All of the software, firmware and drivers are there. Unfortunately, I have no access nor insights into Samsung’s offerings in the UK, so I can’t help you there. Sorry!

Hi Kevin

Just wondered if you could elaborate more on what you’ve managed to get fully working / not in upgrading to Vista as Samsung never want to spend the time / money putting out Vista drivers for these things…

Also, with all your connections, can you please find out why after this has been announced and available in the US for what? Almost a year? Why I STILL CANNONT BUY one of these here in the awful United Kingdom? Samsung UK and resellers just keep saying – it’s coming… but so will the Q2 if we have to keep waiting…

Thanks..

I’m really curious about this topic because I’m about to buy a Q1U-P. Now that there exists the pre-built Vista/2GB model up for sale, I’m in a straight as to which path I should choose. I can’t get my hands on either prior to purchase, so there’s no playing around to know EXACTLY what would fit my needs, but I’ve been browsing around trying to find out if I should just skip the trial and error and opt for the UP-V, or stay with XP-TE.

From what I’ve seen in some videos, the UP-V seems to respond well (one CES interview shows the Samsung guy using a Vista unit). Is it still snappy with several applications running (i.e. three or four Firefox windows and Word ‘07)? Is there a significant difference in all around performance between Vista and XP on the Q1U-P? What are those differences?

As far as the touch screen and tablet features, in what ways do Vista and XP differ? I was really curious about the handwriting recognition (for which you preferred Vista) since I’m rather taken by the possibilities of tablet computing, and I’m certain that I’ll enjoy them gluttonously once I have the unit.

Maybe I’ll end up getting the XP unit and doing the upgrades myself. It’ll cost me about the same anyway, and I’ll get more of a feel for exactly which I like. But if I get the chance to skip a step, well, why not? Either way, I’m just curious as to specific pros and cons – if anyone can point them out to me. Thanks all who may help.

I’m considering getting a Mini Note later this month and getting the high end model ($749). I know it has Vista Business on it, but I was wondering if it could handle Vista Home Premium; I don’t know if this would be an upgrade or downgrade because I have a Home Premium upgrade disc and if I got a Mini, I want to install Vista Home Premium; anyone with a Mini know if this is possible or if they’ve done this? Thanks for any help or advice

John, you could be correct. For your writing style it may not matter. I have both XP and Vista tablets here and I find the recognition of my handwriting to be much better in Vista over time. In your case, maybe it makes more sense to use XP on your OQO.

@PJ I’ve used Google Browser Sync before, but I’ve stuck with Yahoo Toolbar for bookmarks over the years. Cross-platform OS and works in both IE and Firefox. I’ve also used a Firefox extension in the past to sync/store my bookmarks on my own web server.

@John in Norway, I can’t read Kevin’s handwritten notes, so you may be on to something…

To Kevin:
I’ve been dual booting my m200 between Vista and XP and I haven’t seen any better inking in Vista even with training it. Maybe it’s only better if your handwriting is bad?
Can you give me some examples where it’s better? I’m asking because I’m seriously thinking of going back to XP on my OQO. If it had 2GB RAM I’d leave it as it is but Vista is just too big a resource hog on such a little machine.

Google Browser Sync for Firefox, the best there is and free.

@Nate: A lot of it may be, but far from all of it. I think a lot of it is the usual effect of a newer OS with more abilities needing better systems than an older one — it’s OK to admit that. After recently putting a Vista partition back on my X60 for gaming, I realized that a large part of MY bad Vista experience was because of vendor-bundled applications, even in the case of Lenovo, which has a reputation for being much better about such things. (Compared to Dell or Sony.)

I loved a lot of the new features of Vista and especially the new filesystem layout, but IBM’s connection software caused endless headaches for me, and when I first tried it there were issues with Cygwin… and Microsoft changed its own Unix subsystem, which was free for XP, to pay for Vista. (I’m a Linux user, so this is vital to me.) Firefox also kept crashing on me — and Microsoft’s software or no, removing their OS fixed the problem for me.

I can’t fault Kevin’s reasons on the input side, though. I never ink, but Vista’s got that much better integrated than anything I’ve seen on XP’s side, and another step better than anything I’ve seen on Linux.

While I can understand why you’d detail your reasons for going with Vista on your Q1UP considering the comments you’d get if you didn’t, I think it’s a shame that you would have to justify your decision to install Vista to anybody. Whatever the popular opinion of Vista may be, it’s your device and you can install the OS of your choosing.

PS- I love the site!

Alain

I can’t understand why turning off UAC has any impact on performance? Also, I assume you were on 1Gb ram?

Asking as I have a P1610 running XP. TBH, I can’t see me putting Vista on until 2Gb is affordable in microdimm format.

@ PJ

I use the Foxmarks extension in Firefox for backing up and importing my bookmarks. It hasn’t failed me yet, and I highly recommend it.

Hmmm, I installed Vista on my P1610 once the “upgrade” became available. In order to get decent (and useable) performance, I had to (1) turn off SuperFetch (2) turn off User Account Control and (3) disable Aero and revert to Windows Classic. Having done those things, which took 5 minutes or less, performance was OK. Then of course I discovered that my Kyocera EVDO modem didn’t work in Vista – with no driver update in sight. Back to XP, haven’t looked back since . . . The overall Vista installation was in place for only two or three days.

@PJ: you can export/import bookmarks from firefox

As for backing up personal data I always grab my profile i.e. c:\documents and settings\{myusername} or c:\users\{myusername} and transfer it to a usb hard drive before wiping a device then pull over the My Documents, Favorites, Desktop. Then if I missed something, I can go back like if I missed my custom dictionary in ms word, or a pst file under application data. I’ll usually delete the data off my usb drive after a month or two, after all if I didn’t miss it, it must not be worth having

Quick question, Kevin. It’s got nothing to do with UMPC but I just wanted to ask since you’ve wiped and installed OS few times. I was wondering if there’s a way to save your favoirte bookmarks for your internet explorer or firefox. I format my computer from time to time and it’s such a pain in the neck to find all the favorite websites and add it again on my bookmark. If there’s a way, that’d be great.