Window Xp Home or Vista Home Basic? Which on do I install?

I placed a previous thread similar to this reguarding what computer to buy, a Vista Basic notebook or an XP Home notebook.

I ended up going with the XP Home notebook because it had better specs and was a good $150US cheaper. Anyway now I have a new delima, the Windows XP Home notebook I purchased (A Compaq Presario v3000 with Turion 2.0Ghz MK-36 / 1Gb RAM / Geforce 6150) came with an upgrade voucher that enables me to get Windows Vista Home Basic for free!

Cool. But now here is my crossroads again... Should I switch to Vista Basic from XP Home? I have both of them at my fingertips... what to do?

 

Nothing wrong with Free, BUT will the upgrade disable your XP Key?
If so I would say NO to Vista Home Basic.
If you can keep both then Ofcourse.

Thats just my Opinion.

 

If you can get both, then get both. If you can only choose one, then go with XP Home. Vista Home Basic is way too stripped down for my tastes.

 

But doesn't Vista Home Basic have all the Vista Premium features minus Aero Glass?

 

No it doesn't. =(
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/editions/choose.mspx

 

http://reviews.cnet.com/Microsoft_Vista_Home_Basic/4505-3672_7-32013641.html

There's something that may help you decide. Vista Home Basic also lacks media features and remote access. And though Aero is the biggest thing missing, Vista's basic UI is extremely ugly IMO... uglier than XP. Home Basic is basically a way for Microsoft to endorse their Express Upgrade feature.

 

Thankyou for the links. I have had a good look over them and there are several features of Home Basic which make it stand out for me over XP Home.

The Performance Self-Tuning and Diagnostics feature.
Windows Superfetch.
The Self-Healing function.
64-Bit Processor support.

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I just pulled this from Techgage:

Home Basic is the runt of the litter, but in all honestly it's not as bad as Microsoft wants you to believe. Yes, it's virtually a scaled down version of Vista, but it's not lacking anything that will not make it function as a normal machine. This is not the Starter edition we are dealing with, after all. Here is a quick run-down of what Basic does not have when compared to the Home Premium which costs $40 more.

Home Basic vs. Home Premium
No Aero interface, including transparency in many parts of the GUI (I don't want it)
No Media Center (I will never use it)
Five included Windows games, instead of nine (Who on this earth actually plays Windows games anyway)
No automatic network backup (I have never heard of it)
No relationship between PC and Xbox 360 (I do not own an Xbox 360)
No advanced slideshows (Never used slideshows in XP)
No Movie Maker / DVD Maker (Never used these ever)
Weak Tablet PC functionality (I have never even seen a tablet PC)
No SideShow Support (I probably wont miss it)

My comments are in the bracetts above. The only purpous this notebook will serve is Writing in Office 2007, Internet and occasional Music / Video.

I am about to lean toward Vista Basic, but some other highly negative opinions may sway me.

 

Superfetch really shines when there is 2GB of RAM to work with. You can try plugging in a 1GB stick of flash for ReadyBoost on your system for a notable increase in performance though.

Other than that, it sounds like you have your heart set on Vista so I say do what pleases you here. Of course, you never answered my previous question of whether or not you can have your cake and eat it too.

 

I would stay away from Vista at this point just for the sheer fact that it's Vista. I'm not hating on Home Basic here, but if I'm going to run any Vista at all it's going to be Home Premium or Ultimate, because honestly, Home Basic does not provide me any incentive to upgrade.

Vista is new, and it's like that shiny new game console. It's soooo cool and everybody wants it, but then those that get it have problems, and then there aren't many games for it, and it really loses its luster. A year later when there are a lot more games out and the hardware is finalized it's a great thing to own. But owning any Microsoft Operating System within a year after it comes out is just not a great solution.

My suggestion: go ahead and use the voucher to get your upgrade copy of Vista, but don't install it yet. Just put it away and wait until SP1 comes out, and then pop it in and you'll have a pretty good, up-to-date, solid system. Until then, XP is just more seasoned and more reliable. One look around this forum should be clear evidence of that. -2cents-