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XP or VISTA X300
Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 12:56 pm
by plaj
Hello, I will receive my x300 soon which is the best system xp or Vista
Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 2:31 pm
by jdhurst
I have more problems with Vista than I can keep track of. If your needs are modest, Vista works. If you needs are significant (business and work related), XP does a better job. ... JDH
Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 10:56 pm
by averkiev
jdhurst wrote:I have more problems with Vista than I can keep track of. If your needs are modest, Vista works. If you needs are significant (business and work related), XP does a better job. ... JDH
JDH,
I've been using Vista on several computers since the day it the RTM was released to the beta testers. The only real problem I had with Vista is the famous slow file copy bug. I think in most of the cases the problem is with the end-user not with Vista.
To the thread starter, Vista runs fine on my x300, no problem at all.
Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 9:01 am
by asiafish
Vista runs fine even on moderately powered hardware. I run Vista Business on a T42 with excellent result (Aero disabled). That T42 has 2GB of RAM, and the OS is almost as responsive as it is on my much newer and faster (and 4GB RAM) MAcBook.
The MacBook is an excellent Vista machine, and surprisingly, so is the T42. Your X300 will do perfectly fine once the initial drive indexing is finished.
Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 9:37 am
by jdhurst
averkiev wrote:jdhurst wrote:I have more problems with Vista than I can keep track of. If your needs are modest, Vista works. If you needs are significant (business and work related), XP does a better job. ... JDH
JDH,
I've been using Vista on several computers since the day it the RTM was released to the beta testers. The only real problem I had with Vista is the famous slow file copy bug. I think in most of the cases the problem is with the end-user not with Vista.
To the thread starter, Vista runs fine on my x300, no problem at all.
Here is the list of known problems I am trying to get Microsoft to fix:
1. Windows Explorer cannot maintain detailed settings. It reverts back to kindergarten icons of business files. Useless to me.
2. Windows Epxlorer did away with Cut, Copy, Paste and Delete on the menu bar and did away with the UP function in dialogue boxes. I am not interested in the right click approach and it is less productive for me (takes more time).
3. Windows Briefcase is very slow and actually does not work on numerous occasions because of 1.
4. Offline Files corrupt at the drop of a hat and further are not supported by some vendors like Intuit.
5. Wireless fails to complete page loads (two different wireless cards).
6. Search cannot find Tagged Image Format text and is severly crippled in this regard.
Everything above can be done in XP without difficulty.
Cheers, ... JDH
Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 9:46 am
by asiafish
That's funny, I do all of those things in Vista with no issues. You do know that any Home version will lack offline file sync, and of course, if you did an "Upgrade" instead of a clean install you will always be asking for trouble. The last thing about upgrades applies to ANY OS install.
Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 12:29 pm
by royhuang
IMHO, I say Win XP Pro is still the way to go. I have Win XP Pro on a few laptops and well as desktops and only use Vista Ultimate for my media PC. Some major items to note with Vista:
1) Customization: It's well known that to get to customization options take longer due to multi-click/window navigations just to get to more esoteric items
2) HD thrashing...even turning off indexing & other stuff, the HD still thrashes some times
3) Stupid tasks that you can't get rid of (i.e. daily Java update tasks that crashes my MMC panel that i still haven't figured out)
4) the PC waking up due to #3...I've been able to disable lots of unnecessary tasks from the schedule task manager (MMC) but my Vista desktop keeps waking up and I have to go to the schedule task manager to find out why ALL the time...
5) RAM usage...supposedly, Vista takes advantage of caching RAM for apps more efficiently. I recently upgraded to 4gb RAM and get these stupid out of memory message boxes because of that caching process and not because of my actual RAM usage for my applications.
...and there's lots more gripes too but those are the major ones.
However, there are definitely advantages to having Vista but none that tip the scale for me to use Vista on my X300, Sony TZ, etc. or even my Motion Computing tablet PC even though Vista did improve the handwriting component! I must admit that i like to customize my PCs & notebooks for optimal OS performance by disabling/stripping out all unneccessary items (Vista Glass, indexing, resources, etc.) and Vista is even more bloated than XP.
Perhaps when SP2 of Vista is released and the fixed all the bugs (even SP1 file copying isn't completely fixed) then I might consider it.
Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 1:45 pm
by jdhurst
asiafish wrote:That's funny, I do all of those things in Vista with no issues. You do know that any Home version will lack offline file sync, and of course, if you did an "Upgrade" instead of a clean install you will always be asking for trouble. The last thing about upgrades applies to ANY OS install.
Asiafish - my system is Vista Business 64-bit. I never use Home-anything.
That said,
1. If you go into Windows Explorer, set a folder to Details, set up the widths and so on, then go back to Tools and "Make all folders look like this one", then do you say that details stick on ALL folders? It certainly does not for me, and my observation is well-corroberated in a Google search. If this would work, Briefcase would work as well.
2. Offline file sync: It is well known that Intuit will not read a ledger from an offline folder when offline. I expect you do not use QuickBooks, otherwise this would bite you as well.
I just rebuilt network structures to fix SoftRemote VPN (now working smoothly) so maybe Offline files will be less prone to corrupting. I was getting extraneous files, not bad files.
3. If you search for tagged imaged format text, you can find it?? I cannot, and Microsoft finally said it cannot be done in Vista. I have miles of such files. Big issue for me. Finding nothing quickly does not help me.
So if you do all these things, please do post back. I am opening cases with Microsoft under their new small business program, so I am going after and getting support. But I do not mean to stand on any principle. If you have some ideas for me, I will certainly try them.
Thank you for your post. ... JDH
Posted: Sat Jul 26, 2008 9:23 pm
by mmm
asiafish wrote:Your X300 will do perfectly fine once the initial drive indexing is finished.
You should never use indexing with the SSD in the X300.
My x300 came with Vista Business x86 (32 bit) pre-installed, and it was horryfyingly slow and sluggish, and the UI was painfully distracting to me. Who actually works when windows are all transparent and flashy fancy etc. ? I sure as hell can't.
I then installed Windows Server 2008 Standard x64 and Converted it to Workstation and patched and tweaked it all the way to Rome and back, used autoruns, read about every tweak there was for Vista x64 (which also works in w2k8 server) but the numerous unsolvable annoyances are sooo incredibly evident in the new Windows OSs that I finally ended up installing my good old Windows 2003 x64, i.e. XP Pro x64 Edition.
Some drivers needed a bit of time finding the correct ones, but heck, this OS beats the crap out of all the others for this notebook.
I also tried OpenSuse, but that was another PITA, as were trying to get PC-BSD and Fedora running on the x300. So many issues with barely supported hardware, not to mention the fact that it is all still x86 and wastes the 64 bit this notebook offers.
Long story short:
For the x300, Win XP Pro x64 Edition is the best way to go, hands down. Gets things done. Just works. Rock stable, least noise from the fan, longest battery life, fast, lightweight, and runs about every tool and software that exists out there!
Installing XP x64 I got a lot of help from these:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=239303
http://jult.net/entry/45/Essential_and_recommended_soft
and these reg-patches:
http://support.jult.nl/RegistryPatches_XP2008.reg