brian_ellis19 Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 <p>Just wondering if anyone has any thoughts. I'd like to get a new computer, I can struggle along with my present one if need be but life would be nicer with a new one. My debate is whether to get one now or wait for Windows 7, which supposedly will be released around the end of this year or early 2010. My wife's laptop has Vista and CS3 and Vista doesn't seem so bad to me though I haven't used it much. But I kind of hate to get a new computer with an OS that's come under such criticism by so many people more knowledgeable than me and that presumably will be out of date in a year or less. So if anyone has any thoughts I'd be interested in hearing them. Please don't tell me to get a Mac, I've used Macs extensively in school but I'm going to stay with a PC (Dell most likely). Thanks.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DickArnold Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 <p>If you have a good bit of RAM and decent processing speed it seems to me Vista is fine. I have a Vista Gateway with a quad processor with CS3 and 3MB of RAM and it works fine and is quite fast with large picture files. Windows 7 will probably be better but I am not dissatisfied enough to even think about it much. Vista does consume a lot of memory. </p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonmestrom Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 <p>Brian, as you know there's always something new around the corner and it's always criticised (sometimes even rightly so). I've waited a long time before switching from XP to Vista but last november I did. I didn't regret it. Why struggle for another year or so when you don't need to? That's the real question isn't it?</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liz_valdez Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 <p>I just bought a new computer for my "digital darkroom". I loaded it with XP and I'm happy as a clam.<br> I purchased a laptop maybe a year and a half ago, and it came with Vista. I had problems with all my printers, my scanner and my DVD writer which I use import videos from my old cameras and VHS player. It was a continuing headache. If I had to do it all over again, I would have rolled it back to XP when I bought it. I would certainly not go to Windows 7 until it is out an in use by the general market for more than a year. </p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akajohndoe Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 <p>Vista is fine. I have been running it since June of 2007.</p> <p>Still, as Windows 7 will likely be out this Autumn, and there will likely be a free upgrade for those who bought Vista within a short timeframe prior to the official release of Windows 7, I would probably wait.</p> <p>I considered buying a retail copy of Vista (PCs from vendors only come with that OEM version, which is full of bloatware and cannot be installed on another machine), but see absolutely no reason to at this point in time; I will consider a retail copy of Windows 7, depending on how high Microsoft decides to price it.</p> <p>I take full backups weekly, so I can roll back, if not reinstall, Vista. I suppose I could reinstall the factory OEM version, but eeewwwww!</p> <p>I also have another PC that runs Ubuntu Linux. ;)</p> <p> </p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martin_howard1 Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 <p>Service Pack 1 sorted the majority of issues with Vista, as stated above a decent spec machine will run it just fine, I would say I have had less BSOD, crashes etc with Vista SP1 than with XP SP2/3.<br> I'm running Windows 7 on my eeePC at the moment, it looks promising but there are still a few issues to be sorted out and hardware support is still in its infancy.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akajohndoe Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 <p>It should also be noted that it is the responsibility of the peripheral hardware vendors, not Microsoft, to provide drivers for their hardware. If you have printers, scanners, tablets, etc. that have problems, contact those manufacturers, not Microsoft. It is common practice for Microsoft to include those vendor drivers in their rollups (Service Packs), but I had no driver problems with Vista prior to SP1, either.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brian_ellis19 Posted March 9, 2009 Author Share Posted March 9, 2009 <p>Thanks, I appreciate the answers. Still not sure what to do but leaning towards getting a Dell with Vista now. Thanks again.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bgelfand Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 <p>I built a computer for my Significant Other and installed Vista in July 2007. To date, we have had one problem. One day we turned on the computer and it hung. We turned it off and back on, it came right up. I suspect a very transient hardware problem, so transient it never repeated.</p> <p>Many of the people who reported problems with Vista either tried to upgrade an XP system in place rather than performing a clean install, or were early adapter who had driver problems with third party hardware. The driver problems have, for the most part, been resolved.</p> <p>Vista will be supported by Microsoft at least until 2015. I would have no qualms installing it on a new machine. By the way, if you wait, the same people who bad mouthed Vista will be telling you to wait for Windows 7 SP1, "just to be sure".</p> <p>Do your "due diligence" and make sure there are Vista drivers for all your hardware - cameras, scanners, PDA, cell phone, etc. - and that any legacy software will run under Vista. By the way, if it will not run under Vista, it will not run under Windows 7.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bill_tuthill Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 <p>You can still buy a Dell with "downgrade" to XP Pro (<a href="http://www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/sitelets/solutions/software/business/xp_smb?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd&~tab=2">see this</a>) including Vista DVD, which is what I would recommend, unless you buy a 64-bit (x86_64) processor, which Vista supports better than XP. Certainly Vista works given correct hardware, but aside from 64-bit it has no compelling advantages over XP as far as I can tell. Not having run it, I don't know whether Windows 7 will undo the damage that Vista has done to Microsoft's reputation. Beta reports are promising, which is more than occurred with Vista.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rogleale Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 Hi Brian, If I were you I would wait until MS issue their Vista to Windows 7 upgrade prices, and if you get a free upgrade to 7 within a certain timescale of buying a computer with Vista on, buy it then. Vista is fine, I've never had a problem with it since the RC version, but I am running Windows 7, 64 bit, on my second computer and I am very impressed with it. Faster, with less memory hogging, and Photoshop CS4 flies on it! Tales of hardware driver problems are greatly exaggerated in my opinion. On my machine all the attached hardware, two printers, scanner, usb hub, Wacom pad, etc. were recognised on installation. On the first boot after installation 7 went on line, downloaded an updated driver for my lcd monitor, and installed it with no action on my part. As an aside, a friend using XP on an oldish Compaq desktop was having serious problems, mostly of his own making I think, and asked me to sort it out. I boosted his ram to one gb, and installed Windows 7 build 7022 32 bit. It now runs fast and smoothly, and for the first time since he has had that computer his printer works! That printer is an Epson StylusPro RX 420, and if you Google that you will find thousands of people who could not get that printer to work on either XP or Vista. Roger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jtk Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 <p>Vista's OK with my scanners, printers, Lightroom, PS.<br> Much of the grief people have reported with Vista relates to upgrades. I'll buy an OEM 7 machine 12 mos after HP introduces theirs and relegate my Vista machine to backup (like my desktop XP is now).</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philfx Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 <p>a few weeks ago I was about to do a clean install of XP64bit, and soon enough realized my monitor is not supported, so I had to revert back to my XP32bit. I like some are waiting for W7 to be released. Thats just me as the last thing I want to do with 4GB on a 32bit OS is feed it to Vista.<br /> At the same time I have been putting together my list for a new system...<br> Intel i7 920 or 965<br />Asus P6T<br />12GB DDR3 RAM<br />May water cool for sound<br />3x300GB 10K drives (OS/Scratch/Net Transfer drive)<br> These I hope to have on Windows 7, but if it doesn't release in the next couple months or sooner. Otherwise I would be forced to go with Vista, and that still doesnt gaurantee my monitor to work under Vista64.<br> Since Windows 7 is somewhat based on Vista(as I understand it), I dont mind running it before a SP upgrade, as it should inherit some stability from Vista...I hope!</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bgelfand Posted March 10, 2009 Share Posted March 10, 2009 <p>Unless you have an indispensable piece of hardware or software that is not supported under Vista, I would recommend against Windows XP.</p> <p>Adobe, and many other manufacturers, support only the current Windows operating system and one release back. As an example, I am running Windows 2000 - two releases back but still with limited support from Microsoft. I can run CS2, but not CS3 or CS4, which are supported only on Windows XP and Windows Vista - current system and one release back. The same applies for the latest release of Apple Quicktime. If Adobe runs true to form when Windows 7 is released, CS5 will be supported on Windows 7 and Vista; XP would not be supported. Of course I do not know this for sure; no one does, but that is the pattern.</p> <p>Do a little homework to be sure your current hardware and software are supported and stop believing the "Mac versus PC" commercials. <grin></p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cabbiinc Posted March 10, 2009 Share Posted March 10, 2009 <p>XP came under a lot of criticism when it was first released. Windows 98 outsold it for a year I believe. But over time it's gotten updates and became stabler than it was. Now you have Vista with some good kinks worked out of it. It's not a bad OS, less BSOD, pretty stable. Still quirky but then what isn't? There is no perfect OS.</p> <p>I've heard that you should buy the computer to suit the needs of your software, not the other way around. Do your best to decide what kinds of software (and peripheralls) that you want to run and make sure that you buy a computer that meets and exceeds that need. Nothing worse than buying a brand new machine only to find that even maxing out the RAM in it still doesn't allow you to do everything you want to do, or that the speed of the processor is OK, but a faster one would be better.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bill_tuthill Posted March 16, 2009 Share Posted March 16, 2009 <p>According to Adobe's website, CS4 supports Windows XP SP2 (SP3 recommended).<br> Also I don't believe Win98 was still sold when WinXP became available (perhaps you are thinking of Win2k) but maybe your memory is better than mine.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akajohndoe Posted March 21, 2009 Share Posted March 21, 2009 <p>BTW, Vista comes in several varieties: Basic; Home Premium; Business; Ultimate.</p> <p>IMO, Home Premium is the one to get. Basic omits too much. Business and Ultimate are capable of joining a Windows Domain, if that is important to you.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bill_tuthill Posted March 24, 2009 Share Posted March 24, 2009 <p>Vista. "An operating system so overblown we've chopped it up into six different versions,<br /> none of which work." [from the very funny <i>Vista Sucks</i> video on blimptv.net]<br /> </p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelly_flanigan1 Posted March 24, 2009 Share Posted March 24, 2009 <p>Windows 98SE was released about May 1999; XP was shipped in Oct 2001; 17 monthes later.<br> Our first XP computer was a Pentium 3 unit.<br> Win2000 came out about Feb 2000; about 9 months after 98SE.<br> Dates vary if oen bought the OS as a seperate install; upgrade or as a packaged/bundled OEM computer already with the OS installed. About 90 percent of teh netbooks sold today have XP instead of Vista; a peewee box works better with a less bloaded OS.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ted_marcus1 Posted March 24, 2009 Share Posted March 24, 2009 <p>Dan (and Bill), you forgot about Windows Me, the "consumer" OS that XP replaced. Because it offered absolutely no advantage over tried-and-true Win98, it was so forgettable that nearly everyone has forgotten it. So you're forgiven for your oversight. <br> As for the original poster, unless you urgently need a new computer now I'd wait for Windows 7. Actually, I'd wait for Windows 7 Service Pack 1, unless you have an overwhelming desire to pay retail price for the privilege of volunteering as a Microsoft Gamma Tester. <br> Vista has now been service-packed into something somewhat better than the initial release, though it's still bloated. So you probably can't go too far wrong if you buy it now. But Microsoft seems to have realized that people didn't find Vista compelling (even when they used their monopoly power to make people buy it with new computers), so they are <em>apparently</em> applying the lessons they learned from their Vista mistakes to the new, improved Windows 7. Whether they learned anything remains to be seen.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bill_tuthill Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 <p>Windows ME appears in the <em>op. cit.</em> blimptv.net video! They combined Windows CE, Windows ME, and Windows NT to form Windows CEMENT, which sinks employee morale like a stone.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garrison_k. Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 <p>I'd wait a few weeks until April 11th. before you make a decision. MS is said to release RC on April 10 2009.</p> <p>A few weeks ago I wanted to try Win 7 64-bit so I built up an old AMD 4400 dual core a couple weeks ago. I dual booted XP-64 with Win7 64-bit. I love W7 so far. Not a problem and all drivers found and so much faster than XP or Vista. Nice interface too and the easiest OS install ever.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now