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Computer experts, buy a new computer with Vista or XP?

5K views 89 replies 31 participants last post by  bj house 
#1 ·
Time to upgrade the kids computer and given all the complaints about Vista, would XP be a better choice until Windows 2009 comes out? The kids will want to load several older games (like from the windows95 era) on the new computer. So what do you recommend, just buy a computer with Vista or order one with XP?
 
#2 ·
I heard rumors from more then one source that Windows Vista will be dicontinued in October with a new system in place. I wouldn't waste my time with Vista even if that rumor wasn't true. If you plan on running a home entertainment system, then Vista is the way to go.
 
#36 ·
This rumor is very wrong. No way in hell are they going to discontinue Vista. There would be class action lawsuits aplenty if that happened - from hardware vendors, software vendors, etc... who had modified to the new Vista intricacies. Microsoft has confirmed that there will be a 3 year timeline until the Windows 7 release, although they haven't specified when the timeline begins (the Vista release, now, etc...).

What they might do is push out the EOL (end of life) on XP.

My personal opinion on the Vista upgrade - buy it with your new laptop, or PC, try it for a while, if it works for your needs, continue using it. If you don't like it, pirate XP. If you're worried about getting caught, you have something of a legal leg to stand on - http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/VSTA-DWNGRD.html - OEMs can do "Vista Downgrades". This means they can install XP for you legally, even though you don't have an XP license. Then, when you feel like using Vista, you may install it and legally use your Vista license. I haven't done much research in the fine details of this, but it's available. Also, after some of the class actions out there already, all licenses might come with downgrade-ability.
 
#19 ·
business machines dont count. you probably don't run anything beyond basic M$ products.

I have had about a 20-30% incompatibility rate with older software products on vista. Even still, I'd have no problem with another Vista machine.
 
#6 ·
I'm happy with XP and don't think i'll switch to vista anytime soon. Like any new OS, there are bugs to be worked out...over time it will become stable. Also since Vista has features to make it more graphical and neat, it will require more RAM to run than XP.
 
#8 ·
Shouldn't. I'd imagine it still uses somwhat of the same system as XP, just tweaked to look different?? Now hardware, Yes. If you have an old scanner you may not be able to find a driver for it. But I havn't ran into problems like that when swiching from 2000 to xp.....
 
#9 ·
Exactly the reason why Vista will not be a good solution. Been there / Done that.

Name some of the games and I could tell you what my experiences have been.

IE. C&C Red Alert Yuri's Revenge will not work. But not because of Vista. It will not work with a Dual/Quad Core processor technology.
 
#12 ·
if I wanted a mac, I'd buy a mac. no reason for vista's candy assed UI. further no reason to "protect" me from those dangerous system files.

as for running a home entertainment center - wtf would vista matter? if one wants to use bill gates' offerings there is the lame media center version of xp - but more importantly whichever TV/PVR card you use, should have its own application(s) for managing entertainment off of...

one thing to consider, is that many of the vendor built boxes have already switched over to vista - and you may encounter problems finding xp compatible drivers for some of the hardware should you wish to nuke the hdd and go back to xp

good friend of mine is an engineer at DCX and that's exactly the issue she faced - she ended up nuking the hdd anyway, and runs ubunto on it...

another thought to consider. generally speaking - all things being equal on the hardware front, you won't need as much hardware to run xp, as you will for vista. a modern processor running 2 gigs of ram will be more than adequate (and pretty affordable) compared to what most would suggest as a bare minimum for vista.

and now that I've written a small novella - office 2007 and its candyassed mac wanna be UI, er "Ribbon" is one of the dumbest "innovations" Ive had the displeasure to experience in a while as well...
 
#22 ·
Some good points, but some stuff has nothing to do with the question...

if I wanted a mac, I'd buy a mac. no reason for vista's candy assed UI. further no reason to "protect" me from those dangerous system files.
Who's talking about a Mac?
as for running a home entertainment center - wtf would vista matter? if one wants to use bill gates' offerings there is the lame media center version of xp - but more importantly whichever TV/PVR card you use, should have its own application(s) for managing entertainment off of...

one thing to consider, is that many of the vendor built boxes have already switched over to vista - and you may encounter problems finding xp compatible drivers for some of the hardware should you wish to nuke the hdd and go back to xp

good friend of mine is an engineer at DCX and that's exactly the issue she faced - she ended up nuking the hdd anyway, and runs ubunto on it...
I'm a Linux fan, but I doubt that is going to help him run older MS compatible games, and using WINE is really overcomplicated for his needs

another thought to consider. generally speaking - all things being equal on the hardware front, you won't need as much hardware to run xp, as you will for vista. a modern processor running 2 gigs of ram will be more than adequate (and pretty affordable) compared to what most would suggest as a bare minimum for vista.
Total agreement here
and now that I've written a small novella - office 2007 and its candyassed mac wanna be UI, er "Ribbon" is one of the dumbest "innovations" Ive had the displeasure to experience in a while as well...
Again, no one is talking about Mac...
 
#13 ·
Vista is not something to use to upgrade such and old computer. Vista is pretty hardware intense, needing more RAM, faster CPU, and larger Hard drive than a computer that was new went Windows 98 was around.

Vista will not run 16-bit programs, such as games written for Windows 95 and 98. Vista is not updated Windows XP code, it is a rewrite of the entire code. Older hardware (printers, scanners, etc) all need rewritten updated drivers to work with Vista.

I would not stick $ into such an old computer. You would be throwing good money at a system that is worth at most $50.

As suggested get a new PC with Vista instead, give yours to your kids to use.
 
#14 ·
My computer with XP does everything I need and I really don't want to dick around with Vista or have to buy new software to work with it. Their computer is an old AMD Athlon 600 running windows 98 and it crashes a lot. They have a bunch of Lego games, rock raiders, racer, etc., Roller coaster tycoon, Nascar 50, Monopoly Jr, Hot wheels games and many more with some little kid learning games too. They’ll be using the new computer for games and the web.

Sounds like buying a “newer” used computer running XP may be a better choice?
 
#24 ·
Maybe so, but that really has nothing to do with the question asked.

I'm not a big MS fan, or Apple for that matter. LInux is nice for web surfing since there's not a lot of malicious code written for it, and as a plus you can download software free legally.


General rule of thumb:

Decide what the computer's main use will be, and choose the OS and software that best support what you want to do.
 
#27 ·
Rye Bread, as you can see from the original post, Mac isn't listed as an option.

While I agree MS is trying to become Mac-like, it's not relevant here.

My newest computer runs XP and linux, Vista was available at the time but I passed because there were issues that came up trying to dual boot with Vista. However, if you are going to be using mainly MS products, it would be counterproductive not to get Vista and whatever hardware it requires simply because MS is working hard at planned obsolesence.

All Brods wants is a computer that will run his kids older MS compatible games. I doubt he really wants to get in on the anti- MS argument as it simply doesn't apply here.

BTW, I do agree with you- really. But OS bashing isn't offering any help here.
 
#28 ·
#29 ·
There is an Apple love-fest going on in the computer magazine world, much like the Toyota is loved by auto magazines....

Apple makes nice stuff, pricey, but nice. Not perfect stuff though.

PC's have the advantage of sheer numbers, and Wal-Mart.

Linux can be made to run on both, but has quirks that will drive you nuts.
Message boards are full of posts like " I finally got my built-in webcam to work!!!"
Not exactly user friendly.


All computers suck, you just have to select the suck you can deal with.
 
#30 ·
Bloomule,

I agree with some of your points.

However, the article is still a good read for someone who may be on the fence, as it addresses specific issues.
 
#32 ·
I'm all for research, but I've noticed a distinct Apple fetish in the press lately.

I may get a Mac mini for my wife, it's plenty powerful for what she needs to do, and there's less garbage out there to download. I tried getting her to use linux, but there just isn't the amount of card games and mahjong games available.

I dropped my PC mag and PC world subs when they kept writing about Macs. I want info on PC's, if I wanted info on Mac's I'd get MacWorld.
 
#33 ·
I would stick with XP right now until they finish SP1 for Vista to see if it gets better. They are still revising SP1. I work with Vista x64 on multiple machines, forcing myself to learn it for over a year now and I still dislike it. Some things are nice but not worth the headache.

Also they are on milestone 2 for Windows 7 and they are already mapping out Windows 8. So I'm not sure how much fixing Vista will get.

If you can get XP and the drivers for the new laptop get it. I've heard rumors of October or so of this year that XP licenses will be done being sold. I have a few execs wanting me to purchase 10-20 licenses of XP so we can continue to run it when we get new machines later in the year or possibly next year.
 
#37 ·
64bit 4gb Ram machines will be the norm in a year or year and a half. Sucks but even our software working with XP and/or Vista likes to consume excessive RAM. So what are we left to do, contact Microsoft and whine or through more RAM at it.

I am not a programmer and don't understand why throttles or chokes aren't easier to impose in Windows. That would solve well over 50% of our crashing/freezing and general instability.

If you have 512 and/or Win2K anymore you are obsolete in our book and are being phased out. SUN and a few others are being dropped from our UX support in 2010. Microsoft keeps switching and dropping support on Interix/SFU so we are phasing out our Unix based legacy software in 2010.

What is irconic though is that is the efficient shit though like previous posters mentioned (running UNIX or an Apple OS for that matter) that is being cut.
 
#38 ·
Time for me to chime in. That SFU / Interix and whatever they called it in 2003 has got to be the BIGGEST piece of CRAP I have ever had to work with!!!! It is so unstable!

Yeah, lets make our Windows box act like a Unix box. Y? Because we cannot figure out how to do it on Windows? Or interface a Unix box with a Windows box?

You put 2 completely different kernels on a box, you are asking for problems. I will be more than happy to see it go away!
 
#40 ·
No. I just think there are certain products that should be removed from the market like SFU. I have been around this market since the early DOS days and have not moved away from it even though there is a Windows GUI now.

Java is another one that sucks the big one. People need to stop writing code in Java. Use something that is NOT a big resource hog.
 
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