Order a new laptop: Vista vs. XP?

[Guest]

I have a 3-yr old desktop with XP Pro for business apps, wife has 1-yr old
laptop w/ XP Media edition.
I have to purchase a laptop, 1/3 businesse & 2/3-personal use, not into
gaming.
Some of my business apps are known to have "issues" with Vista & Office 2007.

QUESTIONs :
1) considering that MS lifecycle for full XP support is limited to approx.
2009, what are "pros & cons" of ordering the new laptop with XP Pro vs. Vista
Home Premium?
2) Is Vista Business worth the additional $100 compared to Vista Premium ?

Thanks in advance for your opinions - Ron

 

[BigJim]

go for the xp, dell has some laptops you can get with it.

 

[Andre Da Costa[ActiveWin]]

If your existing applications that you depend on for daily productivity are
not 100% Vista compatible yet, then XP would remain the viable choice here.
I assume you have done the research, checked for compatibility updates,
patches or new releases that support Windows Vista.

As for choice according the Windows XP Life Cycle Policy, it really doesn't
matter that much, since XP will continue to work just fine even when it is
taken off the market.

Vista Business offers critical features over Home Premium that depend on the
environment you are working in and your specific needs as a user. Vista
Business for instance supports Domain Join functionality for corporate
networks, it includes the Complete PC Backup feature so you can backup your
entire OS in addition to applications, documents and settings. Also because
XP Professional and Vista Business share the common core operating
structure, you will not be able to upgrade to Vista Home Premium to Vista
Business in this case.

 

[dennis@home]

I have a 3-yr old desktop with XP Pro for business apps, wife has 1-yr old
laptop w/ XP Media edition.
I have to purchase a laptop, 1/3 businesse & 2/3-personal use, not into
gaming.
Some of my business apps are known to have "issues" with Vista & Office
2007.

QUESTIONs :
1) considering that MS lifecycle for full XP support is limited to approx.
2009, what are "pros & cons" of ordering the new laptop with XP Pro vs.
Vista
Home Premium?
2) Is Vista Business worth the additional $100 compared to Vista Premium ?

Thanks in advance for your opinions - Ron

Stick with XP unless you need something that is only in vista, which is
unlikely in business.
Forget what M$ say about supporting XP as there are unlikely to be any fixes
needed when they stop in 2009 and you can always switch to vista then if you
need to.
It may be worth buying an vista machine if it comes with the XP downgrade
offer so you can switch to vista later if you want.

 

[Guest]

Looks like everybody agrees.

DO NOT EVEN CONSIDER VISTA!

You need to get XP as soon as you can. At some point the window of
oppurtunity will close, and then you might have the rest of your life to
regret not getting XP while you still could.

weary

 

[Debasis Goswami]

Well, there will always be pessimistic views and also undeniably real
problems with Vista. However, end of the day, if you are buying a new
computer (laptop/desktop) you are much better off buying a Vista computer.

Like a lot of people have concerns about compatibility, but it is not a big
deal most times. You get the functional computer when you buy it anyway. If
you abosutely have to run old programs which the manufacturer does not
support anymore for vista compatibility, you can run that program in XP or
lower compatible mode. I have done that on a computer that I upgraded with
Vista Enterprise Edition. No regrets. It is much nicer to use a Vista
computer than an XP one. By the way, I know the tech stuff very well but did
not have to break ny heads to get things working. They just work contrary to
all the pessimistic views!

Cheers!

 

[Michael Palumbo]

Looks like everybody agrees.

DO NOT EVEN CONSIDER VISTA!

You need to get XP as soon as you can. At some point the window of
oppurtunity will close, and then you might have the rest of your life to
regret not getting XP while you still could.

weary

Giving you an answer to your question(s) about installing XP doesn't mean
that "everybody agrees" that you SHOULD get rid of Vista.

They are simply trying to help you do what you want to do.

I have been using Vista since long before its official release and have had
no major (some minor) problems with it so far.

I'm a system builder though, so I may have a little more experience than the
average user in dealing with the minor issues . . . what's minor to me may
seem major to others . . . but I digress.

I do have to concur with Joel on one point, especially after your question,
"What is a laptop 'device'?"

If you don't understand what he's talking about, perhaps you should, at
least, get someone with more experience to help you with this transition to
XP instead of undertaking it yourself and perhaps ending up with a machine
that, at best, will have limited functionality, and at worst, become an
expensive paper-weight until you can get someone to help you fix the damage.

Mic

 

[Jume]

for the #2, i would suggest to check if you have critical needs that would
not be in any of the versions

then, consider what you will do more with the computer (do you see more
movies or send faxes? something like that), and get the version more
balanced to your needs, because you can always complete the missing
functionality with 3rd party apps (at least pretty often), while they are
not critical (e.g. joining a domain or group policies)

you may also look at ultimate, which will give you everything you need, but
the cost is obviously higher :-\

 

[xfile]

My two cents,

If you are into computer things, you might want to try Vista since it's a
newer version and you don't want to miss this one, and you probably could
solve most problems by one way or the other.

If you treat computers just like a tool, I'd recommend to stay with XP.

Nothing against Vista, but it's just that I don't find any tangible benefits
(since RC1 until now) for an average user to going through all possible
usability issues to use it, especially for people and organizations that
practice safe computing, have security measures in place and have some sort
of file management system (that is, don't throw all files into one folder).

Compatibility isn't that bad and can be relatively easy to solve with
one-time cost. Usually, it is the usability issues that bothers many users,
such as UAC, reactivation, new UI and so on.

In any case, I'm just one of those who believe that we should pay more
attentions to applications and/or hardware that could have direct impacts on
the work results instead of dealing with OS which should be quietly doing
its supporting role.

Good luck.

 

[Guest]

I just wanted to thank everyone who commented on my question.
Compatibility with older business apps is my main challenge. A major client
is headquartered in Wash D.C. and they believe that Windows 2000 is the
current operating system. Their major software was just updated to Win-XP
compatibility in early 2006. Unfortuantely, I am not joking. At this rate,
they should be Vista compatible 1 year after I retire. I smell another XP
machine on the horizon ;-)

 

[xfile]

Their major software was just updated to Win-XP

compatibility in early 2006. Unfortuantely, I am not joking.

Major business applications oftentimes are tailored to unique business
strategies and operation flows which is the reason for many businesses treat
it as trade secrets and part of core competencies. Developments and updates
usually took years and should base on changes of business needs and not
because someone at some point released a new OS or hardware. It is
perfectly normal and should be the right approach.

To change the primary role functions (business applications, operation
flows, etc.) in favor of the secondary role functions (OS, platform, etc.)
is inadequate, if not silly, in my humble opinion.

Good luck.