Try here [link] They have links to a lot of free security and hacking tools.

So does Vista require a persistent internet connection? If so then it's a total deal breaker for me. Most of the machines I build and install are intentionally kept off the net. Shows running sounds are touring or in installations where nothing about the system will change for years at a time.

ND, I have never heard about that. My machine with Vista is connected to the internet at some point every day, but it isn't constant. I don't know about the frequent system updates - probably need an internet connection for those...

So does Vista require a persistent internet connection?

I don't think it does, but if it is connected, it phones home every so often, as well as when you try to access updates.

eta: As le n points out, you couldn't run Vista on a laptop for very long if it did.

NoiseDesign, what I hear everywhere is if you want a copy of vista to play with so you are already used to it when the day comes you can't get by without it buy a copy for a spare machine running non-critical applications. Don't put it on machines important to your business or your personal life. And even when the first patches come out, there will still be too many driver and annoying DRM. Wait as long as possible so as much of the annoying stuff is gone when you use it. Get XP. A reasonable vendor ought to make it available at the same price as VISTA. But if you have to buy a brand that charges extra for XP, consider it a cost of doing business with that brand and get XP. I know some people have bought in new machines and not had problems. But there are overwhelming tales of disaster about even for people who got it bundled with new machines.

Part of my business is building custom machines for audio playback and show control automation. I do it all with OEM XP installations and currently have no plans to move to Vista. Almost all of the audio cards that I use are still not playing well with Vista, and I just finally got some of specials I/O cards off of the ISA bus a few years ago.

Yeah, I should have known. Some of your stuff above seemed to imply you were considering Vista, but I obviously misread it. Sorry.

No worries. My questions were actually based on the fact that I've been avoiding it like the plague so I know very little about Vista.

What I really need to do is take one of my PC's and install Vista on it specifically so that I can start to experiment with it and find out the particular things that it breaks for me.

The very idea of Vista hurts me. But then, the very idea of XP hurts me, and I understand that it has evolved into a pretty good, stable, secure OS. But I definitely remember the days when super-geeks like me were saying "XP sucks, stick with Windows 2000 if you must."

All that said, the last version of Windows I ran on a computer owned by me was Windows '98 SE. Clearly, my Windows knowledge is a bit out of date.

You've convinced me to go with XP, whatever solution I end up with. I'm thinking going cheap, with a reconditioned Windows machine that I can soup up with as much memory (seriously, 4 GB) as I can.