Windows Operating System

It’s time for a new computer and I have read many of the comments in the forum but my question revolves around the windows operating system. Over the years I have used the windows operating systems from 3.x to 95, 98, XP and media center edition and each version over the span of over the past decade has improved performance and stability. (As is should with the cost Microsoft charges for each OS) Over the years I have purchased box systems and built my own, each with its own benefits. But as I ready to get a new box, I am stuck on the OS. XP for me has been great. The best MS has built so far and does everything I need and I can’t remember the last time it blue screened on me. So my new 64-bit options are windows professional, vista or 7. Vista is available with free upgrade now when MS releases 7. But how much better are vista or 7 than XP professional? Sure it is nice to have the better fluff, but for those of you who have used vista or run the pre-release version of 7, what do you see from the performance/efficiency end that would benefit those of us in photography to upgrade to vista/7? Is it worth time figuring out a new operating system for the real performance/efficiency benefits that are associated with it? (If they exist) We are always associating something new with it being better than what we already have when my question is will vista and 7 be better than XP professional? Has Microsoft really produced a better OS that we REALLY need to buy and spend our time learning or does XP do all we need? Either way I will be buying a new OS, but will my time spent learning the newer OS be realized at the back end in an increase in performance and efficiency? Time is money…. What do you guys think?

David - I don't have much first hand experience having only used Vista for a short time. I am using XP Pro and Vista 64 Ultimate though, and may go to Windows 7 when the final release is available. I almost always think it's worth upgrading once platforms become stable, since you get the newest support, most stable platform, best features, and typically much improved security.

Sure Vista is a bit of a memory hog, but not really any worse than XP (since SP1 anyway), and 7 is supposed to be much better. Vista has some great features, is more stable and has more support than XP. I don't really see a reason not to get Vista, unless you just want to stick with what you know until 7. But XP won't be supported forever, and there's really no compelling reason to stick with it.

If investing the time, money and effort in a new system in 2009, a system that you likely want to last for three to four years, one should think about the remaining life span of XP. That is, will Microsoft still be supporting XP in 2013? Only Microsoft knows but odds are that they will want to drop XP support not long after Windows 7 has seen decent adoption by its major customers. XP was introduced in 2003 and, as someone who has managed large software products (not Microsoft), I know it can be very difficult to support 10 year old software. Lastly, from articles I've seen in the press, it looks like it will be difficult to upgrade from XP to Windows 7 (you will basically have to back up all your data, wipe the drive clean and do a fresh installation of W7 - see for instance, articles in both The New York Times and Wall Street Journal). To me, this adds up to keeping my current (XP) system running until W7 has proven to be reasonably stable then making the jump to new hardware and W7.

It's never a good idea to use an upgrade tool to migrate from one OS to another, regardless of who publishes it. There are sufficient differences in the registry, as well and the benefit from creating a fresh, clean install without all the accumulated garbage that most windows installations contain to make it worthwhile installing. Yes, each time there is a new OS there are greater resources required to run it, but it usually can do more, memory prices and performance continue to improve, so those issues are mostly relative. The big issue is to get the correct hardware to support it - if your motherboard only supports 3 gb ram, but the OS works best with 6, then its the wrong motherboard for your purposes.

To put things in perspective - my first computer had a 4.77 khz 8 bit cpu, 640 kb ram (it was fully populated), a 10 mb hard drive, could display 640x400 resolution, needed a second monochrome monitor to handle text, ran IBM DOS 2.1 and cost almost $4000 - yes, that is not a typo, 4 thousand dollars. :)

David--I'm in pretty much the same spot as you. I've been using Windows since day 1 and now think that XP is the best so far. I need a new computer but don't want Vista. My wife bought a new Dell a little over a year ago and got Vista on it and has had nothing but trouble with it. She constantly wishes she had gotten an Apple!

Anyway the advance reviews I have read of Windows 7 suggest it is as stable as XP, has Vistas clean interface, but has overcome the problems of Vista so I am waiting its release before making a purchase. I'm not jumping in now with a Vista installation that comes with a Win 7 upgrade because from what I have read it will require a complete clean wipe of the hard drive and reinstallation of everything. Good luck with your decision--Larry

I'm no computer guru, but from what I understand Windows 7 will have an add-on allowing you to run a virtual version of XP. That, to me, is enough to wait for 7 since I have a couple of old peripherals for which drivers probably wouldn't otherwise be available.

Lori

Lori--that's what I read also. That should make it possible to run all the "legacy" software without any hitches--Larry

I have two XP machines. Both are Dell, and have served me well. I skipped on Vista due to all the driver and stability issues.

Since both of my machines can't accept more than 3 GB of Ram, I'm saving my pennies for a new Win 7 machine that I'll purchase some time next year after Win 7 has been wrung out, and drivers are available from hardware vendors.

It is true that Win 7 has an XP compatibilty mode so that legacy XP apps/drivers will still run. Keep in mind that this mode is in Win 7 Release Candidate, so there is a possibility it might dissappear in the RTM version. This will be something to watch.

If you currently have a machine that will support Win 7, I agree with the suggestion to backup your stuff, reformat your drive(s) and do a clean OS install. Upgrade tools for Windoze are pretty good, but, as Gene says, a lot of crud gets left behind; especially in the registry. This could cause problems that would be hard to fix, since editing the registry is not intuitively obvious to the most casual observer. So, given the possibility of issues with an upgrade, a clean install is best.

-P

I'm assuming Win 7 will be 64 bit? If so will the virtual XP feature allow you to run the old NikonCoolscan 4000 driver? I have heard Nikon will not upgrade this driver to 64 bit. Is this true?

Everyone
Thanks for the input. Still haven't decided which way to go. It was interesting to see a review the other day comparing XP to vista to 7 for performance on equal machines. For the most part, xp was just as fast as 7.

dave

FYI, Windows 7 will only have the XP mode on the Professional and Ultimate versions of the OS. Here is a link to a site comparing the different versions of Windows 7.

I'm a little surprised that everyone wants "XP mode". Are there really that many things people have that don't have Vista drivers? I don't have anything, myself, and I've only heard of a couple of things (some older scanners, and some old audio hardware).

Adam,

Thanks for the link. It looks like XP Compatibility Mode will remain in the final version. That's good news, especially for enterprise operations that have large LANS and Database management software. The XP mode will give them time to tweak their apps so that they can play nicely with Win 7.

-Preston