XP vs Vista

[kopilo]

Here (http://www.windows-vista-update.com/Windows_Vista_vs_Windows_xp.html) is an artical that seems to show what is different between XP and Vista, seriously it doesn't seem like much but just the interface.

I don't want this to come across as bashing, but seriously it seems all MS has done is play with their graphical interfacing skills. I mean you could probably buy a shell to put over the top of XP that does all the things discribed in that artical.

Of course there are more features then is listed in that artical, but I'm not really seeing anything ground-breaking or something that I couldn't do in XP.

However that said the USB stick as RAM is cool and so is the different backing up tools (which aren't offered in XP).

[meng]

But isn't the interface a pretty major part of the OS? Don't get me wrong, I have no wish to try out Vista, in fact I gave XP the flick (at home anyway) a long time ago. But as far as most users are concerned, the interface is equivalent to the OS. And most users aren't going to obtain a shell to superimpose on XP, even if it were free.

[someusernoob]

If you have to work 5 years on a slightly different interface, you hired the wrong people.

And since 2003/2004 the almost exact same visual style is downloadable from sites like deviantart (the black bars and light blue selection colors).

The interface is actually what made me looking for alternatives in the first place. It was an XGL/Compiz video that brought me to Ubuntu, and I'm using it now for 4 - 5 months, and I'm loving it, like I didnt use anything else before.

I've tested the RC1 I believe of Vista. But it missed a lot of features Gnome and Linux offered me, so it is not an option for me. It was also really slow compared to Ubuntu Edgy, both are still in development, so imo its right to compare them.

I can't see anything that makes me jump around my room of excitement - the improvement from Dapper to Edgy really makes me jump through the whole house.

And didn't they scrap a lot of new features? I've read something like that, but don't know where or when.

But the whole point is, I care, millions of people do not care. They do not know better (or worse) - they buy a PC, Vista is pre-installed, and that's it. Even if their current computer is fine for the things they do. One campaign and everyone believes it is better, just like all the other crap that is sold.

XP vs Vista, no one cares, only some Linux users :D Really, all I read about Vista written by Windows-users are positive things. When there is something negative to say, all the others say: give them a break (in Redmond), they are allready working so hard...

[cunawarit]

Vista is far more than just a pretty interface, there are lots of great new things coming to Windows:

IIS7: IIS6 has been very successful and it has been around since 2003. IIS7 is a big improvement on IIS6, for one XML configuration files are used instead of a metabase and it has an entirely new modular architecture.

Improved shell: PowerShell is a HUGE improvement over MSH. It is actually pretty innovative, it is object oriented and based on .NET. Finally Windows will have a shell comparable to those available for *nix, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_computer_shells . I am excited about this!

IE7: FINALLY! MS will have a browser that is comparable to open source offerings. I don't play to switch to using IE7 full time, I love Firefox. But IE7 is vastly superior to IE6 and a pretty nice browser overall. However, the fact that MS now has a browser that is more compliant will benefit us all, hopefully pages that only work or render well on IE will now be a thing of the past.

Speech recognition: As far as I'm told Vista is the first and only OS with that includes speech recognition as part of the OS. I haven't seen it in action, but from what I understand you can use just about everything with voice alone, seems like a great accessibility feature.

Hybrid Drive support: Once again this is an innovation, yet Vista is often described as being just eye candy.

Improved scheduled tasks system: They have been greatly improved, now you are able to set tasks to execute when certain events happen. Scheduled tasks logging also occurs, and you can assign tasks as dependent to another.

Anyway... These are just a few of the features I am looking forward to.

[ago]

The progress of the past 5Y in the Windows world does not look impressive AT ALL, particularly when compared to what has been achieved in Edgy in only 4 months...

* New init system (event driven)
* Aiglx + Beryl (like aero but better)
* FF2 (like IE7, but better)
* CommonCustomization (no need for external scripts)
* Speak-Up
* NFSV4
* Slab
* Apparmor
* Faster boot speed
* Xen virtualization out of the box
....

Not to mention that many of the new windows Windows "innovations" have been in Linux for a while: tabs, breadcumbs, shell, XML configuration files, sudo... I am not surprised to see that 80+% of Ubuntu users shows very little interest in Vista... http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=276732

[cunawarit]

particularly when compared to what has been achieved in Edgy in only 4 months...

This thread is about the differences between XP and Vista, not what is available in other OSs...

[meng]

This thread is about the differences between XP and Vista, not what is available in other OSs...
Well this discussion is about whatever the participants want to discuss! Sure, some folks are going to drool over Vista, others are going to stick with XP, and yet others are going to stay away from both. This community is skewed towards the third option, but includes all groups.

[ago]

This thread is about the differences between XP and Vista, not what is available in other OSs...

Well you were arguing that there have been a lot of changes... Maybe... But on a comparative basis the progress shown in windows world is really poor...

[szf]

Hybrid Drive support: Once again this is an innovation, yet Vista is often described as being just eye candy.


I don't have a quibble with your other points, but if "Hybrid Drive support" == RAM Drive - that's been around for two decades...

[Kateikyoushi]

Not really, it is a hard drive with a massive flash cache and it is quite innovative. Read on (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_drive).

By the time it becomes mainstream everything will support it.
As for me, I get a pure flash drive.

[NeoLithium]

While they have made some good strides with Vista (I'm NOT supporting it though); I still can't really see it mattering much. Most people stated the truth: The bulk of Vista users will be people who buy a new PC and turn it on; that's it. It's Microsoft's major market as well, just an out of the box OS that manufacturers are putting on their systems when they ship them out.

Originally I had XP on my computer, worked ok. Usual Microsoft problems, then I tested out the Vista RC...don't get me wrong, it looks good; but the problem is that their eye candy is quite system intensive compared to other OS's; although it can look far better than Windows XP, by far. Then again, each person is different, some people like XP better, some are drooling for Vista. There's no ultimate OS, and there never will be; ultimately it boils down to what the user wants on their system; and what support and updates are provided by it. As far as I can remember, Microsoft provides system updates up to 5 years or so after their product is dead; so it also gives XP users ample time to upgrade to Vista once XP has run it's course.

[kopilo]

I think Vista will make most of it's market through it being on so many computers. I mean there was very good reasons for people to upgrade to XP from 2000 (such as not having to restart when setting IPs etc). So even though the out of box eye candy is much better then XP's I don't know if that many people will go out and Just buy Vista.

Apparently Vista is running games 10% - 15% slower, granted it is not optimised yet but it requires more RAM which means less for other applications.

[Kateikyoushi]

I do not think there is time for much more optimizations for vista.
Gamers do not have a choice anyway first quarter next year DX10 games begin to roll out and in half a year they take over.

It was always so that new pc sales gave the bulk of the windows sales.
Just imagine Joe when the new windows comes out and sees it, maaan this is fast and goes home to his 5 years old never defragmented xp which is brought to its knees by sp2 and norton megavirus and boots up in 5 minutes.

What is he going to think ?
Ahh because it's an old slow machine...

[knucklehead2354]

I don't see many differences between XP and Vista, other than the fact that Vista is making an attempt to be more secure with it's User Account Control, which I believe will work for about a year until spyware and viruses figure out a way around it. Sure, the new GUI is pretty, but with Windows Blinds I can almost achieve the same look in XP. Vista, of course, is a big memory hog, whereas I'm barely using two hundred megs on my XP partition. Vista uses about five hundred to seven hundred megs continuously (at least on my computer).

[kopilo]

Just in, I got to take a look at the Parental controls, they are deffiantly superior. Programs can be blocked depending on the time of the day, etc.

[3rdalbum]

UAC will not work for a year.

It will work for a couple of hours, until the user turns it off.

[kopilo]

Strange I thought Vista would make it so you would have be an admin to play with the UAC like you have to be in XP.