dieseltaylor Posted October 6, 2008 Share Posted October 6, 2008 Very interesting article, and also news to me of a further 6 month extension to new computers coming with XP http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=10303&tag=nl.e539 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lars Posted October 6, 2008 Share Posted October 6, 2008 He missed the biggest reason. Vista doesn't do anything I needed done that XP or even Win98 won't do. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silvio Manuel Posted October 6, 2008 Share Posted October 6, 2008 Vista is losing out because consumers like me are instead saving up money and waiting until Windows Mojave comes out 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GJK Posted October 6, 2008 Share Posted October 6, 2008 I'm saving up for a Mac. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Other Means Posted October 6, 2008 Share Posted October 6, 2008 He missed the biggest reason. Vista doesn't do anything I needed done that XP or even Win98 won't do. Plus the fact that it threatens DRM restrictions. Pay more for an OS that won't run on your PC, work with your printer or let you watch anything you want? Umm. No. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott B Posted October 6, 2008 Share Posted October 6, 2008 When I got a new machine this summer I decided to give Vista a try, on the assumption that if I didn't like it I could always just go to a dual-boot setup. Frankly, I haven't seen the need to do so - it works fine. I'm sure I'd have greater issues with it if I'd gotten it sooner, or if God forbid I were responsible for a department someplace actually needing to run it, but for my use I haven't had any more problems that I'd expect from XP. Maybe even fewer; it was a complete breeze to set up. My experience was actually so at odds with the prevailing wisdom that I tend to think people went overboard in criticizing it after changes were made to improve the thing. I had way more trouble getting Win 98 to run on an old laptop I got for my kids. :/ 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silvio Manuel Posted October 6, 2008 Share Posted October 6, 2008 Just curious- what are your top 3 reason why you like it better than XP? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott B Posted October 6, 2008 Share Posted October 6, 2008 The main reason is I decided I needed to buy a new OS with my new machine and figured if I were blowing cash on the thing anyway I might as well try something new now that it sounded like most of the wrinkles had been ironed out. (Yeah, I'm a tool - I buy one OS per machine. Though I got a decent deal on it.) Other reasons - DirectX 10 was one (not sure of the payoff on that one, as I never got around to trying the same game in both DX9 and DX10 - should probably give it a try sometime), and I'd also tried it on a friend's machine and thought the interface was pretty slick. I can't speak to performance because I went from a P4 2.4Ghz w/1GB RAM running XP to a C2D E8400 w/4 GB RAM running Vista 64. If I wasn't starting with new components, I probably wouldn't have even considered going with anything but XP for driver reasons. Though I maintain that of all the clean installs I've ever done with any operating system (with the caveat that they have all been versions of Windows), this was the most trouble-free. This machine was the first I'd built from individually-purchased components, and I couldn't have been happier when it started right up and was working on the first try. At the time I remember looking seriously at the question of whether I wanted to go to 8 GB RAM, but this has turned out to be less important at least for the moment. Save that upgrade for Crysis 2, I guess. So far I'm still pretty much graphics card-limited and don't expect that to change until the next generation of cards come out. And naturally the 64-bit thing isn't Vista-only; I could have gotten XP 64 if it were just about being able to get past 4 GB. It has a few downright stupid features. One of them is basically a set of training wheels: until you turn it off, it basically asks you if you're sure before you do anything to your settings. Once I figured out how to turn it off, though, no worries. Also, the thing it still does that I totally hate is when you have "snap to grid" and "auto arrange" for desktop icons turned on, it reorders them alphabetically when you restart your machine. I hope the guy responsible for that gets his car keyed or something. I also had more superficial reasons for wanting to pick it up - basically I liked the feature that lets you run a movie as your desktop wallpaper (there are some cool ones). I use XP on my laptop, my work machine, and my wife's desktop (my old machine), and my Vista machine does seem to run more smoothly and be more responsive (subjectively speaking), but it also has more RAM and a better processor and I keep it pretty clear of background crap so again, it's impressionistic more than anything. Vista definitely hogs more system resources when I pop open the task manager - I don't look that often for whatever reason, but I believe it scales up with more RAM present so it's frequently been holding onto 1GB or so when I've checked, if memory serves. No pun intended. Anyway, if it sounds like there wasn't a hugely rational, detailed, rigorous process for me going with Vista, well, bingo. I don't think there really is all that much to recommend in it over XP and I don't see much if any reason to upgrade on a machine that already has XP installed. But it has been pretty solid for me, runs what I need it to run and looks good (better than XP in my opinion) while doing it. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted October 6, 2008 Share Posted October 6, 2008 I'm saving up for a Mac. Now there's a man who knows how to find true happiness in life. Michael 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gautrek Posted October 6, 2008 Share Posted October 6, 2008 Now there's a man who knows how to find true happiness in life. Michael I thought macs were for people who only had the use of one finger. Or have they managed a 2 button mouse now? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GJK Posted October 6, 2008 Share Posted October 6, 2008 I thought macs were for people who only had the use of one finger. Or have they managed a 2 button mouse now? Ah, but behold, the Mighty Mouse! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted October 7, 2008 Share Posted October 7, 2008 Ah, but behold, the Mighty Mouse! An older version (it wasn't wireless, for instance) came with my Mac. I thought the scroll ball was a wonderful idea, but it was too coarse for me (each click moved the screen farther than I wanted). So I put it away and bought an inexpensive two button, scroll wheel Logitech and have been fairly satisfied with that. I still think the scroll ball is a great idea and I hope someday they get it to run to my satisfaction. Michael 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ketil Posted October 7, 2008 Share Posted October 7, 2008 When I got a new machine this summer I decided to give Vista a try, on the assumption that if I didn't like it I could always just go to a dual-boot setup. Frankly, I haven't seen the need to do so - it works fine. I'm sure I'd have greater issues with it if I'd gotten it sooner, or if God forbid I were responsible for a department someplace actually needing to run it, but for my use I haven't had any more problems that I'd expect from XP. Maybe even fewer; it was a complete breeze to set up. My experience was actually so at odds with the prevailing wisdom that I tend to think people went overboard in criticizing it after changes were made to improve the thing. I had way more trouble getting Win 98 to run on an old laptop I got for my kids. :/ Pretty similar experience. I bought a new laptop that came with Vista already installed. Having read all the bad stuff about Vista I have two copies of XP sitting here, one unopened. I figured I would putter around with Vista a little and then install XP. But after reading about all the fun trying to find XP drivers for the video card that came with my new laptop, I never got round to installing XP. Some 6 months later I am still using Vista. It has crashed perhaps twice in 6 months, far less than XP used to. I did have to spend perhaps 2 hours "setting up" Vista, mostly turning off a lot of the stuff that is supposed to make it user friendly but is in fact annoying. The performance is fine, especially after turning off a lot of the crap. As a highlight, Vista runs several older games right out of the box that never worked on XP, or only worked with lots of "fixes". The original Steel Beasts is the only game I have tried to run on Vista that just didn't work. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
__Yossarian0815[jby] Posted October 7, 2008 Share Posted October 7, 2008 5) disagree. Apple simply makes much better products than it used to. I don´t think there are many consumers that really choose between the 2 systems. 4) true, also XP (after SP2) doesn´t have major stability problems (win 98) or security issues (win2000) 3) disagree, a new windows release always kills last year´s system. try running win95 on a 386 2) a ha 1) IMHO they should have gone 64bit 100% instead of trying to please all customers wth a bewildering variety of OSs and driving software developers nuts by forcing them to write software for 32bit& 64 bit vista and xp 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subvet Posted October 7, 2008 Share Posted October 7, 2008 I've been using 64 bit Vista for about 3 months now. I haven't had even one problem yet that I can blame on Vista (I have an issue running CM, but that is due to screwed up drivers from my video card manufacturer). So far it has been flawless. I installed it on a new machine I put together with all new components, so driver issues weren't a problem. If I was going to install an OS on an old machine I'd still use XP; but, for new machines Vista seems like the smart way to go. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vomitmeister Posted October 7, 2008 Share Posted October 7, 2008 I received a free copy of Vista back when it came out by watching a bunch of Microsoft videos on some website. I still haven't installed it due to all the negative talk. Now that it has been out for awhile, I may have to try installing it. I am worried about drivers for a couple of my peripherals, a joystick and a game controller. I remember upgrading to XP and losing the use of a joystick I had because the manufacturer wouldn't upgrade the drivers. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gautrek Posted October 7, 2008 Share Posted October 7, 2008 Ah, but behold, the Mighty Mouse! Thats amazing. Wireless.Who would have thought that in a mouse.I bet thats not been done before. No mouse ball so it ill work on any surface.I bet no one else has thought of that. A scroll ball.Whats that like a scroll wheel?Does it click up and down to work like another button? Left and right mouse clicks. WOW two mouse buttons Squeeze the side to work something.What like my 2 extra side buttons in my microsoft mouse.The ones i use in RO to chat. Yes i must admit that apple are in the lead in the technology stakes. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stalins Organ Posted October 8, 2008 Share Posted October 8, 2008 Just curious- what are your top 3 reason why you like it better than XP? I bought a full-priced XP home a couple of years back & got a Vista copy as part of the deal for NZ$30 or so (IIRC - not much anyway....NZ$30 = about US$22) - haven't used it since... but just got an upgrade for an old P3 box my kids have been using & it has unregistered XP put on it by the shop for their purposes, so Vista will get a run in that unless #1 son wants to put Linux on it (he's 14 & types C++ faster than I type English.......these things are important to him...) So in a few weeks I may have some reasons.....or not.....the new box has a 2.8 GHz dual processor & 2Gb Ram, 256Mb video..... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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