Why stick with XP instead of Vista?

wolfman

tomsolomon wrote: »

I still remember when XP came out and all the instability, crashes, downtime and security vulnerabilities. Its still being updated regularly now..

Then again I might just scrap Windows altogether and install Ubuntu..........

XP came out when times were changing, especially with high speed internet becoming more common. It was just poor vision.

As to still being regularly updated now, that's a good thing.
You'll find Ubuntu is updated regularly too, even more so in fact. It's typical of any OS and changing times.

isofa

superscaper wrote: »

Don't think you'll find unanimous agreement with you on this board. Extensive public beta testing for Vista had been going on for what 18 months/2 years before release? There are many "techies" on this board that have been very happy with Vista and found nothing wrong. Bit of an argumentum ad populum anyway.

I doubt you've find unanimous agreement for any OS. I'm a professional in this industry and it's my take on it. As someone who uses various systems and platforms, both in a small environment, personally, and in massive corporate environments, I get to see many aspects of the situation and from many viewpoints.

I was beta testing Vista when it was in various release candidate stages, before it's release, but find me any well regarded IT professional who'll install a v1.0 OS as their main system (or any v1.0 software product for that matter) and I'll buy you a drink! It's very different having it to test, use as a secondary tool etc.

In my eyes, any software product at v1.0 is one to be avoided until it has been patched and reached a more mature version, this an opinion shared by many professionals. With an SP1 update already being put together by MS, it'd be hard to argue otherwise for Vista.

For the home user there may be more argument to go for Vista, but I personally don't agree, not yet, until it is more mature.

:beer:

chaucer

Thanks all.

RE: drivers for older hardware - HP have notified me that there is not a driver for my all in one HP PSC750 but that I can make it print and scan.

I am a home user so the comments about Vista being perfectly good in that environment are interesting.

RE: comments about vista being more secure - does this mean less prone to virus attack / crashing / malfunction etc?

isofa

chaucer wrote: »

Thanks all.

RE: drivers for older hardware - HP have notified me that there is not a driver for my all in one HP PSC750 but that I can make it print and scan.

I am a home user so the comments about Vista being perfectly good in that environment are interesting.

RE: comments about vista being more secure - does this mean less prone to virus attack / crashing / malfunction etc?

Not really, more secure relates mainly to how it has a UAC (User Access Control) where the system requires authorisation to do certain things (it's poorly executed compared with how other Unix based OSes lock down security), with many users disabling it as it can be annoying, but then you are loosing out on the security. Essentially it should be more secure (but I won't cloud that with my opinion!)... But there are many many viruses which will attack it, get a good virus checker too, crashes can be down to all sorts from hardware to software/drivers, only time will tell.

sco0ter

isofa wrote: »

With an SP1 update already being put together by MS, it'd be hard to argue otherwise for Vista.

And with XP having more bug fixes and security fixes than vista since its release and also awaiting its SP3 XP is hardly looking better from that stand point.

I too used Vista since the early days and even had it installed as a primary system (I got so much hassle for this on this board) And yes I did find bugs and incompatabilities. The only difference was I KNEW how to get round them.The amount of times people moaned about hardware not working and they had "tried everything" when I was sitting with the same things running fine was unbelievable.

Vista Beta tech support was excellent (if you signed up) I submitted 23 bug reports and 12 driver incompatabilities. I recieved word back on solutions and fixes that were going to be made on all bugs and word back on what drivers would be made available on Vistas release as well as work arounds for my Printer, Wireless adapter and soundcard problems so I could continue to use Vista right through the Beta phase.

As for the "any software product at v1.0 is one to be avoided until it has been patched and reached a more mature version" statement you made..

Without anybody using this as a main system on a day to day basis doing everything they need to do How would they Find/fix bugs. You could spend years waiting for SP1 then install it and your configuration of hardware/software might throw up a new bug and then all that waiting was for nothing. A bit silly if you ask me.

sco0ter

chaucer wrote: »

drivers for older hardware - HP have notified me that there is not a driver for my all in one HP PSC750 but that I can make it print and scan.

Only thing I found with my HP was that the additional software supplied with the drivers was incompatible.used to do. The drivers themeselves work no problem.

isofa

sco0ter wrote: »

<snip>As for the "any software product at v1.0 is one to be avoided until it has been patched and reached a more mature version" statement you made..

Without anybody using this as a main system on a day to day basis doing everything they need to do How would they Find/fix bugs. You could spend years waiting for SP1 then install it and your configuration of hardware/software might throw up a new bug and then all that waiting was for nothing. A bit silly if you ask me.

I'm talking commercially allowing things to bed in with others before taking the plunge, and it's my opinion, silly you might think, I'd say it was silly not to :rolleyes:

wolfman

isofa wrote: »

I'm talking commercially allowing things to bed in with others before taking the plunge, and it's my opinion, silly you might think, I'd say it was silly not to :rolleyes:

It depends upon your line of work/business.

We for example use Vista here, namely for IIS7, and also use the latest Visual Studio, Office 2007. We pick up open source packages some of which have been out for years and still not hit v1.0. We've not had problems with any of them.

In some cases it's best to wait, but in others you have to push, innovate and to do so you're often on the cutting edge.

Most companies typically wait 6 months, or for SP1 to arrive before switching. It's just standard practise, but it doesn't mean something is buggy or unstable.

I run Debian/Ubuntu at home, but run Vista via a virtual machine within it for any .Net development. It allows me to use Linux (and still to Java work) whilst also giving me a cutting edge Windows platform to work from.

isofa

Good points wolfman It does all depend on your business, requirements and risk of course.

Running new stuff using virtualisation is the key, nicely sandboxed.

Although I've separate Win and Mac boxes for development, running some PC apps using Parallels on Mac OS X is very impressive, and for me that gives a cutting edge platform, yet the ability to use all the tools I need.

tomsolomon

I think the general concensus is, If you are using your pc for occasional home use you will be able to get by untill Vista is more stable.
If you are using your pc for business or daily intensive use you should stick to XP unless you are prepared to work at your OS and can afford down time.