Is Vista replacing XP or Not?

[MMcCarthy]

When I bought my new system a couple of months ago I actually paid extra to have XP Pro installed rather than Vista. Apart from anything else most of my clients still use XP. Eventually I will have to partition my system to allow for Vista to be loaded as well (I have a home licence) just to test compatability.

I've also noticed we are getting more questions from members who are having problems on applications when moving them to Vista.

I would be very interested in the opinions and experiences of this community on this issue.

BTW, can we just accept that Linux is the best thing since sliced bread and keep this topic purely on windows?

Mary (digg it)

[Savage]

I've had a laptop with Vista for about a month now, and honestly I can't see why people think it's so terrible. Maybe it's just because I'm Windows through and through, but I'm loving Vista so far. That being said, I don't notice a huge difference between XP and Vista other than shininess. (And who doesn't like shiny things?) I think Vista will eventually be the norm. XP became the norm despite the resistance to it. And since I don't know anyone that's stuck with Windows 98 in favor of XP, I think eventually we'll make the shift to Vista. Probably after a Service Pack, yes, but that will come.

Shyness is proportional to bugs.

And until I find a good example and good proof, this is a postulate.

And also one major difference in Xp and Asta la Vista is that the second one has that boring and anoying features,like "Do you trust this setup?" If I don't tust it I wont run it.

Savage

[MMcCarthy]

Many companies, both large and small, are slow to upgrade OS and software, and my personal belief is that you're always better off developing with the lowest common denominator in mind.

I think we're going to see XP around for a long, long time yet.
Linq ;0)>

Most of the clients I work with have only upgraded to XP in the last couple of years and many of them still use Office 2000. The Office 2003 upgrades are slowly creeping in but I agree with Linq. Companies are very slow to upgrade as they need to know the system they use is tried and tested.

[Scott Price]

Microsoft's business model for many years (hugely successful I must add... Look at their cash balance) has been to never get caught perfecting a given piece of software for a given level of hardware. This works wonderfully because the hardware is advancing (at least has been for the last however many years) so rapidly that to get stuck working on software for one level of hardware complexity means that you get left behind.

So M$ (this my opinion, freely stated :-) has aimed for an 'acceptable' level of mediocrity on new releases, then released patches, hotfixes and service packs to solve the problems they created by knowingly releasing imperfect software.

Again, I must say they have managed to ride the wave of increasing complexity quite well (anyone remember why Commodore went out of business?) but they also give folks like us (who try to iron out their problems for other people) plenty of grey hairs, frustrations and *work* also...

Now if they would just pay us for fixing their problems :-)

All this verbiage means that eventually (after the first one or two service packs) Vista will also be a reasonably reliable operating system, however, in the mean time it has it's set of garbage that needs fixing.

As a software help forum, *someone* here should probably learn Vista so as to know what they are talking about from first hand experience :-) However, I think most of us are waiting until the service packs come out before upgrading.

Regards,
Scott

[ak1dnar]

I'm also using this <there is another word here> windows XP in my PC. and really don't have any idea to upgrade it to the latest. what's the difference, I don't need lot of graphics with full of bugs on it. but as soon as possible I wanna replace this with a mac box.

[nateraaaa]

I think Vista is a long way from becoming a widely used operating system. Until businesses start upgrading to Vista from XP I don't believe Vista will be widely used. I know several of my coworkers bought new computers with Vista and after about 2 to 3 weeks they blew away Vista and replaced it with XP Pro. Sound problems and lagging were the 2 biggest problems. Plus the graphics cards needed to run Vista optimally can be pricey. Vista is just not up to par at this time. I have no intention to upgrade to Vista any time soon.

Nathan

[Savage]

Hey, I love Linus and his blanket...oh, sorry... you said Linux!

Love the video, Savage!

...

The video is funny, but in some hand it's showing the cruel reality.

Microsoft is playing with his customers releasing "unusable" products, and because of Linux complexity and Mac Os price, they are like pion's on a chess table for dominating Microsoft. Customers are David's and MS is Goliath.

Savage

[epots9]

Vista of course will be the way to go, cuz whatever is newer wins...can't get updates/support for any Microsoft software below windows 2000.

Vista has its advantages and disadvantages like any OS, its networking isn't the greatest (at work we use P2P for now) and vista uses windows 95 or 98 (i forget witch one right now) networking style; the configuration is weird.

I don't plan on upgrading to vista to at least SP1 is released, cuz i don't feel like buying a new computer at this moment.

[mlcampeau]

I got a new computer this month and it came with Vista, and I like it for the most part, but the problem is that so many things just aren't compatible with Vista yet. I had Quicktime on my computer and anytime it opened up, I would get the blue screen of death. After googling the problem, I found out that Quicktime just isn't compatible yet. In order to get things like my printer and some other software working on my computer I had to download a bunch of drivers. Vista will definitely take over XP over time, but Microsoft needs to iron out a few kinks and the rest of the computer world needs to become compatible with Vista.

[prn]

Is Vista going to replace XP? Eventually.

Microsoft has the clout to shove it down our throats regardless. Right now, at work, I have a Laptop with Vista, a desktop with XP and a desktop with Linux. Most of my work these days takes place on the XP machine and the Vista laptop is one I was issued to look for problems and incompatibiliti es. I have found a few. That machine is not really strong enough to be happy running Vista, though.

OTOH, Moore's Law, if nothing else, says that Vista will run with OK performance within a year or two. Whether it will ever run with pre-Vista hardware (either CPUs or peripherals) is a different question, but older hardware will eventually go away.

I can't say I'm thrilled with it, but we're a largely Microsoft shop. (I'm one of the few weirdos who do things with "other" OSs too.) We're moving toward Vista and I'm nothing but a small pebble in the road.

That's reality from what I can see. I'm sure I sound like a curmudgeon and I suppose I am, but I'm not opposed to progress, I'm just not convinced that Vista is anything but a money-maker for Microsoft. I don't object to companies making money either, but from the (potential) customer point of view, I'd like to see something in it for me, and I don't at this time.

Paul

[Atli]

When I first installed Vista I thought it was kind of buggy and annoying, but just to get the feel of it I resisted the urge to downgrade to XP. After a couple of days tho, all the annoyance was gone! I found that I was just so used to XP that I kept looking for XP features that had been moved or removed to be replaced by new Vista features. Some of the bugs were just new features I wasn't used to.

And now, after having reverted back to XP I find myself missing a lot of Vista features. Like the nice search thing in the Start menu and the pretty network manager.

I've read a lot of people saying MS stole a lot of the new features from MacOS and the other popular Unix system. But what is wrong with that. They all steal from each other, always have (anybody seen Pirates of Silicon Valley!). And if they are stealing nice features that make the OS better, I'm not complaining :)

It is true, however, that a majority of MS's clients are against upgrading to Vista. But there is a very simple explanation for that. They are humans, and as such they are afraid of what they don't know or understand. They have gotten used to XP and are not willing to learn the differences between it and Vista. This is of course not helped by the Linux and Mac fanatics who take every opportunity they get to lash out at Microsoft, giving the already spooked MS users reasons to hide behind (however weak those reasons may be).

I do believe that Vista will take over in a couple of years, once MS has fixed most of the critical bugs and game developers start making DirectX 10 games (which will happen soon).