Vista or Windows XP??

[tonyfloyd]

Hi all....

Looking to buy a new desktop...probably a DELL Inspiron.....any thoughts on operating system?

Do I stay with Windows XP or try Vista??

Would appreciate your feedback!

Thanks
Tony

 

[Dale Hubbard]

Stay with XP, SP2. No contest IMHO Tony.

 

[Theo]

New hardware, especially from Dell etc (I prefer HP myself) is better off with Vista. I run Vista Ultimate 64 bit on my main box with no problems.

 

[Dale Hubbard]

If you run Vista, you are essentially a M$ beta tester If you want the features that M$ have introduced into Vista, then get a new Mac powerhouse with 'Leopard' OS X which has just been released. That machine will also run XP and Vista natively anyway.

 

[tonyfloyd]

New hardware, especially from Dell etc (I prefer HP myself) is better off with Vista. I run Vista Ultimate 64 bit on my main box with no problems.

Why u say that Theo?.....I hear Vista still has some issues....no?....I'd hate to buy a new desktop...get Vista....and hate it....

also....is 2GB memory and 320GB hard drive sufficient?

Leaning towards DELL Inspiron 530 w/Intel Core 2 Duo Processor.....

 

[Dale Hubbard]

Take the memory to 4GB - they may stiff you with 2 x 1GB sticks in which case you will need to chuck them if your machine has 2 slots only and you want 4GB.

 

[Johnn]

XP unless you volunteer to be a testing department.

There are still bugs in many hardware drivers and third party software.

Just wait until all (or most) of the major bugs are fixed.

 

[Dale Hubbard]

AFAIK, even the Nokia PC Suite via USB still doesn't work on any Vista flavour. Anyone using PC Suite with a Vista install over bluetooth? There's a tester for you

 

[Theo]

Guys, I use Vista Ultimate 64 bit - which, supposedly does not have 100% compatibility with older hardware due to lack of 64-bit drivers for these older pieces. However, it's been now 10 months since Vista was released. I have no problem whatsoever, all my applications work flawlessly. And that, with a home-built system. With an OEM manufacturer such as Dell or HP you will have zero problems; all the hardware on it is designed to work 100%.

To skip all headaches you can opt for a system with Vista 32 bit. I disabled some automated features of Vista 64 bit for hardware that only has 32 bit drivers and there are no issues after I did that.

 

[tonyfloyd]

XP unless you volunteer to be a testing department.

There are still bugs in many hardware drivers and third party software.

Just wait until all (or most) of the major bugs are fixed.

Johnn...I need to get a new desktop soon...so i guess i go with Windows XP?

 

[EM @MAJ.com]

If you're going backward, go for XP.

I enjoy my VISTA.

 

[Johnn]

Johnn...I need to get a new desktop soon...so i guess i go with Windows XP?

If you get a brand new system (brand names: HP, compaq, ibm, etc..) you may be ok with Vista. The problem is if you need to upgrade or replace let say a better video card later. You may run into problems with the drivers.

If you don't run any special programs then %99.99 percent then you are ok with XP and there should be no reason that you should suffer the headache with the new OS.

You know it is fine if everything is working until you run into even a minor problem.

 

[tonyfloyd]

no special programs....your normal stuff....adobe photoshop...seo elite...domain tools....etc...

Is Vista a totally different experience than Windows XP? easy to use...navigate?

 

[Theo]

Tony, visit http://windowsvista.com

You can actually tweak Vista and make it look like XP.
Its main features are stability & security over older MSFT OS's.

My only concern upon installation (clean install) was 32bit vs. 64bit. I went with 64bit for utilizing more than 4Gb of RAM and to have the option of expandability in the near future.

Regarding video, both major video card manufaturers - ATI/AMD and NVIDIA - offer Vista 32bit/64bit video drivers.

A good resource for all things 64bit is http://start64.com

Heck, I even play games on it (Counterstrike, Halflife 2 etc)

 

[DomainMagnate]

XP here, no rush ..

~MG

 

[tonyfloyd]

thanks theo....however clueless as to whats the difference between 32 bit and 64 bit.....what are the major differences?...and do i need 64 bit?

 

[Gerry]

I have XP and Vista running on various computers.

First Tony, Dell sucks. My opinion, but their support and staff suck.

I use HP or Sony.

Vista is okay. Like Theo said, there are many annoying pop up features that need to be disabled. There seems to be a prompt for every click and command asking you something or wanting more information. Straight out of the box, it is my understanding that all Vista is like this.

I am notorious for disabling the hell out of pre-installed programs on a new computer. To me, that is job number one. But Vista has all of this in its guts and you will have to know where to go to disable them. There are some tweaks available online. This annoyances slow down productivity tremendously and can be bothersome while you are doing something. Auto updates are the same...disabled. Usually there are so many programs running in the background that you are unaware of that they can slow any processor down and rob memory.

With that said, I now feel right at home with both Vista and XP. New products were supposed to stop shipping with XP but there have been so many complaints from customers that MS has decided to extend shipping until March.

As for Dell, man...stay away. I had nothing but nightmares with my one and only dell product and their tech support and staff.

Unless you need one this very moment, I would look at Office Depot or Staples the day after Thanksgiving. Not only do they have some incredible deals but they usually have some unbelievable unadvertised specials. You might also find yourself considering on of the souped up Toshiba, Sony, HP or other brand laptops that are a desktop replacement.

For some torture, I am going to take one of my older models and load Linspire, RedHat, SuseLinux along with XP. I mistakenly erased the entire hard drive (after transferring everything). It is still a superb computer. I thought, what the heck...lets partition the hell out of it and load all these other OS's up. I haven't done it yet. But I thought I would try all these other OS that people have recommended.

 

[tonyfloyd]

wowo...thanks doc.....i've always had DELL....and not many complaints...but then again...i have no idea as to what other brands are like.....i have a dell laptop now....i wanna stay away from laptops...i want to go back to desktop.....if not DELL....who is a great desktop brand?

 

[Dale Hubbard]

A true 64-bit processor can handle a 64-bit address space (8 octets) and take advantage of some special 64-bit instruction codes - the latter of which Win Vista has never been optimised for.

 

[petrosc]

I would stay away from HP as well Doc, the thing is that since they have bought Compaq and became a major force in the computer hardware industry, they started downgrading the quality of their products. It seems that they are better off replacing the faulty parts covered by the warranty, than investing in higher quality materials and construction.
The same goes for Acer.

A lot of retailers here where I live stopped selling HP and Acer because they had too much work to do with the returned parts that needed replacement or repair.

Anyway about the Windows thing, I am using Vista for 3 months now, absolutely no problem at all, whatever hardware(old or new) I connected to my laptop was immediately recognized and installed. I wouldn't go back to XP, Vista is too good compared to XP