Vista v XP

[beerdrinker]

I have had the following from a friend:

Vista has been very little short of a PR disaster for Microsoft with several large corporations INSISTING on a return to XP (funded by Microsoft) after problems 'upgrading' to Vista, plus several major computer manufacturers offering a free XP 'downgrade' disk on request - despite pre-installing Vista on their latest machines

Does any body know whether Sony offer such a down grade disk?

BD

[John Marsh]

Pay again, for a decent OS...

Yes they do - but for a price:

http://dba-oracle.*************/2008...sta-to-xp.html

Comments on getting the 'downgrade' to work here:

Sony Vaio: Downgrade Vista > XP

[MarcJF]

Agree, worked for a high street bank, with friends in others, none will use Vista. One reason though, is that they want a stable platform for whole organisation and won't upgrade until it's proven to work.

[piggybank]

I am using Vista now after XP. The only word to describe Vista is abomination. Probably a word not used that much nowadays. I allow my computer to report problems to MS and it does about once a week when the errors and faults seem to reach the magic number of 104.

What really pains me is my useful things like the scanner can't be used as its has no updated driver. The Canon printer uses a different driver from the proper one as it does not have an updated one. To top it all is the amazing slowness. I must be a masochist to keep this Vista program on my computer.

Yes if there is a discount on upgrade to the next great product of Microsoft I want one. And make it big.

[Tarq57]

This might remind all the haters how great Winders has become!
(Click the run flash button.)
Old, but still good.

[Gonzo]

Vista work perfectly for me. Never had any problems with it.

What really pains me is my useful things like the scanner can't be used as its has no updated driver. The Canon printer uses a different driver from the proper one as it does not have an updated one.

Piggybank, I'd posit that this problem is Canon's responsibility, rather than the fault of MS/Vista. Canon obviously decided not to update some older printers....perhaps in the hope you'd buy a new one?

[tallsandwich]

There's little to recommend it except...

There's little to recommend it except that the visual appearance is more sophisticated and flexible than XP.

With the right config it can perform as well as XP, but then you loose all the extra features and functionality that were using up the extra CPU cycles and extra disk I/O access bandwidth.

All in all there is no justification for Vista; but this is the case for the majority of software upgrades, which are also often no better than before and introduce new faults.

I got Vista a year ago on a new laptop just in order to become acquainted with it. That's about all I achieved over and above what I would have got had I installed XP on this laptop.

XP is getting more and more reliable in my view. By the time it is End of Life'ed for good, it should be just about ready for use

[Guest 112233]

I'm an interested party

As one of those people who had to pay to upgrade to XP Pro -I still have my Vista (home ? ) disk - I'm very interested in Gonzo's perspective and tallsandwich's points about flexability and I'm not asking in a barbed way - I chose XP Pro; because I needed to avoid extra costs in purchasing extra scanners and printers.

Many prople have mentioned the extra flexability of vista - Can someone aquainted with the OS, give me and eveyone else some examples of the extra flexability - It will help move the argument forward in a positive way.

I'm assuming that they are running kit that will accomodate Vista well.

CAT III.

[preduk]

I've been using VISTA since BETA and I do hate it. It has all these added features that just drain your computers memory but add no benefits whatsoever.

I would go back to XP but my PC doesn't want to for some reason.

[419]

beerdrinker,

If you get a Sony machine with Vista ultimate installed, you shouldn't have to pay for a "downgrade"
The licence for ultimate also covers an XP professional installation. and I believe that Vista business does as well, but I'm not 100% certain of this. (You need to get hold of a copy of an XP installation disc, but you don't need the microsoft key)

About 18 months ago, I purchased a Toshiba laptop with Vista Ultimate and hated it, so I did the downgrade. I borrowed an XP disk, installed it,and just entered the key from Vista for activation.

The only problem you might have is getting the drivers for your laptop. I had a hell of a job finding a display driver that was XP compatible, but Toshiba managed to help me out.

[Parapunter]

As with one or two others, I have had vista running without problems from the start. I wonder however if it's to do with the fact that I build my own machines? In other words, I looked at the specs for Vista & built the machine around it. Funnily enough when I fired it up, it worked ok.

Either way, I think the majority of you Vista no-likeys will be pleasantly surprised when Windows 7 arrives (wonders if they'll name it windows sorry??). I've had build 7000 on this week & it is nice - I'm inclined to say it's what Vista should have been. Anyway, no point lookng back, the next windows from what I've seen so far will be the next XP & I mean that as a compliment.

[seacue]

I suppose that Win 7 won't include a driver for my legacy HP 4L printer. I gather that MS feels that it is the responsibility of the peripheral manufacturer to provide the driver - and I assume that HP doesn't see an economic advantage to continue support for something as old as the 4L.

[Parapunter]

In the same way you can't get an oil filter for an Austin seven? They have to be what? 92, 93? It's an aeon in IT terms no?

[John Marsh]

Parapunter: your experience chimes with the general feedback on Vista as reported on 'geek' sites:- higher-skilled users like Vista, both at work and at home.

A friend tells me he is content with his Vista multimedia centre setup...he has a BSc in Computer Science.

[Parapunter]

SPEAK UP!

[seacue]

My 4L says it was manufactured in October 1994, just a wink ago .