The Great OS Debate

[Robert]

Currently I'm running Vista X64 and I like it, however I always have this yearning to go back to XP.

I really cannot explain it. Also I noticed that in the WINRAR benchmark I get 1,750mb/s in XP and only 1,200 in Vista?

There are other little niggles. For example when I exit TF2 I get an error (not always) and sometimes steam can go funny.

What OS do you currently use? I am seriously tempted to go back to XP.



I'm just not sure

[Bios]

Well i recently went from Win XP Pro to Vista Ulitmate 64.

- The major problems with Vista have been ironed with SP1
- after a few tweaks, changing things how u like it, getting use to the interface- it's a good OS (brings back memories when people would not upgrade to XP from 98)
- I too get a TF2 error message when i exit the game.
- Am i tempted to go back to XP? my days with XP are over.
- Vista is not a huge s/w development leap from XP but the truth is Vista is a better O/S than XP (not many people like to hear that).
- I am more excited about Windows 7.

Got to cut this short, wife is nagging me to go to Tesco's.

[tsj]

Currently use:

Windows XP x64 on Desktop
Windows Vista x64 / Ubuntu on Laptop
Gentoo on server

[moogle]

If you haven't got 4gb of ram then you can go back. But I'd say stick with it. I left Vista so many times because it just didn't feel like XP. I accept the performance drop but all the other annoying things can be sorted out now.

[aidanjt]

(brings back memories when people would not upgrade to XP from 98)

This made me want to viciously beat people to death. People resistant to Vista less so, but they can still make annoyingly irrational arguements for their position.

[shaithis]

If you haven't got 4gb of ram then you can go back. But I'd say stick with it. I left Vista so many times because it just didn't feel like XP. I accept the performance drop but all the other annoying things can be sorted out now.

Unless you have access to the corporate edition of Win XP64 or want to buy yourself a copy as the serials are not interchangeable like vistas.

I still have my XP64 disk kicking around with I purchased 06/05/2005 (says OEM, looks like OEM, but have changed motherboards many times since without calling MS....which is odd) and have it installed in dual-boot, the last time I booted to it was the last time I screwed vista up by over-writing the bootloader with OSX

[dangel]

- Vista is not a huge s/w development leap from XP but the truth is Vista is a better O/S than XP (not many people like to hear that).

Well it is, vastly. But you as a user don't see the majority of it (and that's partly the point). But yes, it's much better day to day - the problem is the nice stuff takes a while to sink in, and you only really notice it when you go back to XP. Take the hardware wizard - it's so niiiice in Vista, far less chatty, even when installing lots of hardware at once (no click 'next' stuff ten times here). Or how about problems and solutions - something goes wrong and it actually points you in the right direction (sometimes right at a webpage to download a driver with some third party).
Or how about watching the painful loading of your tray apps on XP - Vista goes like a rocket ship.. Or how quickly i can switch my lardy VS apps - simply because the system spends far less time redrawing (and when it does it uses the GPU not the CPU for it).

- I am more excited about Windows 7.

Me too, but because it'll be based on Vista - a far better point to start from than scratch (which is what they did last time). If nothing else people won't face the driver 'shock' as the model will be (probably) the same.

I'm not tempted by XP - even when nVidia's drivers pile over in Crysis Multiplayer (hope the new ones are better!).

[Hyuukai]

I currently run Xp on most of my machines and ubuntu on others, i would never run vista it came with my laptop and it was the first thing to go, i just see no need for it, when they finally give up on windows xp support i will probably just go to ubuntu i just hope they get gaming better sorted on there.

[TAKTAK]

OS i'm currently using?

Vista business 32bit - main rig (free from coll... hence the 32bit...)
soon to have sabayon - main rig
soon to have Elive - main rig
XP pro remnants (it ate itself... fragmented into multiple OS's ..) - main rig
XP media centre 05 - downstairs rig
XP media centre 05 - HTPC
Ubuntu - backup rig
debian - backup rig
xandros (putting eeebuntu on again soon) - eeepc
XP home - laptop

[Salazaar]

I've got nothing against Vista, and I'm sure that at some point in the future I'll upgrade to it (or Windows 7) but at the moment I can see no rational reason for me to want to part with £100 when XP is doing the job perfectly well.

[TAKTAK]

I've got nothing against Vista, and I'm sure that at some point in the future I'll upgrade to it (or Windows 7) but at the moment I can see no rational reason for me to want to part with £100 when XP is doing the job perfectly well.

the way i see it is - if you allready have XP installed then there is no point in upgrading (beside new games with only dx10 support) as you don't gain a thorough amount, but if your buying a new OS then i would buy vista 64....
so my thinking is basically the same

[Saracen]

the way i see it is - if you allready have XP installed then there is no point in upgrading (beside new games with only dx10 support) as you don't gain a thorough amount, but if your buying a new OS then i would buy vista 64....
so my thinking is basically the same

For individuals, probably, yes.

For businesses buying new machines, or that need extra licences, it's not so clear cut. A lot will stick with XP, and for good reason.

[kalniel]

Does Windows 7 remind anyone else of Windows 98? Same base as the previous OS, tweaked a bit and better compatability out of the box.

On topic, I'm using XP as that was all that was out when I built the system.

[dangel]

Does Windows 7 remind anyone else of Windows 98? Same base as the previous OS, tweaked a bit and better compatability out of the box.

dunno - they've not said very much about it as yet. My guess is the better analogy might be that it's what XP was to 2k - both based on the same codebase. That said, 7 is supposed to be a major release so..

[Jay]

I have bought a shead load of OEM XP COAs becuase when we buy PCs they either come with Vista or nothing. I choose nothing and install our own OEM XP, Vista business is more like Vista dirty business at the moment.

[aidanjt]

...Vista business is more like Vista dirty business at the moment.

How so?