Has anyone upgraded to there latest o/S incarnation? Do you like it and do you think it is worth it? If networking 3 computers, do all 3 have to have the same O/S?

Thanks,
Dave

I just bought a laptop with Vista and I don't like it a bit.

It may be the "old dog" thing.

But you can network it with XP.

Mike,
Hope you don't mind me asking why you don't like it?

Dave

At least Dell has ONE product line that you can still buy with XP (looking at another pc for my mom). It looks like they're eyeball-deep in the Vista thing.

Ouch.

Microsoft has a habit of premature, uhhh..., releases.

Windows 3 was stable when version 3.1 came out. Windows 95 was never stable, and Windows 98 was worse. Finally with Win98 SE (second edition) there was a stable version. WinME was a waste of CD plastic. WinXP was OK after SP1 but was finally good after SP2 (almost 3 years after the initial release).

I personally plan to avoid Vista for at least a year or more.

Once I have confirmation that all my drivers and programs work reliably with Vista, then it will be an option.

Until then, no stinkin' way.

XP is still available on Dell's business computers (not home computers), except the Dimension line.

It's available on the Optiplex series, the Precision series, and the XPS series (which are technically part of the Dimension series, but are designated as high end game machines).

For laptops you can get it on the Latitude and Precision series, and the top two models of the Inspiron series, again only in the business models. All the home models are Vista.

http://www.dell.com/content/products/results.aspx/optix?c=us&cs=04&dt=SmallGrid&l=en&s=bsd

This is the address that I found it on....

Vista is very pretty, but in being so, eats processor power and memory - you MUST HAVE a recent CPU and 2Gb memory to run it (and your applications) smoothly. It also has some really stupid bugs.

Networking is a doddle. I'm using Home Premium and as soon as I plugged in the network cable it was away - much easier than XP Professional. (The other computers on my network are all running XP Professional)

Loads of peripherals/drivers won't work - existing scanners are no-go! Even my laser printer would not work until Canon came up with a new driver. Fortunately Epilog is on the ball and if they have not updated the drivers on their website then they will send them by return.

Corel Graphics X3 needs SP2 to run - so presumably earlier versions don't work at all.
I persuaded my CAD program (TurboCad V12) to run, but it is not good and I'm hoping for an update soon before I go mad.
Photo programs seem to love Vista - especially Lightroom, but watch out for wierd problems with colours if the new Windows Colour Management is turned on.

I'm sure the new machine would run XP - and very fast too!

Buyers of the Business version of Vista are ENTITLED, under the Microsoft licence agreement, to "downgrade" to XP Professional. This does rather show how confident MS are about their new OS!

(I'm running home premium without the entitlement)