Bye Bye XP - sniff

[funkyspider]

Microsoft have now stopped selling XP to retailers and major computer makers

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080630/...e/microsoft_xp

I know it's been tricky to get XP on a new machine for a while, but some manufacturers, notably Dell, were still offering it. Unfortunately now we are forced to have the resource hogging Vista. That is of course until late 2009 when a new (supposedly slimmed down) version of an operating system (imaginatively named Windows 7) will be released - this is despite the fact that on launch Microsoft initially claimed that Vista would be the last big OS release, all future releases would be online updates around the vista core.

[LFC_SL]

Just to point out Microsoft are aiming for that release date. The world waits to see if the features dropped from Vista make an appearance

[overkill]

Originally Posted by LFC_SL

Just to point out Microsoft are aiming for that release date. The world waits to see if the features dropped from Vista make an appearance

Knowing Microsoft though LFC, not with bated breath..........

[Flimber]

There are few ways of getting a 'lite' version of vista and there are custom installers (e.g., http://www.vlite.net/index.html). Youtube has a vid of a system running merrily in 256MB RAM, IIRC.

[audionewb]

there's always linux if you don't game.

[Orson]

I believe you can still 'downgrade' to XP though, depending on the version of Vista you buy.

[CGizzi]

Originally Posted by Orson

I believe you can still 'downgrade' to XP though, depending on the version of Vista you buy.

Yep

I had a laptop which came with XP drivers also, I took the XP option for now & in the future will go to Vista when forced to.

[Chrisoldinho]

I find Vista much better than XP for the majority of tasks now. Took a few months to bed in and get used to but after a while everything just feels better built and more secure. It does have it's annoying features (as every OS does) but on the whole it's definately a step forward IMO.

I wouldn't use XP through choice, much prefer Ubuntu 8.10 with tons of free software and even lighter on resources.

Chris.

[evilgenius]

vista is soo much better on my system than Xp ever was. Im on Vista x 64.

[wormvortex]

TBH vista is basically XP but with some kewl obvious advatanges as well as many you don't notice day to day.

People who still bitch about it being crap and whatnot are just jumping on the bandwagon that most people got off last year

[Sporran]

aero ftw

[overkill]

Originally Posted by wormvortex

TBH vista is basically XP but with some kewl obvious advatanges as well as many you don't notice day to day.

People who still bitch about it being crap and whatnot are just jumping on the bandwagon that most people got off last year

I have had Vista 64 on the same system as XP for nearly a year now. I cannot see any great advantages to Vista in a (literal) side by side comparison.

I think tbh, if anything, people are getting the 'I'm used to it now so it must be better' syndrome.

One thing about Vista is though, it certainly isn't for the faint hearted. Twice recently it's updated automatically and come up with odd messages and just re-booted. I nearly did something nasty to my underwear the first time, as it came up with what looked like an terminal error message on boot then just re-booted itself in what looked like a crash.

Palpitations were in order - until it rebooted ok.

[Elmer]

On my current system Q6600 and 4 gig of ram when I built it last August I did a clean install of Vista 64. After putting up with it for 8 months and seeing no difference after the service pack, I changed to XP pro and everything was noticeably faster.

Maybe it's something to do with my setup, I don't know, but I'm certainly in no hurry to try Vista again, programs open up a lot faster for me with XP.

[Singh400]

Originally Posted by Flimber

There are few ways of getting a 'lite' version of vista and there are custom installers (e.g., http://www.vlite.net/index.html). Youtube has a vid of a system running merrily in 256MB RAM, IIRC.

I wouldn't touch nlite nor vlite with a barge pole. The amount of damage you can do to your Windows installation is unreal. Number of times, I've read a person has a major problem with Windows, only to find out that he/she nlited the XP install and unknowningly removed a critical system component.

[Brausch]

I shall be sticking with XP, I don't see why I should spend good money on Vista when it offers me nothing more than a resource hog interface, constant file indexing (great for your HD's lifespan) and DX10 (taken the gaming world by storm so far). We'll see if Windows 7 has all the features promised for Vista. Microsoft need to get back to basics and realise an OS is just a way of connecting to more interesting software and above all it should be secure and efficient, only then they can add silly things like Aeroglass