Vista, XP or Linux?

The Sly Fox

Hi, all. I know I've been gone for a while, but I came to ask you guys for an opinion. I bought a new Compaq laptop a few weeks ago. It was a discontinued model that was on sale. It was labeled "Vista Capable," meaning that when Vista was scheduled to come out a week or so later, I would get a free upgrade.

Sounds good, right? Here's the problem. My new laptop has 512MB RAM, and a 1.5GHz Celeron processor. I've heard that those specs are fine for XP, but if you try to put Vista onto that, you end up with something that is rather slow. For Vista to run smoothly, you need over 1GB of RAM, or so I've heard. Not to mention, I've also heard that Vista is going to have major DRM (Digital Rights Management) issues in the future. Granted, it's not the future yet, but it's something to think about. You can read about it here:


http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/12/27/windows_drm_monstered/

There are alternatives of course. I could always keep using my trusty XP that I've used for the last four years... or I could make the switch to Linux. I've been interested for a while, but I've been a bit leery of such a dramatic change. I've read stories of new Linux users finding themselves in situations where almost nothing worked, and they even had trouble re-installing their old Windows.

However, the Linux I'm refering to is Ubuntu. According to many users, it runs like a dream, and has its own set of Office software (which I really need for study work). It even supports most major files (MS Office files, WordPerfect files, most media files, etc.) with a little fine-tuning. It's even completely free of charge. Since it's non-proprietary, it should have few problems with DRM for a while! Not to mention I rarely use Microsoft software anymore. My computer's never had MS Word on it, I rarely use Windows Media Player and have been a happy Firefox user for two years now. Linux would probably be just taking my computer the rest of the way into fully alternative software. You can read about Ubuntu here:


http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,120520-page,1/article.html

Now I'm going to ask you guys what you think... should I upgrade to Vista, keep XP or switch to Ubuntu Linux? I'm very strongly considering Linux, but I would really like to know what Linux users think about their OSes before I switch. I would really appreciate some insight!

By the way, It's good to be back! B-)

s96024

Id go XP at the moment. You can get basic versions of vista without all the fancy graphics which is ok. It's just the high spec version you need a high spec pc. Apparently it has lots of bugs at the moment and not many programs yet work with the o/s. Once they iron out all the problems it may be worth it. But imo it's ridiculously overpriced.

DAWUSS

I am going to rely on XP for as long as I can before switching to Vista

Nightshooter

OS X.

I'd agree, stick with XP until Msoft gets rid of the kinks of Vista.

TonyDP

Linux is a great open source OS; I used to run statewide mission critical databases on top of it when I was a DBA. But when it comes to the desktop, support is still spotty and drivers most popular hardware are slow to come and often don't support all features. Getting support can also be tricky. Since Linux is free you can always give it a try and if you don't like what you get, wipe the drive and reinstall XP.

But personally, I'd stick with XP.

The Sly Fox

Well, I decided to give Linux a go... I figure since it can boot off the CD drive, it's worth a test drive! I'm still running it on my old desktop PC, though--all my work is in my laptop, so I can't risk a hard drive crash! :P

From what I can see, it's pretty similar to Windows. I haven't seen any hardcore issues... not yet, anyway... Things in general seem a bit slower than they do on Windows (but this could be due to the CD drive). Things look pretty generic, it looks a bit 'retro' when compared with XP. What I'm really having trouble with is the refresh rate; it won't go above 60Hz. Maybe it's just because I'm booting it off the CD. I think I'm going to try a full install of it, but I'll leave XP intact. This way I can just dual-boot them and see how it goes. If I don't like it, I can just wipe it and start over like you say, TonyDP! I'll still be able to run my Windows programs, too.

As for my laptop, I'm definitely going to send in for the Vista disc (it is a free upgrade, after all :P ), but I'm not sure when I'm going to upgrade it... I'll probably stick with XP for a while, at least until I can upgrade the memory. Maybe it's possible to triple-boot XP, Vista and Linux? :P Have any advice, TonyDP?

By the way, even if I do completely make the switch, I'm always going to keep a copy of Windows (XP in particular) handy. Open source is a wonderful idea, but it's still open source, and there's always going to be bugs...

TonyDP

I seriously doubt you can have Vista and XP on the same box; Vista and Linux maybe. But I've been out of the IT racket for several years so I'm nowhere near an authority anymore.

As for the Linux desktop having a plain or retro look: that's homebrew for ya. The very nature of open source means that major commercial corporations will always treat it as a stepchild as it's a limited source of income. They'll provide drivers and make sure their hardware will work (eventually) but as to GUI issues, it will always be playing catch-up to MS and Apple's products and you'll always find yourself going to secondary sources for updates and fixes.

I'd wait on Vista for a while though, 6 months at the very least. No matter what MS says there will be bugs when a new OS debuts, there will be driver issues, and there will be issues with legacy hardware and software. Apple is already advising some iPod owners of problems with Vista. Also, Vista is a memory hog. Don't even think about installing it unless you have at least 1GB of RAM.

Barry Nelson

We recently purchased a new computer at work, it is a stand alone unit, not part of our network. It came with Vista and all I can say is wow. It looks glorious, has worked great so far, is hooked up to an HP printer with no problem and has run all the other software programs fine. Has a few security things that are annoying, but otherwise I think it is great. I intend to swap out my home system soon. I would also like to add that the new Office suite is great also. Many upgrades that make life easier, especially web publishing.

chris Walken

linux is a huge learning curve its alot more complicated then xp

Barry Nelson

I have been running Vista for several weeks now and thought I would mention a few things I have noticed.

Installing was easy and a couple minor bugs I use to have with XP have disppeared after the install. The install did take about five hours of run time.

The security issue everyone mentions is no problem as far as I am concerned. Every now and then a little window pops up and asks if you want to allow a program to run, you hit yes and move on, what's the big deal.

My computer has gotten slower, I had 500 mgs and I noticed a slow down, I have ordered a 1 gig chip for just over a 100 bucks and will install that, which I believe will solve the spped issue. I would say you need 1 gig to run Vista.

File search has been improved greatly, click the start button and then in the lower left hand corner type in your file name and it finds it about a second. Really think this is a huge improvement over the old file search.

Vista comes with a lot more maintenance programs including a system assesment tool that will review entire system and locate any problems.

Vista also allows better storage of media files. It has folders for pictures, video, etc and automatically saves them there. Once again a big improvement.

All in all I think Vista is a big improvement and defeinitely recommend it.