Since this is under the opinion section I thought I'd put it here, feel free to move it if it is in the wrong place.

Many websites selling new computers only offer Vista, which I have heard bad things about. Dell is still offering XP on even their fastest and nicest computers. I have read that vista has driver compatibility problems (with portable devices, printers, and other things) and does not work well for gaming. Specifically, many new video games are having major crashes and issues with vista. The XPS computers are ONLY xp because of the gaming thing.

If anyone has a computer with vista how do they like it? Have you had any problems?

I remember when XP first came out and we all didn't like that stupid bubbly bar at the bottom and were confused at first by the start menu bar. But xp was nice and had an option that you can run windows 98 mode I personally didn't like that I couldn't play my old video games from windows 98 on xp (shouldn't they make the things backwards compatible?). Other than that though, I like xp, and have had no problems with it.

I'm interested in hearing your opinions

I set up a new computer for my boss to do estimating on and it had Vista. We had some driver problems, but my main complaint is that every setting I changed required me to ok it in a pop up window.

I hate being asked if I'm sure I want to do something.

So the little bit I saw of it I wasn't impressed.

I remember that Mac/PC add on TV dealing with that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4FF_aT_mE8

Post cancelled because Ithl beat me to it.

Yep, that's exactly what it's like.

I guess I didn't mess with it long enough to realize I could turn it off.

If I was setting up a computer and I had a driver problem I'd want to throw it out the window. How do you fix something like that?

In this case the problem was with the digitizer so all I had to do was go to the companies web site and download new drivers for Vista.

I have XP on my gaming rig, but Vista on my laptop, which is also a beast and I can play games on. I have no problems, but my laptop is fairly new; it has a beefy nvidia card and 4 gb of RAM, so I have plenty of resources for Vista. I considered putting Vista on my game system simply because of DirectX 10, but I haven't really seen any dramatic improvement, so I decided to hold off. Plus, it sounds like Vista may go the way of ME and be replaced in another year or two.

You should be fine with games. I don't know how ATI is doing with their drivers, but nvidia seems to have worked out the initial problems that were occurring with Vista. If you get something with Vista, I would just make sure you plan on adding more RAM into your machine to compensate for the additional resources that it will use up.

You can disable the thing that pops up. I forget what it is, but I did it when I first got my laptop.

Vista is good if you have the power to run it. Alot of memory, hard drive space and more then a single processsor. Always disable UAC to take care of the annoying pop ups asking for permission. I run it on my desktop with no problems. I switched my laptop back to XP because it runs Vista too slow, it originally came with Vista. XP support is supposed to end in June that might be why some companies quit allowing the choice. A quick read of review shows alot of people prefer XP over Vista. Vista is like Millenium was to 98 just not as buggy. LOL




Disable UAC

I heard Windows 7 may be released as soon as 2009, 2010. Sounds like ME to me.

WOW! All the above posts are very confusing to me. I'm NOT an IT person, hell, I'm not even sure what most of the previous posts mean!

I do know, however, that my new computer @ home has/runs Vista and we're very happy with it. So far, no problems, but then, we're so un-computer-savvy that we might not even KNOW we're having problems.

So....from an EXTREME LAYMAN's point of view, Vista is OK.

I have Vista at home on my PC and I really like it. I have just turned the pop up ?'s off so they don't bother me. I have XP on my laptop and wish I had gone with the Vista instead. I was afraid of it like I was with XP but (fingers crossed) all is working great and no problems.
Hope this helps.

I chose to get a new computer with XP on it. Thank you Dell for having that option

I love vista for the games but for anything else its just a total waste of money. I have so many tools that cannot be used on Vista its insane. Even Microsoft products and tools.

MS Exchange 2003 Admin Tool = cannot use and not supported on Vista
Symantec AV = cannot use the current version, had to buy a new version
Blackberry Enterprise Console = cannot use and not supported on Vista
Hyperterminal = gone...have to use 3rd party tool like Putty to get into my Cisco switches
And a lot more than this. I know the info above doesnt pertain to most people but why on earth would MS release a product so incompatible with so much software.

I have gotten a few programs to work but I had to run them under WinXP mode.

As far as drivers go ive never had a problem since I just install the XP driver and it seems to work fine.

So I got this nice new fast computer, and I bought the game called the witcher, and it's extremely slow. You would think that since I'm well over the system requirements that it would work, but NOOO. No patches available either >< But there IS a patch for Vista...bah.

I'm no computer whiz but I heard when I was looking that some of the computers don't work well for games. The one I got I made sure could be used for games and it has vista ultimate. The only thing i had problems with initially was java but got a patch from microsoft and has been fine ever since.

I REALLY wanted an xps. But I don't have 2000 to spend on it.

Just buy the parts you see in the XPS system and build it yourself. I laugh when my gaming buddies brag about spending a ton of money on these Alienware and other gaming systems when you can build the same thing for at least 1/3 of the price. I buy my parts from NewEgg and ZipZoomFly and have saved tons of money building my computers.

I built my current system a year ago this past April for right around $1000. Considering the parts were close to the best available at the time, you couldn't find a better deal anywhere else. I never buy the latest processor because they are always several hundred more than the 1st or 2nd step behind it. I also spent around $270 on a Samsung 226BW 22" 2ms widescreen (which is an incredible monitor) that put the total cost to about $1300 or so.

MSI P6N SLI-FI nForce 650i SLI 1333MHz DDR2-800 Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4GHz, 1066FSB, LGA775, 4MB Cache
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
EVGA nVidia Geforce 8800GTS 640MB
Upgraded Power Supply to an Antec TrueBlue 650W

The only things I didn't buy were my soundcard (had several extras), a hard drive (using a WD Raptor 10,000 RPM SATA), and a case (using a black Antec case with a cooling system). I would like to upgrade my soundcard though... currently using a SB Audigy 2.

Dell Inspiron 530
Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q6600 (8MB L2 cache,2.4GHz,1066FSB)
nVidia GeForce 8300GS 128MB
Memory 4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz- 4DIMMs
With xp

$730

Nice video card coma, how much was that?

I turned down all of the graphics to try to get the cutscenes in The Witcher to not be so choppy. Gameplay is quicker now, but cutscenes are slower. I think I can live with that.

There is a website that I use frequently that is a database of applications that will work with Vista in case anyone is interested.
Just thought some might find it useful.


App Readyness Website