Windows XP, Vista, and 7: Pros and cons

[Jesdisciple]

When I first started using Linux I hosed XP Pro and have lately been looking for someone with a CD to match my license. Well, now my college has offered a license-independent solution through Microsoft's college lock-in scheme (a.k.a. Academic Alliance). I can download anything except the non-Access office applications for free, so how up-to-date should my backup plan be?

XP

Pros: I already know it and it's currently the most widely supported version.

Cons: How much longer will applications be developed for it? Microsoft refuses to give any help for it, but they don't give very good (free) help anyway, in my experience.

Vista

Pros: May soon become the most widely supported platform, unless 7 is released soon enough to overshadow it.

Cons: It doesn't have a great reputation, and it might soon be flushed down Microsoft's commode like XP.

7

Pros: I dunno.

Cons: How many applications exist for it so far (halfway rhetorical)?

EDIT: Oh, I'm not only interested in compatibility considerations. And does my hardware matter?

[blueridgedog]

Firstly, this is an Ubuntu forum and you posted in the general help section, implying you want general help with Ubuntu.

The people on this forum have faced the same decision you are faced with and opted for Ubuntu.

My take on it is XP was a pretty good OS, but the DRM in Vista and 7 made those products less viable in a modern world. All things considered, I use Ubuntu/Linux not for the price but for the freedom. That is free as in speech, not free as in beer.

[Jesdisciple]

This is for a dual-boot setup, and Windows is a backup plan - for those situations (college, for example) where I need it. And I do need it for college because of the same lock-in scheme. I'd have thought I put enough anti-Microsoft vitriol in the post to avoid that kind of response.

[Allegretto]

7

Cons: How many applications exist for it so far (halfway rhetorical)?
The large majority of Windows apps are designed to work on multiple versions of Windows. 7 is similar to Vista underneath, so 99% of programs designed for Vista will work fine on 7 too. Daemon Tools is the only one I've encountered so far that doesn't.

[blueridgedog]

This is for a dual-boot setup

Ah...well I would stick with XP...but I do have virtualbox images of all three.

I really just gave up dual booting as the only thing I ever needed to boot into windows for was to play a game and my career and family generally work out better the less games I play. I finally erased my windows setup six months ago.

[Bachstelze]

As far as my experience go:

XP

Pro: A device I absolutely need comes with drivers for XP only. That's the only reason I use XP anymore, and only on my laptop.

Con: When you're used to Vista/7, XP's user interface feels horribly dry and old. The 64 bits version is also not that great.

Vista

Pro: Much better UI. More stable (can easily run for weeks without a reboot).

Con: Some very rare applications and drivers are not compatible with it, but it's really because they are poorly written to begin with, not because of the OS itself. Takes a bit more time to boot. Takes more system resources, but if you have a recent enough computer, you should be fine.

7

Pro: It's like Vista, only better. Awesome hardware spport (came with drivers for all my hardware out of the box). Also eats a bit less resources than Vista.

Con: Same as Vista.

[Tristam Green]

I agree 100% with HymnToLife about Windows 7. It's very nice.

[Jesdisciple]

Sorry for the late response. I guess I'll go for 7 and hope I don't find myself with one of those XP-only devices. I doubt I'll use enough programs to care much about them, but you never know...

Thanks!

[SnarlSlayer]

Regarding Windows 7-- I am one of the testers for that and Office 2010, so I can give some perspective.

First, 7 is vastly superior to Vista both in speed and organization. It is a very good operating system in those regards. Second, it is clear that MS listened to some of the users complaints regarding their previous work. You can no longer delete the Trash icon by accident, for example. You can also burn ISO's simply by right clicking on a file and selecting "Burn Disk Image" (remind you of anything?). UAC can be adjusted and their backup program is very good-- it even allows you to create a disk image of your entire system. This OS from MS is the best one I've seen from them-- and I have experience dating back to Windows 3.1

I've run the latest versions of Photoshop Elements, Acrobat Professional, Firefox, Thunderbird, Premiere Elements, Ooo, MS Office 2007, MS Office 2010 and a few Shareware programs that I use-- all with no problems. I've even run GnuCash with only one minor glitch.

Now for the negatives.

It does not come with an e-mail program, photo organization or movie maker. Instead, you have to sign up for "Windows Live" to use those programs. It is clear the MS is starting to slowly move towards Web Services, similar to Google.

IE8 sucks. Really sucks. It almost feels like the entire program is designed to sell you things. Also, in the RC, you could easily change your search engine. In the final version, you can add a search engine, but "Bing" remains. With a little effort, you can make "Bing" go away.

Regarding people who say the driver support is good-- that's because MS has caught up. Two years after this OS hits the market, there will be driver problems as new hardware is manufactured. There will also be the endless updates and, I imagine, security holes. This is because of the release schedule of several years.

Overall, if you had to run one version of Windows (and currently I'm running ALL of them in my house), I'd go with Windows 7. I would caution you, however, that I do not know which programs you need to run so your results might vary.

As Mark Shuttleworth has said:

"I've kicked the tires on the [Windows 7] beta for a few hours and it was good," Shuttleworth explained, "They've put concerted attention on the user experience with the shell. I think it's going to be a great product, and every indication is we will see it in the market sooner rather than later."

Having said all of that-- if Ubuntu could handle a few things better I would eliminate every Microsoft product from my home. But I have faith that eventually I'll be able to do that.

SnarlSlayer

[Jesdisciple]

For college the programs are Photoshop and Visual Studio. (Yeah, full proprietary... for as long as the Academic Alliance thing is attractive.) Another is for my Olympus digital audio recorder. I'm sure I'd end up testing Web pages in IE8 as well.

[blueridgedog]

Regarding Windows 7-- I am one of the testers for that and Office 2010, so I can give some perspective.



My chief complaint about Vista was the meat fisted integration of DMRC/DRM which made normal file copy/paste slower than on XP. Moving a large number of files from point A to point B on the system was astoundingly slow. So much so that the net is full of complaints which have never really been addressed. People simply bought XP on new gear and paid extra for it. Dell/IBM/Lenovo/HP are selling boxes out the door today loaded with XP, licensed for Vista and statistically counting as a Vista sale.

Today you can buy a new Thinkpad with XP installed and rights to Windows 7. Windows 7 may be to Vista what Windows XP was to Windows ME/98 but I haven't seen any indication that has addressed the real privacy concerns of the public.

I hope it is what MS users want it to be, but at the same time the complete failure of Vista has given Linux such a boost on the desktop that I more or less hope the inertia continues. I personally know of many businesses and organizations that have switched to Linux in part due to the difficulties with Vista. I know of several large organizations that as of today do not have a single computer running Vista in them but do have a few Linux desktops and more than a few Linux servers (not to mention the netbooks).

[tenghoward]

Windows XP

Pros : Speed, low resource requirement and very Stable (for x64, which is built around 2003 server).

Cons : Microsoft demanded programmers and computer manufacturers to avoid XP. So just how long before no apps can run on XP? DirectX 10 has not been ported to XP officially.

Windows Vista

Pros : Supported longer than XP.

Cons : Vista is SO resource intensive. Bloated.

Windows 7

Pros : Longest support from Microsoft. Use less resources compare to Vista.

Cons : Still bloated in my opinion. No classic theme anymore. High price. 2GB of RAM for x64 edition in minimum, are you kidding me?

In my opinion the best Windows is Windows 2000.