http://www.bbspot.com/News/2007/02/windows-vista-upgrade-decision-flowchart.html

Hehe, so funny - both my dad and sister laughed while reading it (and they aren't tech geeks like me, either). Its brilliant!

Hehe, I admit that that's quite amusing. Good find, Kllrnohj.

0x5, that rocks!

roflcopters. NICE. that gave me a good laugh.

/me changes desktop background to that

Slightly OT, but does anyone here have Vista yet?

I think Tari said he was running it, although he was fed up with the ATI drivers. Although its a bit ironic, seeing as AMD/ATI currently has the upper hand in Vista drivers (nVidia doesn't have any WHQL one's yet, meaning no 64-bit vista drivers, since WHQL is required in the 64-bit version of Vista)

I was just on microsoft.com and it looks like you have to order the 64bit version online (and pay a fee) after you buy the 32 bit version. Ultimate is the only version that comes with a 64 bit version.

What advantages does a 64bit version have? M$.com only mentioned more memory support.

You don't *have* to. Here's the thing. If you buy any of the non-ultimate ones, it only comes with the 32-bit DVD. However, for a "minimal fee" you can order the 64-bit install DVD, and use the same product key (or they give you a new one, not sure which)

However, you can just order the 64-bit OEM version (which is cheaper anyway) http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Windows-Premium-64-bit-Builders/dp/B000MFIPDC - the catch is it must be ordered with hardware, but hell, that can usually be something as basic and cheap as a $5 mouse

EDIT: I just noticed that OEM versions can't be transfered to a new computer (which is a change w/ vista). Not sure what constitutes a new PC, however, so you may get burned by this (eg, replacing the motherboard may be considered a new PC, just like so could upgrading the CPU or any number of other things - I'd watch out for this). Personally, I'd get the UPGRADE edition and just order the 64-bit DVD

As for 64-bit advantages, its still somewhat up in the air. True, it can address more memory (17179869184GB vs. 4GB, theoretical max), but thats not all. 64-bit programs can be faster than 32-bit ones, since they allow for 64-bit division in one instruction. The tradeoff (sortof) is that programs will be marginally bigger, as pointers (which, if you don't know, are used heavily) double in size (they go from 32-bits to 64-bits). But this really isn't a problem, since if you are running 64-bit you probably have 1GB+ of RAM anyway

64-bit will be the future, as consumer PCs are rapidly approaching the 3GB RAM limit of 32-bit CPUs. (whoa, wait, 3gb limit? didn't I say 4gb earlier? no, thats not a typo, the other ~1gb of RAM space is reserved by the OS, and can't actually be mapped to physical RAM). The speed difference right now usually isn't noticeable, as most programs that are 64-bit currently aren't coded for 64-bit, but rather are just re-compiled 32-bit programs. Meaning they may internally use 64-bit division, but the variables never hold more than 32-bits of information anyway. A true 64-bit program will be noticeable faster. You can see this is the decrease in things like compile times on linux, where 64-bit has been around for a while now

For Vista, I am almost 100% sure that it is a new motherboard. Although I read some people got around this by saying their motherboard burned out and xp wouldn't let them reinstall (I am sure you could do it with Vista to)

Also, with the new upgrade you have to have XP *installed* on the computer (there is a workaround, here and here they are the same, except one has pictures and is more detailed.) If you don't use the workaround it invalidates the XP key

your kidding me there. Well, I may stay with XP for a little bit longer.

Do you mean in response to invalidating the XP key?

read htem tutorials folks

The workaround isn't really all that hard, just install Vista (Same version as the one you have) with no product key, then do the "Anytime Upgrade", do an in place, and enter your product key - you don't need a picture tutorial

Re Invalidate Key: Not surprising. That is, after all, the intention of the "Upgrade" editions, for people who just want to, *gasp*, UPGRADE

Not that there is really any compelling reason to upgrade to Vista ANYWAY. I hear the new "security measures" amount to little more than a crapload of annoying "ARE YOU SURE? REALLY REALLY SURE?!?!?!" pop-up boxes that are not only annoying, but will also train people to just click OK and not read the pop-up box anyway. And thats not even mentioning the system crippling DRM issues, where Vista can be told by a 3rd party program (such as a Sony program on a music cd ) to basically lock you out of your own system (the extensiveness of what DRM controls isn't fully known yet, as far as I know, but what has been released is a bit of a shocker)

Yes, I'm running Vista RC2, and yes, that absence of OpenGL in ATI's drivers is nasty. Anyway, I find the UAC pretty useful. It basically amounts to them trying to imitate *NIX environments (only the 'Administrator' user may do whatever they want, and you usually don't log in as that. Smells like a root account.) If you're smart, and a program you don't recognize is trying to run, kill it. Programs can only do as much as you want them to do.

I saw recently AMD was going to address the OpenGL issue, but I don't remember where that was. But its still better than the BETA-only drivers that nVidia offers for SLI owners, 88xx series cards, and 64-bit vista - most of which doesn't even work (and since its not WHQL signed, you can't actually use it in 64-bit Vista)

I think I might just get cedega instead of windows.

Sure, you can always just get cedega. Be warned, though, that it will be slower and may crash more often. Games will be somewhat harder to just get to run also, and I'm not sure how well things like PB or updates will work.

Just stick with XP (or even 2000) and don't get Vista, pretty simple

Bah, if I'm going to buy Windows I'm at least going to get the new one. Unless XP gets/got a lot cheaper. Even with that stupid DRM crap, I can always just boot into linux. And Halo2 (and I'm sure a lot of other new ones) are Vista only. Since I only want windows for gaming, I might as well get the current version.

Actually, if I'm doing that, I could get home basic (or whatever the cheap one is called). Aero does look pretty sweet, though. I'll probably go with home premium.

I think I'll just try and find a copy of cedega and see how it works. If it sucks, then I'll get windows.

One word: Crysis
Oh, and DX10 in general.

DX10 won't work in XP? I didn't know that.

I don't have a DX10 card, though, anyway