[wxPython-users] [Absolutely-OT] Vista Users

[Nitro]

I am running Vista (the 64-bit business edition) and so far it's been a  
quite good experience for me. wxPython apps look like any other apps, they  
just get a fancy transparent glassy border (if you have Aero whatever it  
is called now enabled). That's about the main visual difference to XP.
The performance seems to be very well, I have no issues at all. Stability  
is also great. I have no driver problems either. The only annoyance is the  
UAC (User Account Control iirc) sometimes. Basically you are prompted for  
every program that needs admin rights. I like this security feature, but  
it can get a little annoying if you have a build system which asks 20 or  
more times if you want to allow the "compiler" to run. I found out that  
you can disable UAC entirely, but since this tampers with security too  
much imo I left it on. I thought about creating a special user account  
which has UAC disabled for running build systems and the like, but haven't  
tried this yet. Unfortunately you can't disable UAC for a specific  
program, Microsoft says that the application writers need to fix the  
applications that require admin rights to run with lower priviledges when  
possible. I agree with this policy and I guess in a few months most UAC  
related "problems" will be history.
Another thing I had to get used to was networking. Vista just refused to  
share entire drives. There were some changes between XP in this area and  
maybe I just need to get used to the new, more secure way. Also I am not a  
network guru.
The last thing that gave my some headaches was the virtualization of  
folders in vista. I googled up this here for some more info:  
http://www.mail-archive.com/metacard@lists.runrev.com/msg13584.html . This  
folder virtualization makes some sense for backwards compatibility, but it  
really made me scratch my head when the file had different contents when  
openend from my app and when I viewed it from explorer. This is a thing I  
don't like very much, but I have to admit that it makes sense. It also  
forces app programmers to use the proper directories which is a good thing  
imo.
All in all Vista isn't bad. It's nothing revolutionary, has some nice  
additions (like the search in explorer), is more secure and stable than xp  
and almost all of my apps work with it (except some old 16-bit app since I  
am running on 64-bit).
I am sorry to say that, but as much as I like linux (tried several  
distributions for years), it has never had the ease of use or the quality  
of windows (since xp). At least not for my usage profile. So I'd rather  
switch to Vista than to linux, but this is just a personal opinion.

-Matthias