Your New Dell: XP or Vista or Other

So you just ordered a new dell ... and lo and behold it's shipping with Windows Vista!!! What're you going to do? Keep it, or turn back to XP, or install something else?

 

vista only!

 

why vista? isn't xp faster, more compatible, requires less resources, and is more secure? vista is only for the eye candy isn't it?

 

I have read Vista is more secure, and the main reason people get vista is for the eye candy...

yes Vista takes a lot of resources but most computers now days can take it easily.

 

Actually, Windows Vista is way more secure than Windows XP... And by the way, in five years, more than half the world will be using Vista, so it will be more compatible...

Leon

 

all the debates XP vs Vista aside, I choose vista for practicality reasons. First, I don't need to buy an extra XP license to run it on the lappy, while Vista license already comes with it. Second, XP driver support for the new dells will be virtually non-existent, and I for one don't want to be hunting those thing down on the internet

 

Exactly! In five years, Vista would definitely be better, but for now, XP is the way to go

 

Yeah right now XP kicks butt...and are you sure Dell won't offer XP support for their new models? that seems kind of odd...if that happens I'm going to be so pissed considering that things just run slow on vista and I could care less about eye candy over performance


**EDIT**

Actually, I just looked on Dell's website and it seems they DO have XP drivers for the new Inspirons...

***

 

I'm going with Linux, even securer than any windows and free... and customizable... and loads faster... and doesn't take up as much resources... the list goes on and on

 

I guess it's only XPS line that lucked out

 

Vista... Its a horrible OS right now, but i would rather pay an extra $50 for it now, and deal with the growing pains, then have to pay $200 down the line when it is finally fixed.

Its pretty irritating that its been on the market for so long and still dreadfully unstable though. They arnt so much 'patching' it, as 'finishing' it.

 

Yeah I'm probably going to use dual boot XP and Ubuntu...I can't go linux only because games are a problem for linux and the emulation is not good...

 

The Dell premier site did not give me a choice. I wanted Vista, but my school set it up with XP as the only option.

 

I'm going with Vista. I'll have enough RAM for it, and I don't feel like shelling out $200 for XP, so why not? And in terms of CPU speed, Vista is faster, so that's a significant plus.

The eye candy and security improvements are just icing to the cake...I'm satisfied well enough with XPSP1 there.

 

Can't you just use your current Windows Disc and install that over vista...you don't need to buy another windows xp if you already own it (that's how home licensing works). And in terms of CPU speed, no way Vista is faster, XP blows it out of the water.

 

Unless you bought a retail XP, i'm pretty sure its against the EULA to install an OEM version onto another computer. In fact most discs refuse to boot on non-original computers. I had to re-create my dell XP home disc when i tried to move it over to my other desktop(Note:This was BEFORE they revised the EULA. As far as i know, i didnt break any rules, as it was back in '03.)

I do have a retail copy of XP pro sitting around here, but i am keeping it for when i build my next gaming desktop. Scared to even install it on another computer, in case it authenticates itself and ruins the serial key.

 

For desktop work, Vista is much more responsive than XP if you've got a powerful enough system. Oh, I got Vista.

 

I currently have my 700m tripple booting XP, Linux, and OSX. I hope to get the m1330 to this point eventually. It was ordered with Vista Ultimate.

 

I installed Vista 64 Ultimate on my home system a while back, and out of the box it did seem a little sluggish. But after un-installing the junk I do not want, removing the services I never use and tweaking setting it really does run very well.

Also, if you do not care about eye candy you could always turn off Aero, then your performance would increase again.

I really like the built in search in the start menu (which Linux can already do ) and the new Windows Explorer is a pretty big improvement.

That being said Adobe Creative Suite CS3 would not run well in the 64bit version (not sure about 32bit) the PDF printer would not work, and it was a little unstable. So I had to go back to XP.

Still the biggest problem with Vista for me is that damn Allow/Deny box that pops up whenever you want to do something to the system. If I login as administrator then I do not want to be bugged by that.

So there are pluses and minuses for both XP and Vista. I like new things, learning how they work and seeing what they can do. So that's why I do not mind Vista all that much.

Personally I will be installing Linux as the primary OS on my new system. Because I have my desktop system to take care of all the Windows apps I have to have, I can make my Laptop just the way I want it. Linux for the win.

 

I was disappointed with my Vista Ultimate. Most of the cool Ultimate only features were pretty useless or did not apply to me.

Complete Backup Restore: This is garbage. I did a complete backup image of my C: drive. When I tried to restore the image it kept giving me errors saying my hard drive config did not match the image! After a lot of messing around I got it to use my new drive, then the image was corrupt!! Now I use Acronis True Image, which just works.

The Bitlocker encryption is way too slow, volume shadow copy is ok but takes up a lot of space, media center built in just felt like bloat on my desktop.

And the Ultimate Edition extras have not changed pretty much since Vista was released!

So although I do not mind Vista in general, I think that Ultimate just adds more bloat than really useful tools that I feel I need.

 

No. Vista is more compatible than XP in the sense you can just plug most devices in and it will detect it and run. You don't have to go searching for drivers as much like you do with XP. Most all popular software is going to be fully supporting Vista by now because Vista has gone mainstream. XP may require less resources but that's only because XP is less efficient and applications load slower as well as the OS loads slower. Vista is more secure than XP. And as you stated Vista also looks nice compared to XP. Unless gaming performance is quite a bit lower for a specific game you play under Vista vs XP then I see no compelling reason to stay on XP. People just don't like new things. The ones that were back on Windows 2000 when XP released were the same way.

 

This can be disabled by going to the control panel, then user accounts, then turning off UAC (User Account Control)

 

I used to hate UAC, but I got used to it after a few months. I'd rather have safety over convenience.

 

Okay I'm pretty much going to contradict all that above. First off, XP is more compatible than Vista...there is no device that will work in Vista that won't work in XP...driver support with Vista is still horrible considering the number of devices that don't work with it, not to mention the amount of software that won't even install on it let alone run on it.

Second, XP is in no way less efficient than Vista, in fact XP is much more efficient than Vista...which is WHY it requires less resources. You can turn off all of the Aero effects in Vista and still see that it requires more resources than XP without any eye candy. I don't know where you got the idea that applications load slower and the OS loads slower...did you try using both on the same system? I have and I'm telling you, XP is so much faster.

Stability: I find no difference in stability for desktop applications between XP and Vista. In terms of gaming, I do notice that Vista tends to have bugs here.

Vista is more secure than XP. Okay, I'll give you this for now because Vista did have time to build off all of XP's vulnerabilities and fix them in the process.

Gaming: Pretty much ALL games suffer some performance hit when running in Vista compared to XP. Certain games have a peculiarly big discrepancy between XP and Vista. Check out these performance charts for yourself below from TomsHardware:

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/01/29/xp-vs-vista/page4.html



Now, I'm not going to say that I'm against upgrading to something new, nor am I saying that Vista flat out sucks. I just think that Vista is still in its early stages and maybe after another year or so most of the bugs will be worked out and performance will be on par with XP. But for now, eye candy isn't enough to make me switch over since Vista itself as an OS is actually worse than XP.

 

Yah I know you can do that, but then you lose any security that feature provided. It would just be nice if that only happened when you were logged in as a regular user and not an administrator.

 

I think most people agree that XP did not start to work really well until after SP1, so you are right I think after Vista SP1 we will start to see Vista come into its own.

Like I said in an earlier post Adobe CS3 did not work well with Vista 64bit at all, that's probably due to the 64bit part but you never know. And a lot of older devices you may have do not yet have good Vista drivers and maybe never will because they have been replaced with newer versions.

So I would not say that Vista is more efficient or compatible than XP.

 

I'm surprised, are most of you guys who are keeping Vista just keeping it because it just comes with Vista and you don't have XP to install on there?

 

If I have to pay Microsoft for a Vista license I will be damned if I am giving them another $200 bucks for an XP license just to replace it! It does everything I need it for as a 2nd OS on my Laptop so I will keep it around

 

Lol I was just wondering if that was the reason!

 

Yeah it sucks that if you want a consumer model laptop with XP on it,that you have no choice but to buy both,come on Dell,offer something else apart from this DRM monster that will be turned loose over the next couple of years.
This article is quite long and detailed on Vista DRM and what is planned for it and how they will implement it.
http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html

To me,the fact that MS bothered to reply to some of the points in this article,is bothersome,meaning that if even half of what is said is true,I cannot see why people are endorsing the adoption of this OS,I can certainly see why MS and Dell are though.

 

Hey, does anyone know if the 1520 comes with 32 bit vista....or 64 bit vista? And what is the difference between the two?

 

comes with 32 bit only, heres a link to explain more http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/editions/64bit.mspx and i think if your really want a 64 bit os then you can request a free dvd for it here http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/2057/ordermedia/default.mspx for free as long as you provide your product code

Also

vista all the way!

 

Drivers and Direct X 10 are holding me back from downgrading back to XP when my laptop arrives.

 

Dual boot. Both XP and Vista

Though I'll probably be primarily using XP for the foreseeable future.

 

I only have one thing to say, because it's obvious that lightflux won't pay attention and just say everyone is all wrong and he's right. You sir, are ignorant - and an idiot.

 

I guess ignorant idiots know how to back themselves up with real proof eh DoubleBlack? Now now, don't flame...nobody likes it

 

No, the fact is you don't have real proof...you are just throwing around assumptions, rumors, etc. which nobody really likes. I was just telling the truth, because I can back myself up...with over a year of using Vista I can tell you that it is without a doubt 3-4 times BETTER than XP and I personally would never use XP as a main OS ever again, and would highly recommend the same to others.

The ONLY "problems" with Vista are certain program incompatibilities, and/or drivers - but those aren't due to Microsoft or Vista, they are due to Vendor's not caring, or them being lazy, or something like that. Out-of-the-box Vista is a fantastic Operating System, that most major hardware and software work 100% with. The problem you have, is you either used it for a limited period of time, are mistaking vendor issues with Vista issues, and/or are speculating or basing your "real proof" on pure rumors.

I wasn't flaming, I was just stating my opinion. And for the record, nobody likes "know alls" like you who only throw around misinformation, or speculation/rumors.

 

Nice proof, 3-4 times better than XP is a great fact DoubleBlack. I'm sure you know the difference between a fact and an opinion right?

Actually if you looked at my later posts you'd see I gave some links giving benchmarks in Vista's performance...2nd I've used Vista probably longer than you have since I was one of the initial beta testers when Vista was still Longhorn and were releasing builds as early as a version in the 2090 stage till even today when Vista is 6 months out of the box. And third, it seems you're the only person who thinks I'm a "know all" as I'm not imposing myself on anybody nor throwing around misinformation or speculation/rumors. If you've cared to look at my previous posts, you would see that my so called "speculation" was actually in the form of a question, therefore trying to find out information rather than state anything. DoubleBlack, your opinion is your opinion, but keep it limited to a friendly chat, because as I have said before, nobody likes flamers. If you haven't realized this yet , I made this a Poll...and just in case your silly little arrogant head forgot the definition of a poll, I made this thread with the intent to find out what OS people are using and why. You do see that I have listed not just Windows, but other OSes such as Linux there as well right?

Now DoubleBlack, you can fire away another reply to what I have just said. But, I doubt I will respond to you because I have better things to do with my time on these forums such as help people with their questions or ask questions of my own.

 

Geez it's only XP and Vista what's the big deal.

 

I'm gonna use vista cuz it'll get better, and soon Microsoft will drop XP support like they did with 2000 and such, but a more important question, IE or Firefox?

 

Not even close. Firefox.

 

Yeah... I think the XP users AND the Vista users will agree that pretty much no one uses IE these days...

 

Well about 80% of people still use it, just noone who knows anything about it.

 

I don't believe that figure. Even my parents and grandparents use Firefox!

EDIT: Wow, looks like you're right:

Firefox market share by version June, 2007 (Wikipedia)
Firefox Betas 0.03 %
Firefox 1.0 0.60 %
Firefox 1.5 2.85 %
Firefox 2 11.07 %
Total 14.55 %

 

Yea I'm using Firefox, and I was trying to get my school to switch to it before i graduated last month, i doubt they'll change, but my girlfriend's school uses it, thats a plus

 

Yep, it just shows you that people like the users of this forum a vocal minority of computer users. A huge number of people just turn on their computers and just use whatever Dell or anyone else tells them too.

I bet if Dell started installing Firefox on all systems and made it the default browser you would see some new figures very quickly.

Some people, like my boss, just refuse to learn anything new period. She does not like Firefox, Thunderbird, or Vista mainly because it is different than IE, Outlook Express, and XP. That's fine because computers are not that important to her, and she just wants something she can use quickly. But it still makes me sad. And I try to bore her sometimes explaining why Opensource is better for everyone.

 

Since you guys are arguing I might as well share my opinion. Vista is cool...aeros is eye candy, but overall it's a memory hog. I'm a gamer and a 15% decrease (or higher) in game performance is lame. I'm still sticking to vista when my 1520 comes in only because the notebook is packed with 2gb of ram and a killer graphics card.

 

Well that's great and all, but I was referring to primary OS. No one used Longhorn as their primary OS when it was initially released, I would know...I'm an MCSE with MSDN access too

Easy, Opera.

 

where does it say that there is a 15% decrease in game performance? the whole memory hog thing, its been explained on the forums that vista uses unused memory to load things faster, but it will release memory for an application if that application needs it....so technically its not hogging memory, its just using it more efficiently.

 

Do any of you guys know if there is going to be any form of Direct X 10 ported back to XP so that you don't have to use Vista?