Sebastian Bergmann

Yesterday I migrated my desktop box from Windows XP Professional SP-2 to Windows Vista 64. I encountered no problems during the installation and I have to say that I am impressed with Vista's performance (it boots at least twice as fast as Windows XP).

I only use Windows as a host operating system (because I use proprietary software such as DxO Optics Pro and like to play the occasional game that does not run (well) on Linux) and do all my work in virtual machine that runs Linux.

The only real (and sort of ironic) showstopper that I have with Windows Vista 64 is that DxO Optics Pro, one of the pieces of software that I need Windows for in the first place, is not compatible with Vista 64. The software itself starts up fine but it cannot be activated because its activation service segfaults. It even does that inside a virtual machine with a 32-bit installation of Windows XP Professional SP-2, which is really weird.

And if you wonder why I migrated from Windows XP Professional SP-2 to Windows Vista 64: I upgraded my box's RAM from 2GB to 4GB so that I could give my virtual machine(s) more memory.

Maybe I should just dual-boot between Windows XP (for DxO and games) and Linux for work ...