New computer but without Vista?
 

DH and I are looking at new computers and wondering about Vista? Everyone I have talked to say when you get a computer get rid of Vista and put XP in??

So far; no one I have talked to likes Vista including people in our computer club and the webmaster too. He put XP in both his new ones.

I had heard the "Vista bugs" were taken care of but wondered if they really were.

I would hate to pay for a program then toss it.

Thanks for any advice suggestions you may have.

Hi Janie!

I was so excited a year ago to order a new computer with Vista installed.

Now I find that it is not compatible with my version of WordPerfect. I don't want to pay to upgrade my WP, so guess I will have to use MSWord until it straightens itself out. :mad:

I haven't found anything else to not like about it, though. I think I could still be content with XP -- there just isn't that much to rave about Vista from a non-techie point of view.

I must be a strange one since I absolutely love my Vista. I don't have any issues with it at all and love the new look. It practically runs itself! It took some time to get used to it but nothing hard or frustrating. Maybe the people who don't like it have software compatibility issues? All of my old programs work on it like Photoshop, Mcafee, Lynksys and Word. I do have one scanner that is having issues but I just grab my old computer for that.

Overall, Vista works well for me. I have had some software probs. (programs that absolutely would not run on Vista), which resolved when I bought newer versions of the programs. I think, as long as you're prepared to possibly spend some money either upgrading or replacing some programs: Vista should be fine.

I've not had any major problem with it.

I'm still on XP but my girlfriend has a brand new computer, and so far it's spent more time away getting repaired, that it's spent at her house. Poor Cleo (the computer) is very close to getting booted out!

She hates Vista.

I've had Vista for 12m now on a new PC, and it is very good. Better than XP.
The only thing to be wary of with Vista is installing it on anything that is not new or certified as being Vista compliant. This is most important. My sound card was not fully compliant, and would not download sound from camcorder tapes. Had a new card put in, after much problem searching.
Also, when Vista came out a lot of hardware suppliers had not updated their drivers, so many things just didn't work well if at all. These weren't Vista bugs.
If you get everything new and certified, you will be very pleased with it, I'm sure.
You will always find "experts" who are more concerned with egos and how much smarter they are, but their opinions are likely to be more self serving than trying to help the average punter.
Go for it!

grins u are strange sandy lol just funnin ya but i have had no trouble with vista yet either
i do know memory is an issue with vista 2 gigs works better with it

Thank you all for your response. I guess part of the problem is anything "new" is scary to old folks like us!

Right now I am only using 20% of the capacity of this computer as I don't download much and memory isn't an issue except for my pea brain.

Since this computer is 4 years old; I was told I should get a new one because in "computerese" four years old is ancient.

We like this one and are comfortable with it but would like a laptop too. DH is a gamer and "hogs" this one when he is home.

I would use the laptop just for e-mails and sites I visit so Vista may not be that big of a problem since I won't be downloading anything.

Thanks again!

Before and after getting a laptop with Vista, I had posted; I don't know if any of the info. may be helpful in your situation, yet it might be:

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread33707.html
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread38134.html

It might be best to research the various brands of computers and the warranty coverage and repair stats.
Also,
You might be able to request XP on it if you buy at a smaller computer place vs online or a big box store.

Having a laptop is handy to have around for a spare.:D

I just bought a new laptop and went with a MAC so I wouldn't have to deal with Vista. None of the programs that I use are compatible with Vista and it's easier to use a dual platform on the MAC rather than fight with Vista.

I watched one guy in the training class for the landscape design software class get so frustrated with the compatibility problems with Vista and the software that the instructor finally gave him her laptop to use. It was a learning experience for the software company as well! They found out that they had a lot of work to do on their upgrade! It was NOT working with Vista at all!!!

I use WordPerfect and will not use Word at all. I never have and feel I should not have to change word processing programs just because MS has something new and better!

Change is not always for the better. Customers should be given the option to stay with XP or go with Vista, especially in light of the all the problems it has had since its release!

They just lost one customer....

Yeah! I agree girl; we are at their mercy! :mad:

I wondered about a MAC so I will do some research as I don't know anything about a MAC system.

I got a new laptop with Vista installed already when Vista was brandnew and still a lot of hassle. I had noticed that XP was getting slower and slower on my old pc and was told by a guy that is in the programming business, that Microsoft tends to hide bugs in their updates that slow your pc to a crawl over the 6 months prior to the release of a new operating system. Also, I do not like Microsoft or anyone having the right to have a lot of personal data about me, enter my computer at will, copy things out of there I cannot see and send them somewhere else, which all happens when you start updating, they will only allow you to update after you allow them to install some stuff Genuine Advantage that will force you from then on to allow this sneaking around on your pc. So I installed XP instead of Vista, had it ratified by phone, and now enjoy using XP at incredible speed and staying that way on a laptop that had enough memory built in to accommodate Vista, which eats up at least three times the memory of XP.

I've laptop computers with XP and with Vista. I've not noticed any "slowing" on either computer. My latest runs Vista; it started with 140 GB and is now standing at 68 free. It still runs as fast as when I got it (December '07).

Defrag'ing, cache clearing, etc., might help when a 'puter seems to be running too darn slow.

Most of the probs. I've heard about with Vista are related to installing it on older computers... orginally XP or prior platform-compatible.

Vista isn't perfect, yet, it does perform fairly well as long as older software versions will also work - without upgrading. Some software apps. do have patches available, though.

If I had to buy today...
 

I guess I would finally concede to my son.... Get a MAC...

That is all I hear! Better system, better security, and they have Mosaic
screen saver. I'd get it just for THAT....it is a cosmic graphic program.

It also appears to be be faster and easier for graphics manipulation --I watched him do photos, and it was far easier than my PC.

So when this Dell dies, I guess I will try a MAC. If you are going to futz around with drivers and incompatibility, why not go UP rather than down?

Also there is always the Free Open Source Linux Operating systems..

my favorite so far is Simply Mephis :D
http://www.mepis.org/


Linux free Operating systems {OS} info and sites

http://www.linux.org/
http://www.ubuntu.com/

variety of info on all OS -
http://www.computerhope.com/os.htm

I use both Linux and XP on my computer depending on what i am doing...
With dual boot system - You can choose which OS to load at start up. XP or the Linux OS.

It took me awhile to find the Linux OS's that recognized my wireless card without me having to anything.
Dlink - WDA-1320
The above card was recognized right away on my system by Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Simply Mephis, and a few others but these are my favs so far.

About a year ago I bought a new laptop for DDs as I use my computer for work all the time. I bought a MAC book too and we absolutely love it! Unfortunately, the FTP site we use for transcription is not yet compatible with a MAC.

Additionally, I have to use Word and sometimes when you type in word on a MAC and pull the document in a MS environment you get some funky things. There is a program that helps with this but since I don't use it for work I didn't purchase it.

All in all I love the MAC computers (used one when I went back to school and now have our laptop). We have had no problems with it at all.

EDIT: AZJanie Compusa does sell used/refurbished computers that you can get with XP on them. The prices aren't too bad at all.

I don't know whether it's still the same or if things have changed: On my older Power Mac, what I discovered was that upgrades to the O/S and drivers consumed so much space that, eventually, the system performed much more sluggish than has any PC I've owned (and I've had 4 so far, which out-perform the Mac).

The upside with Mac, as someone else mentioned: dual platform and the quality of graphics rendering.

My main computer runs Window XP, and is 18 months old. My concern is Microsoft wants to stop supporting XP in 2009. No support would mean no more software programs = no virus protection.

"No support would mean no more software programs = no virus protection."

I don't know about that part - I think there will always be virus protection available from other sources.:confused:

I found more info on the subject.
my parents are still using Win 98 and it is just fine
there's always Linux OS's too !

[Windows XP: Going, going....gone?
According to Microsoft's timeline, XP is on its way to becoming an ex-operating system The result of all this tweaking is that Microsoft will stop selling XP long before it stops supporting it. You may be able to run XP for as long as you want, but before too long you may not be able to buy a legitimate copy of XP to run.

So will there be any way to get a copy of XP after June 30? If you want to continue using XP, what problems will you face? If you buy a PC with Vista installed and decide you want XP instead, what are your options?

But even before that, XP faces a major event in an entirely different lifecycle, one that Microsoft has said very little about: the sales lifecycle.

The key dates for sales come much sooner than 2009 or 2014. In fact, in only a few weeks, on June 30, 2008, Microsoft will stop selling XP through its retail and OEM channels (the OEMs are big manufacturers like Dell and HP that sell PCs with Windows pre-installed).

System builders, the "white box" retailers who build PCs to order, will be given another seven months, but on January 31, 2009, a couple of months before XP exits mainstream support, Microsoft will stop selling XP altogether (except for a version sold in some less-developed countries and a special arrangement for XP Home in China).

At least that's the current information. It could change. It has before. ]
http://www.computerworld.com.au/inde...fp;;fpid;;pf;1

[QUOTE=Av8rgirl;267589]

I use WordPerfect and will not use Word at all. I never have and feel I should not have to change word processing programs just because MS has something new and better!
QUOTE]

I prefer WordPerfect, too, but find that mine is NOT compatible with Vista unless I want to shell out the $$$$ to upgrade. :mad:

another thing to mention,,,

There are open source programs not only made for Linux now there are versions made for MS Windows also.
FREE -
Open Office is like MS Office
http://www.openoffice.org/

more here- you can filter the results by operating system -
games, educational,word processing
look thru the list on the right side of the page
http://sourceforge.net/softwaremap/t...p?form_cat=131

so you can still have windows but use free & comparable programs to the MS stuff
I use the Open Office & have some of the card games too.