XP or Vista

[jog]

I am having to replace my computer, old age I think. The salesman says to go with XP Pro because a lot of people are having trouble with Vista. I would like to know what you all think.

[Maribeth]

I am having to replace my computer, old age I think. The salesman says to go with XP Pro because a lot of people are having trouble with Vista. I would like to know what you all think.

Our IT guy says to stay with XP, to never upgrade to Vista and to wait until the next version of the operating system. I have used Vista at a client's and did not care for it --- too much micromanaging.

FWIW,

Maribeth

[jainen]

>>a lot of people are having trouble with Vista.<<

A lot of people have trouble with Cable TV. What do you care about them? The salesman is just talking in cliches--MOST people run the most advanced operating system successfully. Ask about your OWN needs for networking, peripherals, Internet security, and the other features of Vista. Find out what the system requirements are for the software you plan to use next year, including any available upgrades. In general, you can't expect old technology to serve you indefinitely.

[Jack from Ohio]

>>a lot of people are having trouble with Vista.<<

A lot of people have trouble with Cable TV. What do you care about them? The salesman is just talking in cliches--MOST people run the most advanced operating system successfully. Ask about your OWN needs for networking, peripherals, Internet security, and the other features of Vista. Find out what the system requirements are for the software you plan to use next year, including any available upgrades. In general, you can't expect old technology to serve you indefinitely.

You are correct. But when the replacement has so many glitches, compatibility issues, difficult learning curve, 5 time the size on your hard drive, and requires most users to upgrade hardware to use it, it is NOT WORTH THE HASSLE!!

<<MOST people run the most advanced operating system successfully.>>

It is significant to note, that Microsoft re-released XP PRO, and Apple sales have increased drastically since the introduction of VISTA. The percentage of returned computers due to Vista is exponentially higher than when XP was introduced. The evidence supports the fact that people want a USEABLE system.

The public speaks loudly, and mirrors the feelings of us techie types that have tried VISTA.

STICK WITH XP PRO!!

[kcjenkins]

I think one of the major issues is with the peripheral hardware. If you have a significant number of good working, satisfactory for your needs, printers, scanners, etc that might not work with Vista, then you might be smart to avoid Vista. The major thing I see is that most of the improvements of Vista are aimed at the entertainment uses of the computer, rather than it's business uses. Hard to justify updating the entire office equipment to accommodate a new OS that is not going to give me significant improvements in the features that I will actually be using.

I'd also be hesitant if you have several computers networked, as Vista may or may not connect well with XP machines Unless you are upgrading all of your computers, that could be a real issue for you. I understand most of the connection issues are with Vista Home, which should probably be avoided anyway. But I've heard of problems even with the higher versions interacting with older machines.

[mcb39]

If I were given a choice, I would definitely stay with XP. That is what I am running on both of mine and have no complaints; whereas some people with Vista are pretty upset a lot of the time. This is one time that I can't bow to the wisdom of Jainen.

[jog]

I am so glad to hear all your definite opinions. They help me a lot to make up my mind. Thanks so much. jog

[Dan]

I have a XP and my wife has a Vista. She had a scanner that she really liked but it will not work with Vista because there is no printer driver for it. Vista works well for her and the Roxio program is real nice because when you burn a disk you can simply drag and drop it. My burn is done with

Sonic.

Now about XP. I like it for doing tax returns with ATX. I had XP Professional (SP1) and needed to have at least (SP2). I did windows update and now have XP (without Professional) and (SP3).

I believe Dell has it where you can buy either XP or Vista.

[jainen]

>>The public speaks loudly, and mirrors the feelings of us techie types<<

No, it is the techie types that have been so vocal about Vista. As I said, the majority of Vista users have been satisfied, even though the new features were more convenience than necessity. No new killer app, for example, and things like security and great search capability are hard for normal users to quantify.

The main thing wrong with Vista is, like most Microsoft products, it has terrible marketing. We all love to hate MS. They always promise more than they deliver (well, they've been promising that new file system for 15 years so that's no surprise). They confuse things with too many choices, including new versions of XP. Apple responded with a dynamite advertising campaign (but not a better product--they didn't deliver on promises either, like the touch screen, and anyway that's irrelevant because tax software isn't written for Macs).

Sure, Vista has a big hardware requirement, but jog is buying a new computer anyway. So Maribeth's caution to "never upgrade" is not relevant either. Jack reminds us of how many people have switched to Apple, but that is not an option for a tax preparer. KC and Dan make a useful point, however, that many XP drivers don't work with Vista so if you use older scanners and printers you may need to upgrade them as well.

[Jack from Ohio]

Jainen, I bow to your advanced and experienced tax advice many many times.

But I have to wonder... Which "public" have you been listening to about VISTA? I have 5 computer customers that chose to buy new laptops with VISTA. (against my recommendation) Every single one has been very vocal about its user "unfriendliness", and major compatibility issues with peripherals and software programs that they have become accustomed to.

Apple's marketing was revolutionary in that it simply told the truth.

People are switching to MACs because of its user friendly interfaces, lack of needing to "reboot" several times in a day, and ease of startup, program switching, and shutdown. My daughter has had a MACBOOK PRO for her Graphic Design major, at college, this is her second year having it. Total times needed to reboot in nearly 24 months.... 3.

The evidence cannot be ignored. VISTA is a sick and poorly designed operating system.

[jainen]

>>new laptops with VISTA<<

Laptops do have particular problems with Vista, especially concerning battery life and hard drives. In answer to jog's question, I assumed he was not considering a laptop because they are not typical for a tax office and he didn't mention that special requirement. And may I say again, all the talk about Macintosh is useless on a tax forum.

[Elrod]

I'm using Vista home premium, and XP with service pack 2 - (PC's) in my office.

All software and hardware work just fine on both - Hp 895 inkjet printer, Brother laser printer, an old Canon scanner, USB drives, zip drives, etc.

I even had some old win 95 software that didn't work on XP, but does on Vista.

Getting used to, and working with change is hard. Especially at my age, but it gets the job done.

I'm sad that some find it hard to change.

I traded my 1992 Ford F150 for a 2004 F150....... All the buttons were different and stuff.. ( My wife really likes the electronic pedal adjustment though )

My best to all,

Elrod

[Eric]

I guess I'll throw in my two cents, and reasons for switching to Vista.

First of all, Windows XP was released 7 years ago. It took them about 4 of those years to make it stop sucking. By the time the next version of windows comes out, Vista will be more solid, and everyone will be talking crap about the new version... and it's definitely not going to be less resource intensive than Vista, not with the way Microsoft develops software. If they could continuously refine and add to Windows over time, rather than coming out with a giant release every few years, Windows could be so much more solid... but apparently their business model doesn't allow for such sane development processes.

The point about driver availability for peripheral devices is probably the best reason to be worried about a switch to Vista, but you have to look into that yourself and assess the risk involved. UAC can also be a pain in the neck, but it can be disabled--it's a great idea, but poorly implemented. They should look to popular Linux distributions for examples of how to do it right.

As far as the learning curve, the parts of the interface that you use on a daily basis haven't changed all that much. The start menu is a little different, but not drastically so. Networking is different, but I actually found networking between Vista machines to be easier to set up than with XP. Not sure about networking between XP and Vista, though I had no trouble networking my Vista workstation with any of my Linux laptops/workstations.

My personal experience is that Vista works fine. I waited until SP1 to upgrade, and haven't looked back.

My reason for upgrading? I have a quad core 64bit processor and 8GB of RAM. I wanted to take full advantage of the 64bit architecture and utilize all of my ram. A 32bit OS like XP can only recognize 3-3.5GB of RAM.

I am, however, not the average Windows user. I only use windows for ONE set of applications, and that is Adobe Creative Suite 4. For everything else, I use Kubuntu Linux, which is the base OS on my workstation. When I need Adobe CS4, I fire up an instance of Vista 64 in VirtualBox on top of Linux, which has 5GB of RAM assigned to it.

[JRS]

:scratch_head: "My reason for upgrading? I have a quad core 64bit processor and 8GB of RAM. I wanted to take full advantage of the 64bit architecture and utilize all of my ram. A 32bit OS like XP can only recognize 3-3.5GB of RAM.

I am, however, not the average Windows user. I only use windows for ONE set of applications, and that is Adobe Creative Suite 4. For everything else, I use Kubuntu Linux, which is the base OS on my workstation. When I need Adobe CS4, I fire up an instance of Vista 64 in VirtualBox on top of Linux, which has 5GB of RAM assigned to it."

The above quote is exactly why I use "Nerds on Call" for anything I need to have or be done on my computers! The only thing I understood was "my reason for upgrading", the rest is Greek. Thank heavens, Erc takes care of the board and us.

[Eric]

Wow, that was ultra-nerdy. I didn't realize how bad it was until I re-read it. I'll try to keep those outbursts to a minimum. :)

[Gail in Virginia]

I always think that it is educational to try to read a foreign language! ;)

[Jack from Ohio]

...all the talk about Macintosh is useless on a tax forum.

That is information that is not completley accurate...

Apple has an application that allows MAC to run ANY Windows application. I have seen this in operation, and it speeds up the applications and integrates all the MAC features that make MAC so attractive these days. My son, (a programmer for a a world wide multi-media communications company) recently received his new laptop from his company. It was a MACBOOK PRO.

I chided him for falling to the "dark side" until he demonstrated for me how much more user friendly the whole computer was, and how it flawlessly ran every Windows program he had been using, and all that I gave him to try.

Even Quickbooks 9 for Windows, ATX MAX for tax year 2007, ATX MAX for tax year 2008, Power Point, Front Page, Dreamweaver, Office 2007 Suite, etc., ran smmothly and seamlessly. The Windows apps created files that were ready to be read by any other Windows machine, so compatibility issues just flew out the window. (pun intended)

Apple has corporate leadership that is intending to be around for a long time, and have hit their competition in the solar plexus several times lately, by simply providing a better product with features that computer users recognize as better.

The cost for apple is substantially higher, and since my son's demonstration, I am seriously considering my next upgrade to be Apple. It will save me many hours of wasted time not having to reboot.

Oh, by the way, the Windows emulation program has been around for at least 3 years.

[jainen]

>>an application that allows MAC to run ANY Windows application<<

Far out--I can just imagine how THAT call to ATX tech support will go!

I never understood all the fuss about "hours of wasted time" rebooting. I run all kinds of shareware and pirated legacy software. For me, the biggest advantage of PCs over Macs has always been the vast variety of software that Windows supports. Once in while something won't release its memory and I get to take a break while it sorts out. I turn off the computer at night and start fresh every morning.

[GeneInAlabama]

I don't understand the re-booting problem. The only time I ever turn my computers off is when thunder storms are predicted (I had lightening damage two computers, my copier, telephone and several other items a year or two ago). Then I turn off my computer and unplug everything. It is very seldom that I have to ever re-boot.

[chadw]

I don't understand the re-booting problem.

I agree, I run Vista business and I pretty much never have to reboot except for when the computer updates. I am also not saying that I don't get frustrated with Vista on other issues, but rebooting is not something I have trouble with.

[Lion EA]

For those of you (like me) who don't speak or understand Geek, have you signed up with VMS yet? I did today. It was a pleasure having someone in Caribou coerce my computer into talking nice with my printer again -- especially since my unsuccessful attempts at downloading a new driver for my printer had messed up the communication to start with. Now I won't waste any more of my time trying to fix something when I'm in over my head.