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

[||Lz3||]

So my laptop will finally arrive on Friday but I still have to make a final choice. Which OS to use.

Now I'm planning to get Windows 7 as soon as it gets to shelves. I totally hate vista and would prefer to skip it entirely or just use it for a few weeks/months. XP is still great but it does not support some interesting additions made for the later windows...

The laptop comes with Vista home premium 32 bits preinstalled, however, I have an unused XP pro instalation disc as well as a Win7 RC 64 bits installer.

My options are:

-Windows Vista Home premium 32 bits
-Pros: It comes pre-installed with drivers, so I avoid the hassle of installing a different OS. Capable of DX10 graphics.
-Cons: It's the worst OS in the market. Only 32 bits so I won't be using ~.3 of my available RAM (4Gb)

-Windows XP pro
-Pros: It's stable. It's fast. I'm used to it. (I have never used vista regularly).
-Cons:I have to get rid of Vista first, then install XP. Does not support DX10. 32 bits.

-Windows 7 Release candidate 64 bits (Pseudo-beta)
-Pros: Latest Microsoft OS. 64 bits so I can use all 4 Gb of RAM. More stable than vista and still good looking. It supports DX10
-Cons: It's a release candidate so bugs are less likely but still happen so it's not 100% safe. It would turn useless by mid 2010.

[Hooahguy]

id say go with xp for now.... when W7 comes out, go to that.

[Lemur]

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]

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]

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]

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

[Aemilius Paulus]

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]

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.

[||Lz3||]

These bugs... http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/

[Beskar]

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]

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.

[Beskar]

All the Windows 98 fanboys used to hate XP. People simply dislike change.

[caravel]

All the Windows 98 fanboys used to hate XP. People simply dislike change.

That's a rather typical strawman argument, that I've heard many times before. People, particularly gamers, resisted XP because at the time it was bloated, buggy and full of security holes. This trend continued up until around the release of SP2, by that time many more people had moved to XP and it was starting to become the de facto standard OS for gamers.

People will use what works for them, it's not about "disliking change" it's simply futile to upgrade if there wasn't a need for it. By your logic everyone should have upgraded to Vista, but many of those that did are now kicking themselves.

Back in 2001 when XP was released, PC gaming was alive and kicking and the end user had at least three makes of graphics card to choose from. Win98SE was very light and fast and made perfect sense to the gamer - it was the right choice back then.

In general MS' OS and the DirectX API takes a step forward and the rest of the software industry has to play catch up. There are few games that require Vista/Win7 and there is no software worth it's salt that requires them either. Pretty much anything will run on XP.

Nowadays people have faster systems and XP is well patched - XP runs well on today's hardware. Windows 7 will certainly have it's day also. Vista on the other hand will probably go down in history as another WinME. Why install a lot of bloat now for the sake of some extra bells and whistles? The smart end user waits until it's all nice, tested and patched.

[Beskar]

You did notice I said "upgrade to XP" and not "Upgrade to ME" ?

Windows ME was the worst OS I ever had the displeasure of using (along with a couple of Linux OS). I remember having this Error message pop up randomly which wouldn't go away and cause your computer to go nuts if you clicked "OK", so I used to stick the error message hidden in the corner as the computer worked fine as long as you didn't click it. At the time it was, the computer was getting an update installed (I think it was a network card for Broadband) so this tech guy was doing it, I explicitively left orders "Do not press on the OK" and guess what? the idiot kept pressing it and kept restarting then saying he couldn't do his job. As I had school and returned with him there still messing around with it, I had to tell him off as I explicitly left orders and he didn't do it and it took me 5 minutes to get everything working when this tech guy was apparently there for hours.

[Aemilius Paulus]

All the Windows 98 fanboys used to hate XP. People simply dislike change.

Well, as for me, I agree with that more than with any other post here. Computers are advancing tremendously every year in specs such as RAM and processor, so having Windows 7, which is less bloated then Vista, but still more so than XP has little effect. I once remember picking up a computer magazine from 2005 and staring in shock as I saw the shoddy computer specifications for the computers advertised there.

I like XP more than Vista, as the vast majority of people. Windows 7 looks neat from what I read/saw/heard about it, but I still think it is moving towards the bloatware trend. Chances are, I will like XP more. But that is little different from a 70/60 year old dismissing computers as "crazy newfangled piece of rubbish". People need to move on. From what I know, Windows 7, especially once it will be moderately patched up through time, will be a worthy successor to XP. Seriously, updating your XP in 2012 will be hemorrhoidal, as we say in Russia. Notably the drivers.

[Che Roriniho]

I really don't get all the hating on vista. Yes, you have the UAC, but for that, you have the off button. I just don't see what the problem is with it.