Windows XP vs Vista

A laptop is on my want list however several friends who recently bought one with Vista wish they have their old ones back with Windows.

Is Vista all that bad? Since I'm not a pro at using a PC, would I be disappointed having had Windows XP?

I bought a new HP at Best Buy a couple of months ago. It has Vista (I previously used XP) and I'm happy with it.

Today's The Onion Headline:

McDonald’s Unveils New All-Beef Bun

I haven't heard a lot of great things about vista. I really enjoy xp, and unless I am forced at gunpoint to upgrade.... I sticking with xp

I'm sticking with XP as well.. it's easier to navigate and user friendly without too much extra work.

Vista sucks. You'll regret it. Stay with XP, or better yet, get a mac

I supplied 15 HP laptops to a client recently, all had Vista Business installed. They have been a bit of a pain, mostly slow and a bit 'flaky'. I rolled one back to XP last Friday as a test - and it's now behaving how a Dual Core 2GB laptop should and not like the old celeron it was. I'll get someone to do the rest for those who want it (a few are happy with Vista).

Vista has some 'advantages' - especially for home users - but in the business world at least, these are far outweighed by the problems. SP1 doesn't help much, in my experience. Essentially. unless you have a specific need for Vista (DX10* games or a hardware dependency etc) you're missing little more than some eye candy.

From what you're saying, I doubt it will be a problem for you although you may have problems finding a new [retail] laptop with XP pre-installed. However I believe Dell are offering the 'downgrade' as an option (Vista Business and Ultimate include downgrade rights).

* Can be fudged on XP but ...

Due to adverse economic and environmental conditions, it is regretfully announced that until further notice, the light at the end of the tunnel will remain switched off ...

Save yourself a LOT of headaches....
buy an intel mac...

it will run Vista ( if you are masochistic enough to want to try that route)
With a little resourcefulness it will run Windows XP64 ( BootCamp does not install drivers for XP64... but you can find them online and install them yourself)

It will run Linux or Unix...


AND it will run the Mac OS... which is essentially impervious to viruses, worms and Trojan horses... ( 19 years without a single virus, myself )
Is vastly easier to use and operate... has no problems with migrating to new systems ( always backward compatible, unlike Vista)
Is prettier, smoother, and comes with a much better suite of pre-installed software... and astonishingly powerful software that is cheap like water... ( iWeb, Garage Band, iDVD, Keynote, iMovie, iPhoto, iCal, Pages, iSync....and more)

AND, using a program like Fusion... you can run BOTH Mac OS and Windows at the same time!



Once you have spent some time using the Mac OS... you will never want to do windows again...

[quote=Dirty Videophile;1571231]A laptop is on my want list however several friends who recently bought one with Vista wish they have their old ones back with Windows.

Yes, you will be disappointed. I love XP and Vista sucks to me. Some companys are giving people the option to have the most current XP loaded on new computers.

I had an XP dual-core with 1GB RAM that I upgraded to Vista because Microsoft's analyzer said that my hardware was compatible with Vista Basic. So I purchase the upgrade and did the install. Everything went fine until I actually started to use it. There wasn't enough RAM so I doubled that because Vista uses at least 1GB for itself. Then, my video card was compatible so I bought a new one that supported Vista. That didn't work because I didn't have a large enough power supply to run the new video, so I updated the power supply. And finally, the DVD/RW/CD wasn't supported so I replaced that with a new burner. After $400 worth of upgrades and software, I still wasn't happy with the performance. I downgraded back to XP and have one nice machine.

I was told later that Vista is not a good operating system to upgrade to from XP, that a clean install would have been better.

I have since purchased a new computer with 4GB RAM and all the hardware VISTA compatible. It runs without a problem and hasn't failed once. I did, however, reduce the security options to eliminate the constant pop-up window asking me to verify an install or some Windows function.

• 6', 220lbs
• Average, 7" x 5"
• Looking to make friends to chat and share.
• Love the look of athletic women.
• I'll chat about anything... just say hello

Whenever you buy your laptop, tell them to knock $100 off the price and keep their Micro$oft crapware.

Get Ubuntu linux. Be happy.

The cake is a lie...

XP is soooo much better. if i had balls, i would tell vista to lick my balls! that version of windows just blows chunks. i hate it when you close something and the window pops up and says, "are you sure you want to close this?" and you click yes. but another window pops up and it's like, "are you reeeeally sure you want to close this?" bitch, of course i'm sure i wanna close this!! stop asking!!!!!

4,000 posts then I'm outta here.
I will not be responding to messages.
Thanks.

I bought a Dell 1520 inspiron 1 year ago with vista, no problems whatsoever.

Vista sucks. You need damn near a supercomputer to run it, driver issues galore, and if you need it for work use, then it is completely useless as just about all business software is 2000/XP only.

I recently installed XP SP3 and am regretting doing that even. This weekend I plan to format and go back to SP2. Microsoft just CAN'T get anything right on their first try. I never learn :(

But yeah, SP3 is so bad, MS is already hard at work on a Service Pack 4 to undo all the screwups included in SP3.

[quote=dong20;1571281]

Vista has some 'advantages' - especially for home users - but in the business world at least, these are far outweighed by the problems. SP1 doesn't help much, in my experience. Essentially. unless you have a specific need for Vista (DX10* games or a hardware dependency etc) you're missing little more than some eye candy.
/quote]

This confirms everything that I've heard about Vista. I went from Windows 98 XP last time, and will probably make a similar jump when I upgrade next (which won't be for a while).

The revolutionary smart set reads The Spin Cycle every day.

See Me/Feel Me/Touch Me/Heal Me

"You give me a waterboard, Dick Cheney and one hour, and I'll have him confess to the Sharon Tate murders." -Jesse "The Body" Ventura

I bought my Vista Home Premium Notebook PC about a year ago and have no problems with it and like it a lot. I don't notice that it runs any slower than XP. It also downloads drivers automatically for many peripherals and makes printers seem like they are plug and play.

Avoiding all work
Because there's none available
Like battery thinkers
Count your thoughts on 1 2 3 4 5 fingers
Nothing is wasted
Only reproduced
Get nasty blisters
Du bist sehr schon
But we haven't been introduced