Are you planning to upgrade to Microsoft Vista?

[rakeshagrawal]

Will you to upgrade to Microsoft Vista when it's released?

[MarcP]

Even thought I'm an enterprise member of MSDN, I will not move to MS Vista when it's released. My HTPC is very happy with WinXP Pro and the non-Microsoft softwares I put on it. I am most definitely not interested in investing in MS Vista and all the beefed up hardware I will have to fork out $$ for. Not to mention that I prefer to be DRM free.

[cfaslave]

My vote is no. Certainly not in the next year after it is released. So far, I don't see much of a reason to "upgrade". Reasons:

1. new features aren't compelling
2. DRM and continued lockdown of content
3. My existing hardware works well right now. Adding a larger operating system will slow it down and compell me to upgrade hardware sooner than I want.
4. Bugs galore will be rampant at least in the first year after release.

[bits]

No....if it aint broke then dont mess with it!

[Bigbird999]

Only when Hell freezes!!!

BB

[mockware]

DRM and automatic updates are scary. Look at the autoexpire scandal that happened with Tivo a while back. I'll wait until some senator gets burned by it and makes a fuss. Until then I can live with reliable lower quality video.

[cat6man]

only if that is the sole path to qam/cable card recording with btv.......

[richt]

Why would I want to get locked into DRM? Kinda defeats the whole purpose of having a PC act as a PVR.

[y2kbug]

Hell no!

[nanook105]

NO (NO)

[jkirk]

not just no but hell no!


the only way i could even consider it is if xp is no longer available and ss still don't support linux.

[ZetaVu]

Likewise, I have not seen anything in vista worth upgrading for. Aero graphics? Please! Last thing I need is more of a resource hog detracting from showsqueeze. Transparant windows - you can get that now with a free plugin. IE7? Still playing catchup with Firefox and Opera. New search capabilities? Still playing catchup with Google.

DRM and anti-priacy spyware? No thank you. I like to have a say in what my computer can or can't do.

If I were to buy a new computer with Vista installed, I'd probably leave it but install XP on another drive, just to have the novelyty of vista. Maybe after toing with it once all the bugs and screwups are taken care of (figure at least a year until it is manageable) I might start seeing what I can "Tweak" to make it workable.

Keep an eye on the users with vista vs xp and w2k over the course of next year (at least over the three or two quarters that vista is actually available) and you should see what we're talking about.

I took about a year and a half to go from win98 to XP, I expect this to take much longer since I don't see what vista can offer above xp. In fact, the reason I finally switched was that the video card I wanted did not work on win98. I would note that after that and a long and painful transition I have become an XP fan (vs win98) although there are some old systems where the XP resource hog is really a burden. And if XP is a resource hog...

[cfaslave]

I believe Vista will be M$'s biggest failure. This is more of an opportunity for Linux than ever before. M$ will be forced to support XP for a very long time.

[ZetaVu]

Don't forget about Mac, they are going to be very aggresive this year on the home and personal entertainment front. Picture a self contained computer, no need to isntall software, no hardware compatibility issues, more of an appliance than a computer. Plug in your Ipod or video ipod, etc.

I have no idea what they are doing in the pvr arena, but a good preinstalled pvr app on a mac that works with video ipods or smartphones, sure you get their DRM but that vs the headaches with m$...

Again, the only thing I see going for m$ (other than they are already preinstalled on pc's) is the Xbox as a media extender. With a proper media extender, (game console) I think vista can get in real trouble

[RenegadeELEN]

My HTPC won't upgrade because I don't see a benefit for it yet to spend the money. My home pc may to take advantage of DirectX 10 for the games.

The problem is that Microsoft will do what they always do and start phasing out XP after Vista takes hold. Unless it becomes another WinME OS then I think in the end there won't be a choice for new installs.

But again for my current HTPC I don't see a reason to upgrade when it comes out.