Wife's computer died.

[Lemon law]

As I mentioned, my wife's computer died so its replacement time. She got five years out of an
athlon XP2400+. Now that technology is long in the tooth even though her needs were amply met with what she had.

As I look at the alternative of Vista that will require much better hardware to run, I have very mixed feelings. While XP does have some security problems Vista partially addresses, I very much wonder about the successor to vista which is promised sooner than it took to formulate
Vista.

Given the general rebellion many have with Vista, I very much wonder of Microsoft will learn its lesson with the next OS? Less code bloat, better performance, much better security, the ability to use ram well, and even the possibility of being able to run XP code, could all make the next OS much better than Vista.

So she may well decide to run XP for the next few years. And get another hard drive and dual boot either may be an option.

But comments. Is it worth having any faith in Microsoft coming up with an OS worth switching to ?

 

[LumbergTech]

unless vista does something that she needs, i would say just stick with XP...

everything she does will be faster in xp..

if i was just getting a web browsing / word processing computer i wouldnt want to bloat it up with a bunch of crap and make it run slowly at doing even the most menial of tasks..

so..i recommend xp heh

 

[Jeff7181]

I see no reason to buy a new computer with anything but Vista on it. A lack of RAM is what causes the majority of Vista performance issues, and the price of RAM is so cheap now, it's really a moot point. (I just purchased 4 GB of Mushkin 667 MHz DDR2 for $67 after rebate from newegg)

 

[mechBgon]

Given your above-average interest in security, Lemon law, I would've thought you'd be leaning towards Vista. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S...s_new_to_Windows_Vista

What kind of failure did the old system have, anyway? I've been watching for something like an AthlonXP 2400+ in FS/T, since my secondary rig is a little lethargic with a 1GHz Duron. A pox on FuseTalk for not letting us search for something that starts with a numeral :|

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: LumbergTech
unless vista does something that she needs, i would say just stick with XP...

everything she does will be faster in xp..

if i was just getting a web browsing / word processing computer i wouldnt want to bloat it up with a bunch of crap and make it run slowly at doing even the most menial of tasks..

so..i recommend xp heh

Not everything,actually malware will be faster at getting through security holes in XP then Vista.
I find Vista to run pretty fast(certainly up there with my old XP OS that I have used for 7 years),as already pointed out ram will be the deciding factor on performance,actually I can say the samething about XP,anybody that has tried XP with 256/512mb and upgraded to 1GB plus knows what I'm talking about.

Bottomline XP is coming towards end of its life,Vista will run fine with any new pc providing it has enough ram,bloat can be removed from OEM laptops/PCs so that's a non issue,also SP1 is only weeks away for the general public so no brainer IMHO go Vista.

Side note: I have ordered a new Dell laptop with Vista (my second Vista system) so I have put my money where my mouth is 😉.

 

[gplracer]

If you are building a computer you can save some money by using XP again. If you are buying a computer you might as well run Vista. Get a media center tv tuner too. The more i use Vista the more I like it.

 

[nerp]

Those Athlon XP chips really were amazing when you look at them in perspective. To this day, an XP box with 1GB of ram running Windows XP will still be more than enough for a casual user. For a chip that's more than 5 years old, that's quite impressive. My girlfriend is still happy with her hand-me-down XP3000+

 

[programmer]

It really depends if your wife wants to have to "learn" to use Vista. There are a number of UI differences by default, though you can do several things to make it look and act mostly like XP.

I know my wife wouldn't want to deal with it. She uses XP at work (their IT dept. does not allow Vista yet, which is common in larger companies) and wants her home PC to be as similar as possible to it.

My vote -- stick with XP unless your wife wants to change to Vista.

 

[TigerMonsoonDragon]

XP

 

[alm4rr]

did she use any peripherals that she still needs? do they have vista drivers available?

 

[rasczak]

you also need to think about the applications she uses. are they compatible with vista? or will you have to spring for a new set of apps?

 

[videopho]

Why would you want to buy a yesteryear's technology dinosaur, or XP in this case?
It's future proof.
Vista all the way.
For apps like MS Office you have to go with 2007 version or any older version won't run e.g. 2003

 

[ChronoReverse]

Is this a brand new system with NOTHING (software and peripherals) from the old? If yes then Vista is the clear choice.


Otherwise, you better check to make sure everything will still work and have drivers for Vista. You might even stick with XP just to avoid hassle.