Hasta la Vista, Vista (Part 2)
My first problem was remote access. The SH8 is a very small machine. When I'm at my desktop PC (or Mac) it's nice to be able to remote into the SH8 and use a full keyboard, mouse and display without having to disconnect them all from my desktop or use a KVM switch. I've done this for years with VNC on other machines, but VNC on Vista has problems dealing with Vista's security. Ultra VNC finally has most of those problems sorted out, but if you go that route, read the release notes carefully for limitations. Microsoft's own Remote Desktop may very well solve this problem ... except the server isn't included in any of the Vista Home editions. Sorry Microsoft, I'm not going to spend hundreds of dollars on a pro version (not to mention trying to cram it onto the SH8) just to get Remote Desktop!
Then it was time to install my company's VPN client software so I could use the SH8 when traveling (one of the main reasons for having such a small laptop). Like many of the people who work for big corporations, I have zero control or influence on our corporate IT standards. If you want VPN access, you will use their software and you'll like it! Now, in my case this isn't some no-name software package -- it's from a big name security company. But it has been customized to meet our IT requirements, so even though the software vendor has a new version that claims Vista compatibility, I don't have the luxury of using it.
So I tried installing the "official" version from my IT department and within seconds I knew it was "game over". The first time I launched the installer I was immediately presented with a warning that I would have to run the installer in "compatibility mode". OK, that's easy enough to do, but compatibility mode only got me five seconds farther into the process before I got a warning that the installer couldn't run for security reasons. Since XP is still the only approved corporate desktop, I could expect no help from IT. Perhaps jumping through hoops to enable the "Administrator" account (a Vista security no-no) or a couple days of piecing together what the install does on XP and manually reproducing it would have gotten me closer. But with no guarantee of success and no compelling reason to actually keep Vista, I decided it was officially time to give up on Vista and go back to XP.
Some may think it crazy that I would let one application force a downgrade to XP, but the fact is that were it not for the need to run that one XP-only VPN client, I would have already ditched all flavors of Windows and installed Linux instead. Die hard OS fans seem to have trouble with the idea that someone would tolerate a sub-standard (in their eyes) OS just to be able to run a single application. But outside the flame filled halls of places like Slashdot, computer users just want to get their work done. Any OS that can make that happen is "good enough".
So I backed up my Vista install (who knows, maybe someday I'll try to go back) and loaded up XP Tablet Edition in its place. Of course XP and its circa 2001 collection of device drivers didn't support any of the SH8's hardware beyond the keyboard, mouse, basic USB 1.1, and VESA mode on the graphics card. Fortunately, Brett at Conics.net was able to provide me with a complete set of SH8 drivers for XP -- yet another example of their excellent customer service. If you're outside of Asia and looking to buy a Kohjinsha, here's one more reason to do it through them.
Two hours and what seemed like 200 reboots later, my SH8 was happily running XP. All the SH8 hardware (touchscreen, WiFi, Bluetooth, webcam, etc.) is working and overall performance is good -- as one would expect from XP on an 800 !MHz machine with an Intel 915 graphics chip and a gig of RAM. It seemed almost too easy, and it turned out that it was. I soon discovered that if the screen blanked (either from sleep mode or power saving) I couldn't get it to come back. That led to the discovery that the screen brightness control buttons, though detected by the system, had no actual effect. A little web research revealed that this is a common problem when running XP on Kohjinsha SH class machines. The fix turned out to be a BIOS update available from the Korean Kohjinsha website. I'm always a little cautious about firmware updates, but since others have reported success, I held my breath and kicked off the update. Everything went smoothly, the SH8 booted just fine after the restart, and all the problems with restoring the screen (and the brightness buttons) appear to be fixed. I've been using the machine for a full day now, and have noticed no further problems.
I'll continue to keep an eye on Vista. I was hopeful that Service Pack 1 would address some of my Vista gripes, but the more I hear about the contents, the less likely I think that is. Perhaps Service Pack 2 or the now rumored "Windows 7" will be compelling upgrades. Eventually Microsoft's lack of support for XP will drive corporations to (unwillingly) adopt Vista. When that happens perhaps we'll see software compatibility improve. But realistically Vista is in for at least a couple more years of rough weather. Until then, I'll keep riding out the storm with XP.
