XP Availability

How much longer do you imagine we'll have the option of getting our Sager/Celvo's with XP? I notice about an equal distribution of dealers who offer
it and dealers who only offer Vista..

 

Currently, Windows XP seems the better choice for overall compatibility and gaming.

Vista still needs to mature before more enthusiasts and gamers switch over (permanently).

You can expect XP to easily survive for at least 2 more years.

 

I hear a lot of "Wait till SP2 is release before jumping on vista." Similar to the whole 2000 to XP thing. Personally I think they might get most of it right by SP1 because over all vista itself seems pretty stable (on proper hardware) with so much driver separation from the kernel that would normally crash the system (now some crashes just result in your app just going Poof, like it wasn't even there). Seems Were just sitting on the developers to release better drivers/application updates/codec patches now, and Microsoft to iron out some performance issues and workaround older app compatibility. that was my impression of vista anyways.. Personally I'm sticking to XP just for sanity sake. On another front tho I wouldn't deploy vista in a "Work" environment. The new TCP/IP stack is causing some rather unique headaches in such places. and the environment itself is a big hurdle when your expecting employees to adjust to the new interface. Can't be very productive if your spending much of your time learning how to do things differently. And vista while TRYING to make things easier just confuses people use to doing things their way.

 

An option that I like that some vendors offer is the Windows XP Pro installation with a coupon for Vista. So you get a XP Pro install and can wait until Vista becomes more stable and issues are worked out. Does anyone know how long the coupons are good for usually?

I assume the coupon is for an upgrade version which I am not a big fan of as I like to have the full install version. Anyone have details?

 

If you have a coupon, just get the Vista sent to you, the disc is not important, but the License is. The License will never expire, while a coupon might.

With the License (and CD-Key) you can install your Vista version [Home Basic/Premium, Business, etc..] later, even if there is a new Service Pack.

 

It will take awhile to get the coupon honored. I sent one in the day Vista was released and got email yesterday saying it has shipped and I will recieve it in the next week.