Latest thinking... "downgrade" to XP or not?

Give it up. xp is dead. if you throw all the garbage out, vista is about as fast.

i have a econobox desktop with an AMD 4core. it is very fast, and very stable. much more stable than xp. i only shut down with power failures, which is about once every month or two.

i have xerox printers. my n32's and n40's are probably 10 years old. they run fine. i have xerox 60xx color printers. they are probably 5 years old. they run fine. hp's are disposable printers. if they don't run, just throw the junk out.

i run eudora for mail. it runs, but it does have a few problems. if you run eudora, pm me, and i will help you to get it better. eudora for vista is not the same program.

Well, I have not used Vista, so I can't comment on its stability, but the XP that I am using is extremely stable. As I have a battery back-up, I don't even shut down for power failures less than 30 minutes. Other than software upgrades that require a restart, I can't recall the last time I had to restart my XP. I've had it running 24/7 for upwards of 6 months. Not sure it's possible to be much more stable than that.

I note that you say "about as fast." Why would I want it if it's not "at least as fast?" What's the point in sacrificing any speed in going to something with a questionable pedigree versus something that I know works?

Cheers.

Thanks for all the comments so far...

Here's a question from a non-tech person. Lenovo site offers the option between 32 bit and 64 bit versions of Vista (at least I think that's what it is doing). What are the reasons for selection one over the other?

Unless you need to make use of over 3.5gb of RAM, I'd really stick w/ 32 bit. Most applications are 32-bit and you will have a much harder time finding device drivers for the 64-bit version....

I've been running Vista Business on my Vaio SZ440 laptop. I'm very happy with it, particularly since the release of SP1. I don't find crashes or lock-ups any more frequent under Vista than I did under XP. I do lilke the Aero glass interface and, yes, it's only a cosmetic change, but it's a nice one. I also find I like the Sidebar very much.

I can run everything that I need to under Vista, including a number of arcane programs that were written for XP. When I first got this machine, I seriously considered downgrading to XP, but as time went on and the bugs got ironed out, I found less and less reason to do so. I have a number of other machines that run XP and I find that, when I use them, I miss some of Vista's features. In short, Vista is definitely not ME, nor is it Bob.

One note: don't try to run it with less than 2 gig of RAM -- the difference in speed is dramatic. Also, Vista consumes considerable disk acreage. I found 100 gigabytes insufficient -- equal to about 80 gig on an XP machine. Now that I've put a 320 gig drive in my laptop, it functions as a true desktop replacement.

I'll second that. There are no real advantages at this time to running 64-bit, unless you need to use an application that either requires it or can benefit from it. Few do.

Downgrade all the way. I'm a small business IT consultant and picked up a lenovo laptop with Vista and really tried to learn it and like it. But the extra infuriating "security" measures built into this OS and it's lack of stability (Explorer began to frequently crash after 2 months - with only MS office loaded) I figured that if I have to take to time to reload, I might as well load XP. Runs faster and hasn't crashed since.
I'm praying Windows 7 is more like XP than Vista. And my clients running proprietary apps would be thankful as well.

Based on my personal experience, downgrade! I have a Sony Vaio TZ270 that came preloaded with Vista. Despite spending an inordinate amount of time removing the bloatware, the system was slow on start-up and shutdown, and ran many programs incredibly slowly. My IT department has encouraged me to use the downgrade that came with the computer when I first got it, but I wanted to use the latest and greatest. After 8 weeks I acquiesced and I could not be happier!! Everything is faster and I am happy!!^

The only good thing about a Vista Business OEM license is that it allows you to downgrade to XP Pro . My advice for the people in my department is that unless they really have a good reason, get XP. And if they think they have a good reason, let me beat it out of them first. The few vista machines we have in the department are consistently far more of a nuissance to make work properly than the XP machines.

And as far as Vista 32/64, basically, if you're at all not sure, then you almost certainly don't want the 64 bit version. It's just too hard to find drivers for the 64 bit version (even for XP for that matter). What stunned me the other day was that they actually even made a 64 bit home version, which I just don't understand. It's even more frustrating when someone comes up to you with a laptop they bought with 1G of ram and it has a 64 bit home vista on it. That just shouldn't even be allowed to be sold. (In that particular case, not only could we not install some printers, but we can't install the vpn software he needed either.)

This is why I finally broke down and bought a Macbook Pro. I am semi happy/unhappy with XP and everything from everyone I ever speak to is basically either no enthusiasm for Vista or outright dislike. So many problems even finding files. I did load Windows on the Mac, and I too chose XP.

I have been running Vista Business 64 bit on my ThinkPad T60 since it was available last year. There were some teething problems at the beginning, but SP1 addressed most of the problems. I have not had any issue post-SP1. (knock on wood)

Presently, the most compelling reason to use 64 bit is to use 4 GB RAM or more. It is now very easy to exceed that number with the cheap RAM deals around. When upgrade time comes around, 32-bit OS will need to be reinstalled with 64-bit equivalent, but 64-bit OS will only need to be rebooted. To prevent the hassle down the road, get Vista 64 unless you have legacy applications or equipments that don't work in Vista 64.

I take the same approach wrt XP. Are there legacy applications and equipments that only work with XP? The XP compatibility layer in Vista is pretty decent. Most legacy applications that don't play with Vista have conflict with the new security model. These programs expect to run with full administrator privileges, but Vista does not give full privileges unless explicitly to do so via UAC approval. Usually right click on the program and select "Run as administrator" does the trick.

I've been running Vista since it was in beta and I can't say that I've had the same experience. Of course early on there were a lot driver problems but most newer peripherals come with Vista drivers now.

The first thing I do when I install Vista is to turn off UAC. I find it annoying but I can see how it might help inexperienced users but I know what I'm doing and I can't stand it.

Windows 7 is more like Vista than XP. I've been playing around with it in a VM for a about a month now. A couple of colleagues that run it on their machines directly have said that it runs faster than Vista though.

"Eudora for Vista"? I don't think there's a Vista-specific version of Eudora. And version 8 is based off of the same platform as Mozilla Thunderbird.

My few month old desktop runs on Vista Home. Have a 2 year-old notebook runsning on XP Pro. Overall, I dislike Vista, b/c:
- All except one of USB ports don't work (despite constant fixes). All my thumb drives, external hard drives are not connectable to it.
- My 3-year old printer does not get recognized by it (even with latest drive update)
- Booting up takes 20x longer than my XP-based notebook (yes, I did try to eliminate start-up items, and stop auto updates etc...).

I am thinking about going back to the Mac when I need new computer.

A quick note of thanks to everyone that added to this discussion... learned much. Here's my take on things now:
... first issue of Vista sure had the usual MS problems, especially with upgrades on machines not ready for it. Didn't even think of an upgrade on this laptop or regular PC when it first issued. For me, upgrades only happen when it is time for a new machine.
... with SP1 fix, likely not nearly so many problems on new machines configured from the start to run the new OS.
... I work independently so I don't have to worry about overall workplace integration. And no IT people to consult or confuse.
... learned that you can cancel that "do you really..." bit and I'd be sure to do that if Vista is my choice. Excessive password security already is driving me nuts.

Thanks again for the responses.