough similar thing happened to me, but not *quite* as annoying - i'd left my computer on all day whilst it was downloading, only for my pc to go into "sleep" mode about 1GB into the download! I was unable to resume the download as the software thought it had finished!

I used FlashGet, cos nothing much else runs on XP x64, and it was rather good actually

Ooohhh...so purdy! Now I've got a graphics card that works properly, I can see the nice effects of the Vista OS I quite like it, windows fade and and out, transparency and glowing bits. I still really like the effects on Linux with XGL, esp the kind of bouncy windows when dragging them, but this seems bit, erm, neater I guess. Might have to give XGL a whirl again tho now I've got a better card

Looks like a November 30th release for business customers whilst home users will have to wait until 30th January.

im seriously considering it, is it worth the upgrade from xp?

I like it, nothing groundbreaking though. What graphics card you got? You'll be missing some of the effects if it's not able to support them.

It was weird to get used to at the start (the way you navigate thru folders and stuff is different), but not too bad now.

Hmm what else...DrNo, anything I missed?!

It's like a patched up and made-over version of XP. I've not had XP installed on my desktop so can't do a direct comparison, but it's quite fast (probably faster boot time), IE7 fits in a bit better than it does on XP, search is a bit more speedy (well, a lot - and searches emails too), the sidebar thing on Vista is rather spiffing - shows weather, time, ram usage, rss feeds, etc, networking is meant to be easier, i'm not convinced on that just yet though.

Oh it also has the added bonus of not working with a lot of programs I can't copy songs onto my Sony mp3 player at the mo as the awful sony software which was bad enough to use on XP doesn't work after the first go in Vista. Several other progs don't work (I had Nero problems), but I expect after it's properly released these will be updated...i hope.

I've been running the pre-RC release, so stuff will be missing or broken in this (eg media centre doesn't work so I can't sync pdas), but will be working in the final (if not already working in the proper RC).

I've not been massively impressed by any of it and at the moment I'll only bother upgrading if MS stop supporting XP. Been thinking I might change platforms to something else, I've liked using Ubuntu and I might even consider going back to using my Mac.

Yup it's not really that different - they haven't got the new windows filesystem in it either have they? i haven't read about that for months so not sure what the status is on it.

Considering the amount of time between XP and Vista, there's not a huge difference at all - and the 3d desktop has already been outdone by XGL imo!

I'd be tempted to buy it, but that's only because I lost my copy of XP Pro and have been living off trial and beta versions of Windows since Jan! Although considering the cost of most windows editions...i probably won't!

Although actually...I've still got the validation key thingy...might just download it of a torrent site as it'd still be legit sort of then wouldn't it?

I still find Linux too slow so unwilling to switch at the mo Takes an age to boot compared with XP/Vista, and just generally doesn't feel as snappy.

im currently aquiring vista... and i have a mammoth specced laptop so i should be able to get the most out of vista. we shall see, it all depends on whether i can generate enough free space on an external to back everything up

i like the ie7 critical update.

it's so different to ie6

argggggggghhhh!

Just installed XP again, was looking forward to using IE 6 again instead of IE 7, but in the process of reinstalling all Windows Updates, they've gone and stuck IE7 in there Last time I tried to uninstall the thing it broke IE completely! Hmm maybe I'll have more luck this time.

2nd item I installed (after graphics driver) was FireFox though Plus found a work-around for that really irritating "feature" where instead of Alt + S acting as the shortcut to posting stuff on this forum, it opened the History menu instead So I can finally use FF2 a bit more properly now like how I used to with FF 1.5