I have a major problem with Vista Home Basic as Microsoft have managed to actually market an Operating System that doesn't even recognise their own products. I use a Multimedia Natural Keyboard at home with Intellitype Pro 6.1 software (which I had to download from their website as my own drivers were not good enough).

It then came up stating that there was a known compatability problem between Vista and the keyboard but what it spectactularly failed to do was provide a fix. I then tried to get hold of MS themselves via their 'customer technical support' only to be told that they don't do a free support for my keyboard and if I wanted to proceed with my query, they would charge me £46 plus VAT!

So I think what is missing is the capability within Vista itself to recognise and run cleanly and quietly old (and not so old - my keyboard is barely 2 years old) Microsoft products.

All in all, what Vista is missing is ELEGANCE.

Simplicity. That sort of thing.

Complaining about 'having to' run Vista is like driving a Hummer H2 around town to run minor errands and whining about your gas mileage and parking.

Many of you people are decrying Linux as a 'geek toy' actually run Linux already. Linux is EMBEDDED in many networking appliances, like wireless routers and broadband MODEMs (with routers built in), and all manner of small electronic devices, including cellular phones. The chances are pretty good that Linux is already running in your home and you don't even know it's there. Ironically, those of you who use a router with a 'firewall' to protect your Windows systems are probably using the one built into Linux to do it.

But that's sort of the point. The OS should be INVISIBLE, taken for granted. Just do it's job competently and not get in your way.

Something like the Asus EEEPC will never run Vista. Neither will Vista ever be used in something like the 'One Laptop Per Child' initiative (both ship with Linux). For one thing, Linux is free, so it cuts the cost of the machines made to run it quite a bit, since you're not paying tribute to Bill Gates. For another thing, these are made inexpensively and light-weight with low power parts. You want to put as little battery in to get the most hours possible of runtime. In the case of the OLPC XO, they even considered a hand-crank to charge the battery. It needs two watts to run it. Your Windows notebook PC needs closer to 40 watts. The 'latest' power-hungry hardware possible that Vista needs just to bring up a desktop aren't even a consideration.

As a backdoor consideration, much of the 'developing world' will be using Linux by default. While Microsoft tries to squeeze every penny out of you spendthrifts with Vista machines, Linux is gaining millions of new users. This will establish it as a Global Standard to supplant Microsoft based OSs, at least until they finally fold and adopt a Unix based kernel and slap their own desktop on top of 'X'. The thing is, you the end-user wouldn't even notice if Microsoft did switch to a Linux kernel and run Windows apps through one of the various emulation layers like 'WINE' that they spent some time and money fixing up. It would be no worse for application compatibility than 16->32 Windows or XP->Vista. Apple already did that some versions back, so if you're dreaming of switching to that skinny Apple notebook, consider Linux a bridge to that.

People who used to have the 68000 based Atari or Amiga computers in the late 80's still remember something: A graphical OS that was built into ROM. You turned on the PC, and THERE IT WAS. The GUI desktop was up and you were ready to go even before the monitor warmed up, and those machines had half a megabyte of RAM (i.e. take Vista's minimum requirement of 512MB and divide by 1024). They were FAST, too. Some of you younger kids never got to see that. This would be a nice improvement. A PC that ran the OS in ROM. One fat DMA transfer, jump to the start address and it's running.

If I get an 'all-in-one' PC like a notebook computer, when I press the power button, it should just be up and ready to go. No POST or hardware scan (other than USB/Bluetooth/etc. external buses). No boot time. Just click and here's your desktop. Sort of like resuming from 'standby', but without drawing any power to keep the RAM up. With any luck, advances in Flash technology will bring those 'instant on' days back, but a standard like 'Vista' would put that day off for years.

I have a six month old Dell Vostro with 4GB of RAM with a Dual Core CPU and an NVidia GEForce 8600M cord, and it came with M$ Vista.

I hate Dell for putting Vista on this machine. The problem will soon be completely corrected. I haven't booted Vista natively in quite a while now, except to de-license things to put them in the VMware boot.

I do not agree that the OS should soak up all possible resources just because they happen to be there. That is the OPPOSITE of what the OS should do.

The OS should manage what is available as efficiently and predictably as possible, provide a stable API to those services, and provide a user interface to manage and control those resources and applications ... and nothing more.

If I have 4GB of RAM, I should have as close to 4GB of RAM available as possible. Not 2GB and change. In a few more years, if I have a terabyte of RAM, then when I boot the machine, I should see very nearly a terabyte free, not a few hundred gigabytes free as Windoze BloatZilla 2020 would clearly be. If I have 128MB, I should see quite a lot of that free, too. Just because there is memory available to consume does NOT mean the OS should consume it, or require some arbitrary minimum beyond what it needs to get running. Currently I'm looking at 538MB or ram and no swap used with tons of windows open and an excessively pretty desktop crammed full of buffered, real-time updated windows rendered onto 3D textures.

Linux developers still tend to remain minimalist, which means even your oldest PCs can be very usable with the newest Linux-based applications. Nothing keeps you from using ANY distribution of Linux on any machine besides hardware compatibility... but the older the P.O.S. machine you have is, the more likely all of the Linux drivers will work. Very different from Microsoft demanding ever more astronomical system requirements, and refusing to license older versions of Windows for newer machines, and dropping support for older hardware. If you're going to give grandpa that older notebook on your shelf that you can't find the system recovery disks for so he can check his email, put Linux on it. It will run better than it ever did, and he won't notice the difference other than the fact that it doesn't quit working after six months due to a heavy malware infestation, or Windows bit rot.

Microsoft just keeps indiscriminately shoveling useless crap into their general purpose computer OS and calling them 'integral parts' , and every new OS release there has been more of it.

Your computer should be able to boot WITHOUT Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player.

I bought that RAM for MY applications and their requirements, NOT so Microsoft can crap all over my machine with their own SPYWARE, use up cycles to encrypt my data buses for their paranoid delusions of DRM and make my PC into some form of demented movie streaming DVR. Not to mention the THREAT of driver revocation hanging over my head like the Sword of Damocles.

If I wanted a media player to stream movies to my TV with, I'd order one of these silent, inexpensive appliances purpose built for the job for a tiny fraction of the cost of a PC, and it would work out of the box and connect to whatever server (even a NAS appliance) I had set up. The High-Definition digital image and sound are NOT blocked by anything like Vista's paranoid DRM. Vista could never fit in them. They're all Linux-based appliances, and probably very green compared to booting a desktop machine and cranking up your stereo volume to mask the noise of all of those fans and disk drives. Pretty much every cheap 'information appliance' you see that has an interface to configure it through a web browser is running some flavor of embedded Linux.
http://www.pixelmagicsystems.com/products/media_players/hd_mediabox.htm
http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=438
http://www.mvix.net/780_OverView.html

With Linux, if you want a 3D spinning cube of desktops like 'Compiz' playing different videos on every facet, you can have that. If you only want a command line interface, you can have it that way, too, or anywhere between the extremes, or beyond them. Just pick your parts ala-carte, or find a distribution where someone already pieced them all together and tested them for you.

My pc is less than one month old - my keyboard is about two years old. I'm beginning to think that it might not be the keyboard per se but the Intellitype software that came with it - because the standard keyboard issued with the pc didn't come with any software and works fine. Do you think I'll be able to uninstall the Intellitype and still use my keyboard?

quoteIf you wanted to do something like that, you wouldn't get a PC, you would get another appliance.[/quote]

That's the point. I don't want 'something like that'. I want a machine to do WORK on. The paranoid "Look I can be a DVR and a movie channel" crap should be ala-carte, as well as the ugly infestation of bandwidth-robbing DRM.

They [i]could[/i] provide a lean, mean OS that had the [i]capability[/i] of doing all of that garbage. Instead they decided to follow up the abject [i]Windows XP Media Center Edition[/i] failure with an OS that didn't give anybody a choice. Now they're going to cram that crap down our throats whether we want it or not because the market has already rejected it but THEY want it.

As for Media Player, I'm sure if you start a topic here called "Windows Media Player: Best Thing Ever", you'd get quite a lot of differing opinions about it. I personally don't like it. I rather liked the K-Lite Codec Pack and my own choice of MP3 player. Nice and lightweight.By necessity, I use Apple's Quicktime because Adobe Premiere wants it in order to edit MOV files, and that's what I get.

While what I am describing IS different machines for different purposes, they're different machines WELL SUITED to those purposes.

Microsoft tries to give you a 'Swiss Army Knife', with everything, except it ends up being one of those extremely FAT ones that doesn't fit in any of your pockets, is pretty much never useful, and the knife its self is dull the first time you actually try to use it.

1. A video appliance to play video. A DVD/Blue-Ray player. A wireless media player from a server. $50~$250 for a fully functional and VERY competent machine that will WORK out of the box, versus $2500.00 for a Multimedia PC running Vista to not do the job very well, probably black out the digital outputs, and runs in a PC clone that sounds like an airport flight line in the same room you're trying to watch your movie or listen to music while it draws as much power as a big-screen TV set and needs a UPS to protect it.

2. A video game console to play games. Consider a PS3 or XBOX 360 or Wii costs about the same as, or MUCH less than one 'deluxe' 3D video card for your desktop PC, and there is NEVER any doubt that when you buy a game for it and put the disk in the slot, that it will work. The PS3 even has a 'BlueRay' player in it. When you finish the game, you can trade it in. If you buy a new game for a PC, then it's ANYBODY'S GUESS whether your hardware will run it. When you get it home, if it doesn't run, you're stuck with it. No store will accept opened PC software for return or exchange, except for the identical title. There's virtually no PC software that allows two or more people to play in the same room, on the same TV, either. BTW, if you're an 'alpha geek', you can make a Linux PC out of any of the modern consoles with mass storage built in.

3. A computer to DO WORK. Unless I'm actively developing a game, I don't generally need 'gaming' functionality in my desktop, which saves me money for multiple hard drives and more RAM, which is a better boost in performance for the tools that I need. Since the last three or four games were Flash based, I didn't really need any special hardware acceleration to write them, and any sort of specialized acceleration would've hurt compatibility testing rather than helped. The same PC can actually function for professional software development for YEARS.

4. A Kindle. Yes, I probably will buy one of these as soon as the price drops, to read books and articles. A backlit display truly is hard on the eyes, while a 'Kindle' has its own wireless internet connection and a display like reading paper, and it can download current release books without connecting it to anything and go days between charges. I find that my ancient tablet PC has a long battery runtime, is generally cool to the touch and is excellent for browsing web pages and watching web cartoons in bed, but I'll replace it with a Kindle for my nocturnal reading habits. Sure, an 'all-in-one' desktop or notebook can read e-books, but I find my 17" workstation class dual-hard drive formerly-Vista notebook is a pain in the... lap to use anywhere but on a table or desk.

5. Wireless router/firewall. Sure, I COULD plug that EVDO card directly into my PC and boot it to 'share' its connection with other computers, but my Kyocera KR1 eats hardly anything. It has an adequate 'firewall' in it, and can be left on 24/7, consuming six watts, compared to a desktop PC that eats 200 watts. So whether I use the big notebook or the tablet (or share the connection with guests), it's always right there and ready to go, and it can operate off a 12 volt car lighter connection indefinitely when I travel.

6. iPod. I personally have no use for one. I'm sure you could lug around a 'portable' Vista machine, like my Vostro was meant to be, but obviously having something that runs for hours and fits in a shirt pocket has benefits. A Vista PC that plays MP3 files and videos won't replace it.

7. A dinky, cheap, notebook, like the EEEPC also has its place. If I just want to type on a few documents and browse the web, it's fine, and if I drop it under a bus wheel at the airport, I won't shed any tears.

8. Cellular phone. Another device whose functionality you COULD roll into your PC... but would you ever take a PC to places you take your cellular phone? Some of those 'smart phones' have additional PDA-like functionality that I honestly have never found a use for. I find that no matter what functionality the phone has, I use it for making and taking phone calls, and occasionally as a watch or a desperation 'flashlight'. They moved most of the functionality of a PC into some of them. This is in my opinion another arguing point against 'all in one'. In general, I want a cheap cell phone that I can drop in the pool and not be upset. If you put all your business contacts and personal information into a 'Smart Phone', or any portable PC for that matter, you'd be pretty miffed if someone ran off with it, or it got drowned.

9. A digital still/motion camera. Sure, I could lug that Vostro around and use the 'Webcam', or I could try to use the P.O.S. camera they stuck into my phone. However, the Panasonic DMC-FX30 I have is absolutely awesome, and shoots two hours of wide-aspect 480P video on a 16GB SDHC card, in an MJPEG Quicktime MOV format that's easy to edit (all keyframes). It does a better job than ANYTHING that gets bundled up in computers and cellular phones, and takes very nice wide-angle images. Actually, this camera is a working model of why the similar-to-PC mainstream marketing-driven demand for higher megapixels and bigger zoom numbers is wrong-headed. You very rarely need zoom, you very often need a wider angle to capture people in the same room with you, and anything above seven or so megapixels is pretty much a waste unless you have a BIG lens with a BIG chip behind it in a BIG camera, as the smaller, finer photo-receptors pick up more noise than signal, so you spend more memory to record an image that looks like you scaled it up from a lower resolution anyway. A 10x zoom is useless because you can't hold the camera still enough to take a good picture at that zoom level, and generally you can never get your close-up subjects into frame even when you back into a corner and get them all to scrunch together. Shop for wide angle lens first, then narrow down your features from there.

10. A dedicated DVR integrated into the cable/satellite box, or even integrated at the cable company headquarters where you don't have to hear it. Once again, this ultimately consumes less power than the PC would in its place, won't generally have any 'integration' or 'incompatibility' issues with your TV, cable box or other A/V equipment, and will generally record 100% digital quality, though there may be a monthly fee for it. It will record based on the program guide, using the same remote control as the cable box, and is reasonably easy to use. I don't watch much TV anymore and have no use for one.

Sure, carrying all ten of these things around with you would be awkward, but I don't even like carrying around a cellular phone, and besides, all ten of them would seldom be useful together. Until they make a lightweight, small, affordable simple device that took awesome pictures and records/plays video and audio, fits in my pocket AND was comfortable to read in bed, I'll stick to the specialized devices for my 'portable' needs.

The apple 'iTunes' and movie crap is also a very bad idea, and it's just pathetic that Microsoft would attempt to follow that road. Their own 'iPod-killer' device sucked and was booed out of the market. Especially since Amazon ALSO began selling DRM-free MP3 files, which competes directly against iTunes, and will win because EVERYONE hates Big Brother (unless they're a paid shill for Big Brother). Microsoft has chosen to copy a loser, and will be a loser, and every user of their DRM-infested Vista is by extension a loser. You just haven't had your turn inside the barrel, yet.

My god, you ARE defensive about Vista. No, the rest of the world could care less about Vista.

I mean, having an on-line pissing contest about it pretty much demonstrates you're a Vista fan-boy and I'm a Linux fan-boy, and nothing else.

The problem with your assertions is, if you need a GOOD camera, you're NEVER going to get one built into a phone or attached to your PC.

If you need a GOOD digital media player for your big screen TV and stereo, a VISTA-based PC is not it, because its DRM prevents all current video cards from displaying 'premium' content out the digital channels. Sure, $700 for something with a tiny hard disk, not enough RAM (YOU SAID 2GB to make it run A-OK), a CPU that makes all the video 'hiccup', needs administration and on a warm day sounds like a jumbo jet, versus a silent $99 DVD player that you just stick a disk into. Knock yourself out. You can play your movie clip through your analog VGA output and get the audio through your analog audio out, but the digital outputs that YOU PAID FOR will be DEAD. Chances are good you'll see your desktop and a black rectangle where the video should be on any output marked for 'TV'. Even an analog composite that doesn't have 'macrovision' built into it, because you might plug it into a VCR.

If you need a GOOD device for reading e-books, it's NOT going to be your PC. Not at all.

If you want to talk on the phone, your PC is not going to be your first choice... unless you like saying things like "What?", "Huh?", and being heard to say "Fnorblewugga." Your 'Pocket PC' will run the battery flat PDQ if you dare to use it, and hell, some of them need to BOOT 'Windows CE' before you can even answer the phone!

I have made PC and console games professionally since the 1990s. The DOS days. I stood in line at GDC to get DirectX 1 CDs when they ADDED it to Win95 as an afterthought. Don't presume to lecture ME about PC game content. I personally don't buy PC games anymore. The 'Orange Box' ran perfectly on my XBOX 360, and it took three tries on two different XP PCs to get Supreme Commander to launch. Screw that B.S.

The whole of the difference between console and PC games is a mouse, a keyboard and a migraine.

You can buy a mouse and a keyboard for the PS3, and the PS3 costs less than a decent NVidia or ATI card for a PC, works with ALL televisions and plays Blue-Ray and DVD disks. There's your 'digital convergence' righ