Trashing Vista For XP on my new X61. Why is that bad?

[epu]

Just received my shiny brand spanking new Vista Business laden X61 laptop. I love the laptop. While there's a lot to like about Vista, the incompatibility issues with older software, even recently released software made for XP just doesn't work.

I'm not a retard and understand that things like these are BOUND to happen, pointing back to when half the stuff released for Win 3.1 didn't do so well on Win 95.

I need some convincing to stick with Vista. What am I really giving up that's so important and in the vein of productivity that I'd throw out the window for going back to XP.
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[mgo]

Just received my shiny brand spanking new Vista Business laden X61 laptop. I love the laptop. While there's a lot to like about Vista, the incompatibility issues with older software, even recently released software made for XP just doesn't work.

I'm not a retard and understand that things like these are BOUND to happen, pointing back to when half the stuff released for Win 3.1 didn't do so well on Win 95.

I need some convincing to stick with Vista. What am I really giving up that's so important and in the vein of productivity that I'd throw out the window for going back to XP.
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The old joke in music circles used to be, "Classical music isn't as bad as it sounds". With Vista, it isn't as bad as it looks. By that I mean, turning off the useless visuals and using Classic Mode for everything will speed up the system, and make things easier to navigate around.

Dumping Vista for XP means buying XP (or activating one you already have), getting drivers, etc. Lots of work and not much gain in speed.

Try ditching the visual "features" and stop the services you don't need and then take another look.

Remember, too, that Vista takes a while to "learn" it's Superfetch, and then will speed up a bit, too.

[Stan]

Windows Vista may not be so bad, providing you have suitable hardware to run it. The problem seems to be that MS overestimated the uptake of the (then) very expensive hardware to run it in the way it needs to perform effectively.

MS also expected its partners (and other vendors on the platform) to make drivers and software for Vista that would be backward compatible for users of older hardware and software that would cost the vendors more money than it was worth for the return in profit.

Consequently, some of them said “sod you” customer, and wrote an updated version and will be charging us for it. Thanks Microsoft.

Some software programmes may be quite easy to port to Vista with very little cost, others will be uneconomical and not worth the effort. Don’t blame the third parties, they have a living to make too. But I’d bet they are [censored] off that MS is forcing their customers to look to other vendors for an easier fix to the problem.

The victim is, once again, the customer. Microsoft may not have intended this and should be seen as simply incompetent as such. If it intended this situation it should be seen as acting in its own interests and not of that of the customer base, or that of other software makers who have done.

I’m not anti- Microsoft but the evidence of its recent behaviour isn’t encouraging.

I hope I don’t see a disappearance of some of the more capable software makers for the Windows platform because of the demands MS has placed upon them to comply with the needs of its questionable, new Vista platform.

I’ll be staying with WinXP (if the drivers I need are available) for the time being and investigating Linux more closely in the near future.

[red bioroid]

I think if you run a 32bit OS (Vista vs XP), then go for XP anyday due to the availability of drivers. You can change the interface of Vista to look like XP if you like and also turn off many of Vista hogging features. The downside to Vista is that drivers may not work for certain devices and don't expect the hardware manufacturer to provide Vista drivers for old hardware.
Vista 32 may be worth looking if Vista SP1 comes out which should be soon , if it fixes many compatibility issues.


So the only real reason for me to go with Vista is to go with Vista 64 now so I don't have to reinstall another OS later. I just got to make Vista 64 work despite Vista's incompatibility until SP1 come sout.

[carbon_unit]

epu, before you remove Vista make a set of recovery discs so you can put Vista back on someday in the future, like when you go to sell it. You've paid for it, you might as well have it.

[Stevesoura]

I was in the same situation a couple of days ago. I recently installed Windows xp and I dont regret it at all. Vista is nice but im not ready for it yet.

[epu]

Well, this laptop (X61) was brand new and sealed when I got it and DID come with recovery CDs. I may hook up the DVD/CW in the Ultrabase to see which OS came on these CDs. There are 7 of them. This includes one separate CD along with 5, so I'm thinking at a bird's eye view that both OS's come with the laptop.

I get annoyed about the incompatibility issue and just try to remind myself that this stuff [i]happens[/i] when you upgrade to a newer OS.

There are plenty of surveys that put XP ahead of Vista in terms of speed and performance, which I'm guessing just happens when you have great hardware running an older OS (imagine if you could run Win 95 with 4GB of RAM).

I'm going to continue to try to install all of my old programs and decide if I want to stick with Vista. I'll also make recovery CDs for the event that decide to reinstall it provided the machine didn't come with it.

Thanks a billion for answering my question everybody.

[blackomegax]

The day i got my x61s, preloaded with vista to save 50 bucks, i didnt even boot into it, i just went straight to into an xp install disc.


Why? after working enough with vista to generally accept it as something usable, i hate it.

I cant name any major company off the top of my head that doesnt view vista as very, very bad mojo.


And XP just works SO much better all around, and lasts longer on battery by a couple of hours on an 8 cell.

[epu]

Well, I'm not going to lie. The ONE major step in making me WANT to work with Vista are the improved SECURITY features. It's SO EASY to catch viruses using XP when net surfing. I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and install AVG before I install ANYTHING else on my laptop. I'm grabbing my XP install discs as we speak.

What sealed the deal was the few pieces of software I purchased online, some from vendors who don't provide the best support, but created great software (i.e. Flash Menu Factory), that just DOESN'T work with Vista.

[blackomegax]

[quote="epu"] It's SO EASY to catch viruses using XP when net surfing./quote]

what websites do you frequent?

I havnt seen viruses on websites in ages...and the only place to get spyware is torrent sites and porn sites and other misc shady businesses, which firefox puts a quick stop to anyway.

[epu]

Hi. I don't do torrents and definitely not porn. I got viruses from just googling, or visiting websites with ADWARE. Receiving everything from Trojans (MySpace) to various downloaders and AD components. It was definitely sickening to say the least.

I'm not making sure AVG is THE first thing I install when I

[ducky2802]

Once thing nice about vista business and ultimate is that it includes a complete PC backup which I prefer over the built in lenovo r&r... the backup may hog up space on an external hdd, but a complete image can be restored in case my hdd fails... lenovo r&r makes this simple feature hard to do, unless you are working on the original hdd.

In any case, I like the overall speed in vista... in fact, it seems snappier than even xp once a few of the features are turned off (like search).

But, I did notice vista hog up more wattage than xp (I average about 12-13W on vista, about 10W on xp), and this little fact for my x series makes me switch to xp in a heartbeat. If this were my stay-at-home lappy, a few watts wouldnt really matter.

In any event, if you really need the programs, then theres no use of keeping an incompatible os.

[edinburghphoto]

Hi. I don't do torrents and definitely not porn. I got viruses from just googling, or visiting websites with ADWARE. Receiving everything from Trojans (MySpace) to various downloaders and AD components. It was definitely sickening to say the least.

I'm not making sure AVG is THE first thing I install when I

Agreed, malicious software, viruses, spyware, adware etc etc are all to easy to pick up. Many pre SP2 XP system ground to a halt within minutes of hooking up to the internet. Sure XP SP2 solves a lot of these problems but you can still acquire unwanted applications by installing free sofware (games especially) or even a simple word document with some malicious VBA code.

I think the Vista secuirty model is a big improvement on XP. By default, you login and use your machine with minimum privileges. If anything your run or download attempts to install software, you'll be prompted. With XP, many users run with admin privileges even when they don't actually need them.

If you need to use IIS for developing or testing web sites, you'll apprecite the significantly improved security in IIS7. Again, all services are disabled by default and worker process accounts are all low priviledge.

Give the choice, I'd go with Vista and disable Aero Glass. SP1 is due for public release and should patch some of the power management issues so important to us Thinkpad users.

Good luck