Microsoft may keep XP alive after all

[sswilson]

Originally Posted by vinister

I disagree hugely on this one, I was die-hard xp 64 up until a couple months ago, went to vista ult 64 and I'm not looking back. XP looks and feels so old to me now. On Vista, I get the choice to run dx9 or dx10 versions of most games, which is a confirmation of my OS choice time and time again. All these users holding on to XP... its driving me nuts, its like when old people refuse to use new technoloy. It seems to me that people who aren't upgrading just don't want to spend the money, or don't have good enough hardware. Is it such a big suprise really that a new OS is going to have more system requirements and seem big compared to the last one? This same thing happened during the dos-windows 3.1 switch, then the windows 95 switch, none of the geeks ever want to switch because the new os is bloated and insecure blah blah. In the end everyone switches eventually, so you might as well just fork over the loot and get on with it. The more users use it, and have problems with it, and report those problems, the sooner they can make a better OS for everyone. Now they have to develop and support 2 seperate OS's at the same time, and each one will suffer because of it. adapt, evolve, change is good.

The problem is that Vista offers nothing that most XP users want, yet carries with it a decrease in performance, driver issues, compatability issues, DRM issues, teething issues (I'll admit they're getting there on this one), and (this is a big one for hardware enthusiasts) a very questionable licensing agreement for folks who upgrade their hardware often.

Vista is now finally down to a reasonable price for the OEM home premium version, but there is still that nagging question about how well that license with transfer over to a new CPU or Motherboard, and where are the "special" features that were promised to Vista Ultimate purchasers? Have they recieved any of the extra content they paid big bucks for?

Sorry, but for now I'll keep my 5 legit XP licenses and if I want a legal 64bit OS I'll use one of the free linux distros thank you very much. :)

[enaberif]

Oh come on.. Dreamscene is the shiz!! And Texas Holdem Poker.

[sswilson]

One positive note for M$'s Vista experience........

I'd lay odds that it's the least pirated OS they've put out since millenium........ :)

[enaberif]

Originally Posted by sswilson

One positive note for M$'s Vista experience........

I'd lay odds that it's the least pirated OS they've put out since millenium........ :)

You'd lose in the sense that you can get pirated copies EVERYWHERE.

But you'd win in the sense that NOBODY wants to use it.

[Jmac]

Vista has plenty of advantages for average users.

- much better security (and, no, I'm not referring to UAC here) than XP. It's still not infallible to malware, but it's definitely better. It's substantially more secure against hackers.

- improved search, help, and support features built into Vista. Those were completely useless in XP and are substantially better in Vista (though still need improvement, IMO)

- a backup system that's actually half-decent instead of completely worthless.

- much better bundled software.

- self-diagnostics and repairs plus easy-to-use, easy-to-find diagnostic software.

Those are only a few and, yes, we all know you can get better 3rd party software for either OS, but your average joe isn't going to know that (or, even worse, he'll go looking for it and end up installing malware).

I'm not saying Vista is better than XP or vice versa (they both have their advantages and disadvantages, in my experience), but let's face it, even $400 computers these days are capable of running Vista decently (or $700 laptops) and dropping down to 1 GB of RAM and single-core CPUs isn't going to save you much coin, at least not on the desktops (1 GB vs. 2 GB = $20 difference; Sempron 3200+ vs. Athlon X2 4000+ = $30 difference). I think it's time to cut the cord on XP; it was and still is a good OS, but Vista is about as good as XP is at the point in time and Vista will continue to get better while XP hasn't improved in years. SP3 had no noticable effect on my only remaining XP machine (AMD AthlonXP 2500+, 1 GB RAM, 120 GB HDD, 7600 GT, XP Home) and I very much doubt it would have much, if any, noticable effect using today's hardware.

Also, I don't understand the "I'll just wait for Windows 7 to come out before I upgrade" argument/thought process. The next version of Windows is going to be WAY different than XP; it's going to be based on 64-bit architecture and it's going to have a brand new file system, so if you think it's not going to have teething, compatibility, and/or driver issues, I am going to have to disagree. If anything, I think it'll be worse in those regards than Vista was when it first came out.

That's my pair of pennies.

[enaberif]

Vista has plenty of advantages for average users.

- much better security (and, no, I'm not referring to UAC here) than XP. It's still not infallible to malware, but it's definitely better. It's substantially more secure against hackers.

Has nothing to do with the OS really its how they PROPERLY setup user accounts finally

- improved search, help, and support features built into Vista. Those were completely useless in XP and are substantially better in Vista (though still need improvement, IMO)

That search is very annoying and I turn it off immediately

- a backup system that's actually half-decent instead of completely worthless.

Most people don't even care about this or even know it exists

- much better bundled software.

Care to explain?

- self-diagnostics and repairs plus easy-to-use, easy-to-find diagnostic software.

You so sure about that? I find it a lot more difficult to diagnose a Vista machine than a XP

[sswilson]

Also, I don't understand the "I'll just wait for Windows 7 to come out before I upgrade" argument/thought process. The next version of Windows is going to be WAY different than XP; it's going to be based on 64-bit architecture and it's going to have a brand new file system, so if you think it's not going to have teething, compatibility, and/or driver issues, I am going to have to disagree. If anything, I think it'll be worse in those regards than Vista was when it first came out.

That's the whole point though.... Vista isn't different enough from XP to make it worth the pain of "upgrading".

It took `95 for me to see the real value of a graphical interface and a "true" multitasking environment thus finally giving up on DOS. `95 was a real dog in some instances, it wasn't until `98 that the OS started to feel like it was ready for prime time, but it was enough of a difference that it was certainly worthwhile running.

For all the time they spent working on it, Vista still feels/looks like the upgraded XP they should have been able to provide us with years ago WRT security etc.....

I know it's not as simple as that. The core of the OS had to change to provide better security, but there simply isn't any meat.

[enaberif]

#1 beef I have with Vista... the interface .. I don't like it.

[Jmac]

Originally Posted by enaberif

You so sure about that? I find it a lot more difficult to diagnose a Vista machine than a XP

- They did more than just that, but that's a huge one. It takes all of 2 minutes to get past a password-protected computer on at least 95% of XP computers because of the unprotected administrator account.

- You may find it annoying, but it's very useful for people who don't know where stuff is. Help and Support is by far improved over XP's as well.

- Most people care about their photos, e-mails, etc. While they may not take the time to back them up, the built-in backup software included w/ Vista is decent enough that people who want to do backups don't go out and buy Norton Ghost.

- Windows Movie Maker, Windows Media Center, Windows Photo Gallery, Windows DVD Maker, Windows Calendar, and Windows Contacts are all either new or improved from XP. The built-in burning software is also much improved as well.

- Vista has self-diagnostics and built-in diagnostic tools (i.e. Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool, Reliability and Performance Monitor, etc.) that weren't present in XP.

I know you and I both work at computer shops and have access to much better diagnostic tools, but the built-in ones can help the average joe figure out what's wrong w/ his computer without taking it into a shop, losing it for 1-3 business days, and paying a diagnostic fee. I've been working w/ XP since the betas (2000-ish), so I know it well inside and out, which obviously makes it easier to diagnose problems than a new OS. That said, since I've gotten used to Vista, diagnosing problems is getting close to the same level of difficulty as XP, but I have to resort to Google more and there are still some unexplained phenomenon w/ some 3rd party apps (i.e. Source-based game servers using sv_pure 1 give an error when exiting w/o disconnecting on Vista).

[Digitaldemon]

Ok i was gonna let this go.. but the above post made me laugh... I know of people that can crack the admin password in under 3 mins,,,

to keep your photos truly safe.. by an external hd...

mopst of the complaints on the ms help site are about the help features..

mainly about driver issues.. drm .. and other crap about the help features they dont understand


everything i tested on ultimate ended up being a coffee coaster.. hell win amp has a better burn feature,,,

self diagnostics is a joke...

xp has never been difficult... my neighbor's wife learned whats was what in xp in 3 weeks with a few books.. she bought a machine with vista premium.. after 2 monthes asked me to downgrade it.. which i happily did...

t looks like Dell may have started something. Both HP and Lenovo now plan to offer Windows XP to business customers after Microsoft’s official cut-off date of June 30.

Lenovo will provide a Windows XP recovery disc with systems so that users can downgrade from Windows Vista until January 31, 2009, according to Information Week. The downgrade program covers laptops and desktops with Vista Business or Ultimate.
HP said it will offer Windows XP to business customers for an unspecified time beyond June 30.

The other things is MS knew the sytem was flawed.. just after launch.

is vista worth it.. no... get a mac instead. it runs better and has just as pretty graphics.