Today I installed Windows Vista Premium 64 bit edition on the family computer. Good golly it took me long enough to get everything working and happy (including buying a new wireless card) that I could have made the switch to Linux (Ubuntu of course). The good thing is that now we should be set to make the switch to cable from satellite and use the DVR features in Windows Media Center for good instead of evil. The view in vista, once I got accustomed to things, was an improvement. I don’t regret putting the upgrade off, but I’m glad that I have finally jumped the shark and moved to Vista.
Of course there are things that make upgrading frustrating, but for the most part, its a good change and I’m hoping that the 64 bit OS will maximize most of my experience. Of course I also haven’t installed iTunes, which will be the most important switch since the family’s music is hiding in the backup folder… oh the zoo-manitee.
Be sure to grab the 64-bit version of iTunes, the link to which only appears somewhat randomly on Apple’s iTunes download site.
If you grab the 32-bit version some things work, but iTunes crashes even more then usual, plus various other features don’t work, or bluescreen.
Note that the bluescreens are in fact due to kernel mode drivers. Nearly every other USB driver on the planet is user mode and can’t cause a bluescreen if it tried, but Apple goes out of their way to create drivers that run in kernel mode.
My bet? Vista wasn’t unstable enough for the I’m a Mac commercials, so Apple decided to help it out.
Ha ha. I did grab the 64 bit version, and that’s a good thing to see (in principle). I just wish more programs were 64 bit now. Which is a weird place to be.