Vista or Xp?

Question

Ok i am going to get a new computer very soon, i have chosen all the hardware i want but now i have to choose the OS. Most people would probably say to get windows vista but here is the problem i face.

I could go and get Xp which i know will work or(and possibly get the retail version which has both 32 and 64 bit versions in th near future),

I could go with Windows Vista (the 32 bit option) which according to the reviews i have read is pretty stable and compatible with most programs on XP or

I could go with the 64 bit version of Windows and face the uncertainty of it ever taking off, it being compatible with my program and the availability of drivers.

FYI: The last 2 versions of vista i have listed are OEM copies which (respectively) only contain a copy of 32bit OR 64bit Vista

Please correct me if im wrong

Answer 1

If your computer can handle Vista then why not? Yes it is new and there are some problems with drivers that I experienced but nothing major. You can get XP but within 6 months you'll be upgrading to Vista anyhow so go ahead and spend the money for Vista now rather than paying for both XP and Vista.

Do a little research though. Any programs that you cannot live without, check out their website to see if they are Vista compatible.

The above guy said 2GB of RAM.

I'm running an Intel Duo Core 3.0GhZ with 1GB RAM and it runs fine. The good thing about Vista is ReadyBoost. You can take flash memory and able to for ReadyBoost so if your computer needs more RAM it uses the ReadyBoost. Quite handy although I have a computer resource monitor on my desktop and it hardly ever goes over 90% of RAM used and does not reach it to my ReadyBoost hardly ever.

Answer 2

I don't know where you get the idea that Vista is somehow worth considering or where you get the idea that 64 bit Windows is anything other than a joke (though one could argue that Windows itself is a joke).

Driver support for Windows Vista is not very good at the moment, particularly with nVidia cards and 64 bit windows also has a lot of driver support problems (especially if you are going to connect something old up to your computer).

64 bit Windows also can't run 16 bit windows programs due to Microsoft leaving that out which may be a problem if you have old 16 bit windows software lying around (really old games mainly) and which could show up at any time to bite you.

You also only really need 64 bit if you've got more than 3 GiB of RAM (4 GiB can be addressed by 64 bit windows but windows won't let you use more than 3 for applications) so you probably aren't going to be wanting to bother with the problems of 64 bit windows.

Now Vista seems to be pretty stable although it is noticeably slower and more bloated and people have reported a lot of problems with the DRM of the thing. Games also don't seem to work very well on Vista and DVD playback has been reported to suffer from frame dropping and stuttering audio.

Answer 3

I work as a computer tech and I've probably worked on Windows Vista around 20 times, on desktops and laptops, mostly dells, and a few HP's, and a few others. If you like Vista and are happy with it, and don't have any problems, you will probably enjoy it.
That said, I have had to uninstall Vista on 4 computers, and install XP again, some of these problems include, Not being able to install their favorite games, they got copies of office from someone else and it won't install on Vista, because they don't have a valid serial number. The printer won't install on Vista, the incredimail won't work correctly on Vista, and a ton of other reasons. People are creatures of habit, and Vista is just too much different than XP.
People want to be able to sit down and the computer works and works well. Vista just isn't there just yet.
As far as cool features, I've been too busy with the problems to notice.

Answer 4

From what I have heard Vista is a big improvement on XP. If you are buying a computer off the shelf (I don't think you are), you must get Vista. If you are building your own machine, I would stick with XP. As you said, XP is a known product, and there are fewer question marks with compatibility with hardware and software.

Personally, I do not trust any new OS from Microsoft. I will not upgrade to Vista for at least a year, and probably longer. I don't care how stable people say it is. Microsoft's track record is too weak for me to trust a new OS from them.

Answer 5

XP. I jumped on the Vista band wagon and got it the day it came out. It was so unusable, I re-installed XP Pro and only use that for now. Vista will be a very good program, but a few things need to be worked out first.

My laptop on the other hand has Vista and it works very well. My desktop (the one with XP Pro) was Vista capable according to Microsoft by the way.

Answer 6

well it all depends on what exaclly you wanna use it for



vista is good in many ways but can be a pain in the bottom until you learn how to use it and it takes alot of ur ram ( you will need atleast 1gb of ram to run all the goodies ) , dont get me wrong u can have 512mb but you wont be able to use vista to the fullest
and if you are a gamer you would wanna get vista



xp on the other hand does not take much ram , easy to use but the bad thing is the future of games

if you just want it for any day use go with vista but give it a couple of months so they can clear the glitches

Answer 7

If you're buying a new computer i assumed that the OS is vista.. vista is good on many ways.. if you're computer can handle it then why not..

mine is vista home premium OEM

Answer 8

ITS BETTER U GO FOR VISTA

BUT YOU NEED TO GET A CORE @DUO Processor WITH 2GB RAM AND 80GB HDD (AS AGAINST 1GBRAM)

ANY WAYS YOU CAN LOAD XP WITH YOUR VISTA COPY IF YOU DECIDE IN FUTURE AS EVERY SOFTWARE IS REVERSE COMPATIBLE

Answer 9

the time to turn on vista

but u required more ram speed and processor speed like atleast 512MB RAM and dual core processer