[Skyhook]

Originally Posted by FilipH

I'd get a mac as well. No doubt it is the best choice.

Should you insist on a windows machine, I'd take windows xp for a more smooth experience then Vista.

Can you tell me what experience you have had yourself regarding this smooth experience ?


In my experience VISTA totally craps all over XP running ADOBE suite apps and HD video editing platforms...

I am a Vista fan ...

Vista runs smoother, its a lot more intuitive and will actually simplify common tasks, like when you setup a LAN network etc, much easier than XP from a home user point of view. ( Not everybody is an IT geek, most of us arent)

I keep hearing about incompatability issues with Vista, and when i ask these people, how long they have used Vista, and then they reply with " oh I dont have it installed on my pc, its what I read on the internet " lol

I have been running Vista for 6 months now, it runs everything that is important to us at lightening speeds on our 3 dual core pentium desktops/notebooks, never crashed once, and works great within a multimedia entertainment role, IMO opinion a lot more specifically than XP.. No contest.

On a Gaming point of view, I couldnt tell you, becuase I have absolutely no interest in playing computer games, so there maybe some issues there, but I cannot comment on that.

But like what Jimbo said, it all depends on what you want to use the computer for, which will determine what "feels " right for you.

[Lammarite]

Originally Posted by Skyhook

....at lightning speeds on our 3 dual core pentium desktops/notebooks, never crashed once, and works great within a multimedia entertainment role.........

I think there are a few key factors in that part there.
I fall into the 'never used Vista' group (apart from a few long, memorable minutes waiting for a brand new laptop waiting to start up with Vista loaded onto it) but I gather that it works well on souped up machines like yours but not on the Average Joe's Dell sheep machine.
As ever, happy to be corrected if I'm wrong!

[dipper]

They all have their advantages and disadvantages.

Vista is bloated and sucky but is potentially compatible with more software in the future.

XP is reasonably stable (as far as Windows ever is) and works, is more compatible with older software but may not be compatible with some future software. It remains to be seen whether it will be possible to avoid Vista altogether.

Macs are very nice in many ways and are certainly pretty to look at (I use a Mac at work and PC at home so know both) but there are huge drawbacks with Mac as well. As well as the obvious price premium the main problem is that Macs only work well as long as you stay within the small zone of Apple's fascist control network. As soon as you try to move outside of that then Macs start to have problems. For example, I have a Nokia phone. With a PC I can use the supplied software to sync it with my contacts/calendar on my PC very easily. If you try to do this on a Mac it is a nightmare (basically Mac are congenitally uncomfortable with you daring to use anything other than their iPhone). Mac force you to use their own iSync software to sync but of course they don't keep it updated for new phones so there is no plug-in for the new Nokias. So you trawl around the internet to find someone who has hacked a plug-in, which then doesn't work etc. This is repeated with other products, software, games etc. Macs are beautifully made but ruined by Apple's control-freak, big brother attitude which is far, far worse even than Microsoft's.

On balance, for a general purpose computer I would go for XP at the moment.

If you can afford to have two, one for design work and one for interfacing with the real world then get a Mac and an XP PC.

[jaykay]

I'm certainly with XP, been using Vista since the beginning and still can't get to like it. Apart from drivers issues the thing crashes a damn site more than XP and running some serious 3D software on it, like Pro/E or Solidworks just freezes it to death. That's despite running it on a serious platform. So no thanks, XP for me and I'll wait for the next OS to come along.

[MrMoo]

If you get Vista Premium or Ultimate you can get a free downgrade to XP from Microsoft. So probably the best option.

It depends what you are going to use it for, if anything goes I'd say Ubuntu instead

Here's a Lenovo link on the topic:

Lenovo Support & downloads - Downgrading from Windows Vista to Windows XP

[gdp]

Downgrade by Lenovo is only for Business & Ultimate edition. Not for Premium edition.

[rolling smith]

Got a dell vista in the end. desktop is working fine at the moment.

My Desktop spec is as follows

Core 2 Duo CPU
2GB RAM
Integrated Graphics card
Running with McAfee anti virus program

[zenlogo]

Having used Vista for 4 months, I regret the day i "upgraded" from XP. It gobbles huge amounts of memory, its slow, its BUGGY, some microsoft apps wont run without error messages, my favourite software doesn't run, it has so many bloody 'security' checks as to make some things non-functioning. I even have trouble playing .wmv files. I just shake my head as to what was being 'upgraded' except the packaging, price and number of bugs.
My advice: go XP