Windows XP Pro or Windows Vista

Hi all,

I am preparing to place an order on my first laptop and was wondering which operating system is truly better, if any. Now, we're all well aware of most peoples' disdain for Windows Vista, but there are some who have expressed contentment, at least, with the OS. I have never used XP Professional before, but I can't imagine it being that much different from XP Media Center Edition. Ultimately, I know it comes down to personal choice, but I still wanted to check with a lot of you on here because I always walk away feeling a little more educated whenever I read the posts in this forum. Which to you all prefer? Given the choice, which OS would you choose between the two? I know that I can take the bloatware off of my system and tweak it a bit with Vista to make it perform at a higher level, but I would rather not have to do that if I can avoid it.

Part two of this question is should I decide to go with Vista, should I go with 32-bit or 64-bit? I know that the industry is making a shift to 64-bit as we speak, so it would seem to make sense to roll with the wave. However, could I possibly wait and just upgrade later on?

I guess I could go on, but does it really matter that much? Any input is much appreciated. Thanks.

 

My desktop is still XP and my laptop is Vista. I love both OS's. I wouldn't say it's fair to compare the 2 just yet. Vista is fairly new compared to XP which has been out for years. Vista has the potential to be better, just not right now...if you buy a laptop now...it will have Vista...so I say stick with it.

 

Might as well get Vista. SP1 is just weeks away, and plus, it's come a long way since it's release a year ago.

 

Windows Vista.

Get 64-bit if...
-you don't mind spending time looking for drivers
-you're fairly competent with computers
-you're patient
-you want to use 4 GB of RAM

otherwise just stay with 32-bit.

 

I would say Vista as well, might as well ride the wave...

 

I agree with the points here, with the exception of the first one. On new laptops, x64 drivers are usually provided.

 

You might also be interested in x64 because it's the future of computing, a little immature now but it'll be dominant later on. So i guess you could call it future proofing your laptop.

 

I thank you all for your responses. Would any of you recommend doing a dual-boot where I just load two operating systems on my laptop? Does that compromise/degrade performance or system stability in any way?

 

Yeah, I know. I actually think that Microsoft is a bit behind in this regard. I thought the switch to 64-bit, which is coming soon, would have happened by now. I guess they probably also expected to be a lot further ahead with Vista too.

 

You're right, it's not so much of an issue anymore. Although finding drivers for printers, scanners, etc can sometimes be difficult.

 

Yeah, the bad thing is that they confirmed that Windows 7 will be available in 32bits too which does not really help the case. Some compagnies, like Cyber Power PC started shipping 64bits by default right now and I think HP offers 64bits too (I mean, HP being the only "big" compagnies doing it I believe)

 

If you like incompatiblities, slow loading programs, buggy networking, puzzling wireless behavior, screen blackouts, slow boot times, slow file copying, slow networking, incredibly slow unzipping, mysterious usb problems, the most insipid security model, go ahead and choose vista!

 

I'm interested in reading specific reports of buggy networking, puzzling wireless behavior (what is puzzling, anyway?), screen blackouts, and mysterious usb problems. Could you also clarify what makes the security model tasteless, and what specific interesting or challenging qualities are lacking?

 

Kego, it will go down as the biggest dog of an OS ever!

Right now, I'm looking for an old copy of Windows ME to install. But seriously I am downgrading to XP tonight and am actually excited about it. And then everyday I'm not running Vista I will celebrate. I need a keg of beer to celebrate.

Vista is the biggest most expensive piece of Malware ever produced!

 

I have Vista Ultimate running on two Dell laptops (a 1420 preinstalled and my e1705 upgraded to Vista, with no errors or problems, I might add), and Ultimate purring on my desktop (with an Intel D865PERL motherboard). Connecting to my network, running Server 2000, was much easier than with XP, and all three machines run faster under Vista.

I'm still waiting for some specific examples, especially some clinical evidence that suggests Vista is malware. That should be some great reading.

 

I've experienced none of these problems in the last *almost* year I've been using Vista. In fact, Vista is currently performing better than XP did for me. If you have any real evidence of these things, please share, otherwise we'll just assume you don't know what you're talking about and are just on the "anti-Vista" bandwagon.

Downgrading to ME could possibly be the dumbest thing you could do. Further proof you don't know what you're talking about. Again, if you have any proof or evidence that Vista is malware, then please share.

 

I think he might have been a spammer, crash...

 

Or more likely a troll.

 

I'm just kidding about ME you guys. Sheessus. I got to get back to the XP install but tomorrow I will post the specifics. It isn't pretty. I just need to vent and then it will be over.

Meanwhile google "XP sucks" then google "Vista Sucks"

23,100 for xp and 198,000 for vista already, tomorrow it will be 200,000 and by the end of year over 1 million!

 

I don't know what you're smoking or what version of Google you're using (lol ) but I got 525,000 results for "XP sucks" and 345,000 for "Vista sucks," so............................................

 

Stick with Vista, its a good OS..Make sure you check out the threads with the tweeks it made a big GOOD difference in the way my new laptop runs.

 

I am currently dual booting XP Pro and Vista Home Premium and it is working well. Personally I like Vista quite a bit, though realize it is a new OS and so will have issues from time to time. I'm definitely looking forward to SP1....hopefully will improve the OS.

My advice for a new laptop would be to definitely go with Vista. If you think you might want XP, by all means install that as well, but I don't really see the sense in going with XP exclusively. Vista will only get better whereas XP seems to be about as good as it will ever get.

As far as going with 32 or 64 bit, either or. It seems clear 64 bit is the future but I think you'd be fine for the next few years (or more) with the 32 bit. That's what I have and I'm in no way thinking my notebook and desktop will be obsolete anytime inside of 4 or 5 years.

 

i will also go with vista as long as you get 2gb of ram you will be happy

 

This is how I'll be making all my OS decisions from now on.

 

Guys, Put the "Xp Sucks" and "Vista Sucks" in quotes in google. That way you are looking for the phrase and not just the words. That way no matter what you're smoking you'll see that vista sucks 10 times more than xp! But I like XP, anyways, I tried vista now twice and back to XP each time.

Let me ask you question, who is running with UAC (User Account Control)? Do you like that feature?

 

I do and Yes I like the feature because i know what is requiring admin rights to run in my system ...

 

Can you imagine at the first meeting about Vista, it probably went something like this:

Ballmer: Let's revamp the security, it needs to be locked down......
Tony C (lead developer): Here's an idea, let's just ask the user "Are you Sure?" every time they do something. That way they have to confirm they are running crap. And even if they said they are sure let's keep asking because they might change their mind.
Ballmer: Fkin brilliant, can we make that the default? And an even better idea, if they choose to turn feature off, let's remind them that they turned it off because they might not notice..........



Let's have some more fun at google:

"Xp Blows" 2,660 hits
"Vista Blows" 8,660 hits

"Xp is a Disaster" 10 hits
"Vista is a Disaster" 28,800

 

i turn my uac off because my system lags and waits for me to approve something when it can do it automatically

 

i cant stop laughing

 

let me just say that i agree with edf5566 on a lot of points:

firstly: operating systems suck

operating systems don't suck by definition. they COULD even be good. but with everything that goes into them, the overwhelming universal odds are in favor of operating systems sucking. Therefore, you SHOULD choose your OS based on which one sucks less.

second: vista file copy performance is horrendous. it could literally take you 20 minutes to copy a 600 meg file. Other times it might take 2 minutes (in the realm of normal speeds...) it depends on the weather. granted- this should be fixed in SP1, which is out very soon. About 1 week?

third: vista doesn't have any compelling features. its prettier, but to me thats not a feature, except for:

UAC, which is questionably implemented, but will definitely prevent a lot of bad things from happening in the long run, despite it being annoying. Its actually somewhat similar to the mac os x security measures, except that UAC is more in your face and more annoying in general for a wide variety of reasons. But, it IS a step in the right direction. It just needs some work. And, you can turn it off if you want to. The fact that they have it at all is a positive thing.

and, vista is getting fixed. its not bad enough for microsoft to let it drown like it did with ME. It seems like everyone forgot, but windows xp had its own share issues when it came out (and, a lot of people stayed with windows 2000 for a long time)... Also, unlike windows xp (x64) you could conceivably have a reasonably supported 64 bit environment if you want with vista.

 

"America Sucks" 101,000 hits.
"Saddam Hussein sucks" 201 hits.

Thank you google for revealing to me that America must suck more than Saddam Hussein. Care to cite more than just google in your claims? Your story is rather funny considering both options you complain about can be turned off in a matter of moments.

 

Thank you very much. This echoes a lot of the other posts I've read in this thread and others. I do have one or two questions for you and others, however. Once the highly anticipated SP1 is released next month, will new laptops include it by default in newer laptops (laptops purchased after its release)? I'm assuming that would be the case, but I'm not extremely sure about that. Also, is there a tutorial on this forum anywhere about how to dual-boot? Is it as simple as just partitioning my hard drive once I get the laptop? Does that compromise/degrade performance in any way? Does that eat up more memory/hard drive space than just running one operating system would?

As far as 32-bit vs 64-bit is concerned, its really hard to decide because everyone has his or her own opinion about how quickly the industry will shift to exclusively 64-bit applications. I have heard that the switch will be complete by the beginning of next year. I have heard it will be complete by the 4th quarter of next year. You think it won't happen for the next 4 or 5 years. It's different depending on who you're talking to. That makes it very difficult to decide what to go with. I even hate the fact that they're going to release Windows 7 in 32-bit. That does not seem to make much sense to me, but a lot of the things that MS does don't make much sense to me.

 

Just a short input, I´ve used XP Pro since 2001 and I got Vista with my new laptop last week and so far I haven´t had ANY problems. I guess that as long as you´re not tinkering with stuff that you shouldn´t be tinkering with (like with everything else) you should have no problems with Vista. Don´t try to fix something that isn´t broke I guess

 

You know what the problem is with computers these days? Actually, the problem doesn't lie with computers, its actually the users who are the source of the problem.

Users are getting dumber; but its not like its their fault. Back in the day the ability to use a computer was regarded as a technical skill, and so almost every user knew how computers worked. Nowadays any average layman can use a computer without having to know whats going on behind the scenes. The reason why this trend is happening is for business purposes; one of the best ways for a business to expand is to make a product that appeals to a wider range of people: enter Microsoft Windows.

The result of this trend is less capable users who don't know how to fix their own problems due to their lack of knowledge of computers.

 

SP1 doesn't add much.

http://www.anandtech.com/systems/showdoc.aspx?i=3233

I prefer XP over Vista. There are some vaild points about Vista. Check the comparison tables in the anandtech article. They will doing a Vista vs XP soon...

 

You want examples? Look at the window cap below. I got this message this morning, WTF? It's always something with Vista. You will spend way too much time dealing with crap like this.

Acrobat Professional is sick with Vista, anything Adobe cause all matter of strange behavior.

And I have to copy big files around as part of my work. All it takes is one time where it wants to take hours to copy a couple hundred megs and your confidence is shaken.

I tried unzipping a 30 meg file. It took a couple minutes just for it to 'calculate time remaining' which ended up being an hour when I hit cancel, then it tooke a minute or two just to cancel. What the holy hell?

And, regarding UAC, if the designers install insipid stuff like this, then what else is brain dead?

 

Here's another one I get. Has anybody ever got windows to come up with a 'Solution' to these things? It's just silly. I click on this and nothing happens. More annoyances.

I also find that Vista requires extra clicks to do stuff. Case in point -- VPN connections. The VPN thing is now just a some extra messages wrapped around the old VPN. So I have to initiate two windows to connect, then it leaves a window open that i have to close. And if I leave that window open and the vpn disconnects, and I try to reconnect, then that window will come up and say I'm connected even when I am not. So I have to close it (click), re-open VPN (click), click connect (click), click Connect again (click), Close 'You are now connected' (click).

 

I have an XPS M1530 that I have reconfigured to dual-boot Vista and XP. I was very eager to use Vista, but my enthusiasm waned once I started using it.

Everyone has their own tastes of course, but I did get *very* frustrated with slow network file transfer times, resume-from-sleep problems associated with the loss of gateway information, (partly due to the IP stack rewrite for Vista), and what I admittedly subjectively refer to as the overall "sluggishness" of Vista.

The only concrete things I have to back up the sluggishness assertion are the 3DMark scores, which are roughly 10% lower under Vista than XP Pro SP2.

I'm not naive, I surely know that MS wants to shove Vista everywhere, but IMHO it isn't ready for prime time. I assumed, like most, that SP1 would solve many of these performance issues, but from what I've read, that's not been the focus of this SP. I can't fathom how someone who might use Vista for, say, video editing (or anything else involving relatively large files) and has to transfer those files across a network could possibly be as productive under Vista as they are under XP. Just the small files I toss around my own in-house network are frustrating enough - until I reboot under XP.

Bottom line? When I boot Vista, I *expect* problems. When I boot XP, I just get stuff done. That's probably too simplistic for most here, and maybe some will accuse me of being a "Vista basher" or an "XP holdout", whatever....can't do anything about what others will me....but as a developer who has gone through all the incarnations and migrations of various MS operating systems over the years, I think the jump from XP to Vista is the least compelling of them all. Am I swearing it off? Of course not - that's why I built a dual-boot configuration.

And considering that MS is apparently going to push Windows 7 out to market something on the order of a year early, that introduction ought to be something to watch....but that's another thread...

-SD

 

LOL

I was just joking about Google, btw.....that's not how I make my OS decisions.

I was actually planning to install XP shortly after getting my Vostro, but I decided Vista was quite workable.

And you won't have any fun, either......and you'll be a brain-dead Microsoft dependent like bc135 pointed out.

 

This thread is getting out of hand so its now closed.

If you need more info about XP v. Vista, please search since there are plenty of thread.

Thx
Kdawgca