Vista or wait for Windows 7?

I am going off to college in April (japan) and I plan to purchase a Sony sr right around march. But if I get one then, I would have to settle for vista on the new machine and not windows 7. Now i know that vista has gotten a lot better with SP1 and people say it is just fine, but people have made 7 seem like an amazing OS with better memory management, interface, etc. Even if I was going off to college in the summer (when they say the release is, but I'm not counting on it) I'm not sure if I would want a brand new OS just released. We all know what happened with vista. So I guess what I want to know is, how easy is it to install a new os onto a laptop, and would it cause problems for laptops that aren't designed for 7?

 

Well they said the release date is in june. So, if you can be patient then i would tell you to wait.

 

MS says that seven will be backward compatible with Vista. I think overall it will be more like Vista and should work fine. Its definitively not the jump in differences like it was with XP. It will still have the aero graphical interface, DRM, and vista core kernal. I think the main advantages for seven will be performance tweaks, some new added features and overall less resource hungry.

The main disadvantage is the cost of upgrading and purchasing a seven license. There is no way that MS would stick it to their business partners again by requiring them to upgrade hardware a second time with seven.. Can you imagine having three sets of hardware configurations for a business that may have the three OS's XP, Vista, and Seven. Its not going to happen.

Also, if MS does actually ship seven at the end of 09 you can imagine many customers will stop buying in the middle of 09 in anticipation of seven. This is why I predict that MS will once again offer a free upgrade to seven for purchases of vista systems starting in the summer of 09. Since you are buying in March you would be really close to getting that free upgrade.. if MS does indeed do this.. And I expect they will since the perception of Vista is more or less a negative one.. regardless if that perception is not justified at this point.

 

Wow that is earlier then I thought.. If this is the case one may be able to qualify for a free upgrade to seven in March which is when the OP wants to buy. But then again, MS might be a little frightened to do another "seven capable" program being they are getting their butts sued for the vista capable ordeal. MS might just let their partners suffer with dismal sales for a few months with vista and only release seven with new systems.. no free upgrades.

 

If you really want to try a vista-like experience, free copies of server 2008 are available and then visit the linky:
www.win2008workstation.com

 

Windows 7 won't be released by March anyways, so no matter what, you won't be able to get it, so you might as well get Vista and get along.

"People", who?

What happened with Vista? It worked fine for me since it's release.

It is very easy to install an OS on a laptop. Would what cause problems?

 

I would like to know who " they" is. And I would like links.

 

Honestly you wont be able to wait. Japanese Universities require a lot of typed work and with kanji its quite a painj to try and write it out at home then type it vs just typing it out from the first draft on.

 

thanks for all the responses. I guess now that I think about it and with x2ps response I won't be able to wait. So is installing a new os as simple as popping a cd in? Sorry for this noob question I've never done it before.

 

yes , then it would give you the option of Upgrading the current OS or Install it freshly

 

They is Microsoft! I say it'll be shipping in notebooks round Aug/Sep.

 

Any quotes directly from MS confirming it, other than this -

Mr. Howe stated, “Definitely the holiday focus is going to be on 7.”

 

Win7 will likely not be ready by the dates they say. The main issue I have with vista is that it constantly grinds your HD whether or not anything is happening, no matter how much ram you put on it. It's definitely got a long way to go. But you will likely not have a choice because I doubt your Sony will be XP compatible. There's always Ubuntu.

 

I ran XP when it was current. I am running Vista now it is current. I suppose I will probably run Windows Se7en when it is current.

 

Try turning off Superfetch; it reduces the disk grinding quite a bit.

 

Just get vista

 

You might as well take the path of least resistance (and least cost) and simply go with the copy of _Vista that'll come pre-installed on the _Sony you buy (unless, of course, Win7's been RTM, in which case you'll be getting Win7 pre-installed).

If you want to go with XP, you're going to have to pay full freight for a retail copy (about US$300, or about US$150 if you get the OEM version off eBay), and then you're going to have to fight the where-can-I-get-a-driver-for <name your component/peripheral> because, unless you can get a business model that offers back-grade rights (I still don't think of going from _Vista to XP as a "down"grade, more of a side-grade, but that's just me ), which is going to eat up a lot of your time, and may leave you without certain drivers because the fact of the matter is that _Sony will not be making any new XP-based drivers available.

That goes double if the system comes pre-installed with Win7 - you are going to be in for a big, big headache if you try to move from a Win7-based _Sony system to an XP install.

Since you're going to be getting ready to move to Japan, and start school there, I would think that the last things in the world you would need would be (a) extra, avoidable expenses, and (b) spending all your free time trying to get a computer to behave itself properly.

 

"June", what the other guy said, is not mentioned in that article.

You may not be aware of this, but MS's release dates aren't always 100% accurate, even when given in slides we can't see by people we don't know reported second-hand by websites that have lots of advertising.

 

I know this, this is why I guesstimate they will be shipping Aug/Sep.

BTW; Just to be clear here...Mid-2009 is um June.

 

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Micr...ould-Drop-as-Early-as-July-1-2009-98434.shtml
so june 09 -aug 10

 

Nobody really knows when Win7 will hit the market. The general assumption based on various articles is anywhere from Q4 of this year to Q1 of 2010. However, based on how well Win7 has performed in Beta, barring anything catastrophic, some people have speculated that Microsoft may want to rush it out in the summer. Either way, if you're going to be starting school soon, then just get a system now and make the switch later. Microsoft has already said that if your system runs Vista, then it will run Win7 with no problem.

Please don't take this as me being being a smart-@ss or anything because that IS NOT my intention, but why does any of that matter right now if you're just going to be getting it to go to school and perform your tasks. Get the computer with Vista until Win7 comes out because it's really not that difficult to implement a new OS, other than the headache of transferring files and programs.

 

In response to the original post's title: Yes, with the or changed to an and.

 

^^^Yeah, he's right. Good observation, AKA.

 

I'd wait for Windows7.

 

If your new laptop comes pre-installed with Vista, I wouldn't worry about making the switch to Windows 7 when it comes out.
Vista drivers/programs will be compatible with Win7 (tested in pre-beta edition - of course, some programs such as Daemon Tools don't work in Win7, but there is a good possibility it's going to be fixed in full release).

Installing a new OS is very simple.
Win 7 (pre-beta) takes about 15 minutes to install on contemporary systems.
What works in Vista should work easily in Win7, and in addition to that, 7 will do everything Vista does utilizing half as much resources, while being much better at it, having half as big footprint and overall being a better OS.

So again, I wouldn't worry about it.
If you need a laptop for university, get it before going to school so you can customize Vista to your needs and prepare for everything.
I'd sooner worry about getting good specs for a decent price instead of worrying about OS compatibility (which as I mentioned, won't be an issue).

 

Get the computer when you need it. Vista SP1 is fine, and you'll get most of 7's innards for free with Vista SP2. Windows 7, as I understand it, is supposed to run on the same hardware as Vista (it'll basically be Vista SP2 with some extra features and interface tweaks), and use the same hardware drivers as Vista... and if/when you want to upgrade it should be pretty easy to do so.

It'd be nice to get 7 for free with your computer... but based on your schedule, that sounds kind of unlikely.

 

Buying a pc with Win7 pre-installed will be cheaper if money is an issue. Buying the OS alone to upgrade will cost a pretty penny.

 

True, although some schools have a deal with Microsoft and offer it to their students at low cost... I don't know if your school does that or not.

 

Yeah, you're right. However, I think time is a bigger issue for the OP right now since that's what he specifically alluded to in his initial question. If he needs it for University, then there's almost no way that he can afford to wait for Win7, especially since nobody knows if it'll be Q4 (as rumored) or early 2010 (as rumored).