BleepingComputer.com: Xp Or Vista

(I am sorry if I a duplicating a topic that has already been covered but I have searched without finding it anywhere.)

Hi Guys,

I am thinking of buying another Laptop from Dell and they currently offer Vista as standard but can send it with xp as an option. Which should I go with. I have heard allot of bad publicity re Vista but xp will lose support in the near future?

Any advice is welcome. Thanks,

Haviland

Do you have any old hardware or software that you'll want to use on the Dell laptop. If so, then check to see if it's compatible with Vista. If it's not compatible, then your choice is XP.

Overall I prefer the Vista OS - despite the growing pains. It's been more reliable for me, and it's troubleshooting tools give better information.

Is the XP offered as the sole OS, or is the offer to configure the system with XP as a downgrade option from Vista Ultimate/Business? The downgrade license gives you the best of both worlds - use XP for now, install Vista from the restore partition if in the future you decide (or need) to use Vista. The advantage of obtaining this option, when it's offered pre-configured from the manufacturer, is they set the system up with all necessary drivers for XP. If a system is simply purchased with, say Vista Ultimate as standard, and the downgrade license option used later because the owner doesn't like Vista, it can be a job tracking down the XP drivers when the system support is for Vista.

Good advice on both counts. I have some old hardware but I keep an old version of 98 still running on a dusty machine in the corner (offline, so not in danger). I will call Dell and ask them on the options for installing the downgradeable option. If I get the Vista option and later configure the system to dual boot and install my own xp will that make things very difficult too (above and beyond the points made by Usama re drivers for xp)?

Setting up a dual-boot installation is more complex when Vista is installed first. There's an overview of the process here:

http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_vista_a...uide.htm?page=1

I would go for a Vista , however , if you can get lucky enough to find Windows xp media center edition , you'll be ahead of the pack , its a better version of xp and a hell of alot more stable , plus transition to Vista is flawless , Ive been running Vista for about a year now , never had a problem and I am a power user , I put this rig to work on everything from beta testing to virus and trojans and I have never had a problem with Vista , always boots , never shuts down , never has a problem (of its own doing / I am human so putting errors into it happens ) !

Im just saying the people who complain the most should switch to Apple , Apple for people who dont want to learn how to do anything for themselves just push ,click ,if something goes wrong , send your apple back to apple , wait a month so there techs can fix it for you charge you about what you paid for it , send it back and you can tell all your friends why Apple is so superior !

vintage144, on Jun 21 2008, 11:09 AM, said:

LMAO I would do what Platypus suggested ( post #3 ) but I also like Vista to .

Agreed, I have Vista and XP dual boot. Its not too bad for managing. I have to switch my driver in the BIOS from SATA to IDE, but I get to reap the benifits of having two OS's plus when Xp fades out, BAM you already have Vista.

My personal opinion would be to get xp instead of vista for 2 reasons.

1.Vista takes more ram to run than xp does by a long shot, but I guess that depends on the speed of your computer.

2.In many ways,vista is more complicated than xp,still has bugs, and cannot run some programs that xp can.

Yea, but sooner or later it will be vista that stands alone and Xp will be phased out. Might as well get it now and dual boot with Xp

I know people in my area that are still using Windows 95/98. I know people overseas who have recently upgraded to Windows for Workgroups 3.11. The older OS's aren't dead and still work quite well.

It's a matter of preference, and your outlook to the future. There's supposed to be a new version of Windows out in 2010. So, it all boils down to what you want to do with the computer. If you're satisfied with the state of the art in Windows XP, then that's for you. If you want the ability to run stuff that's more current than the XP state of the art, then Vista's the choice. Then, be prepared to re-evaluate in 2010

Wow Lots of ideas here. I'm still not sure I suppose. I know I will have to go to Vista eventually but why are the versions so different?

Lets just all go out and buy Macs

Good luck with your decision! My two cents...I have a desktop and a laptop, both dual boot with Vista SP1 and XP SP3. Both machines have 2 gb RAM - both were upgraded because Vista is piggy slow on 1 gb! The desktop is AMD Athlon 64 x2 @ 2.45 mhz; the laptop (HP) is Intel Core 2 Duo @2.1 mhz.

On both machines, XP is "quite a bit faster." The reason for the "" is because I can't quantify the speed difference - XP is just faster - on almost every task. Vista, however, is greatly improved with SP1, particularly with regard to boot time and file copying, and the difference in these two areas is much closer than it was before SP1. Vista is also "smoother" for me - again, can't be more specific. My only Vista "casualty" is an old Epson scanner that Epson won't write a Vista driver for and some software that needed upgrading anyway! All in all, it would be good for you to be able to experience Vista for an hour or so - it really, for me, is a subjective, choice issue. Having said that, I use XP most of the time!

If you go with Vista, I suggest the following MINIMUM specs (may not agree with published specs or other people, but, trust me, these are the minimum you want for a good user experience!): 1) RAM - 2 gb, min, and remember, 32 bit Vista can't utilize RAM over approx 3.5 gb; 2) video - discrete card with 512 mb memory; 3) processor - AMD or Intel, dual core @ 2.1 mhz. Don't even think about Vista with 1 gb or less of RAM!

Finally, a lot of the complaints of Vista were based on MS lying about the minimum specs required and early on driver issues - not available or buggy. I don't know what you do most with your computer, but, I suspect that Vista would be just fine! If you can, try a good running Vista machine out before you buy.

Thanks for all of that info. I mainly use my machines for internet access and music functions (playback and some recording etc.). I have a number of peripheral devices that I connect, such as a sony clie, archos 604 and assorted cameras, scanners, mp3 devices and all the other odds and ends that seem to in crease every year! I expect vista will cope with most of them no problem but it does seem to be a very heavy slow beast to need sooo much ram and processing power. For now I am leaning towards xp.