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chilliz

chilliz

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My PC is on it`s last legs. I have heard many stories about Windows Vista and that most software (other than brand new stuff) is not compatible and therefore won`t run. I just wondered what other people`s experience is and should I be looking to keep XP rather than changing to Vista.
 
Never had a problem running anything in Vista (64bit) on my rig (see other post in this forum).

The main difference is the interface - some like it, and some dont, its a personal thing.
 
I think that the Vista debate depends on how many peripherals you own. It is likely that if you use a number of scanners/printers/usb stuff that the drivers *may* not be available. There are issues if you use network devices, such as NAS (network attached storeage) as they need NTLM relaxing, hence reducing the security stance of your PC. Make a list of the external devices you own and check that there are drivers available. You may wish to avoid 64bit Vista - there are more compatibility issues than 32bit.

If you are worried by security, XP Pro SP2 has an EAL rating of 4, Vista has EAL 1 (when judged as a barrier). In theory, XP has been evaluated as more secure than Vista.

Do we care about this? Do you patch regularly an update your AV and have a decent firewall? Do you back up your data?

I use Vista on both my PCs and have had very few problems.
 
I don't think any PC manufacturers/retailers are now willing to sell PCs housing an operating system that is in it's 7th year these days. Only those small lightwieght "eee" notebooks may come with XP preinstalled.
Okay, Vista had got off on a rotten start at it's launch two years ago but it's grown up a lot since then and now that it's fully matured, it really isn't the "awful" operating system people have made it out to be. Let's face it, just about every new OS that got launched got slated (remember how Windows 98 crashed on Bill Gates on a demo machine just weeks before it's launch?! . . . *shudders*). Heck, I didn't hang about to install XP on my previous machine when that got launched, but didn't hang around for just as long to get rid of it as half of the hardware I had on me refused to work (graphics card, modem, printer and scanner went all dead under XP).
I've had Vista in my PC for a year and a half and once the updates and the SP1 is installed, it's actually a pretty decent thing to work with. Granted, it needed 4 GB of ram and a 1 GB graphics card to really get the best out of it, but I was going to carry out them upgrades regardless I've got Vista or XP on my PC anyway.
Most new PCs will invariably have the "matured" version of Vista pre-installed (including SP1 and all fixes and updates).
OR, you could wait until the end of this year, that's when Windows 7 may come preinstalled in PCs as standrad. But that won't be happening until December 2009 at the earliest.
Whoops, sorry if I went on a bit there but that's my take on things. And besides today's being one of those really quiet-I-haven't-got-much-to-do type of days. :D

PS: My post is based under the assumption on you planning on buying a new PC. I think trying to install Vista on a PC that's "on it's last legs" or threes years and older might cause more problems than good. For a start, you will need at LEAST 1 gb ram to even get Vista to run and that's with the aero interface turned off. Vista is really suitable when shipped with brand new PCs as it'll all be "ready made".
 
in honesty if you've got an xp license that you can switch over to a new build do it and save your money on vista, it doesn't bring anything particularly new or useful to the show unless you're really looking to take advantage of 64bit and over 3.5-4gb of ram

i've just downgraded my laptop from vista to xp because frankly it's a poor operating system designed around the fisher price model and just gets in my way.

that said if you haven't then you might as well buy vista as by service pack 4 it might be a reasonable os
i've not had any compatibility issues with it either but then i don't run anything particularly old on it
 
Thanks for the input guys.

To sum up:

I will be buying a PC in a box, it will more than likely have Vista pre installed. It seems as if no one has had software issues which was one of the main things I was concerned about. ( although I run a few bits of software that are many years old - I just havn`t changed or updated them simply because I`m happy with them)

I don`t have many bits of hardware that i`m worried about.

I`m not really bothered about the user interface, I will get used to it.

Security is not a major concern to me either. It seems as though I may be worrying about nothing here, and I should just go ahead with the change. :thumbs:

Has Vista really been going for 2 years??
 
I think most of the Vista stories are from when it was brand new (2 yrs ago) which always comes with issues and takes time for manufacturers to adopt and write stuff for but now its fine, unless you have something ancient you should have no problem, its better and faster on my PC than XP and IMHO nicer to use.

Get Vista and the best spec PC you can afford and you will be laughing compared to your old PC
 
Problems come from old hardware with Vista. A new PC will have new hardware and vista will be fine. A couple of things are a bit different to XP but it will not take long to suss it out :)
 
chilliz said:
My PC is on it`s last legs. I have heard many stories about Windows Vista and that most software (other than brand new stuff) is not compatible and therefore won`t run. I just wondered what other people`s experience is and should I be looking to keep XP rather than changing to Vista.
Click to expand...

Vista is built in much the same way as XP and XP apps will mostly work under compatibility options - I bought a vista machine not so long ago and I am enjoying the experience so far, I generally use it for my college work and watching video/movies. You need a pretty high spec machine to get the most out of it I think, but to be honest you don't really need the aesthetic bells and whistles.
 
I don`t need all the fancy stuff to be honest.

Software compatibility was my only concern, and to be honest the stuff I have which is very old, maybe it`s time to ditch it anyway :thumbs:

Thanks guys
 
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