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XP vs Vista

ThunderJam

By ThunderJam
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Samapico Newbie

Samapico

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If you know your way through Windows, go with XP.

 

Friend of mine had Vista preinstalled on his laptop, and he'll be reformatting soon to put XP. He liked Vista for a while, but whenever he wanted to install a program or a game, tons of googling, patching, tweaking was necessary to get it running; and more than once he couldn't even get it to run either.

The worse is if you like playing slightly old games... forget it.

 

Some people say Vista eat up all your RAM blahblahblah... yes it uses far more memory, but it handles it much more efficiently too. Basically, unused RAM is wasted RAM, right? blum.gif Don't buy that pro-XP argument.

ThunderJam Newbie

ThunderJam

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Well I mean hears my thoughts and concerns atm...

 

1) I am very confident with my XP skills

2) could vista affect laptop battery life?

3) After June when microsoft no longer supports XP, will it become increasingly hard to be an XP user in the next 2-3 years

4) How simple is it to downgrade to XP if I do get a laptop with vista

5) If Windows 7 is really gonna role around in 2009-2010, why adjust to a whole new OS for this 1-2 years

rootbear75 Newbie

rootbear75

Posted
Posted (edited)

wait, wtf? WHY THE !@#$%^&* ARE THEY NOT SUPPORTING XP?!

 

 

still go with XP until you get to Windows 7....

 

worst case scenario, you don't get help from microsoft (who has... i havent talked to them even with all my problems with vista)

 

and downgrading is as simple as formatting your harddrive

Edited by rootbear75
doc flabby Newbie

»doc flabby

Posted
Posted (edited)

means critical bugfixes and security fixes will be released. Also help is advaiable on the website.

 

I plan on skipping vista and getting the next version of windows. vista is like ME. they fixed all the probsand made XP ;)

Edited by doc flabby
Aileron Newbie

Aileron

Posted
Posted

If you want XP, get your laptop quick. I read somewhere that Microsoft is soon going to stop selling XP to bolster their Vista sales.

 

I guess the question you really want to ask is: Is Vista genuinely poor, or is the Vista hate a bunch of anti-Microsoft propaganda?

 

The answer is a little of both, but Vista is a poor operating system. It generally has a bunch of programs of marginal usefulness running in the background at all times. The OS gives a feeling that it was written by hard-core computer geeks addicted to hardware inflation and convinced that everyone buys a $2000 computer annually like they do.

 

To their credit, the recent Vista Service Pack 1 is a huge improvement. It boosts performance a lot. My games seem to run a bit smoother with more graphics options on than before SP1. I'd even say Vista SP1 is about as fast as XP SP2 as long as you turn off some of Vista's useless features yourself.

 

 

One thing you absolutely need to do, first thing, is turn off user account control. When it is on, programs will either be run 'by an administrator' or by default. The ones run by default will be run by a sort of emulator. In particular, a non-Microsoft program not 'Run as an Administrator' doesn't usually have permission to access or modify other files. For instance, a game program won't be able to access saved game files. Instead, it will access saved game files are hidden in some sort of emulated folder which I can't find.

 

I mean, it is an incredibly useful piece of software for a computer in a school or business where you would want to prevent public access. However, for a home machine it gets in the way.

Drake7707 Newbie

Drake7707

Posted
Posted
He liked Vista for a while, but whenever he wanted to install a program or a game, tons of googling, patching, tweaking was necessary to get it running

 

The OS gives a feeling that it was written by hard-core computer geeks addicted to hardware inflation

 

Well well well, that certainly sounds very similar to a non-microsoft os blum.gif

rootbear75 Newbie

rootbear75

Posted
Posted
To their credit, the recent Vista Service Pack 1 is a huge improvement. It boosts performance a lot. My games seem to run a bit smoother with more graphics options on than before SP1. I'd even say Vista SP1 is about as fast as XP SP2 as long as you turn off some of Vista's useless features yourself.

WHEN THE !@#$%^&* DID THEY RELEASE SP1?! WHERE THE !@#$%^&* WAS I?!

Admiral Kirk Newbie

»Admiral Kirk

Posted
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Actually, in regards to WGA, what it means is that in (I think its closer to 750k now) cases WGA has incorrectly identified a legitimate copy of windows as illegitimate. Many of these cases have been reported by brand new owners of brand name machines like Dell and Lenovo which have OEM keys. However, this really isn't a "Vista" specific problem, as WGA for XP has many of the same problems and if you have automatic updates enabled, you get WGA shoved up your you know what as a "critical update". Also, its included in Windows XP SP3. Additionaly, "cracking" WGA (aka, byp!@#$%^&*ing it) or trying to get a new key from MS are the only fixes for the previously mentioned problem.

 

In regards to Windows 7, I wouldn't get your hopes up for that. The latest rumors of it are that MS will be going with a modularized subscription online only model for the OS. As in, you must have an internet connection to use it, and you must pay a monthly fee to use it. I don't know about you, but the day I spend a monthly fee for a local OS is the day I'll be turning in my Nerd Card ^^. Still, I have a hard time believing they will so thoroughly shoot themselves in the foot. Particularly with such stiff compe!@#$%^&*ion coming from the Linux camp now, especially with WINE hitting 1.0.

 

Also, in regards to XP availability, as Yavaris said, certain version of Vista are eligible for downgrade (read: Upgrade) to Windows XP. In this way MS will be offering XP for quite awhile, while at the same time allowing them to artificially inflate thier Vista sales numbers. Dell and Lenovo have both officially stated they will continue offering XP pre-installed on thier systems past the June deadline.

 

And finaly, in regards to Vista, I think we've all hashed that out enough, Vista is the new Windows ME, nuff said.

Acer Newbie

Acer

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Posted
XP vs Vista...Really? This is a simple answer get XP. Wait for a new release of vista to come out..Then get it.. It might have a few bugs fixed..
Samapico Newbie

Samapico

Posted
Posted
Just idling on Vista eats up 1GB of your RAM, wheras XP uses less than 350MB of RAM (according to my experience
As I said in a previous post, I don't think this argument is valid... Vista handles memory differently. Unused memory is wasted memory. It uses all the memory it can, hoping some of the pre-loaded stuff will be useful to you. If it needs memory for something else, it will unload some stuff to make space.

I'm not saying it is 'better', but you can't just compare memory usage. The loss of performance comes mostly from the CPU being used to make all these memory handling operations.

L.C. Newbie

L.C.

Posted
Posted
As I said in a previous post, I don't think this argument is valid...
Aight, forgive me if I missed any important notes that I should have considered. I just skimmed through the replies. *shrugs*

 

I have to agree with you though. Makes some sense (and as you say, doesn't necessarily mean better).

 

The loss of performance comes mostly from the CPU being used to make all these memory handling operations.
Got it.
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