Posted on 11/27/2007 1:54:17 PM PST by Zakeet
Windows XP trounced Windows Vista in all tests, regardless of the versions used or the amount of memory running on the computer, says Devil Mountain Software.
In the latest Mac versus PC ad, that put-upon Windows guy quietly concedes he's "downgrading" from Vista to XP. He may have good reason: new tests show that the older XP runs common productivity tasks significantly faster than Microsoft's newest operating system.
Researchers at Devil Mountain Software, a Florida-based developer of performance management tools, have posted data from their most recent Windows performance tests -- and Vista, even after it's been upgraded to the new Service Pack 1 beta package, is shown to be a laggard.
"The hoped for performance fixes [from Vista SP1] that Microsoft has been hinting at never materialized," said Devil Mountain researchers, in a blog post summarizing their results.
The researchers compared patched and unpatched versions of Vista and XP running Microsoft Office on a dual-core Dell notebook. The results revealed the time taken to complete Office productivity tasks such as the creation of a compound document and presentation materials.
Devil Mountain researchers ran a mix of tests comparing existing versions of the operating systems -- the original Vista and XP SP2 -- and versions that had been patched with the latest updates -- Vista SP1 beta and XP SP3 beta. Tests were also run on machines with 1 Gbyte and 2 Gbytes of memory.
Windows XP trounced Windows Vista in all tests -- regardless of the versions used or the amount of memory running on the computer. In fact, XP proved to be roughly twice as fast as Vista in most of the tests.
(Excerpt) Read more at informationweek.com ...
Resistance is futile.
Mac is back. My first desktop was a mac. I finally went to a PC because of the wider variety of applications available, although the graphics on Mac were superior.
I have had PC for a decade now. And thinking seriously about going back to Mac when I update. if vista requires people to buy new printers and other peripherals, just as well invest in the whole shebang on the Mac side.
Resistance shows up in market share and Mac is back.
I think that I’ll keep my Windows98 2nd edition a bit longer. I’m a true fiscal conservative not a supply sider.
Anyone out there still running the old 98?
Then it isn't configured well... If you shut it off at night anyway... 98 leaks mem if you leave it run...
But it is simple and really very fast on new hardware.
Bump that, and Aero too...
I was recently working with a niece in checking out new laptops - she needed to get one within a day or two at the most, so we were dealing with what was available from retailers.
The combination of all the requirements, other than the OS, made one with Vista the preferred one, in spite of our general concerns about any very new MS OS.
Her processing requirements are not huge - not a lot of graphics, so the only major problem for her so far has been saving some MS-Office files in pre-Vista versions, because some recipients of her documents cannot open her Vista versions of them.
Hey, no fault no foul... just that Linux is more my cup of tea... Whitebox INTEL and all that...
I have Vista on my new machine but am looking at going Linux as a second operating system. (My favorite app that lets me hear Rush’s program while I am outside the US no longer works, and other Vista users have the same problem.) Why did you choose Ubuntu over the other Linux/Unix distributions? Sounds like you have no regrets. I just want to have my old apps run again.
Years ago, in another lifetime, when I was an IT exec, we always referred to pending new releases of a MS OS as vaporware, by which, we knew, instinctively, neither the delivery date expectations or the holy-grail-hype expectations would ever be met.
That is true. MAC's market share went to the moon.
I keep my Windows 98SE on a partition only for the old Real Flite and a Ditto 10 GB tape drive, which is much better choice for long term backups than DVD, IMO. Actually, the Win98 was never that unstable for me, except when I started putting video capture cards in!
The other partition has one of the latest Linux kernels, which is where I spent 99% of my time. Incidentally, when I temporarily had only 192 MB in the machine, Linux was using only half of that for application and data while browsing (most of the rest used for buffering and cache). I read about these Vista users needing 4 GB and think...WOW!
“So the Microsoft geniuses aren’t as smart as they are said to be.”
They NEVER have been. Gates greatest asset has ALWAYS been his marketing.
You are so correct. My mom got a new computer and it came with Vista. She calls me lost and I go over to help her and I am lost.....she eventually called the Geek Squad out to help her, they have been out several times.
I will never understand why they made it so difficult to understand and navigate.
Yep, I'm still running Win2K, and it's going to take a lot to pry me off.
Is what I hear correct- that one can’t copy DVD’s (using Nero for example) due to the DRM feature?
b.
Yeah, all my test benches triple boot 98-DOS/XP-2K/Linux (Ubuntu, Slack, Knoppix)
98 is still useful for alot of things, especially a quick boot, and of course DOS.
Ubuntu, Kubuntu, and Mandriva are all great for most people. I use Mandriva as I have been networked to the support staff for years.
Hint to new Linux users: Start with one of the one disk (DVD or CD) versions of Linux, such as Mandriva One. Boot from the disk. Then you can play around and install it on the hard disk if you so choose. Works great. Very little hardware is not recognized now and practically all the configuration is automatic. Big change from five years ago.
However, I hear nothing but good things about them. It can't be as hard as Vista to figure out.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m speaking of the generic consumer. Linux is great and more and more folks know and use it.
“Considering 32 bit processors can’t access more than 4 GB”
Well, 32 bit processors can’t *directly* access more than 4GB ;)! There are ways around that limitation (bankswitching/page swapping for example...oldest trick in the book).
“Vista will probably be Microsoft’s last 32 bit operating system.”
Don’t forget about that fine product known as Windows CE....I believe that it is a 32 bit OS (it’s for embedded systems)...they (32 bit OSes) should be with us quite a while still in the embedded market (i.e. Zune, MP3 players, etc). But on the desktop....yeah, they’re almost dead.
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