[Realist]

I'm buying a new computer. Which OS do I get? I've heard bad things about Vista, but won't Microsoft stop supporting relatively soon?

[Sly Fox]

I have Vista on both laptop and desktop at my house. Laptop has run perfectly. Desktop has been a nightmare ....

That said, the Service Pack I got last week seems to have resolved many of my issues on my desktop.

[INeedAManager]

Alot of people hate Vista, but thats usually bc they dont have a computer with enough ram to handle it. If the new computer has at least 1gb of ram you should be ok (i dare say all new computers have this much unless its a basic entry level comp), and yes it wont be long before Microsoft will not support XP and all those Vista haters will have no choice but to switch over

[FlameDad]

Microsoft will be supporting XP for many more years.
SP3 will roll out next month for the general public and Dell and others are making more business oriented computers available for vista shy users.
That being said, I have been running Vista on a desktop (2 gig ram) for 10 months and it runs fast and flawless.

[JeanW]

Microsoft will be supporting XP for many more years.
SP3 will roll out next month for the general public and Dell and others are making more business oriented computers available for vista shy users.

Yes, what he said. What you should choose is individual to your situation and how you use your computer. If you use any unique/special software check for compatibility issues wtih Vista before making a decision.

[mrmacphisto]

OS X FTW

[LUconn]

OS X FTW

NOT the question.

[mrmacphisto]

OS X FTW

NOT the question.

Maybe not, but it's the answer.

[MacGeek]

get a mac.

and if your a little bit of a nerd go linux(its free).

but if you had to go xp pro

[RubberMallet]

OS X FTW

NOT the question.

Maybe not, but it's the answer.

thanks for the laugh today

[flamesbball84]

vista works fine, however, if you have some important software that you have to be able to use (like something for work?), then I'd recocmmend checking on it's compatibility with vista. also peripheral compatibility (printer, scanner, etc.), although all the peripherals I have used have worked just fine with Vista.

Mostly all the complaints I have heard of Vista stem from (1) computer geeks who want the OS to do things that the typical PC user would never give a crap about and (2) businesses that have hardcore/software that doesn't work with Vista. I for one haven't had any problem with software compatibility.

But since you'd be ordering a computer with Vista pre-installed, there shouldn't be any hardware conflicts since the computer was built for Vista.

However, unless there is a key feature in a version of Vista you'd like to have, save some money and get Home Premium - Home Basic is a piece of crap and the other ones cost more and give you very little for how much more you'd be paying.

Plus XP is hideous looking...

[revmitchell]

I have a full gig of memory and it crashes all the time. I would suggest 2 full gigs if you are going with vista.

[Sly Fox]

Welcome to the board, revmitchell. And you are dead on. Vista chews up nearly a full gig by itself. Make sure you have 2 gig or more if you go with Vista.

[matshark]

um, yes OS X is the answer...

all that cool stuff windows just came out with for Vista, Mac has been doing for quite a while... oh, and while 2 Gb comes standard, I have 4Gb of RAM. The reason being is I run a TON of graphics, photo and video apps off of it (usually simultaneously for workflow reasons) and guess what... no problems. Vista just can't keep up.

Besides, what good is an OS that chews up half your RAM just by itself, and THEN has compatibility issues on top of that? Oh, and I have Office for Mac and it works very nicely

[flamesbball84]

vista doesnt chew up half my ram, in fact it runs better than XP did...

[jimflamesfan]

My Vista runs much better with a Gig than it did with 512K which came on my computer!!

However, it was much harder getting my cell phone internet to work...and even though I own legal copies of both Office 97 and the Office '97 to 2000 upgrade...the 2000 upgrade will not work with Vista...I let the Office that came with the computer expire...so now I have downgraded to 97.

Also, one of my printers wouldn't work. One did work, and another was supposed to NOT work...but I just gave it a try and installed it with the Win XP drivers...it does work...although sometimes it decides to create copies of itself for no reason...and only one copy works, sometimes the most recent copy, sometimes the original.

Some of the software that I have don't works...and some software that you register sometimes doesn't register...you have to make sure to run the program as an administrator when your registering software...and my biggest pain is getting programs on DVD-Roms to work. I have 2 DVD-readable writable drives. And when I put DVD software in the computer, it never auto-runs...instead, it tries to format it.

Then, if I go into my computer...it still tries to format it. Finally, I'm able to explore.

Win XP actually gives you more bang for the $ in my opinion...stay with XP.

[flamesbball84]

and some software that you register sometimes doesn't register...you have to make sure to run the program as an administrator when your registering software...and my biggest pain is getting programs on DVD-Roms to work. I have 2 DVD-readable writable drives. And when I put DVD software in the computer, it never auto-runs...instead, it tries to format it.

Then, if I go into my computer...it still tries to format it. Finally, I'm able to explore.

Win XP actually gives you more bang for the $ in my opinion...stay with XP.

Never had problems with software not registering - rather i download the program, install via disc, or if I use a DVD drive emulation program to mount a DVD image to install it.

Never had problems with DVDs either, rather its installing program off them or watching a movie on them. sounds like to me your dvd drive is messed up because I've never had anything anywhere close to that happening...

[RagingTireFire]

...stay with XP.

Vista is going to be the MS standard within the next two years. You might as well be saying 'stick with Windows 3.1'.

[JDUB]

by the time vista becomes the standard i hopefully will have a mac. i'm fed up with microsoft, and i'm converting. eventually, after i graduate and can afford it

[phoenix]

I got a great book the other day -- Switching To The Mac: The Missing Manual (Leopard Edition). If I had the money, I'd have to at least give it serious thought -- at least for my laptop.

[matshark]

by the time vista becomes the standard i hopefully will have a mac. i'm fed up with microsoft, and i'm converting. eventually, after i graduate and can afford it

you can get a refurbished mac pretty inexpensively. just check it out on the mac.com site. further, you can get a student discount on it. the refurbished macs are macs that have been sent back to apple, and then reworked by the mac guys and ususally come with warranties. i'd say they are just as good as new, maybe better in some cases.

[jimflamesfan]

...stay with XP.

Vista is going to be the MS standard within the next two years. You might as well be saying 'stick with Windows 3.1'.

Well, I have a Win 98 computer that still does a lot of stuff...I just got my Vista machine about 6 months ago...so from 98 - 2008...ten years with an OS, not bad.

(I had XP on a laptop, but my primary computer was a Win 98 desktop). I could basically do anything that I could on XP...except you had to be careful buying flash drives, to make sure they had drivers...so XP I imagine would have been productive through 2015...at least for me, haha.

[RagingTireFire]

I'm not arguing the usefulness of XP, only that Vista is going to be the standard going forward.

[rudy45]

I'm not arguing the usefulness of XP, only that Vista is going to be the standard going forward.

Who knows, it depends on what the market does.

[RagingTireFire]

Who knows, it depends on what the market does.

Microsoft owns the Windows market. The market will do what Microsoft tells it to do.