We're using Windows Vista Premium which came pre-installed on a new computer. It looks nice although it's just really a fancier version of XP with the addition of a side bar with a clock, a calender and some other things. It all seems a bit gimmicky and is fun for a day or so but when you just want to focus on doing tasks such as audio/video editing you don't pass too many remarks of it. But it does run nicely.
I wouldn't have bought it as a standalone package but it is great when it comes pre-installed. The price of buying Vista Premium edition in Ireland is around 300 Euro or around 200 Euro for upgrade. I think that's too expensive considering that it isn't a massive improvement on the previous version of Windows. It is more user friendly and accessible but with some of the versions of Linux operating systems like Ubuntu that are coming out with excellent features, Microsoft should make more of an effort! I tested a bootable version of Linux last year (can't remember the name) and it looked great. Linux operating systems tend to allow programs like Blender 3d to run better too. Why didn't we switch to Linux if it's so great? Most of our software is windows based and we were unsure how stable it would work on Linux and we didn't want to waste time getting used to a new system either. We will switch over some day..
I haven't tried all our software with Vista yet but most of it seems to work ok. Blender was a bit glitchy: strange blockiness on the screen when moving windows or objects about. When settings in the optimisation panel were adjusted it worked as normal with major noticable errors except in render settings: when selecting a codec, the window that opens causes the blender screen immediatly beneath it to turn black when you try to drag it around.Of course this isn't a serious issue but it shouldn't happen. (You need to disable the AERO theme in Vista and it should work as normal)
Shit Talker (which appeared in a post from a few days ago) didn't work so good. It wouldn't shut down correctly and kept on running in the background and needed to be switched off from the task manager. Even then it wouldn't go away properly so Vista needed a reboot. I wouldn't recommend Shit Talker with Vista. Works fine with Windows 2000 but not on our Vista!
The drum sequencer program DT-100 Drumstation works with Vista but when attempting to save and enter a file name I was restricted to only certain keys and numbers like "a", "l" and the number "4". This was strange and annoying so I just removed the program in case it would cause any other problems.
I'll post any problems I notice with other audio/video editing programs when I come across them.
