I took delivery of a Lenovo T61 last week replete with 2.4Ghz Core Duo and 2GB RAM and Vista Business without SP1.
On Friday this week I revert to XP Pro SP2.
Why?
- Hopelessly unstable Cisco VPN (I work from home and in the wild abroad in equal measure) vs rock steady on XP Pro
- Half my software doesn't have Vista drivers and some of it is quite recent
- I can't get my Canon MPR800 wireless printer to work properly whereas it was trouble free before
- Network status on Vista is not accurate on any wifi network I use
- Anything that uses the web is slooooooow. As an example, BBC News pings at 600ms versus 32ms from my identically specced (in headline terms) Home PC running XP SP2 MCE and 40ms that I used to get on my 1.6Ghz 2GB RAM Lenovo T42 laptop
I may come back and try again in future, but after a week of trying hard to become a convert and implementing every performance and stability tweak I can find in as controlled a manner as possible, I can't wait to leave the party.
Some feedback; for me at least, this proved to be the right decision. Having reverted from Vista Business to XP Pro SP2 I now have a blazingly fast laptop that behaves like it ought with 2.4Ghz core duo and 2GB RAM, drivers for everything I need to use, Cisco VPN that is totally reliable, and web browsing and remote file transfer that is a joy not a tediously slow chore. As it happens, after so many colleagues having experiences like mine, our employer has now put its Vista rollout programme on ice and as well as reverting existing Vista Users to XP Pro SP2, is also purchasing all new kit with this o/s installed.