Vista - Joining the Chorus

I've tried Linux, and liked it, but on my new laptop, I just had to go with the system the store(and HP) had installed, Windows Vista, as well as on my desktop PC that is running XP. As usual, there has been an adjustment period, but I'm not being quick to make judgement, Vista sucks.

For my part, I actually had good luck with XP. It runs nicely on my old desktop and has handled every upgrade and install I threw at it nicely, too nicely, because elsewhere things aren't quite as smooth. On my laptop, Vista is a nightmare, beyond what I can accept as normal adjustment to a "new" operating system. This thing has the bugs of a BETA, at full price, and nobody supports it. WTF???

First off, there is the handling of periphery devices like my camcorder and MP3 players. My not that old Sony Handycam won't interface with Vista, after a bit of digging on the Sony support site, I find that the USB interface no longer works and I will have to purchase a different cable. BS. Hey MS, ever hear of backwards compatibility?

And the MP3 player, one a Sansa that was flaky before, but now can't even be recognized, no matter how many updated drivers I download. They don't make the damn thing work, but they sure leave tracks all over my new HD. Sansa's player is nice, and the right price, but the support stinks. Sansa e250, on XP, it only works with Windows Media Player 9. Aside from being a massive pain in the ass to maintain, I like the thing, but my laptop and Vista hate it.

So I bought another MP3 Player, Creative Labs, no, I don't want to pony up the extra money for an Ipod and let Apple worm it's way into my life. Well, Creative Labs has a better driver system, with it's own managers and lots of extra footprints on my desktop to wipe off. But it works. Because I liked the interface best with Windows Media Player, I use it on the laptop too, but there I have Windows Media Player 11, not an upgrade for the same reasons Vista is not. It just looks different, doesn't work better.

The Vista Explorer views and options are fancied up but depowered, and navigation is needlessly complicated.

And, nobody supports this. Instant Rails for Ruby runs headlong into a wall when using this as does Open Laszlo and every other application I want to work on. Thats why i am writing instead of working with new applications.