OK, I installed the beta on a spare drive (took bloody ages to install BTW).
1) I can't get a route to the internet. My ageing DLink PCI NIC is apparently fully supported, but it refuses to pick up its config by DHCP.
2) My built-in NIC (nForce 4, never used) also doesn't work, the driver fails to install correctly.
3) My sound-card (Audigy ex platinum) has drivers, but they also fail to install properly (tried 2 methods).
The Vista interface is quite a slick idea and it is well implemented. A few graphical glitches manifest, but this is a beta, after all!
Responsiveness is not so good. I attribute this to everything being compiled with debug mode on (evidenced by mem usage over 700MB on boot) and with me running from an old 20GB Maxtor on plain ATA100.
I don't like how there seem to be half a dozen different ways into network configuration, and as many different options again to view the current network. Perhaps this just takes some getting used to. The individual options and views make sense on their own, but to have so many seems confusing. Average Joe's are not going to be pleased.
A shame that desktop backgrounds can't be zoomed to fill the screen whilst maintaining correct aspect ratio. Ubuntu 6.06 manages it, so it's a noticable omission.
The way users preferences are accessed and presented is good. A lot of thought has gone in to the interface in this regard. Much more intuitive (daft things like clicking 'personalise' instead of 'properties').
If the finished article gets rid of the networking problems and 3d parties sort out their drivers, it looks like I will be buying into Vista.
1) I can't get a route to the internet. My ageing DLink PCI NIC is apparently fully supported, but it refuses to pick up its config by DHCP.
2) My built-in NIC (nForce 4, never used) also doesn't work, the driver fails to install correctly.
3) My sound-card (Audigy ex platinum) has drivers, but they also fail to install properly (tried 2 methods).
The Vista interface is quite a slick idea and it is well implemented. A few graphical glitches manifest, but this is a beta, after all!
Responsiveness is not so good. I attribute this to everything being compiled with debug mode on (evidenced by mem usage over 700MB on boot) and with me running from an old 20GB Maxtor on plain ATA100.
I don't like how there seem to be half a dozen different ways into network configuration, and as many different options again to view the current network. Perhaps this just takes some getting used to. The individual options and views make sense on their own, but to have so many seems confusing. Average Joe's are not going to be pleased.
A shame that desktop backgrounds can't be zoomed to fill the screen whilst maintaining correct aspect ratio. Ubuntu 6.06 manages it, so it's a noticable omission.
The way users preferences are accessed and presented is good. A lot of thought has gone in to the interface in this regard. Much more intuitive (daft things like clicking 'personalise' instead of 'properties').
If the finished article gets rid of the networking problems and 3d parties sort out their drivers, it looks like I will be buying into Vista.