Korean Job Discussion Forums

[cj1976]

I recently bought a new PC and I've installed XP on it. I'm thinking about Vista but the guy I bought the PC from told me it's not worth doing it yet, due to lack of support.
What are the pros and cons of Vista? Is XP software incompatible, etc? Also, is it worth downloading a copy from the usual torrent sites, or do I need an original? I don't want to fork out the cash if it's going to be problematic.

My PC specs:

Athlon Windsor X2 5200+ dual core
Nvidia Geforce 8600GT factory overclocked
2GB DDR2 PC5300 RAm
Mainboard not sure
160GB SATA
80GB PATA slave
DVD burner

[SeoulFinn]

Even though Vista is tougher on PC, your specs are good enough to run it without problems. Vista looks nice and has some new features, but I still prefer XP. Besides, most of these features can be downloaded for XP as well. Some of the new features, even though helpful, are quite annoying as well. My main gripe was UAC that can luckily be turned off. Unfortunately HDCP can't be turned off... even though it's not used at this moment.

If your main use is gaming, I'd still stay with XP. I've seen quite a few reviews that claim that XP gives you considerably higher FPS than Vista does. Not sure, but this may have something to do with VGA drivers or how much memory Vista's "bells and whistles" are consuming on the background. When DirectX 10 games come out in number (and SP1 for Vista?), then might be the right time to upgrade.

OT: I've found that quite many people are having a problems with renaming folders and files in Vista. Even our desktop can't rename them. Is anyone else on this board suffering from the same "feature?"

[faster]

Enough people express dislike for Vista that Microsoft has quietly begun offering rollbacks to XP:

http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/005512.html

http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/34015/140/

[ttompatz]

There is a reason MS has a rollback program for systems that came bundled with Vista.

Lots of hardware add-ons like webcams, sound cards, and other periferal devices don't play well with Vista. No vista drivers for lots of them as well as none for lots of legacy stuff either.

Lots of software doesn't like Vista as well.

I have several computers on the LAN at home including a quad core system and I rolled them all, (with the exception of the unix box) after playing with Vista Ultimate, back to XP / XP64 and will patiently wait for Vista SP1 or SP2 before I attempt to migrate again.

Not the best 250k won I have ever spent. Next time I will just use a pirate copy for the trial until I am sure.

.

[eamo]

[bassexpander]

So these people/businesses who roll back to XP via the rollback offered... will they get their Vista license back, or do they have to pay again for another upgrade?

[ttompatz]

[flummuxt]

For those considering upgrading an existing computer to Vista, my advice is don't. I don't see any compelling reason for it.

If you are just getting into computers and don't own software or hardware like a printer or scanner yet, it's OK to get a new computer with Vista. My biggest gripe is that it won't run a lot of my expensive software, including Encyclopedia Britannica 2006. This leaves my using my Vista laptop primarily for the Web.

Microsoft has been clearing up the background bugs, so Vista is stable. But there are features that don't seem to work consistently. I can't see thumbnails of photos in directories, as I can with XP. It was working for a while before I did a reinstall, though. Go figure.

The biggest disadvantage of Vista is that it has dropped the hibernate mode. This is where you store the current state of your computer, your open programs and files, and shut off your laptop. When you restart, it starts up fast and returns you to where you were. But in the meantime, you don't use any battery juice.

Eliminating hibernate does not seem to have been part of the plan. It was listed in the help section as an option, but one that doesn't actually exist. I see that the help section has been updated. Now it gives an option called hybrid sleep. WTF is that? I haven't figured it out yet.

Hibernate in a laptop is extremely useful, especially when you are on battery. This is a sign Vista was put on the market before work was finished. Not having it is more of an annoyance than an OS killer.

But Vista is the future. It is designed to work with a new type of hard drive with built in ram cache memory. There would be a mini-flash ram drive built into the hard drive. This would store a bunch of data, possibly the entire state of your computer, like hibernate, if you have a drive with a 2 gb flash drive. One day, some years from now. Then you turn on your computer, and it boots up from the hard drive's flash ram. The hard drive would not turn continuously, but only when the flash drive had enough data to make it worthwhile to transfer it the platters.

So, when these drives become affordable -- I understand Samsung has actually put some on the market, but with very small flash drives -- then Vista will be the way to go... if the drives do what they promise to do.

Another feature of Vista is that can use a flash drive, such as a SD card, plugged into your computer as a sort of ram extension. It gives you that option when you plug the card in. But I have never been able to detect that the card is actually being used. And flash memory is not designed for an infinite number of read/writes.

So a reason to go with Vista is that it works with new hardware, internal to the computer. This assumes your computer is actually designed to use it. My cheap laptop seems to be incompatible with SATA drives, so I doubt I could upgrade it.

But upgrade XP to Vista? Absolutely no reason to do it. And many reasons to not do it.

[Demophobe]

The world should just use Mac.

[phoenixstorm]

Im just stuck in an xp rut. Im sure vista is fine.