Time to buy a new laptop, need more memory and room for Photoshop and music projects. It's been several months since the subject has come up. At this point in time you can purchase a new computer with either OS.

Bottom line, is there any real advantage of Vista over XP, enough to warrent the time, cost, and hassel of replacing software programs, driver support problems, etc. I know some of you guys have gone through the process, any feedback appreciated.

Glenn

For $100 you can buy a 120gb hard drive. Basically, storage and speed are the game. Just a thought. I have no idea about Vista.

Vista is a mixed bag right now in my opinion. It has a lack of driver support at present and it's got a lot of bugs. Although the first Service Pack RC (release candidate) has been released recently and hopefully it will take care of many of the bugs and also add a lot of additional driver support to the mix.

It's your call Glenn. XP is a relatively stable and solid OS with tons of driver support. If you go with XP or Vista make sure you get a laptop with a minimum of 2GB of RAM in my opinion though. 3GB would be better yet especially since you're running Photoshop.

Also, if you are doing music applications you should at least consider upgrading the Hard Drive at some point to a 7200 RPM model. Hitachi makes a blistering fast 7200 RPM 2.5" HD. Seagate also makes a great 7200 RPM 2.5" drive. If you could buy a laptop with a 7200 RPM HD already installed that would be better yet.

Happy shopping!

Best,
Mike

Glenn:

Lots of discussion on XP vs. Vista. Here's one article you can read, there are many that tackle the same discussion:
Vista vs. XP

I will tell you this I upgraded to Vista on my Dell Laptop in Janauary of 2007. Since I work in IT I wanted to have some familiarity with Vista. By May of 2007 I was disgusted with the lack of a driver for a HP Laser color printer I purchased in January. Short story is I ordered another hard drive for my laptop then reinstalled XP on the new drive. Once in a while I swap in the Vista drive but I'm pretty much just using the drive with XP. It also doesn't appear that major corporate clients are moving to Vista. In some circles talk is that Vista is another Windoze ME, but of course that's just talk. IMHO if I were buying a computer today, I'd order it with XP.

I agree with Mike get a minimum of 2 Gig RAM

[This message has been edited by Stephenm52 (edited 12-29-2007).]

Hi Glenn
Vista SP1 is out in Beta form, (Final release early next year according to Microsoft) and general feedback is that while it tidies a few things up, it does virtually nothing for driver/software support.
Also out in Beta form is XP SP3, (Expected after Vista SP1) and the feedback from this, is that it adds a lot of features that are contained in Vista, but more importantly gives on average a 10% performance boost.
Personally I would stick with XP, (Particularly if you have older hardware/software) and follow the suggestions for hardware in the previous posts.
Hope this helps

Bill

Wow, that's a surprise. I thought XP was history for MS.

I've been using Vista for a year on a new computer and it is so much more compelling and functional than XP. I think it is much more stable than windows XP. I will say it is a memory and CPU hog, but if you are buying a new computer you can buy the resources you need to really give Vista a performance boost. I run a Dual Core 2.4 ghz cpu with 2 gig of ram. I overclock the CPU to 3.11 ghz and Vista screams.

The search tool on the start menu is amazing. Just type in a command, program, file, etc. and Vista finds it in seconds.

The list goes on and on, but I've come to really love it.

And most of the SP1 patches have already been made available to windows update users. There have been MANY (65) fixes and performance enhancements to Vista. some have boosted file transfer performance up to 35%.

I would not recommend upgrading a computer with Vista nor do I recommend the 64bit version. Do a clean install or a new purchase with the 32bit Vista and you should have a great experience.


------------------
Al Giordano
http://www.arrangerworld.com


Tyros 2, Yamaha P-250, Korg Triton Extreme 76, Roland VK8-M, DW Collectors Series Drums, Roland SPD-S.

Listen to Al he's got stock in Microsoft. lol, just kidding...

If you get a new laptop Glenn I would assume that the OS (either Vista or XP) will already be installed on it. But if someone was considering an upgrade from XP to Vista I wouldn't recommend it either. It would be much better and less hassle and trouble to do a clean install.

Okay here we go... Where to begin? Vista arrived in stores months late, forced untold thousands of users to upgrade their hardware, made mincemeat of software and drivers that worked perfectly well in XP, ended up lacking many of the bold-faced features we'd been promised, and came saddled with new and annoying set of video DRM schemes. At least Vista now boasts an option for downgrading back to XP.

Daily Techno-Babble offers a breathless "three reasons why Windows Vista is sinking like a rock," and while the story has a point, I don't really think that "limits on how Vista can be used under virtualization" is really the thing about Vista that is scaring away that many would-be users, nor are Microsoft's DRM provisions on high-definition video much of a big deal yet, as few users care about high-def on their PC right now. Don't get me wrong: I think all of these are factors that make Vista a poor OS, but they aren't the primary reason that it's "sinking like a rock."

Given that Vista sales seem lackluster at best, what's the hang-up? I think it's something far more simple than the reasons that DTB offers up.

So what's turning people off of Vista? Here's my take, in order of importance:

1) Price. There's no way around this one. Upgrading to Vista doesn't just mean spending up to $400 on software, but also cash on RAM and video card upgrades, or buying a new PC altogether. If Vista was a $100 upgrade that anyone could use, it'd be a top seller, I'm sure.

(If you get a laptop or desktop with Vista already installed it is more cost effective you realize of course.)

2) Nothing new to see here. Love the visual style, but does photo tagging and 3-D window flipping really merit an upgrade?

3) It's annoying. I don't know any Vista user who hasn't turned off User Account Control, which nags you with an "Are you sure????" prompt every time you try to do anything beyond run the calculator. Yet UAC is the linchpin of Vista's vaunted new security system. Without it, it's really no different than XP.

4) Tons of stuff is incompatible with Vista. An acquaintance of mine got a new PC with Vista preinstalled. Neither her scanner nor her printer had Vista drivers ready. Both peripherals cost several hundred bucks, and now they're essentially paperweights (though the printer, at some unforseeable time in the future, may work again). Lots of software won't run on Vista, either, but it's the hardware incompatibilities that are daunting. (Update: Looks like the scanner driver's finally ready.) I guess no pay dirt for Stephen52's printer yet though.


5) It's confusing. Everything that XP could do, Vista can do... only it's buried under a different menu and it has a new name. While average users probably never use many of these settings, power users have found themselves starting from scratch to relearn Windows.

6) It's busted. Try connecting to a printer on your network that's hooked up to an XP machine. Or try downloading a file with a third-party application and then accessing it via another PC on the network. I won't go into a list of the endless bugs and flaws with the design of Vista, because I don't really have to... they are already well known. Perhaps the service pack will indeed exterminate a host of those very same bugs and flaws although there is no definitive word yet if it has.

But if you feel daring Glenn then go for it. Not everybody is having major problems with Vista. Take Al for instance..

Best,
Mike

PS: Material was used in quoting from Worst Tech products of 2007 including Yahoo Tech and Daily Techno-Babble.com >> You are now free to move about the country...

Happy New Year to all!

I bought a laptop for my daughter with vista preloaded last year.

I found the answer http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=904 0318

About downgrading I mean.

Xp works so well compared to its predecessors I keep thinking it wasn't broke so why did they try and fix it. Yeah I know money.



[This message has been edited by mikeathome1 (edited 12-29-2007).]

Music Card/Driver/Chipset compatability is a delicate thing without putting a brand new OS in the mix - I wouldn't touch Vista for at least another year.

Thing is - I wasn't aware you had a choice.

If you're buying a NEW machine, I understood they ALL came with Vista and XP is now not able to be "bought" anywhere.
(Although you guys say you can "downgrade" now, so...)


Al, that search function I already have on my XP machine.

It does the same thing as your Start menu search tool (if I understand you correctly)

I agree - it let's you find ANYTHING in seconds, and I use it CONSTANTLY.

But if it's already on XP, why upgrade to Vista????