I seek your advise: XP or Vista for a Development Machine?

[David]

I purchased a Dell for development and selected Vista Business as the
OS. I am mostly working on ASP.net, Visual Studio 2005/2008, and SQL
2005.

I am considering a switch back to XP pro (Dell will swap the OS) due
to software compatibility and file permission issues with Vista.

My Observations:

* Reason to choose XP
o VS 2008 and SQL 2008 will work with XP.
o XP should be faster and use less resource intensive.
o I do not need VISTA's graphic look, sync features, etc.
o Under Vista, I have to run some commands as Admin and if I
do not, then there are unpredictable results, not true under XP
* TO keep Vista
o Will new 3rd party and MS software only work with Vista.
o Readyboost
o More security.

Do you have any compelling reasons NOT to switch to back XP, eg.stay
with Vista?

Thanks

 

[Eliyahu Goldin]

After you get through the initial setup period, you shouldn't have any major
problems with Vista.VS 2008 works nicely on Vista. If you have specific
problems, address them separately.

I may not need Vista graphic look but your application may have many users
using Vista and you will want to know how your GUI looks on Vista.

What is the problem in running commands as Admin?

Generally, it is better to stay with the latest tools since they will have
longer support cycle and will be more compatible with future products, as
you say.

--
Eliyahu Goldin,
Software Developer
Microsoft MVP [ASP.NET]
http://msmvps.com/blogs/egoldin
http://usableasp.net

 

[Mark Rae [MVP]]

XP should be faster and use less resource intensive.

You might be surprised...

I do not need VISTA's graphic look, sync features, etc.

So switch them off...

Under Vista, I have to run some commands as Admin and if I
do not, then there are unpredictable results, not true under XP

So run those commands as Admin - what's the problem...?

Do you have any compelling reasons NOT to switch to back XP, eg.stay
with Vista?

http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/search/?sort=PN&alpha=Windows+XP+Professional&Filter=FilterNO