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Would you recommend friends to use XP or Vista?

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Carol Haynes:
Sorry MrCrispy but no one should be using Win7 yet on anything but a testbed machine - it is time limited and you won't be able to upgrade to the final version when it is released (or downgrade to anything else). Only time will tell if it lives up to the current impressions in the final release and we have yet to see if they have really improved software compatibility (given that for most people XP mode won't work) and better hardware compatibility than Vista.

Vista works fine but to say it is more functional and supports more devices than XP is just plain wrong and is one of major the reasons it is a duff Windows release that has largely been rejected. It supports far few devices than XP because manufacturers have, by and large, continued to produce products with XP drivers to support the existing majority user base whereas many devices designed for XP simply don't have Vista drivers - the manufacturers expect you to buy new devices!

As for more functional - name 10 ways! I have yet to find a significant reason for upgrading from XP to Vista - but as I said above so long as you have enough memory there is also no reason now to downgrade to XP unless you have unsupported devices or software. I do think 2Gb should be the minimum to run Vista - even on a clean system Vista to struggles to run smoothly with 1Gb without even installing any software beyond Windows itself. 2Gb makes the whole machine feel more responsive and there is significantly less disk chatter. The true test of whether a system works properly is when you install it with default settings - tweaking is fine for people who are happy to do that but it shouldn't be the required norm for a newly installed system.

The main tweaks I perform on any new system are:


* use a fixed size pagefile (not windows managed) and use PerfectDisk to defrag it and place it so it remains defragged. This is an enormous boost.
* if there is a second hard disk move the pagefile to the first partition on that drive (and make it a small partition exclusively for pagefile usage)
* on multiboot systems set all systems up to share the same fixed pagefile
* remove (or disable) pointless software such as Windows Defender
* move all user storgae folders to a new partition
Vista is supposed to be more secure but the only security that I have seen added are UAC which is universally hated and ignored by most people (trouble is you either turn it off or become click happy and it has no finesse whatsoever), Windows Defender which doesn't seem to defend anything but is an uncontrollable monster that makes life very difficult at times (So much so you are better off removing it altogether) and an in/out firewall which is an improvement on XP SP2 firewall but no one I know has the faintest idea of how to use it beyond the way XP SP2 works and there is precious little documentation - consequently people are not getting the benefit.

Having now spent time with it I don't mind the new Windows Explorer - in fact it has many benefits over XP's. I also like the way common user folders have been broken up to make data storage both more easily organised and separable from the OS partition - not that many systems come installed that way or any helpful clues are provided within Vista for the average user.

Nikson!:
I would recommend Windiws XP to my best friends...

40hz:
Looks like none other than the U.S.Army idecided to upgrade to Vista according to the folks over @ Daily Tech :)

Link to full article: http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=15217

Army will upgrade all its computers to Vista by December

For those critics who bill Microsoft's Windows Vista a commercial failure for failing to surpass Windows XP in sales, and inability to capitalize in the netbook market, perhaps they should reserve judgment a bit longer.  Just as Windows 7 hype is reaching full swing in preparation for a October release, the U.S. Army announced that like many large organizations, it will wait on upgrading to Windows 7.  However, unlike some, it is planning a major upgrade -- to Windows Vista.

The U.S. Army currently has 744,000 desktop computers, most of which run Windows XP.  Currently only 13 percent of the computers have upgraded to Windows Vista, according Dr. Army Harding, director of Enterprise Information Technology Services.
--- End quote ---

wpeckham:
I depends greatly upon the use and the user.  My best recommendation would be to run Ubuntu, with a WinXP virtual in VirtualBox to support any Windows apps or functions.  XP is solid, and performs where Vista does not.  When Windows-7 is released I would not jump quickly, give it a few weeks for the bugs to shake out.  (MS always adds some at the last minute, as if to keep us on our toes!)

rgdot:
Not in regards to the quality of 7 itself but in general if you ask me I would say SP1. Historically speaking if there are problems with a Windows release few weeks is no where near enough to wait.

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