Pros and Cons of Vista

Hello,

I was wondering if someone that has vista to give me some pros and cons of it. This is of coarse, comparing it to XP media center.

 

Read a very detailed article at anandtech. I am sure it will answer all your questions.

 

Pros: Pretty, aero is fun, most software are already vista compatible, easier that xp for a newbie.

Cons: Slow, not all laptops can run aero, not all software is compatible yet, osx rip off.

Disclaimer: This is just my opinion.

 

I have to agree with Bobdare. After doing Vista 32-bit Business, I thought it was pretty, and I like Aero, and the search feature. However I was extremely limited in what the OS would let me do. I could not organize my programs in the start menu like I used to do in XP; my wireless would not work at school, I had to hook up through lan, and I didn't like not having a firewall (except for the Vista one). Also my Power4Gear Extreme did not work as well. I also could not get my monitor to turn back on after it had shut off. I would have to power the notebook off and turn it back on.

All of this combined with not having the time to hunt down drivers and patches to programs (Visual Studio) to do my schoolwork has forced me to go back to XP. I will probably re-visit Vista again in the Summer when schools out and I have more time. So I suggest if you want to try Vista, then image your current system; that way it will be easier to go back if you encounter problems. I'm glad I did, I was back up and running in like 30 minutes after I decided to go back.

 

Ok well that cleared it up, im sticking with XP for a little bit longer.

 

It's funny, I have Vista Business and as I read through everything you say, I didn't have any of those troubles. I can see how people might think they were troubles, but the problems in Vista aren't what you listed. I can assure you that none of what he says are actually problems (at least with the OS).

THe cons in my book: no automatic power profile switching, hard to find OLDER drivers (things like my 4 year old scanner).

 

I know you already said you made up your mind, but here's my take:

Pros:
Looks and "feels" better, once you get used to it.
On a fast system, seems more responsive -- seems to utilize dual-core processors and lots of RAM more efficiently.
Is more "secure" than XP, especially IE7 -- though, of course, you're likely to add/replace features with your own security tools
The new Media Center app is much better than the XP 2005 version, and can play DVDs out-of-the-box.
Some of the bundled software, especially Windows Mail, is a significant improvement over their XP counterparts.

Cons:
Battery life suffers a bit with aero.
Not all apps and hardware are Vista-ready.
On older systems, runs slower than XP.
User Account Control is so annoying, you just end up turning it off -- negating one aspect of Vista's security.

As for a recommendation, I would look at what software you use. Your hardware is definitely Vista-compatible (as Dell sells it with Vista now), so drivers won't be a problem. If any of your major software isn't Vista compatible, that should be the deal-breaker. If your software is compatible, and the vast majority of programs are Vista-ready in their newer releases, then it's definitely worth a shot. ATI drivers for Vista are really pretty good, so you're fine there. The only other potential issue is RAM. With 1 GB of RAM, your performance in RAM-intensive apps will suffer somewhat on Vista compared to XP. 2 GB RAM really seems to be the Vista sweet spot.

 

E1505 with clean Vista upgrade. T7200, 2GB ram, X1400. If you got it free through the upgrade program do a clean install and try it out. If you don't like it just switch back to XP. If you didn't get it free I'd just stick to XP. Seems like a waste to spend that much money to upgrade from an already stable, capable OS. If you upgrade to Vista though, 2GB of ram is strongly recommended.

 

cons: pretty well choaks all videos cards (especially nVidia) that require intensive vid processing (games)

pros: none matter knowing vid cards are not running properly on Vista

 

Totally not true on my laptop w/ nVidia 6200go, or on my desktop with a nice x1950 Pro. Obviously the ATI drivers are a bit ahead of nVidia's, but performance doesn't suffer on either machine. And my laptop only has 1gb

 

I recently purchased a dell e1705 and personally i love vista so far. Mikey has no idea what he is talking about on the video cards, many have been shown to run faster on vista than xp.

pros: looks great. love the search feature. if there is ever a driver incompatibility it tells me, then looks for a solution(and has found one 2 for 2). Doesnt seem to freeze up as often as my xp machine did when runing games, but this may be due to this being a much nicer machine.

cons: none thus far...loving every minute.

 

Ultimately, whether or not to upgrade depends on your needs. If you only do simple tasks and have lots of free time to play around with the OS, upgrade. However, if you just want a hassle-free workhorse that will labor without unexpected crashes and such, stick with XP

 

then ur not playing games like i said that require extreme intensive vid processing.
Go read EA's website and see all the complaints with nVidia and Vista. Or just google "class action lawsuit nVidia" and you will see lots

 

That makes sense for the nvidia side, but my desktop (ATI) runs Oblivion like a champ. This machine (laptop) runs Hitman: Blood Money without issue. I know it's not major intense, but it's not a slouch. I've definitely heard of the nvidia Vista driver issues. I'm just saying that, in my experience, I haven't had the need for a better driver.

 

Nvidia's drivers are still pretty bad on Vista, but that's hardly Vista's fault. Also, the latest 101.70 drivers are MUCH better than the earlier drivers -- and finally include all the missing control panel options.

And ATI's latest Vista drivers are excellent. I have an older machine with an ATI X800Pro that plays every game I throw at it... about as well as XP (including some games, like Scarface, that reportedly don't work with Nvidia cards on Vista at all).

 

i was really excited about vista and just put it , being used it for 2 weeks till yesterday..

CONS:
1.Hard to find compatible software, everybody said it is already but its not - most of them turn Vista to Base - no aero and looks like XP. Programs having trouble with: DivX, Nero, Adobe Audition, Photoshop CS2, VideoStudio, Daemon,SAP2000, PowerDVD .. All you have to do is find latest (which costs much time (maybe money for someone)) versions , but most of them - are not available right now - for example norton ghost.
2. Have Flashox9c or whatever is it says error in IE7 which needs all the time to restart IE.
3. Had OCM error due to divx or nero.
4. UAC - thats just terrible asking you all the time.
5. Playback fails for less than a second while playing Music or Video File - thats the reason i removed vista.
6. Restart button - not so easy to find , clicking around.
7. It just loads the system too much - i find my notebook's fan running most of the time, RAM is around 900MB and HDD loads much all the time. CPU is running cool only <- All bad for a notebook battery and health.
8. Not that much support of drivers software - Intel Wireless PRO not available.
9. most of the time i find myself hard to find some things which were more accessible in XP. Change XP Theme , or Change ClearType Style? like most of the things are changed than XP, and to find something you have to Click Around in Control Panel like im WEB site.
10. Its just not ready to meet my needs, also i hate an OS not being stable for just for a day. I can run XP for months without any errors. And its being months since Vista started.


PRONS:
1. Cool new sounds, icons, wallpappers, screensavers.
2. AERO.

thats just my personal opinion , finding programs that i need to myself. I cant imagine if i need other programs whan problems will they cause.
tested on e1405 , core duo, 1GB 100GB Integrated 945. Uninstalled vista at the end.

 

I find the start menu in Vista much improved. But it wasn't worth the performance tradeoff.