Is Windows vista a load of crap?
 

Hi, due to my stupidity in breaking my laptop I need to get a new one. Problem is that they all come with windows vista, I have heard that it is rubbish and that a lot of applications dont work with it.

I have a lot of music software, cubase, etc which I got a few years ago, which I will want to use on the laptop. If it wont worlk with vista then maybe I should get a 2nd hand windows xp laptop.

Any thoughts?

You can still buy new notebooks with XP Pro from Dabs.com

Not only applications - hardware incompatibility can be an issue too.

Do all you can to stick with XP.

There are companies still selling OEM copies of XP home. Google: Power Computing & Snut UK.

software refunds
 

You are entitled to a refund for the OS if you are not using it. Be warned though- it takes ages to get your money back. When I switched over to linux a few years ago I had to wait over six months to get a refund for XP that came pre-installed. You should first go to the retailer and then if that fails contact Microsoft. There is addition information here (applying to North America- couldn't find the European version):

http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/prod...nd/refund.mspx


LG

If you know little about PCs Vista is good .
Some apps dont work BUT they can be sorted . lots of forums/info on the Internet .
Some aspects of H/W support are good .
If you get it stick with it you should get to like it

In the USA, the Small Business part of D**L offers a choice of XP Pro or Vista on about seven laptop models and a similar number of desktops. Linux is offered on some of the desktops.

PC/Laptop with XP pre-installed
 

PCs with XP are still available in the UK - on the suggestion of a friend I purchased a desktop from UK based e-buyer.com (http://www.ebuyer.com/) last week.
There are (as I recall) around 50 desktops with XP available, and I imagine a worthwhile selection of Laptops. (search the "Business PCs" section)
My PC arrived on the date promised at a very competitive price... and with very little third party software (crapware!) on the machine... and very easy to get started as well.
I am vey pleased with the purchase, worth a look in my opinion.
Martin

Vista is POS.

I am getting a Mac.

Vista is no worse than XP. Still crashes as much...

Vista crash more than xp for me. Blue screen, black screen, red screen, you ever see red screen on xp?

Enough.. :ugh: time I get a Mac.

Everybody I have spoken to who has got Vista finds that something, sometimes something important, doesn't work under it.

And - don't forget - a PC is no more than a machine for running applications, if you can't run the application(s) then why have it?

I would stick with XP.

At work, I stick with win2000 because everything I have works fine under it and a lot of software is no longer supported. And we run some mission-critical PCs under NT4. Some test gear, believe it or now, runs under win3.1...

A friend of mine turned a perfectly good computer into a slug. Installed Vista. I warned him....

It is worth enjoying the video at http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=300287

Several friends of mine have bought new machines with Vista. The computer-savvy ones comments range between "just as good as XP, but different and with some clever bits" to "nightmare - I removed it."

On a brand new machine with no "legacy" peripherals (anything more than 6 months or so old) Vista is probably not going to be a problem.

The more tricky one is Office 2007. That has got so much added feature (read: bloatware) that it's a serious learning curve to find the features you want. Some aspects of Office 2003 have disappeared - I had to remove Office 2007 from a friend's PC and install Office 2003 so that she could use the auto-text stuff she'd spent years developing for her business.

If I were buying a new PC, I'd go for Windows XP Pro and Office 2003.

I'd like a Mac as a toy, but when I finally abandon Microsoft, it'll be to go to Linux.

Got a new Asus notebook here in Taiwan back in July just after they started offering XP as an option. Previously it had been Vista or nowt, but they seemed to have heard the complaints.

Couldn't face the prospect of software incompatibility, printers etc when the rest of the company are still trundling on with win 2k.

So removed Vista business and installed xp from the recovery cd supplied by Asus for less than 15 quid.

Painless

Stick to XP Service Pack 2 as long as you can. Wait till hardware vendors have fixed their problems with Vista, and MS itself has dealt with the bugs in Vista SP1. Also, XP with 1 GB RAM runs very well, Vista will hog it. You'll have to turn off the special effects then.

At least until SP3!

SP3 for Windows XP Professional is currently planned for 1H CY2008. This date is preliminary.

SD

- any chance of that in English?:)

1st Half Calendar Year 2008.