I'm wanting to upgrade to a new laptop and have my eye on the HP Pavilion dv 6521. My only hesitation is that it comes pre-loaded with Vista as the operating system, and I've been warned that Vista is still undergoing teething problems. Friends say I should wait 6 months or so until there's a new release of Vista that has all the quirks solved. But I'm *itching* for a new laptop and hate the idea of waiting that long... Can anyone advise me on the pro's and cons of Vista over XP? Should I wait? Perhaps I should try to get my HP with trusty XP loaded instead of Vista? Help, I need advice!

The one big issue still with Vista is compatibility. Older programs and hardware sometimes won't work with it. If you have some older must-have programs check if they are compatible with Vista. If you have something essential that won't work with Vista, and you can't get around, stay with XP. Since you're getting a laptop form HP with Vista on it, all the internal hardware issues are HP's problem and you won't need to worry about it. What remains is peripherals like printers and webcams. You need to check if they are compatible with Vista.

All that being said Vista is a better OS than XP. Also SP1 has been delayed yet again, so it might take more than a six months, if you should wait for it.

I agree with Mr. Alpha.

Vista is better, but only if it will run the programs you need on the hardware and peripherals you plan to use.

i prefer windows xp in some ways though because vista has its compatability issues, and also uses quite a lot of RAM just to load the basic GUI.

I prefer vista. I think it runs well on good hardware, and the search built into the start menu works rather well, I think. It is a bit heavy on the resources, but vista uses memory differently from the XP.

Well personally, I think XP is good, it uses less memory than Vista, but is also less secure. XPs default admin account allows root access to the OS by malware, enabling it to do anything. On the security side, XP needs a bit of a cleanup, but on the memory side, its a little brighter. XP works fine on most modern laptops. My mum has a laptop with like 512MB memory or something like it, and it runs extremely well. However, I have a laptop with 1GB memory. Trouble with Vista is that it takes up 512MB just to run itself. I have 1GB, so it takes like half the memory! To sum up, if your looking for better security, I'd recommend Vista. Cons are that when you do need to run apps as an admin on your PC you are bombarded with popups asking for root access. Pros are that its susceptibility to malware is significantly reduced. Although I would not recommend disregarding all the normal security software. Compatibility shouldn't really be a problem - you can use the option to run programs as if they were running on Windows XP, which works great for me, especially on some games with Vista issues. The GUI is also sweet. I think XP for laptops, Vista is better for desktops with higher memory. But of course its up to you.

DISCLAIMER: These are of course only my views expressed here.

at a minimum i think all vista PC's should have at least 1.5GB of RAM. my pc has 2GB which is perfect for vista and runs very fast

I had the same problem when I wanted to buy a new laptop. But it's not as bad as I first thought. Okay, it's more buggy than WinXP but XP has been years in development and Vista is quite new. Seriosuly, as long as you machine meets the specs then give it a try. If it's a lower spec machine make sure you read all the speed up articles because it'll really help.

Vista isn't buggy, nor does it has many compatibility issues anymore.

Some older programs won't run on it, but if it's that old, who needs it.?

Sure it uses more memory, but it also does a lot more for the user in turn.

The search indexing alone is worth the switch. Ever tried to find a lost or
misplaced file in XP? lol Vista's search index finds it as you type the name.

All programs and operating systems have bugs. Sometimes it hangs for a few seconds when I want to do something, so I believe that's a bug.

i have been rather lucky, i havent actually encountered any bugs while using my vista PC