So why Vista?

[AWS]

I've been running Vista Ultimate for about three months now (32-bit mode). Can anyone offer me a VALID reason as to why I would want to stick with Vista in leu of XP/SP2? I use NVidia 8600GTS and NVidia decoders version 223 (?). Is there something *cool* coming down the piple which requires Vista (whether it's an NVidia driver, OS feature, or Sage *thing*)? At this point I just use all standard def programming - no TV capable of HD.

Thanks.

AWS

[stanger89]

XP is being abandoned.

[Nate]

XP is perfectly fine. Vista is only needed for its fancy UI. DX10 is Vista only, but it will be some time before that is needed, and even then only for gaming, not for Sage.

[jdamore]

When using analog out, is it true vista has better quality audio output now that is doesn't use kmixer?

Vista has audio room correction if you use the htpc as a pre/pro.

[evilpenguin]

Purevideo HD is only supported in Vista currently. I belive that provieds some benifits for HDTV (or it might be just for HD-DVD or blu-ray stuff)

[davephan]

If Vista was a good solution, then people would switch from Windows XP to Vista in higher numbers. The Vista sales are currently inflated by a large number of cheap corporate licenses that are not being deployed.

I have heard that Vista may be replaced in 2009. If people prefer XP over Vista, then Vista might become known as Windows ME2.

An article "Windows XP: The OS that won't die?" talks about Microsoft releases SP2c because XP is running out of possible license keys due to the continued sales.

http://www.computerworld.com/action/...NLT_OS&nlid=41

Personally, I see no benefit to switching from XP to Vista.


Dave

[Khristopher]

I use Vista on both my work laptop and my personal one. My HTPC and my main desktop machine both run XP however.

It'll be a cold day in hell before I migrate my HTPC over to Vista.....it's just not worth the added hassle involved to configure everything, nevermind making sure you have all the proper drivers.

[stevech]

In the monopoly, MS will discontinue support for XP because they can, and it will drive new revenue for them, from Vista. So that MS can show flat sales growth and feed the hoards of employees and contractors.

What's wrong with this picture? It's not just the revenue, it the ga-zillion of cost to re-learn and re-this and re-that, to no avail.

[Khristopher]

MS is actually releasing a new version of Windows XP Pro. It's going to be called XP Pro SP2c.

The sole reason for this is that MS is running out of OEM keys and needs to issue a new version allowing for more keys.

http://keznews.com/3290_Microsoft_Wi...ack_2c_Release

[sainswor99]

Originally Posted by Khristopher

MS is actually releasing a new version of Windows XP Pro. It's going to be called XP Pro SP2c.

The sole reason for this is that MS is running out of OEM keys and needs to issue a new version allowing for more keys.

http://keznews.com/3290_Microsoft_Wi...ack_2c_Release

WARNING: The above link contains NSFW ads. (I just drove up your hit count, Kristopher ) The content is fine; there's just an ad for AdultFriendFinder on the side.

Stu

[Polypro]

I switched to Vista on the HTPC. It was very simple, everything worked fine. Picture quality is better (8600GT). The audio with the built in MS driver (ALC88x chipset) is great, and the options offered are better than Realtek's own driver. Been running 24/7 for about a month now, no problems.

P

[Yooper]

I have a tablet laptop (you can write on the screen!). The tablet features with the pen writing are much improved with Vista. With XP, they were added on to the existing operating system. With XP my tablet laptop froze or didn't come out of sleep about once a week. I have been running Vista on my laptop for several months - not a single freeze or crash. However, the change over from XP to Vista was difficult - it took several weeks and a lot of eeffort to get the driver issues sorted out.

I used a new hard drive to install Vista. I could always switch the hard drive with XP back into the unit. Once I got the driver issues sorted out, I abandoned XP on this unit.

Unless you want to spend a lot of time on driver issues, I would recommend waiting.

[Khristopher]

Originally Posted by sainswor99

WARNING: The above link contains NSFW ads. (I just drove up your hit count, Kristopher ) The content is fine; there's just an ad for AdultFriendFinder on the side.

Stu

Sorry about that. I use FireFox and Adblock so I don't see any of them. Oops!

[roxy99]

Linux or MacOS. Oops sorry those weren't one of the options.

If you're getting a new PC then Vista, but no point in upgrading an existing PC running XP since Sage works fine in XP.

[roxy99]

Originally Posted by Polypro

I switched to Vista on the HTPC. It was very simple, everything worked fine. Picture quality is better (8600GT). The audio with the built in MS driver (ALC88x chipset) is great, and the options offered are better than Realtek's own driver. Been running 24/7 for about a month now, no problems.

P

You were very lucky. 9 times out of 10 there will be some kind of upgrade issue with old hardware and clashing drivers.
I'm happy you had a smooth upgrade but usually the reverse is true about new drivers and new OS in that initially there will be minor driver problems with the growing pains of an OS upgrade. Your experience is contrary to the norm because your PQ is actually better now with Vista than with XP prior. This suggests that probably you had a driver problem with Windows XP that you weren't aware of and it fixed itself when you did the upgrade.

BTW, your comment on the MS ALC88x driver; just to clarify, MS doesn't actually provide hardware drivers for Realtek they are provided to MS by the manufacturer of the hardware and certified by MS and then included on the install CD as a convenience to the user. Its still Realtek's driver though.

Otherwise there is no inherent reason why the PQ should be better with Vista than with XP unless you had a latent problem to begin with.

Rule of thumb: always wait for SP1 (at least) before doing brain surgery on your PC.