To Vista or not to Vista, thats the question!

Don't get Vista. I bought the ultra edition or whatever it is called for about $120, had my system back on XP after just a few weeks.

XP

XP.

I hated vista until I got it, and apparently I am the only satisfied customer, the only negative thing I can come up with atm is that the viewer doesn't view .gif's...

Not to vista.

Windows XP x64 edition, FTW!

I've been using Vista x64 since early 2007 and haven't really had any significant issues at all. All my software and hardware has consistently worked, and my game performance has been butter smooth at all times (partially due to my hardware of course).

It's certainly not a huge evolution from XP, but it does have some niceties that I've grown very accustomed to. Specifically, the quick-search Start menu, and various Explorer tidbits (especially the breadcrumb folder navigation). The new backup feature is very nice too, which pretty much does what OS X's Time Machine does: lets you go back day-by-day to older versions of every file on your hard drive (or just browse the whole HD as it appeared on a certain date as if it were a folder).

I couldn't possibly sit here and argue why you should get Vista, but there's no real disadvantage to it. The XP/Vista performance gap was closed with at least NVIDIA drivers quite a while ago, and all your stuff will probably work. The question is: do you fancy something new?

Whichever you get though, make sure it's the 64-bit version. You cannot use over 3.2GB of RAM (or something in that area) on 32-bit Windows, which is obviously going to inhibit your future plans significantly. Even worse, there's no way to upgrade from 32-bit to 64-bit — you'd need to start over once you want more than 3.2GB of RAM

my laptop came with vista, i spent a few hours making it look like xp and shutting services off to get all the bloat out. at this point it works just fine and its a more refined xp. i've only had issues with two programs, one runs but has graphical errors, its pretty old and made made well. the other program constantly has problems with ownership, i have to keep UAC on and run the program as administrator to run and it crashes occasionally. if you're using modern mainstream software you shouldnt have any issues. vista is unavoidably the future so if you plan on keeping the pc for a long time why not. i cant speak about game performance because i havent installed any games on it as its a laptop

XP. There is nothing Vista has to offer me that makes want to buy it.

xp x64

Vista 64 here and no problems Go for it.

XP

xp 64. I had a fresh install of vista on my new pc and had XP back on within a week.

95.

3.1

Quote from Bic-B@ll

my laptop came with vista, i spent a few hours making it look like xp and shutting services off to get all the bloat out. at this point it works just fine and its a more refined xp.

I did the same and can't complain, I have the same system on my main comp as well and I'm running 64-bit there

I'd say XP, I have a dual boot now between XP 32 and Vista 64bit and the performance difference (for me at least) is negligable with the nod going towards XP (although I think Vista SP1 did speed it up, although that could have also been the change from vista 32->64) Although my gfx card isnt DX10 (Radeon 9800pro ) So my opinion my be void with newer hardware as the performance difference would probably be nearly nonexistant with newer faster hardware. And supporting DX10 is futureproofing your system...

For reference I'm running a intel P4 3.0ghz, 2gigs 400Mhz ram, and an old radeon 9800. So go figure that XP works better for me.

I found using Vista to be extremely annoying, with shit like UAC and hidden and locked away features (idiot-proofing) to be greatly annoying when I used it. You can turn off UAC though and strip a lot of the crap out of it, so really the decision should probably come down to Do you want DX10 and are you willing to lose compatibility for some rare games and programs (the most significant one I can think of that won't run in Vista is Survival Crisis Z).

Quote from MrH2o

Thank you all for your imputs. I do fancy something new so I think Vista 64 (ultra mega super edition) will be my choice of OS!

take xp x64 before its too late.