Hey, I like Vista!

[Bfskinnerpunk]

I have been avoiding Vista due to the negative chatter. Ordered my T61 w/ XP about a year ago.

But I just bought my girlfriend a basic HP notebook with an AMD processor, 4 gigs, for $550 at Staples.... Vista Home Premium.

What the heck?

It is a pleasure to use! Office 2007 opens in a snap, everything works as it should, and somehow manages to feel a bit more slick than my XP computers. In fact, I just bought a new wireless printer. It was a bit of a hassle and time consuming to install the software on XP. On Vista, it installed quick and without a hiccup. [It felt OSX easy]

Maybe when "7" comes out, I'll install that on the T61.

Useless banter, I suppose, but I thought I'd chime in for fellow newbies.

I am certainly not a poweruser.

BF

I'm not sure what I'm supposed to hate about Vista anymore.

[Marin85]

I'm not sure what I'm supposed to hate about Vista anymore.

Actually nothing. Oh, well, I could tell you a few things, but I won´t because I don´t want to spoil your joy about Vista At least, I now know that I´m not the only soul that finds Vista nice (nicer than XP?)

Thanks,

Marin

[jdhurst]

I have Vista Business 64-bit running on a T61p along with Office 2007 Professional. Yes - it all starts faster, opens faster and runs faster making the whole thing pleasant to use. It took a long time for software to catch up, but it has, and it took me a long while to make it fit me, but it does, and now there seems no reason to stay away.

I, too, am looking forward to Windows 7 to replace my IBM XP Desktop machine. ..... JDH

[Bfskinnerpunk]

.Some questions:

So, is turning my t61 into a vista machine as easy as just buying a copy of Vista?... or are there some hoops?

I'm thinking of upgrading from my 160gig hard drive... so maybe I just do the whole thing at once... a clean flush. Dare I ask how to do this here?... or will I be scolded for not doing a search?

Alright, I'm going to start a search.

By the way, on my girlfriend's weak little AMD notebook... I have done no tweaking to Vista at all (I wouldn't know what to do, anyway).... and it works swimmingly. I did remove Norton.

Thanks

[jdhurst]

My advice (plastered all over this forum) is to forget Vista (and the forthcoming Windows 7) *unless* you are going 64-bit. I see no point to a 32-bit machine from 1/1/2009 forward. Why bother?

So assuming your T61 is 64-bit (mine is), you find all the drivers and then get a copy of Vista 64-bit to install. If your T61 supports 64-bit Vista, a simpler approach would be to find and purchase a set of T61 recovery CD's. It will make the driver job easier, and it is relatively straightforward to eliminate the few things you don't need or want.

The bigger issue is all the rest of the software you may need. I have a daily driver that acquits itself by doing nearly anything that needs doing in the work world, so I had to replace a lot.

Good luck, .... JDH

[Bfskinnerpunk]

How can I tell if my T61 is capable of 64 bit?

The processor is a T9300 2.5ghz w/ 2g of Ram.

[Marin85]

How can I tell if my T61 is capable of 64 bit?

The processor is a T9300 2.5ghz w/ 2g of Ram.

Well, I can tell you that it´s x64 capable

Marin

EDIT: is´t -> it´s

[Harryc]

Any Thinkpad that came out of the factory with a Core 2 Duo CPU is capable of running a 64bit OS. There are some Celeron and Core Duo models that can do it as well, but you need the correct chipset and again, a Core 2 Duo CPU upgrade.

[dsvochak]

What jdhurst wrote. Remember, if you move to 64bit you may have to update a lot of software.

Vista Business 32 came preloaded on a machine I bought a couple of weeks ago. My take is there are some things that are improvements over XP, some things (“search”) which aren’t. As yet I haven’t found a compelling reason to either upgrade from XP on other machines or, conversely, to downgrade from Vista to XP.

Without a compelling reason to upgrade, I can’t justify the cost.

[GomJabbar]

dsvochak, I pretty much agree with your take on Vista and XP. Either one is fine and I see no compelling reason to upgrade or downgrade. I bought a copy of Vista Ultimate SP1 once the price dropped, but the only reason was my curiosity with operating systems (and the "excuse" to help my daughter remotely who bought a laptop with Vista Home Premium on it).

[hellosailor]

One caveat: those nice new HP systems shipping with 4GB of RAM and Vista/64 (which usually is NOT mentioned on the shelf or in the store) will not run some old Windows software, or work with some older hardware. There are driver issues, and support for Win-16 (IIRC) software has been dropped. I found that out when trying to reinstall dozens of classic old games for someone moving up from an old WIn98 system. Goodbye, Invaders and Asteroids!

[jdhurst]

One caveat: those nice new HP systems shipping with 4GB of RAM and Vista/64 (which usually is NOT mentioned on the shelf or in the store) will not run some old Windows software,<snip>

No surprise there. I replaced (read: paid upgrade $) for 90 percent of my software to get to 64-bit
... JDH

[ssd_thinkpad]

Vista is great indeed for me when disabling aero. Then, it looks like xp but with all the new technology in it.

[archer6]

No surprise there. I replaced (read: paid upgrade $) for 90 percent of my software to get to 64-bit
... JDH

Now this is progress.... and I have absolutely no problem with having to upgrade to compatible software when it's a distinct benefit in terms of speed and efficiency....

Cheers...