Vista, XP or W7RC? Read first post before voting.

**Lemur** · 07-12-2009, 05:19

Hmm, if the laptop is new, there may not be XP drivers for everything. I know at least two people who ran into this problem when they tried to upgrade from Vista to XP. Check driver availability very carefully before wiping the hard drive.

**TosaInu** · 07-12-2009, 14:27

Sorry,

I voted XP thinking it was asking for my pref. I don't like Vista and I was totally not impressed when I heard about 7 last year. Lemur is right: it can be very difficult to get XP and the right drivers for it on laptops. For me, a XP recovery CD/supplied XP drivers was a must when I purchased my laptop a couple of months ago. I tried Vista for two days and I really hate it even more.

You may need to learn to love Vista.

**caravel** · 07-12-2009, 14:49

XP is less bloated and thus better for gaming in most cases. The 32 bit issue is really a non issue. There are few (if any) games for 64 bit arch. anyway. Windows 7 will likely be a more polished version of Vista and will probably be more bloated on release that the RC versions. It is actually Windows NT6.1 where Vista is NT6.0 so I'm not sure where they're getting the "7" from...

**Beskar** · 07-12-2009, 14:59

Windows 7 RC, then buy it when it comes out. It is very good.

**Aemilius Paulus** · 07-12-2009, 23:54

Originally Posted by Beskar

Windows 7 RC, then buy it when it comes out. It is very good.

Yes, or get the beta. Which is no longer available officially, but...

I would not choose Vista, given its bloated and wasteful nature as well as its incompatibilities. Windows 7, from all the reviews I have read, and from my computer nerd friends' words (all my friends are nerds and almost all are computer specialists or enthusiasts) who have the beta, is top notch, A1 material. It is also the future. XP's days are eclipsing and despite the welcome familiarity we have with it, all of us need to move on. The support (relatively soon to end) and drivers for XP are yet another reason for us/you to move on.

Exactly what type of "release bugs" you fear, Lz3? That is the main downside of W7, but most will not affect you at all or much. Such as the security bugs, as I do not consider that such a serious problem, especially if you have Kaspersky and avoid risque, erotic or illegal DL, sites as any good person should.

**caravel** · 07-13-2009, 00:10

Originally Posted by Aemilius Paulus

It is also the future. XP's days are eclipsing and despite the welcome familiarity we have with it, all of us need to move on. The support (relatively soon to end) and drivers for XP are yet another reason for us/you to move on.

I disagree with this sentiment. If an OS works for you and runs all the programs that you need it to run, then you should stick with it. This is kind of like telling a hardcore Debian user to "upgrade" to Ubuntu.

Upgrading for the sake of upgrading is a mistake that many people make because they feel obliged to do so. XP is much lighter than Windows 7 or Vista so for gamers this is a very big plus. Games need as much CPU time and as much memory as you can spare so it's not good to have the OS hogging everything.

**Beskar** · 07-13-2009, 02:51

Originally Posted by Caravel

I disagree with this sentiment. If an OS works for you and runs all the programs that you need it to run, then you should stick with it. This is kind of like telling a hardcore Debian user to "upgrade" to Ubuntu.

Upgrading for the sake of upgrading is a mistake that many people make because they feel obliged to do so. XP is much lighter than Windows 7 or Vista so for gamers this is a very big plus. Games need as much CPU time and as much memory as you can spare so it's not good to have the OS hogging everything.

Games are memory maxed anyway (~2-3gb of Ram) and if you have a half-decent computer you have at least 4gigs of ram. If you got a half-decent computer, the OS doesn't affect anything, basically.

**TosaInu** · 07-13-2009, 09:48

Originally Posted by Caravel

I disagree with this sentiment. If an OS works for you and runs all the programs that you need it to run, then you should stick with it. This is kind of like telling a hardcore Debian user to "upgrade" to Ubuntu.

Upgrading for the sake of upgrading is a mistake that many people make because they feel obliged to do so. XP is much lighter than Windows 7 or Vista so for gamers this is a very big plus. Games need as much CPU time and as much memory as you can spare so it's not good to have the OS hogging everything.

I agree with that. I (mostly) avoided windows (and DOS) until Win98. I upgraded to 98SE because of hardware requirements and I stick with that for years. XP was released for quite a while before I switched to that (again because of direct new hardware requirements). It included SP1.

I installed XP on my old Pentium III some time ago, just to see. It's faster and more stable than it ever was with 98SE (despite the PC being 6 years old back then). XP even runs acceptable on a 400 mHz PentiumIII with 196 mb.

XP is not the best OS in the world, but it's probably the best Microsoft has made.

I guess I'll move on some day, maybe to another version of Windows, but I really doubt it will be soon.