So I am shopping around for a laptop for college in the fall. I have heard that many people do not like Vista and suggest getting XP instead. What are the reasons for this?

Anyone have any suggestions as to a company to buy from. I was thinking either Dell or Sony?

Thanks.

 

I have XP on my Dell laptop and on my Dell desktop. I have Vista on my gaming rig.

Unless you plan to game at all, i'd get XP. Vista still has some kinks that need to be worked out, its still pretty new. XP is tried and tested and is a great OS.

Sony and Dell both make great laptops. I love my Dell Latitude, and Dell has decent customer service. I think you'll like either one.

 

OK, you almost lost all credibility with that one, lol.

Dell's customer service is crazy. It CAN be good (GREAT, even), and it also can be HORRIBLE. Depends on who picks up the phone when you call. I've been at both ends of that spectrum, and just when I'm ready to give up on Dell forever due to their incompetence, I get somebody who really knows their stuff and dazzles me. If you buy from Dell, be prepared for anything.

BTW, I used to be a big fan of Dell, but they have really slipped IMO.

I run XP on my Dell laptop and desktop, and have been happy with it. Got the laptop a year ago and went with XP since thats what I had on the desktop. Next time I'll probably go Vista, just cause they should have it sorted out by now and most people I know have not had any problems with it.

 

Hence why i said "decent." I've had excellent service when i've needed it, but i have also heard the horror stories of the rep who doesn't know jack/cant speak english. So i compromise, and say "decent."

I have not had any issues with Vista on my gaming computer besides some compatibility things and drivers. They have the drivers updated now, its a lot better than when it first came out (i bought Vista the day it came out).

 

i think xp is better but i dont think you buy xp anymore.

 

I had (a cracked copy of) Vista on my computer up until last night. I loved it cause my computer had plenty of memory to run it. Took a bit to get used to everything, but I still liked it. Then, it figured out that it was a bootleg copy, so I'm back to XP.

 

The latest releases of Vista are fine. XP is entering it's "end of service" life and will no longer be supported by MS. If you are asking this question then chances are you are not in the IT field or do not have a lot of experience with operating systems and customizing them to your needs. DO NOT TAKE OFFENSE TO THIS STATEMENT.

If you are going to college in the fall (as stated) then you need to stick with Vista. Be sure to purchase the student licensed versions of MS Office.To really make Vista fly, make sure your lap top has AT LEAST 2 gig of RAM and a dedicated video card (NOT video memory). These two things will make a night and day difference in the performance of your lap top. Toshiba is an excellent lap top, often times offering more bang for the buck. Keep in mind that larger displays will lower the battery life. My think pad is a battery hog. I have heard that Dell tends to have the better battery life.

Don't be afraid of Vista, and for all the nay-sayers that choose XP, if they really knew anything about computers, they would be running Linux.

 

I wouldn't call supported until 2014 being end of life. They are not selling it anymore, but it will be supported until then, per MS.

Dell support, my understanding is it is good if you are a business customer, otherwise it sucks.

Of the 2, I would take the Sony with XP.

 

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/sup...ofsupport.mspx

XP sp1 will no longer be supported.

Things you should know about XP service pack3:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...ng=en#filelist

I still digress to my Vista statement as the majority of software in development is being specifically developed for Vista.

Otherwise excellent point.

 

I just got my new dell precision today! Cool thing is some models come w/ xp installed and vista in the box to upgrade whenever your ready,cool option I thought.

Good luck

 

Correct, but that is Sp1 only XP itself will still be supported with updates until 2014.

http://support.microsoft.com/lifecyc...pha=windows+xp

 

im running vista ultimate on my hp laptop. specs are 3gig ram which i plan on upping, 250gb hd, dual core amd turion 64bit 2ghz. and nvidia 7200 video card. it has pretty good running speed and will be even better when i get the other gig of ram. vista is a memory hog

 

My personal laptop is an acer from walmart. dualcore, vista, can't remember other spec. I only use it for surfing and have added hardly any additional software. No problems. Great machine. I can see the potential for problems with complex video.
At work we have 4 dell workstation and a dualcore server. It has a very large software package we run on it and it's kinda slow.
A harddrive went out Dell sent a service tech 5 hour drive to replace the primary and mirror. He did the bios and left. The rest was up to me and tech support. IT worked out well ,lost no data. So I guess I'll give Dell a . I just thought the guy from Dallas was a wasted trip. I could've did that myself. Thats 10 hours of driving Dell paid him for. 30 minutes work and that is streaching it.

 

Hmmm I know 2014 is a long time away but the aspect that everything is going to start to be geared toward vista is almost making me lean towards vista. What exactly is it that people don't like about Vista? I am starting to think it won't be that big of a problem for me. I am just wondering what it all is that people don't like.

 

The number one end user affecting issue WAS software compatibility. Anyone that bought a VISTA computer should have been able to chat, surf the web, burn CD's and email. Vista works well with most of the 2003 MS software releases and works well with NVIDIA and Radeon video drivers. Any poor performance issues are due to the lack of hardware on the end users part. Designed with 64bit architecture in mind, Vista was made to utilize large amounts of RAM (fast access) and dual core processors (to execute two sets of instructions at once ((figuratively speaking)). If your computer did not have a seperate video card with atleast 128MB of video RAM, then your performance sucked. If your computer does not have SATA drives, then your performance sucked. If you did not have atleast 2 gig of RAM, then you computer sucked, nevermind the fact that any release of Vista that wasn't ultimate could only utilize 3 gig of RAM anyway. (Ultimate would support 16 or 32 I believe.) ANyway, you can read the specs for your self. If you are average Joe computer user then you will be fine with the aforementioned specs.
Good Luck!