bit-tech Shopping: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic

Rating: 8

Time with product: 3 Months

Strengths: Cheapest way to get into Vista. Has all of the features most users would need.

Weaknesses: Lacking the media funcitonality of Vista Home Premium. Does not include the Aero interface.

Summary: I purchased this as an upgrade to an elderly woman's PC, as the new versions of some of the software she purchased no longer supported XP. For what she uses it for, this is perfect, and light on the wallet. For my own PC, I would have to have Home Premium for the media center functionality.

Rating: 8

Time with product: 3 Weeks

Strengths: works well on Athlon 2400, Shuttle motherboard, 1gb Memory

Weaknesses: haven't found any yet

Summary: After hearing all the horror stories about Windows Vista and how useless Windows Vista Home Basic is, I find it easy to use and stable.The programs Microsoft doesn't supply with Vista Basic are not needed (by me) or are easy to replace with much better programs (sometimes with free ones).

Rating: 6

Time with product: 3 Months

Strengths: latest OS, not bad with SP1

Weaknesses: you need a faster machine to make it run smooth

Summary: The first time I tried Vista, it was so slow. I could not stand it and uninstalled it. Since I ran out of XPs, I had to give Vista a try on my newly built machine. With SP1, AMD 4000, 4GB ram (though 32-bit Vista can only recognize part of it), The machine runs pretty good. I needed to change the settings to turn off the fancy stuff. If I have a choice, I probably still pick XP, but Vista is decent after all.

Rating: 6

Time with product: 30 Days

Strengths: inexpensive

Weaknesses: not full-featured

Summary: This is the most stripped down version of windows vista but is good for getting a taste of vista before springing for a higher version that come with other features like media-center etc. This is an upgrade version and install is straighforward and quick. should be good to go within half-hour. keep in mind that vista is more resource-intensive and you need 2GB memory and a decent graphics card to run it smoothly.

Rating: 6

Time with product: 1

Strengths: Installation is pretty straightforward

Weaknesses: SLOW

Summary: Microsoft has a habit of writing code for the "next" generation of computers. Vista is no exception. M$ft basically wrote this OS hoping people would upgrade their hardware in order to use it. If your computer is a few years old, be prepared to upgrade it to get it to run Vista so you won't tear your hair out. If you've got a capable computer Vista runs OK on it, though I'd never describe it as "snappy".