They Criticized Vista. And They Should Know

The New York Times ^ | March 9, 2008 | Randall Stross

[Obi-Wandreas]

"They Criticized Vista. And They Should Know.

By RANDALL STROSS ONE year after the birth of Windows Vista, why do so many Windows XP users still decline to “upgrade”?

Microsoft says high prices have been the deterrent. Last month, the company trimmed prices on retail packages of Vista, trying to entice consumers to overcome their reluctance. In the United States, an XP user can now buy Vista Home Premium for $129.95, instead of $159.95.

An alternative theory, however, is that Vista’s reputation precedes it. XP users have heard too many chilling stories from relatives and friends about Vista upgrades that have gone badly. The graphics chip that couldn’t handle Vista’s whizzy special effects. The long delays as it loaded. The applications that ran at slower speeds. The printers, scanners and other hardware peripherals, which work dandily with XP, that lacked the necessary software, the drivers, to work well with Vista.

Can someone tell me again, why is switching XP for Vista an “upgrade”?"

[Uncle Miltie]

Vista is fine with 4GB memory. I’ve tried it with 1.5GB and 2.0GB, and had to downgrade back to XP both times.

[longjack]

I plan to stick with XP

I work with computers and have all kinds of machines, including Mac and Linux. I have to keep up with different OS's.

I have Vista on my work desktop at home. The part I like about it is that I find the new interface faster to work with. It's ergonomically more fluid than XP.

The worst part of Vista is any network file operations, or copy/paste to external drives. It is an absolute disaster. If you do work over the network to XP machines don't use Vista.

I also test a lot of software and Vista is a crap shoot when you install programs. I have an image backup I use to restore the OS drive and I use it at least once or twice a month when something ganks the OS.

On the other hand, I have it on my wife's machine, who just uses it for her school, web and office work and it's been great. She likes it. It handles web media very well.

Customers I have who aren't power users are OK with it as well.

Bottom line, if you work with network files a lot, or like to tinker with new software, stick to XP, otherwise you may like Vista for the way it organizes how you work.

[Clara Lou]

I’ve been using Macs for 10 yrs. now at work, with XP at home. I’d never shell out for a personal Mac. At home, I’ve switched to Kubuntu Linux (with a 2nd XP hard drive for games). Again, I’d never shell out for a Mac.

[chaos_5]

ROLF
DUAL!!

I never said I was an ace at spelling. =o)

[mamelukesabre]

I went from windows 98SE to XP. I think XP will be the last microsoft operating system I ever use.

[Bommer]

If I had duel processors and 4 gigs of ram, I should hope it would boot up and run fast. Sorry but the vast majority of us have 1 gig of ram and a single processor and Vista will barely run on that.

[Gargantua]

I have 2 Dell Inspiron S's with Vista Home Premium. It smokes, is lightning fast, automatically locates, downloads and installs drivers for every gadget I've ever added to either of my systems.

I love Vista. I'll never go back to ME, XP or any of the other ones. And "No", I don't know Bill Gates.

;-/

[chaos_5]

I blame companies like DELL who often sell computers with insufficient resources to run the OS they install. If you buy a computer with Vista, it should be loaded with enough RAM etc. to actual run the thing.

[edcoil]

I bought a new laptop for my daughter and school. It came with Vista and of the 5 computers we have in our house. It is the only one trouble free - all other run XP and have a variety of problems.

If you get Vista pre-loaded and don’t have old equipment then your fine but what old equipment do most have a printer? With their price and toner, that is the first thing to go and get new.

[chaos_5]

Sorry but the vast majority of us have 1 gig of ram and a single processor and Vista will barely run on that.

I found XP doesn't even like to run on that.

[kalee]

ping

[chaos_5]

I admit I was very skeptical when I finally went to Vista. With all the horror stories out there. The reason I finally did go Vista was for DirectX 10. Now that I have gotten used to it, I like it a lot.

The pop up “do you really want to run this program” that I just double clicked on to run is annoying. Thats just about my only complaint.

[JCG]

I was shopping for an XP machine right after Vista came out because I'd heard the DRM was brutal.  No XP machines were available at Circuit City or Best Buy (ugh) so I wound up at Office Depot.  A young geeky looking man was standing next to me asking the clerk if this was "all" the XP machines available (there were two).  I asked why he didn't go with one of the Vista machines?  He replied that he had just gone through a two week nightmare with one his brother owned and had finally given up when he tried to install Norton Ghost 2003 and Vista told him, "sorry," he could only install a Norton Ghost version later than 2006.

That did it for me.  I finally found an XP computer at Sam's Club online and had it shipped in.  I've been thankful ever since.

----

Send treats to the troops...
Great because you did it!
www.AnySoldier.com

[JDoutrider]

You can pick up a “Windows Works” software package with a Word processor and spread sheet programs for about $30 that should keep him going just fine...

[kdot]

Add me to the of satisfied customers. I’ve worked in IT for 23 years and have a home network with (seemingly) one of everything. My Vista PC is great. All peripheral devices (printers, drives, joysticks, cameras, etc) work great. It doesn’t crash and it’s reliable.

Of course, you can’t be satisfied or have a good experience unless you have a mac. Come to think of it, the only computer that challenges me is my daughter’s iBook (req’d for school) It won’t work with anything.

[kdot]

Add me to the of satisfied customers. I’ve worked in IT for 23 years and have a home network with (seemingly) one of everything. My Vista PC is great. All peripheral devices (printers, drives, joysticks, cameras, etc) work great. It doesn’t crash and it’s reliable.

Of course, you can’t be satisfied or have a good experience unless you have a mac. Come to think of it, the only computer that challenges me is my daughter’s iBook (req’d for school) It won’t work with anything.

[Hildy]

I don’t know what all the hooplah is about...I run vista and it works just fine..but I’m an extraordinarily lucky gal!

[tgusa]

Try Open Office (openoffice.org). It’s free and works great.

[Schwaeky]

so that is where Comical Ali went....

[Principled]

openoffice.org