What I am saying is that since Vista, a LOT of people have either been not buying PC's or they have been requesting XP loaded.
When Spud bought a new PC last year the salesguy tried to push Vista on Spud but only tepidly. He readily agreed to to XP when Spud sed Vista was a dealbreaker.
He mentioned over the ringing up part that a lot of folks were doing the same.
Everybody Spud knows who installed it sez it's a superior product to Vista but Spud'll stick to using XP fer now.
Be Well.
#3 | Posted by dethspud at 2009-10-22 05:42 AM
Yes, you will love it too. I'm a rather paranoid, harsh critic of all things Microsoft, never downloaded or installed Vista having watched too many laptop's issues turn ugly for students. That said, 7 appears to be very similar in appearance, imo is far more stable (actual bugs are rare to date) and is quite pretty. I download and test many, many, MANY XP - my OS of choice - German, French, SP1, SP2, SP3, Black Edition, Superior Edition, Professional, Work Perfect Edition, etc, and the very best Ultimate XP. I test both 32-bit and the 64-bit on multiple machines (I just gave seven boxes away) under different hardware and can easily backup any and all information from an XP box - the drivers are another story, but a careful examination of your Devices and driver download prior to re-installation typically works best. 7 makes a majority of driver hunting obsolete - I tested with old cards of every stripe - SCSII controllers, USB controllers, NICs, modems, audio, video, cameras, printers and even digital I/O cards - 7 correctly discovers 90% of them. When you are ready to test it out, I want to know your thoughts.
Strangely, a couple of the large manufacturers such as Lexmark haven't gotten their drivers updated, so Windows 7 might have problems. Cameras also appear to have the least driver support. Otherwise, I'm always scouring for new compatibility issues.
The Office suite problem - I do use ripped copies that have been simplified and compacted for portability. There is a Windows 7 specific problem that the environment claims is "not enough memory", and I'm uncertain if this is purposeful. Other people have problems with Office 2007 - which seems typical for Microsoft to develop incompatibilities directly into their flagship OS. Since I'm not in a class that requires Office I re-tired OpenOffice at a fellow Drudge recommendation and it works just fine for me. In order to support my bevy of friends I will find the Office answer this weekend.
What's quite funny is that Microsofts Medical Office Simulation Software doesn't install on Windows machines correctly. So yesterday I wrote a 51-line instruction for installation on any MS OS that meets minimum requirements and sent it to my mom's school. An entire years worth of students are not even getting support from Microsoft itself.. how unexpected.
Microsoft eventually will suddenly stop supporting XP, just as they have done 98, ME, and 2000 - even as just the week prior they made a deal with Dell to cut the costs on business machines just to eliminate the 2000 boxes. Quite evil.
I'm sticking to Windows 3.1.
#7 | Posted by wisgod at 2009-10-22 07:50 AM
Windows 3.11 is the first commercial OS with networking. As a minimum platform it can't be beat.
BlueSun - you can trust me, Windows 7 is worth it and I don't ever mean to shill for Microsoft. It's very pretty, very straightforward, secure and stable. Try any release candidate on an older 2GHz desktop you prolly have stored in your spare bedroom. As for video conferencing I have no idea what software you use, but am certain 7 won't degrade the experience. XP rocks, but is not taking advantage of the newer hardware options in the manner that 7 does.
