I have Vista Business, and I use it for business.

How does all that media bloat do a thing for the business side?

You asked what Media Center was and I think ByronM was very clear in his explanation (and generous with his time). The Media Center is obviously not bloat for the uses that many people have. You may be surprised that some businesses today do use media as well. ;)

The Business version of Vista doesn't include the Media Center functions so you may have to look at the other feature/benefits, like ease of networking instead.

Upgrading to Vista

I'm going to have to agree with others in this thread and say that an upgrade of a Windows OS is a bad idea. Just because it can be done doesn't mean it's a good idea. A major Windows release should be installed clean. Upgrades of Microsoft OSs have a history of being problematic.

I bought a high spec Dell Vista machine (wonderful compact computer at a very fair price) and forgave the fact that little of my existing software worked on it, ignored the fact that none of the icons were recognisable, accepted the huge problems I had persuading the network system to connect to my XP machines and got used to the idea that many of the major files I was used to working with were nearly impossible to find but what broke the camel's back was the stupid security system that forced me to stop, wait, and confirm nearly every little thing I wanted to do. I bought an OEM copy of XP and it was possibly the best £70 I ever spent. More power to Dell, says I.

Just for the record, since last Tuesdays patches, my Vista crashes have dropped to almost zero.

So there WERE some definate bugs in it. But it seems to be working (mostly) OK now.

Adobe products I still often get a 20-60 second "pause" while it does ... "something..."

Adobe products I still often get a 20-60 second "pause" while it does ... "something..."

Might they be attempting to phone home?

A lot of software does this (though it should be done in a background thread). I am happier with Vista now that ZoneAlarm runs ok and this activity can be stopped.

Hi All, I was just looking at getting a new computer at a big box store,
every one in there was loaded with Vista. According to the staff the PC's are coming back, the Apples are being sold out everyday I had always wanted an Apple machine , but the cost of the earlier machines were out of my price range. The one I bought came loaded with all the software for audio/video/digital editing which in a comparable PC would have cost me about the same money. After playing with the apple I don't know why anyone would buy another Microsoft based PC.

Lovejoy- out

after being a confirmed Windows user since windows 3.0 and running a number of machines including a new media center HP with Vista which crashes and hangs with out of the box H/W and S/W I am for the first time looking at Apple as an option due to the bugs in Vista , I was a firm believer in XP and wished I had not decided to go to Vista

So Apple for me later this year and I accept I will need to lose couple of important apps but better than current setup

steve