Sorry for the lack of posts, but with the holiday season, things have been hectic around here. Sophia officially died last month, and I replaced her with a brand new Compaq Presario C714NR. Her name is Ruri Ruri (or just Ruri for short). She has a Pentium Dual-Core processor, 2 GB of RAM (came with 1 GB), Intel integrated graphics (which surprised me in how good they actually are), DVD Burner, Vista Home Premium (which also surprised me in how well it works, but more on that in a bit), 15.4" widescreen, blah, blah, blah. We'll get the big question out of the way right now: No, I have not put Ubuntu on her yet. I will, but I just haven't gotten that far yet. Vista is running surprisingly well, and with the hectic world of the holidays, I haven't taken the time to partition and install Ubuntu. That being said, Ruri will dual-boot; Vista runs so well that I don't feel the need (or even a slight urge) to get rid of it.
Thoughts on Vista
What are my thoughts? Have I run into any of the horror stories? Does it really turn your peripherals into flesh-eating zombies that try to rip your face off? The surprising thing is that it runs great for me. Ruri was a little sluggish on the boot and during gaming (though still WAY faster than Sophia was) out of the box, but that was due to only having 1 GB of RAM. So there is credence to that claim; I really wouldn't suggest running it with less than 2 GB. I popped in a couple of 1 GB sticks within a week (they were on sale at Best Buy for $30 a pop). Other than that, I have no complaints. While it's a RAM hog (sits at roughly 55% of RAM usage on average), it doesn't seem to eat much of the processor; I hover around 10% of usage with iTunes, Outlook, Sidebar, and Pidgin running in the background. I like it better than XP as far as the interface goes. I have always loved the Aero look. I think the blur is way cool (I'm ADD, so pretty things tend to hold my attention!), and it runs smooth. I am in love with the new Start menu system; having a scrollable box with all your programs as opposed to columns of lists is wonderful! And you can just type the name of the program (or file) you're looking for for instant access. The Sidebar is pretty cool, though hardly original. I wish it had as many options as Google Sidebar, but I don't like that Google emblazons it's name twice, so I'm not using it. At any rate, it has everything that I need (weather, calendar, slideshow, etc).
Gaming
I haven't put a lot of games on here yet, but those that I have worked well. The highest end game I've tried is Call of Duty 4, and it's only a little slow with visuals set high. I ramped them down a bit and it runs fine. That game is insane, by the way. I've played and beat the demo about 4 times and I still love it. It's definitely on my list of games to get. Star Wars: Empire at War runs smoothly at full resolution and visuals. WoW? I don't play it (I know I'd get addicted, and I don't need that), so I can't comment there.
Applications
Aside from actually running smoothly, the biggest surprise for me is how fast applications load. Office 2007 apps load as if they're just a part of the system, and even large apps like Photoshop CS3 load within seconds. Now, all of this has to be taken with a grain of salt as I'm coming off of a 4 year old laptop to a brand new one. I went from single to dual-core and doubled my RAM. (That being said, I did have a desktop with a 2.5 GHz Athalon and a G-Force FX card a few years ago, so I do have a bit of a basis of comparison.) Vista is actually known for slowing down everything, but with 2 GB of RAM, it's not noticible. Everything loads fast, and I have yet to run into anything that isn't fully loaded within 10 seconds. Sophia was having a great day if she loaded anything in 10 seconds in XP or Ubuntu. lol
Peripherals
I have yet to plug something into Ruri that Vista can't imediately identify and load. At any given moment, I have my Maxtor OneTouch 120 GB external hard drive, WACOM tablet, Targus Bluetooth USB adapter, Logitech LX710 cordless keyboard and mouse, HP F340 printer/scanner/copier, and usually my Archos 404 and Sansa Connect all plugged in. No issues at all.
Conclusions
All in all, I actually like Vista. I had expected bad performance, BSODs, and freeze ups, but I have yet to run into any of those. I'm fairly certain that this is because of running a Dual-Core laptop that was built specifically for Vista, so I don't necessarily recommend it to those with older machines. I have yet to run into any software compatibility issues, but I know there are a lot out there, so do your research if you're considering a switch. For example, my Dad is about to replace his computer, but some of his essential software isn't Vista-compatible yet, so I'm going to have to wipe it and put XP Pro on it for him. Do the research and find out if everything you need works with Vista. For me, it works and I love it. Not as much as Ubuntu, but I like it better than any other version of Windows.
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