Worth the trouble of upgrading to Windows Vista? Part 3

There is nothing so quite so miserable as trying to get third party software to run on a new Microsoft operation system. My last article dealt with the standard Microsoft software I use in my everyday life, this one will deal with third party software. I did mention that I have already installed Firefox, as I won’t waste my time with IE. I do use IE when I am doing web design, as most of the world uses it. But aside from that, I can’t see any real benefits in using IE.

1. On one of my projects, my client requires that I use the Nortel Contivity VPN client. I tried to install it, but Vista would not allow me to do so. If there is a updated version, I have yet to find it. Luckily I have virtual PC with an XP image that I was able to load it on and connect.
2. If I am doing any web development that is not .NET or classic ASP, I prefer to run Apache over IIS. I have been able to get Apache working, but not able to get the Alias directives to function. This may be an oversite on my part, but I can’t get it to work even coping over an httpd.conf file that I know works on every other PC in my office.
3. Adobe Acrobat reader is better than ever. I have not had a single issue with it and use it every day. I buy alot of tech books in pdf format, so this was something I could not live without.
4. Adobe Photoshop installed and ran without issue as well. Luckily the good folks over at Adobe were on the ball and had their software up to par.
5. Dell 3000cn Color Laser Printer was very easy to get working. Vista could not find the printer so I had to manually enter the IP address, but aside from that, it was seemless.
6. PHP 5 has not been tested on my end yet. I was only planning on using it with Apache, and since I can’t get Apache working, I can’t test it.
7. MySQL 5 appears to be working. I only use it when doing PHP development, so I haven’t really done anything with it yet.

I am interested in know what other people have experienced when working with Vista and other 3rd party apps.

Part 1, Part 2