My Vista Experience or lack thereof

I have been a software developer for 15 years.  I have always clamored for new
OS bits.  My wife gets angry with me every time I upgrade from one version of
Windows to the next.  However, it usually doesn't take her long to appreciate
what it has to offer.  I have been installing the Vista Beta's for the past
year.  With every install came the hope that I would have a new enjoyable
experience for my daily programmer life.  However, with every install came a sea
of disappointment.  While every release got better and better, it was never up
to par with my expectations.  I have been running the RTM on three machines
since the bits became available on MSDN.  I needed to upgrade first and foremost
to satisfy my need to improve my daily computing life.  However, from a
practical standpoint, I needed to understand the changes that were made and test
my software products on Vista.  Here is a list of my gripes, with a few
accolades.

Accolades:

Aero - Cool, improves the user experience and makes the computer a more
enjoyable to use.
Explorer - While confusing to learn and way too busy, I got used to it and now
really like it.  I think I may even be more productive using it.
Search - It is nice to have integrated search.  I find myself using it often.

Gripes:

Performance - Frankly it sucks!  If you have single core machine, don't even
bother.  Not only is everything slower, but you your machine frequently decides
to take a break and stop responding all together.  Very annoying.
Compatibility - There are several pieces of my software applications that just
don't work anymore.  I have had to make numerous code changes to get my test
suites working again.  This will require a new release of my code, very
expensive.  I think most software vendors are in this position.  I have several
run of the mill software applications, like Quicken, that just don't work well
anymore.  ITunes, forget it.  You can't listen to any of your purchased music. 
K9 Web filter let the porn flow…  What was Microsoft thinking?  Do they really
expect that almost every software vendor out there is going to fix their
software for this OS...well YES because they won't have a choice.  But they are
not going to be happy about it.
Security - Okay, maybe this security model is better, but seriously???  I have
to authorize my machine to do stuff all the time and I am already an
administrator.  I'm no UI wizard, but I know, as a user, the experience of this
security model really bites.
Bugs - RTM???  Performance is bad, frequent pauses, Explorer goes south quite
often.  Sounds like someone got fed up at Microsoft and said..."Just Ship
it...we can always send out a patch later."

Wife’s Conclusions:  "Can you put my computer back to the way it
was?"  My wife uses the computer every day mostly for internet stuff.  One
month of Vista was enough.  She asked me how hard it would be to put XP back
on...she really can’t understand the pain...but I'll do it.

My Conclusions:  As a software engineer, it will be shoved down my throat by the
Microsoft marketing machine.  As a power user, I'm intrigued.  As a developer,
I'm pissed.  As a normal user, where’s my old OS???  I honestly can't
recommend Vista to anyone.  Unfortunately it will be the only OS available from
Dell in the near future.  Maybe Microsoft will fix some of these problems, but I
doubt it.  Most of them are designed right in.  I have already gone back to XP
on my Dell M70 Laptop.  Wow, what a relief!  Performance is back!  My home
machine will be back to XP within a week.  And, unfortunately the Dell
Workstation will keep Vista because I have to develop and test for it.

 

Here's the info on the three machines I used Vista RTM on:

Dell Precision Workstation 390 - Intel Core 2 Duo X6800 2.96Ghz Extreme, 146GB
SAS, 2GB RAM, NVidia FX3450-256MB

Dell Precision Workstation M70 - Intel Pentium M 2.0Ghz 2MB Cache, 80GB 7200
IDE, 2GB RAM, NVidia FX G0 1400-256MB

Home Built - Intel 2.5Ghz Pentium, SATA Drive, 2.5GB DDR, NVidia FX 5950 -
256MB

Thanks for the info.  I have a Dell M70 just like yours, and will probably keep
that on XP until the performance can be figured out.

so you are saying unless ya have the top processor of the day don`t bother
getting vista?

Was thinking of upgrading soon but?

I had one of the later beta's of vista running very well (maybe 5% slower than
xp but not noticably unless you timed it) on a old AMD1800+ with 768mb ram and a
ati radeon 9600xt, so i'm not sure what could be your issue performence wise, I
assume you've got all the latest drivers and stuff for your hardware not just
gone with the windows defaults (which tend to be slow but have absolute
compatability)

As a software developer myself, I can understand your upset. However, I would
like to say that the experience you described is more of a compatiblity issue
with the older software installed along with Vista on your machines - and not
Vista itself. Plus, all of the versions you have installed are
"beta's" and will have changes and updates along the road to adjust
& tweak Vista. You do not have a finished product, as it will be here in Feb
'07 with the issues you described mostly gone. 

Vista is different from ANY technology that was around a year ago and your
machines were built and designed with the past years's technology. They are not
ment to meld so perfectly for all, no more so than today's products interacting
with software made in 2012. 

As a fellow developer, I have great respect for you and have a security software
product I was developing for XP, but it took me way to long to do it! So I am
reworking it. Maybe for Vista. Maybe for XP. Maybe never. Either way, I am more
pleased with the overall advancement in technology than with being angry that my
cart was upset.