I will never atop using xp. It does everything I want it to do. If
ms thinks they can force me into vista they are wrong. I will quit computing first!

This is just like the whole New Coke, Original Coke marketing blunder. Vista=New Coke and XP=Original Coke.... Can you get New Coke anymore? What ever happened to New Coke? Maybe Microsoft should look at marketing history.....

Although my operating system of choice is Linux, there are times when I need to run Windows. In those cases I have not had any issues with XP, however Vista has caused more problems than it resolved....

LINUX Time !! Recently evaluated this and it will meet my needs. The only business Microsoft will get from me is for the XBox - which I will be able to buy thanks to the savings on Vista and MS Office being replaced with Linux/Open Office.

I would propose that Vista be renamed Windows ME version 2. They both we an interim product while we waited for the next one.

Vista is too painful to use.

I just got a new laptop with Vista and after suffering with:
* Mother-may-I dialogs
* A mysterious ailment that would not allow Firefox to install
* 2 hrs on the phone with Dell trying to install Firefox
* A complete nuke and re-install of Vista
* The sluggishness­ on the fastest laptop I could buy
* The lost feeling that nothing is where it should be
* Broken apps
* Funky transparent stuff that was really hard on my middle age eyes.

Maybe I am not technical enough for it --­ I own a small windows software development house with 15 programmers.

I finally installed XP and I am much happier about the new laptop.

If I will be forced into Vista I would go to Ubuntu (Linux). And Linux users will be very happy with new hardware driver translator (from XP - and in future Vista - to Linux) that is being developped.

Oh stop it… This is like steam engines, vinyl records, and now the internal combustion engine, time to move on, anyone who thinks that trying to cling to an aging, obsolete technology is progressive or beneficial is dreaming. No responsible IT personnel should support any company that creates such a morass, especially with its abysmal record of wasteful fraud. They are being crushed in every developing technology sector that they compete in, their brain trust is rapidly retiring or simply selling out, Ballmer is ignorant and utterly incapable of keeping the burgeoning behemoth up to even its former dimness. Turn out the lights. Don't be afraid of the alternatives, they do everything as well or better, you WILL be happier…

Vista works fine on a new computer. You babies need to grow up and switch from diapers to underwear.

PLEASE! Vista is NOT progress. It's clunky, cumbersome, gobbles memory like my kids eat skittles, and is nothing but a lame "me-too" product... (Hello, Mac).

I ordered my last laptop with XP for the very reasons listed by all the critics (Meaning those who don't hug new OS's just because they're there- Also known as the apologist first adopters).

Microsoft needs to get over itself, and it's sway in the marketplace. These "take it or leave it solutions" are akin to the attitude that made IBM slip from being a giant, to an ant.

Vista Schmista. I don't want to buy all new hardware, and software just because Microsoft wants to build a new wing. Instead, they should build a new really good OS. Then, people will come to it and demand it, rather than having a nice looking piece of trash pushed down their CPU's throat.

I predict this "Vista attitude" may very well be the beginning of the end for Microsoft. I know it sounds silly, but remember, K-Mart used to be the number one retailer, and before that Sears, and before that... Montgomery Ward.

I am not anti-MS. I am PRO great products at great prices that are designed for the common good. Microsoft. ARE YOU LISTENING??? There, I said it.

Bring this noise. As XP dies, Apple rises and Linux catches the crumbs.

Vista isn't bad, but really MS is just looking for some $, as a companies must. But they won't call everyone's bluff, it's simply too dangerous.

Don't be afraid. Just switch to Linux and become a member of a really free society. Truly from a happy Ubuntu user

After 15 years supporting Windows operating systems and DOS, Vista may be the OS that drives me to LINUX. God help us all and save us from Vista.

Vista was To be a refresh of winxp in the beginning and not a new os but 5 yrs later we get something that is slower than xp and oem's put out machines that dont have enought ram to run I have 3 machines 2 with xp mec 2005 and one with vista the one mce2005 is a laptop and that vista basic on it and it was slow but now it flys

I do Audio engineering work on my computer...
Has taken me years to learn how to get under the hood of XP to disable all the extras that arent necessary for my purposes...
The hardware available now in my opinion has really just caught up with this OS enough to make a non-customized install feel responsive...

BUT. I dont have to buy it now do I?
We will all start to lose out when hardware manufacturers stop writing drivers for our devices, and "compatibility mode" starts to break down.

Hopefully they will make a more adaptable and "ready for prime time" version of the OS at some point, but it is absolutely NOT their style.

We should all start getting ready to cozy up to linux... It was going to happen sooner or later.

I'm a software architect that has over 17 years experience with Windows OSs and DOS, however, the current Vista drives me crazy. I believe they have to re-design the entire OS from scratch, or else, they lose the market to other OSs around.

I'm XP user in Japan.
At work place and home or anywhere, I cannot find any reason to move to Vista.
I installed Vista Ultimate (as I'm JAP PC Geek = OTAKU) in my PC last year but unfortunately I found no good reason to say goodbye to XP.
I am sorry Microsoft, but I've got nothing to appreciate Vista Ultimate, Ultra Expensive OS.
My Geek friends just gave up on Vista...

If there will be no moore update I go to LINUX not to Vista

I will never sign such a petition.

I prefer to get rid of big brother with using my energy to spread GNU/Linux, which is definitely the OS of the future. Try Ubuntu and you'll know why.

"It's like having a comfortable apartment that you've enjoyed coming home to for years, only to get an eviction notice. "

If you like your apartment so much, don't move. Nobody is forcing you to buy a new PC. And you are welcome to buy a retail copy of XP before the end date so you can use it for the rest of eternity if you so wish.

Evolve or die.

vista is shit. win xp professional 4ever

Amen! Microsoft screwed up when they made the hardware requirements so unrealistic and financially difficult for businesses and home users.

I have a perfectly good Dell system at home that is fast and has all applications humming along nicely. My network at my office is the same...things are running perfectly and we have a solid XP/2003 environment which works--imagine that ;-)

Selling this Vista upgrade (hell, selling the Windows and Exchange 2007 upgrades) is nearly impossible. The amount of money it would take to upgrade our hardware is staggering AND we would be left with dozens of servers that are not only still under warranty but are hardly junk machines.

What were they thinking? As I've said in other posts...does this remind anyone of Windows Millennium?

Never ceases to amaze me...

In my PROFESSIONAL opinion, Vista has caused far more headaches for my users than it has solved.

MS is clearly and obviously moving in the wrong direction with Vista. They made their attempt but they failed. This will herald the beginning of the end for MS unless they change directions.

Don't forget, they even tried to tell us NT4 MCSEs that our certification wasn't worth ANYTHING a few years ago, but had to withdrawal that stupid move. My MCSE is still worth every drop of sweat I spent studying for that damn test.

So, my statement is: Microsoft, YOU change or die. Don't force us to have to do it FOR YOU.

just thought i should point out that waqy back when XP was released everyone said the same things about it as they are about Vista and as a HAPPY Vista SP1 user i can say it is nowhere near as bad as you all say it is, not sayin its as good as XP but hell ubuntus better than that why dont we all go there

before changing to vista i think about changing to apple.
its a shame, i liked xp so far. stable meanwhile and brings everything i need and want.

Before I allow being forced to switch to Vista I will start the sometimes tedious migration to Linux.

no.reason.for.vista

Call me when the make system that is more memory and CPU optimized then XP while maintaing the new functionality.

Alright! Friends don't let friends do Vista! Asta la Vista, Vistanistas!

But even XP is full of bloat. Windows 2000 was the last time I felt any confidence with Microsoft products as a developer. I'd rather Microsoft went all the way back to Windows 2000 and roll forward again, without all the insane DRM garbage.

I'm one of those old timers who think an actual OS improvement is one that runs faster, more securely, more efficiently, interfaces with hardware better, and makes applications perform much better as a result. Even though Linux is growing in size, many times it manages to do things faster and more efficiently. Vista is a huge drooling mastiff sucking up the hardware resources of what should be a banging good machine. Microsoft Office has become a huge bloated wad of software as well, and I don't like playing hide and seek with the features I'd want to use. Sun's Open Office is consistent and better every year. VB6 had over 4 million developers...and it's a shame VB.Net had to be made incompatible to the degree it is. Because Microsoft had to 'me too' with Sun over Java, we have to have the huge .net frameworks and Java runtimes. Microsoft couldn't just try making their languages output Java classes and jars since that might have cut a billion or two in possible profits. Microsoft laughed at CUPS printer driver issues that occasionally befall Linux and continues to encourage proprietary approaches to device drivers. And then Apple bought CUPS, the premier open software unix printing system technology. Like so many others, Linux has become my refuge from that insanity of the behemouth Vista. Vista has got more lines of code in it than mainframe's have, lacks adequate real world testing, ...and it's not making anyone's existing PC any better, if it can run at all on it. I don't like having to toss a PC into the landfill just because it doesn't read the latest Office formats or support Bluetooth toothbrush to cell phone interfaces.

Vista is nothing but a downgrade to XP. Really MS needs to can that sh*t.

I have no reason to downgrade to a worst OS than XP.

I think the attached url says it all: http://blip.tv/file/340692/

I sure think it's strange that Microsoft is going to roll out XP Service Pack 3 and then shortly thereafter shelve XP. What are those clever MS executives thinking?

I'll never sign such a petition.
Either grew up and stop your childish rant, use OSX or Linux.

If Vista does not run smoothly on your PC, your PC is obviously too old to handle new software and should be thrown in the garbage an instant.

If your software is not Vista compatible, then your software is obviously too old and you should buy an upgrade.

If money is a problem for you, use a PS3 and stop whining.

I have some understanding for large companies who can't roll out because of this and that, but heck, the XP licenses are still running after MS will stop selling it.

Either they listen, or June 2008 will be the date from which I purchase any new PC with Linux pre-installed.

I have been using XP since it came out. I thought it looked like a toy, but after using it, I like it's built in features. I started using vista on my new laptop I just purchased. Its annoying sometimes, but I want to give it a chance before I reformat and put XP back on it. I still use XP on my desktops. I think that Microsoft should still sell it to those who still want to use it.

Vista is a pointless waste of processing power and space - I downloaded and tested from beta, through release candidate one, and have spent time working with the production version. All of them were chronic. I've been running dual-booted pcs for years with windows 98,2000,xp, and various flavours of linux with each - so far, from what I can see, I have to say that a system running vista isn't worth even dual-booting, due to the bloating of the os - you certainly wouldn't want them on the same partition, just in case a new SP comes out and desperately needs 200 gigs of your hard drive just to update 20 files in vista (exaggeration, I know).

In the meantime, I'll stick with dual-booting all my machines with xp and linux, most likely fedora or openSuSE.

I'm not signing this purely on the grounds that I don't believe it would do any good - what are m$ gonna do? recall all vista machines and grade them to xp? not likely.

Back to openSuSE for me, and customizing to run all my windows software, so I will never again need to worry about windows...
all I need now is decent linux support for ati...

@BigEd: Obsolete technology you say?XP & Vista work on the same file system (ntfs), same processor architecture (x86,x64), same ol' DOS underneath etc etc. How about that? The only thing's changed is the API, the GUI and the OS architecture - well, kind of for the latter , actually. Cheers.

I have thoroughly experimented with Vista on some of the fastest hardware available - both desktop and laptop - and found that Vista is absolutely riddled with problems, far too many for it to be even considered as a viable OS for daily use.

Win XP has matured into a very good OS, looking at it from all angles. It is unfathomable that Microsoft would take it off the market now, when it is really in its prime.

I would like to see progress from Microsoft. I would like to see a good Vista, but that's not the Vista we have today.

Used to be that I would upgrade an operating system to get better, faster performance. All Microsoft does is continue to add bloat. They not only force you to upgrade all their software packages... they force you to upgrade your hardware too!

All of this just to try and get the same performance you used to get before.

Not only is Vista crap but so is the company. Just because they've got billions to play around with bloated software does not mean everyone else has that kind of money to throw away.

I wouldn't even bother to try and save XP. It's time to switch to another company (Apple) or OS (Linux/BSD) that cares about the end users.

Rest in pieces, Microsoft.

Wow, that is a pretty crappy attitude, Adrian. Everyone should have the right to choose, whether it be Windows vs Linux of XP vs Vista. I try to evolve constantly with new technology, but if I bought everything new the second it came out I would never be able to keep up. And why would people NOT sign the petition because they choose Linux? Don't force your ideas on others. I run an old P3 with Linux Mint at home and it works great. But as a business IT manager some things require--yes, require--Windows. Do I like that? No, but until Windows dies completely its a fact of life. And regardless, EVERYONE should be able to choose. Period.

I have three Vista PCs (Dell M90, Asus Asteio D20 and an OQO E2), running three versions of the OS (Business through to Ultimate)

All without any problems at all? Of course not they are PCs!

As good as XP? Yes
Better than XP? Yes is some ways
Worse than XP? Yes in some ways

Am I happy with Vista? Yep

Would I upgrade to Vista for the sake of it? No, if I was running XP fine then I wouldn't upgrade, but if I was to buy a new PC I'd get Vista by default.

Oh and BTW, my main PC is the Dell M90 laptop and I have it configured to dual boot into XP. I did this as a safety net against the scaremongering going on. I've booted into it once in 12 months and only because I thought I had an app installed on it that I didn't have on Vista (I didn't so booted back and installed on Vista)

Don't be put off getting Vista unless you're scared of progress.

I agree with MOST of the comments here, My mother has a New Dell Inspiron 1520 Laptop with Vista Home Prem. It works, never had a problem with it. When I first set up the computer new, loading into windows vista, it logged in and went straight to a BSOD. But it was just that one time. It has some nice features,....like 2. Windows update really through me, I dont like the new update interface at all. UAC and DRM are a couple of P.O.S.'s. To install a new program it asks for permission what? five six times??? I have used windows since Windows 3.11, 95/98/me, NT 4.0/2000 and XP, and I really miss the old days. Windows 98 was my favorite so far for windows os's. I was in High school, and had the 60's theme on my computer for years!! I just changed the background, XP/Vista doesnt even have that theme as far as I can find. But it is all about progress right?? RIGHT????!!! Why cant MS just make XP pro 64-bit more tight?? And main stream? I have a tower I built running an
AMD Athlon64X2 4600+, with 2.0GB of DDR800 ram, PCI Express X16 video card with 256MB of GDDR3 ram, and am running a legit copy of Windows XP Pro. 250GB SATA hard disk, and 16x Dule Layer DVD+- SATA drive with a 16 in one media card reader. Everything works 100%. I have played with Ubuntu linux in the past. I like it but for some reason could not boot the 64-bit version. The DVD would not read and it would just post to windows xp. But the 32-bit version ran from the live CD and I could install it no prob. My next computer though will be a Macintosh. I am a CompTIA A+, and Network+ certified tech, who is studying for the Microsoft Certified Professional/
Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Techniction.
(MCP/MCDST). Then Cisco and Linux+, and I dont want to spend the time trying to learn Vista's in and outs, and I am a System Builder!!! I checked out the link about Vista a few posts back,
http://blip.tv/file/340692 this is so true and funny! I have the Microsoft Xbox 360 Elite game system, and my G/F has a Zune MP3 media player, and these will be the last MS products I will use for a long time. Lets hope Windows 7 will be infinitely better than Vista. It will NEED for one to be fully 100% 64-bit. None of this 64/32. But for now it makes since. Microsoft can "save" Vista though.

1. Driver support/Application support needs to improve.
2. Ditch DRM/UAC
3. More Windows Vista Exclusive hardware/software!(Big one)
4. Re-start Windows Vista marketing campaigns. TV commercials, radio AND print advertising. On a day to day basis, people just forget about Vista I think because there is no reminder of it being there because of zero advertising. But Mac VS PC is on all the time, and there funny!
5. MS needs more respect and trust for their customer, especially there home users. More security is always good, but not if put in the wrong place! It should be mostly background security, not in your face pop ups!

So in summery, Vista Sux, XP Good, Linux Better, OS X Best!

What have we seen so far? Vista surged at first, then fell off. OSX took off, and is still climbing. Ubuntu is the easiest, most complete version of Linux for the masses, and it does everything 99.9% of people need. Better than Vista. Free.

I hope MS removes their thinking apparatus from their nethermost regions, and provides a good (non-ME-like) OS. Like XP. If they do not, or don't do it fast enough, well, remember Visicalc/WordStar/WordPerfect/DOS/OS2/BeOS/Xenix/ad nauseum? History will be repeated.

As a retiree, no longer actively teaching public school courses, but still using a great number of applications, the versions I'm currently using do everything I need. Unlike the commenter who said he'd quit computing before he switched to Vista, I won't be that radical, but it sure helps to be able to use the system I've become accustomed to. And as a keyboard user (rather than the mouse) I sure don't want to learn a whole new set of keyboard shortcuts!

Perhaps this is the death-toll for PC gaming.

As XP dies, more and more ex-windows users move to alternative OS's in order to avoid the horrors of Vista (reduced performance return for hardware, restrictive & nannying user environment, reduced reliability compared to previous platforms)

Since Apple and Linux are both pretty awful for gaming, these users start buying consoles (which are now getting fairly close to offering a similar gaming experience to the current PC platform).

Microsoft fail to offer enough kickbacks / incentive to keep the whole gaming industry with Vista (Halo2). Developers find it safer to develop games only for console rather than trying to second-guess the volatile desktop OS market, so drop Vista support altogether. (Rockstar looks to be going this way, with GTA IV available only on PS3/Xbox).

Microsoft won't care because:

a) the corporates are still tied to XP/Vista, obviously (or perhaps the companies that aren't sold too deep into .Net etc and want to avoid the horrific support issues associated with Vista will go with virtualisation of some kind for legacy Windows apps).

b) if MS can bully the OS market into buying their product for the last x years, they can sure as hell bully the console market into buying Xbox, especially with new alliances forged between the Xbox brand and PC gaming hardware manufacturers without a platform to produce for.

All in all this could even be for the best. Microsoft are forced to release their stranglehold on innocent home computer owners, and ex-home-PC-gamer user expectations drive the console market to a new plateau of quality (even if it is on MS hardware..).

Vista is an embarrassment to American engineering

I am the sole IT Technician/Systems Administrator for a non-profit organization with twelve separate sites in San Francisco.

In order to move the organization to Vista, I would have to replace at least 60% of the 150+ computer systems within the organization that are currently running Windows XP (and running it well!), and possibly as much as 80%...and I simply don't have that kind of money available to spend; the entire IT budget for this fiscal year was less than $35K for all 12 sites.

Not to mention having to deal with the headaches as I find and fix (or find I cannot fix) the invariable "problems" that Vista seems to cause with older hardware.

I'm fortunate in that I have VL agreements that I can lean on, and can order licenses of XP until (as far as I am aware) XP's actual end-of-life...but at this point, given the hardware requirements of Vista (and presumably any new desktop OS that Microsoft may wish to foist off onto their users), I won't be looking to Microsoft for too much longer; Linux is calling, and I know all our current systems can run that ably, as well.

And I'd rather retrain all the users on an open-source platform than on a platform that is going to cost the organization more than it can afford to spend.

For a student of Sofeware Engineering,I prefer Win Xp to Vista,I would rather use Linux than use Win Vista.They are both stabler than Vista and more easier to use!

OMG- People, prople, people.
Do you expect business to support products forever? Get over it already-if ya like XP stick with it. Geez while we're at it why not a SAVE Windows 98 campaign? Or better yet, SAVE Windows ME, there are still people using those o.s's too.

Really people, what are we worried about? I've been running Vista for 8 months. I have not had a problem. At work, where I use Office, web apps and test various programs, or at home, where I game. All my drivers work too! And my clients are happy.
Maybe we should accept the impending change, and buy some decent hardware!!

well with all this hype and hysteria on this i'm actually suprised but anyway i digress

1. i use leopard, ubuntu, windows xp so any upgrade to vista will be likely as i like playing with different OS systems
2. complaints against vista are valid in most cases
a. vista was supposed to be made to have better security well regardless no security is ever good not one real program can 100% stop virus, malware, adware, spyware so lets get real here
b. vista will become the new standard in the future but i dont think most people will upgrade due to requirements for vista at least not yet
c. i'd wait till enough software is fully compatible with vista before i go upgrade
d. honestly I think microsoft is going about this all wrong common 4 kinds of vista and 4 different prices get real, i bought leopard $125 all fully functions available for one price
3. people stick to what their familiar with, but as prices in computer components keep getting lower the transition from windows xp to vista will happen

I have been in the support industry and doing consulting since 1987.

Each time Microsoft rolls out a new OS, it seems to require 5 times the resources currently available.

The new machines work fine with XP, Vista makes it run like a 386sx! XP runs like a charm!

And I just love working for free reinstalling driver after driver as Vista inadvertently deletes them or screws them up. Instead of charging my hourly, I get poorer.

The direction MS needs to take: keep improving on XP. Forcing millions of established users to waste money on a theta test of a bloated OS is called robbery.

MS: Stop using your monopoly power to force money into your own pockets. Learn the ideals of customer service for the millions of folks using your products or someone else will.

MICROSOFT, first rid yourself of the all those leftover 'weedheads' that Bill G. may have missed.
Secondly,with whatever leftover talent you have, begin to carefully field what could still be a successful OpSys post-Vista. Thirdly, we'll be using the XP until you are really ready to field that successor OS. Waiting, YOUR move, we ARE counting on you!!!!.....rhh

XP work so wonderful on my computer, I bought my new notebook and decide to format whole vista (that come with notebook) and decide to install XP.

IF MS force me to using VISTA, trust me, I will move to LINUX rather than bloody VISTA.

SAVE THE WORLD, SAVE WINDOWS XP!

i have nothing against vista. but i paid good money for my xp 6 month ago. on the ms-help site many articles about xp are missing. i feel dumped. just when i thought the finaly made xp working the drop it...

-austria

I just got an HP Pavilion tx1308nr tablet pc and the specs were nice. I thought it was gonna be okay even with Vista installed. I was wrong. From welcome screen to load took like 2 minutes. OMG. I hate Vista but i'll have to use it sooner or later. Haven't tried Linux but from reading about it in IT class it's starting to sound like a very viable alternative to Vista.

One thing I'll give Vista--its pretty. :D

As Paul Thurrott, the self styled computer expert comments at his Windows Supersite on Vista SP1: "Windows Vista is already a stellar operating system..." Seems to be going Nova at the moment.

I dont understand the moto of this website. We can continue using XP as long as we want. Those who are threatening to switch to linux after June, 2008 ...... relax guys ...... most of you already have xp and so u definitely have the installation disk ....... keep on using it for the next 100 years ...... u just need to preserve the disk from being damaged ..... thats all ! why you guys need to freak out over a stupid countdown clock ........ no1's forcing u to upgrade .....

As for people buying new systems after June 30, 2008 ....... relax guys ...... u will definitely not buy a system that wont run Vista smoothly ..... even if u want, u wont buy old hardware right ???? even the budget pcs of today can handle vista ..... i mean with pentium dual core and at least 1 gb ram ....... right ?? how much that will cost ??? ok many might say 1 Gb is not enough ..... but if u are not a gaming enthusiastic, u dont need more than that !!

I think the main problem with Vista isn't necessarily the kernel, it's just the vast number of bloatware processes running that most people don't need. My mother in law bought a new PC with Vista that was supposedly 'Vista ready', and it was basically unusable until a RAM upgrade, disabling a bunch of processes, and removal of basically everything that was running on startup. Prior to that it was hitting the hard drive non-stop the whole time you used the computer. Even now it's still slower than her old PC which ran XP. There's still a ton of processes running which I suspect serve no real useful purpose except to waste system resources.

As many have said already, wake up guys, forget about both Vista and XP... They are all now obsolete, as Linux is improving much faster and has already surpassed both, imho.

And stop whining about missing applications and so on, most have alternatives, and anyway the more we will be running Linux, the more serious it will be taken by drivers and applications makers.

It's about time for a revolution! Join in!

Discontinuing xp this year is premature. I have lots of windows software whether it be games or business programs that still have huge issues on vista. XP should realistically be supported until sometime in late 2009 or 2010. Vista just doesn't work with so many things from the windows platform. If everything worked well, I wouldn't mind the switch.

Vista still does not have hardware support for many state of the art hardware platforms (unless you choose the "Compatibility Mode" legacy drivers). I am too busy to correct Vista problems. I wipe my new computers and clean install XP Pro sp2.
If MS ever gets their problems resolved with their "Not ready for prime time" OS they won't pick up many experienced power users.
Linux is still the best thing around.

From Spain I write that for many people is very important following use Windows XP.
Thankyou very mutch to keep this OS.

To those who say they are surprised that people are upset about the forced-march towards Vista... If you say Vista works well for you, and all your drivers works, well, far be it from me to call you a liar or a shill for M$. Good for you. But, ask yourself this -- even if it works for you, is it actually better? At what? What is the driving reason, in your mind, that makes the conversion (NOT an upgrade!) to Vista worthwhile? Name one thing Vista does that XP does not. Name one thing Vista does better than XP. Now tell me which of the 6 Vista versions you are running. Now tell me why it was worth the added $200 to $300 for the OS, plus the cost of the additional/upgraded hardware.

My point is, there is no reason for Vista. It only exists to drive up the M$ bottom line, in the sure and certain hope the mindless masses will give up their cash. And sadly, it's working.

If you are cool with that, then more power to ya.

I did desktop support for a company who's CIO forced a rollout of Vista and Office 2007 to all employees. I never heard so much crying in my life! When Cisco didn't have a version of their VPN client that would work with Vista months after it was supposed to, (to my knowledge they still may not) and when we got tired of telling people where things were hidden in Vista and Office the CEO put her foot down and made him reinstall XP and Office 2003 for everyone. Fortunately I was gone by then!
Now I order Thinkpads and pay the extra $50 for the XP rollback discs because so much of our installed software won't work with Vista. The extra cost incurred by adapting Vista AND upgrading everything else is ridiculous.

I'm sure Vista has some redeeming qualities - I just haven't seen one yet.

A few weeks ago, I had 2 identical pc's on my bench, hi-end laptops with Vista preinstalled. 2GB ram, Core duo pro cpu's etc. "Downgraded" one of them to XP (which was a tedious and time-consuming affair, as I had to track down and install dozens of several drivers)

Then did some simple performance tests. The one with Vista consistently used 30-40% more time to complete tasks like startup, antivirus install, Office 2003 install etc.

For anyone who has a household with 2 PC's, one with Vista and one with XP, you will know the dilemmas it causes. Ever tried opening a document emailed from a Vista user? Well we couldn't, as the file attachment was a .docx. Vista is not an easy program for the average person to navigate and seem to be incompatible with a lot of other software. All I can say is " LONG LIVE XP"

I don't like the comparison of Vista == New Coke for the simple fact that I liked New Coke better... It tasted like Pepsi!

If I cannot get a PC with XP on it, I will most probably switch to an Apple.

There are no legitimate reasons for Windows Vista to exist as a separate OS. The functional changes in Vista amount to necessary security fixes which should have been applied to Windows XP. Beyond that, Vista is a bunch of worthless and arbitrary renaming and aesthetic changes, things that would have previously ended up in a "Plus Pack". In reality, Vista should have been "Windows XP SP3". Microsoft's ending development and support of Windows XP, and duping their customers into buying into the "upgrade that isn't" called Vista, is a huge disservice to Microsoft's customers and end-user base.

I have been using Vista on my laptop for a few months now... I hate it.

While this petition is in good spirit, I doubt it'll work. The only thing that will work, is a mass refusal to purchase any new computers, hardware, or software that requires Vista to run.

I bought a Mac and dual boot to XP for games rather than switch to Vista. What was promised in Longhorn was NOT delivered in Vista. They stripped all of the enhancements and shipped the bug-ridden leftovers.

Some people suggested this is pointless as the technology always evolve and we need to follow. My point is, the evolution of technology is for people, not for technology.

Saving XP is not saving an old tech, but to save Coke Cola like Usability.

In short, it is all about usability.

Basic Economics. We are a System Int. Company. When we rotate a computer out of service we save the key. When we need a new system, and we ONLY use XP we either buy a system with XP or we get barebones and recycle keys. If we have to we buy a vista system and wipe it which we have done dozens of times.

Point being. . .Microsoft can SELL us XP. Or we will just reuse licenses from old computers.

If you make it easy for me to buy a system with it. . I will do that. . otherwise you will get nothing.

We have over 100PCs and 7 Servers, some special Companysoftware and also some special Hardware.
Vista wont run with all Things we use, this is the first Problem.The second Problem is, why(please explain me) should I buy some faster PC only for a System,which will give me no Features btw. I dont need any Aero or a new Click on any Function in the System like are you sure, are you really sure?

We use XP, Windows Server 2003 and some very old PC are running with 2k, you can be sure, this will be for a long Time.
Maybe Windows 7 will have some Things that we really need,
Regards
An Admin

You can buy a new box... But can you get Windows XP drivers for all the hardware bits in the box? Will Intel and Nvidia and AMD and Highpoint and all continue to write XP drivers for their latest and greatest? Will MS bribe (or blackmail) them not to? Whadda YOU think? At some point, the very last MB with all the XP drivers still available 'Somewhere on the Net' is gonna roll off the assembly line, and that'll be it. The only way to stop that is to pass consumer protection legislation to force MS to continue support for every operating system for ever. Think THAT'S gonna happen? MS is worth mega billions. It takes SO much less than that to completely own our legislature... $40,000.00 here, $115,000.00 there...

Lizardo

Magi said:
> Name one thing Vista does that XP does not.

Native IPv6 support.

>Name one thing Vista does better than XP.

Graphics card drivers are no longer in the kernel, so upgrading graphics cards drivers or a bug in third party drivers will cause the DWM to restart, rather than a BSOD (which is what you get with XP).

> which of the 6 Vista versions you are running

Vista Ultimate

> Now tell me why it was worth the added $200 to $300 for the OS

My machine can be part of a domain and supports remote desktop (RD is the main reason why I went for Ultimate), but it also supports Media Center (which you could only previously get with XP MCE, and XP MCE isn't supposed to join a domain - although there is a hack, but that apparently stops the extenders from working). For a normal home user, I'd probably recommend Home Premium.

> plus the cost of the additional/upgraded hardware.

I'm still using the same Core 2 Duo setup (1.86GHz) with DX9 graphics card (fairly old factory overclocked 7900GT), which I'd been using with my XP Pro system for several months before I moved to Vista. I did upgrade the main hard disk from a 120GB IDE drive to a 250GB SATA drive, but I don't think that really counts. I bought the TV card to go with Vista, as I knew it had Media Center.

Rhonda said:
>Ever tried opening a document emailed from a Vista user? Well we couldn't, as the file attachment was a .docx

You're confusing Microsoft Office with Windows. The easiest way to avoid problems is to use Office 2007 to save files using the older 97-2003 format.

Alternatively, to open Microsoft Office Word 2007 .docx or .docm files with Microsoft Office Word 2003, Word 2002, or Word 2000, you need to install the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for 2007 Office Word, Excel and PowerPoint File Formats and any necessary Office updates. By using the Compatibility Pack for the 2007 Office system, you can open, edit some items, and save Office Word 2007 documents in previous versions of Word.

Or you could install Office 2007 on the XP machine.

Whatever you do, it's an application problem, and nothing to do with the underlying Operating System.

Vista XP ? Sorry, too late, switched to Mac OS X and Linux over a year ago, and I'm NEVER going back.

I can still hear Bill G. say the Wow is Now. I thought what a terrible slogan for a new product. It appeared to be a terrible slogan for a terrible product. So Bill was right after all.

If Microsoft shuffs vista through my throat i will switch to Linux and will say goodbye to Microsoft forever.

They made 3 mistakes sofar.
1. Windows ME.
2. Vista.
3. Office 2007.

In business it means your out !!!!. Let's give them one more change todo the right thing. Keep XP Alive and make it quicker !!!

Step aside your arrogance Microsoft.

I've bought Vista but I don't use it. Just a short test for 2 weeks. Gaming Performance sucks, File operation performance sucks, and I think it will also suck at my new E6850. No need to change!

This is the reason I have made backup copy of my OEM XP (Home) and One Pro ver. and will never upgrade to Vista until it becomes USABLE!

XP is great but Microsoft really need to get people to move onto Vista in order for more software/drivers to become Vista friendly. I'm sure the whole community would benefit from software developers focusing on the one operating system.

You can't recycle XP OEM keys. That's illegal.

Give us DirectX 10 for XP - you can keep the candy UI for Vista.

The problem is that Vista doesnt change that much for average users instead its reported that it creates new porblems instead. Vista could for what I can see be named XP 2 instead. The problem in this is that MS needs cashflow like all other companies in the world but it seems like nobody wants to pay for the minor upgrade or even downgrade in some cases.

We provide loan automation software and have versions available that range from a very old DOS based version to a 32bit windows based version. With Vista, some components of the 32 bit version do not work. The enhanced DOS version that uses a Memory Expander component (Phar-Lap) to take advantage of the Extended memory space available in DOS simply dies and goes away without notice. However, the 20 year old original DOS version that only runs in the 640k memory space runs perfectly in Vista. Go figure... All three work fine in XP - Please MS don't kill XP. It's not dead yet....

"Without admitting Millennium's failure, Microsoft quietly put Windows 98 back on the market until the fixed version of Windows 2000 (SP1) was available. Microsoft needs to do something like that again today." You don't need to do this, because Vista SP1 is almost final :).

Pah! Save XP? I still use Windows 2000 Pro on my self-built computers- W2K Pro does everything I want or need. The only machine I have with XP installed is a laptop, and it CAME w/ WinXP (otherwise, I'd have "downgraded" it to W2K, too). Microsoft can go pound salt if they think they can FORCE me to buy Vista. Bloatware in a pretty box is still Bloatware.

I will never buy Windows Vista or Office 2007. I snagged a few copies of Office 2003 before that was killed off, and I have every intention of using them where I can't recycle my old licence on new hardware.

How long Microsoft decides to sell XP also determines how long I will continue to buy their products.

Can't really say it any clearer than that.

Windows Vista is Millennium v2. I spoke directly with Microsoft's sales force who said "Vista is the same as XP, we had these growing pains when we moved from 98 to NT5 (2000/XP)." Shutup! Vista is built around DRM and spying. Why can't I decide I want to install an app? Why does EVERYTHING need to access the internet to phone home? Windows XP Pro 32-bit FOREVER! Microsoft will learn their lesson this time. Linux is no longer lurking in the shadows. With so many flavours of FREE OSs I think MS is in for a rude awakening.

BRAVO !!! oui il faut sauver XP car c'est le seul système d'exploitation de Windows qui reste fiable et surtout qui accepte tout les programmes, Vista Home Peremium est pas du tout au point, avec beaucoup de lacune et il faut déboursser beaucoup d'argent pour pouvoir s'offrir la version complète et je trouve ça pas normal, si Microsoft continu dans cette lancé, j'irais voir Apple ou sûrement LINUX.

BRAVO! Yes we must save XP because it is the only Windows operating system, which remains mostly reliable and which accepts all programs, Vista Home Peremium is not at all to the point, with many gaps and it takes a lot of money déboursser to be able to afford the full version and I find it not normal, if Microsoft continued in the run, I would certainly see Apple or LINUX.

I signed the petition as Windows XP is the only stable choice for people with disabilities, espacially those who are visually impaired.

When windows XP arrived the screen-readers editors where ready with updates of their products.
With Vista only english versions of these screen-reader softwares are available today.

In France as in many other countries, (old) people encounteer more and more visual disablities, so more and more people will hate Windows Vista for not having third-pary assistives products as thoses wich are available on Windows XP.

By letting Windows XP out of the market so quickly after the Vista arrival, Microsoft is going to create a "dead zone" where noone could buy a Windows XP computer in order to install a compatible screen-reader software.

It is not completely the Microsoft's fault if many companies didn't make their software "Vista ready" in time, but Microsoft has to reconsider Windows XP sell and support end dates in order to ensures that compatible assistives technologies providers have ready and localized products.

I realize the baggage that any software (most especially an operating system) can carry with it. People get accustomed to using it, buy hardware to use with it, and find ways to work around any idiosyncrasies that it exhibits. When the publisher of the software tries to implement a successor, they either have to carry along much of the baggage or be vilified for causing problems for their customers. As the software versions accumulate the effort to carry the baggage becomes close to insurmountable.

The determining factor for many customers whether to upgrade or not is whether the enhancements in a new version out way the effort and cost of upgrading. Sunsetting an older version is one way the software publishers try to force customers to upgrade.

Understanding all this, I must say that some of the features removed in Vista, the abandonment of many models of peripherals, and the lack of enhancements that would make the new system more desirable, lead me to hope that XP will be available for a long time.

I can understand the bells&whistles concept which has been the Microsoft approach for too long. I can see why they want to 'make pretty' for the home consumer and the CFO's and CEO's who want "their company" to always be on the top technologically, and how much more top could you ask than something that looks that darn pretty?
What I cannot understand is why, when XP Pro is finally a semi-stable known OS with more than enough applications which will gladly run on it, any business would want to dump the workable known factor in favor of the unknown and still-in-development Vista. When we XP users had to wait past the point of SP2 to get a semi-safe and reliable OS, how could we even think of trusting a new OS which already needs SP1 but isn't going to get SP1 released until Microsoft stops delaying the release -- for *what*ever reason.
Vista may have its purpose; after all, there are computer users and windoze users ... and the dozers outnumber the computerites. But to force professionals to choose between a new flawed OS or a "questionable" installation of the known-to-work OS, is a bad business decision no matter who is deciding.

Vista is very bad for small business who have invested allot of money into custom software. Most custom software my customers use does not have a version that will run on Vista. It was hard enough to make some of it run on XP to begin with. What is a computer service vendor to do? Stop selling/installing new PCs and just keep repairing the old ones forever? If that is the case I'd better find another line of work..

I love Vista on my home machine. Well, apart from there being no touchpad drivers for Vista x64, but that's Dell's fault and is a 64-bit problem, not a Vista problem.

It would be completely impossible to use at work. I still need to support applications running on Pocket PC 2002 and Windows CE 4.2 platforms, and for that I need the development environment I wrote them with - Microsoft eMbedded Visual C++. This is not supported, and doesn't work, on Windows Vista. Even where the customer has upgraded some devices, a move to Visual Studio 2005 native device development entails a change of libraries which can have complicated breaking changes. Oh, and they broke serial ActiveSync as well.

Similarly I have customers using SQL Server 2000 databases (not supported) and using solutions built with .NET Framework 1.1 - Visual Studio .NET 2003 is not supported (mostly works, but despite still being in mainstream support on XP, is not supported by Microsoft PSS on Windows Vista).

Microsoft suggest running these in XP on a virtual machine. Their own free solution Virtual PC is useless because it can't virtualize USB devices; VMware Workstation is $189.

I might have to ask my boss for a new work computer soon just so I can be sure I get XP on it.

Like most I too prefer XP. (Admitted I actually liked ME.) I also believed the hype that Vista was good and bought two brand new Vista machines. What a waste. Hardware good - OS really bad.

For example a simple program like Photoimpact worked properly on one Vista PC yet failed to work on the other - out of the box.

However I did some research and found I could continue using XP indefinitely without being tied to a PC and having to buy new software.

Yes I converted to Mac with VMware Fusion and enjoying the benefits of OSX and XP. I LOVE choice.

Reasons to keep XP

- Stable, functional platform.
- Good User experience.
- Measurable support costs.
- Low learning curve.
- Will run well on older machines, performs very well on new technology.
- Seamless upgrade for existing XP users

Vista issues (reasons to maintain XP)

- Very limited benefits to business users, therefore very limied business case for upgrade.
- Requires fast technology to run properly
- HORRIBLE feedback from end users as to functionality in a business setting
- Undermines business productivity
- requires more support per machines deployede versus XP
- Questionable stability

I have redirected the money originaly earmarked for 2008 Vista upgrades and redirected this to laptop/XP upgrades for end users.

I have no plan to now transition to Vista. This was originally planned and budgeted.

I plan on upgrading all hardware and maintaining XP until the next MS product.

Based on the Vista release experience, an upgrade decision to the next MS OS will be made based on the relative business merits of the new OS at that time.

MS must listen to users and release a product with a compelling business case (not the MS idea of a compelling business case, but actually what companies in the real world need).

MS has failed in delivering a fully functional OS and in doing so has lost revenue for this year and future years.

But more importantly, MS has lost the confidence of long time MS business users and has forced us to look at OSX, ubuntu and other means.

Adoption of the next gen MS OS is no longer a slam dunk for MS. You will have a long road ahead of yout o convince business that you can deliver a product worthy of adoption.

We work with a heavy CAD program (Solidworks).
We need the fastest PC's to run our program smoothly. Until now, Vista makes us work slower, we have problems with video drivers etc.
So as profesional: stick to XP, Vista is for the power users made with to much extra's, which slowdown the real work.

Je reste avec Windows XP ou je passe en MAC ! C'est à Microsoft de choisir...
I stay with Windows XP or I pass in MAC! It is in Microsoft to choose...
Paujac

Say goodbye to Microsoft and the 20th century...say hello to Linux and the 21st century!

Are you kidding me.....XP is the best operating system in the world......!

I'm a Mac guy. I run Windows XP Pro as well, and I get along OK with it. Too many pop-ups -- like the obligatory "virus scan in progress" messages (the baggage that comes with using the Typhoid Mary of OS's) and the self-congratulatory messages when it connects to the Internet or it finds a peripheral (Microsoft's acknowledgement that users don't expect their OS to work.) Still, even if XP remains a feeble imitation of the Mac OS I used 5-6 years ago, it seems a shame to abandon it now that it is at least usable. I gave Vista a fair chance, which is more than it gave me.

"...say hello to Linux and the 21st century!" Sorry, not even by the 31st century.

Unix/Linux? I run a couple of Unix apps on my Mac. Get along with it OK, too. Forget it as a desktop OS. People who have trouble with drag-and-drop installations aren't going to take to MKPKG. Then there's CS3, Aperture, Final Cut Studio, MS Office (Hey! A great product from MS with a bunch of third-rate imitations. Now, that's irony!), and a whole bunch of other missing mainstream software. Yeah, I know, you've got The GIMP. Believe me, I know how this frosts your cake, but iPod/iTunes/iPhone do seem to enjoy a certain amount of success.

David

I was using Vista, but still so many problem with the software i used, until now, XP still the best choice. if Kill XP, we will move to linux......

XP is like an old shoe, worn-in, cozy, comfortable, which no one wants to discard ... yet ! Over a period of time, (what 6 years?), its been patched, patched and patched to make it what it is today ! Dependable !!

Vista today is just like XP was 6 years ago. See http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-3672_7-5021075-1.html?tag=bhed . People are saying that Vista is the worst thing that has happened ! XP, they say, is the ideal and does almost everything perfectly.

And Vista, like a new shoe is biting some. Biting hard enough to even, to start a SaveXP campaign ... :)

Carried on http://www.winvistaclub.com/

I installed Windows Vista ultimate and my sound card and Sata drives were not recognized.

Plus my 32 bit scanner didn’t work. (No Vista Drivers)

My XP system was working just fine before I installed Vista

And I did use the compatibility checker Microsoft had and it reported everything was fine before I tried to upgrade to vista

So why should I buy a new computer so vista will recognize my Sata drives and a new sound card and scanner.

New Computer and scanner = $2500.00

Stay with XP = $0.00

I've been using XP for many many years and I have never had any problems ( not any big one's ) Then when i heard of this "Vista" OS they were gonna lunch, I said the same as i did with XP. "This OS isn't gonna be as stable as the last OS until 2 years ATLEAST" I've been running around in my neighborhoud this last 3-5 months "working" as a technician for people using Vista OS. Because the software isn't that stable yet. I've ran in to a problem last week when the computer ask for a OS during the startup. All I say is "KEEP XP RUNNING AND TROW VISTA AWAY"

I rally this post, if i can't maintain XP i prefer move to linux too.
It is a problem off new vs old systems, it's because in too much cases Vista doesn't work.

What is wrong with XP? Nothing.
It's not broken. It runs fine. It can be quick as lightning (sometimes)so why force people to change.
I'll be sticking with XP for years to come.
Shame on you MicroSoft.

There's just too much about Vista that I really really like. The major headaches have mostly come from software venders taking their sweet ass time updating to run better on Vista. Hopefully after SP1, Vista will be much better in the problem areas it has like sluggish performance. I still like XP and keep an install ready on another hard drive but I look forward to what Vista evolves to over the next couple years. One thing is for sure, it blows OSX away. (XP and Vista)

I have to agree with some of the previous posts, especially about video drivers. I have computers here at home running, XP, Vista, Ubuntu Linux, and Mac OS X. All were purchased new with the operating system already installed with the exception of the Ubuntu. The first thing I do is take any preinstalled crapware off of them. Of the 5 machines, the only one that has a problem is the Vista machine. At least four or five times a week, the monitor goes black, then will come back on with a message that the video driver has stopped working, and then restarted. The video driver is a microsoft driver for the onboard video. It is not a separate card with it's own driver. I don't think my XP machine ever had a problem with its driver.

VISTA is really bad!

I use explorer to look at the files on my computer and when I go to "C:\Jim\startup" and double click to look at my files I get a message:
"Acess denied. You need admistrative permission."
This is MY computer and I'm the ONLY one who uses it! I need permission to look at MY files?

SAVE XP!!!

I hope the time goes fast so all the sales of Windows XP are blocked and I would soon forget about Windows XP. My new Windows Vista Ultimate x64 is awesome, it is fast and very stable, I can do whatever I want, faster and easier than on Windows XP. If something goes wrong, which is very rare, I report the error through the special interface, it takes only a few kilobytes of Internet, and a few days later I get an update fixing the problem. And I can run Vista for many weeks without rebooting. I love it.

Windows Vista is much better than XP. But if you prefer a less demanding OS, why not use Windows 3.1?, or better a Linux distro?.

I hate meetings for the sake of meetings, Vista is the same, changes for the sake of change and not solely for improvements. Let's take XP and screw it up, turn it into a labyrinth or jigsaw and call it Vista. Oh, and while we are at it, let's also bug the user with loads of conformation boxes and incompatibility issues....

Oh please. Seriously. Vista is great - I think they could have done even more, but it still is a great improvement from XP. It isn't slow or clunky at all, just upgrade your computer/get a new one! And for all of you saying how they copied off Mac OS - perhaps you should look at the similarities of Mac OS 10.5 and Vista! And also, Vista is more stable than Mac OS!!! Google it! There has been less bugs! Get Vista, it's great.

They made 3 mistakes sofar.
1. Windows ME.
2. Vista.
3. Office 2007.

to which you can add

4. Windows 3.0 - hilarious though better games than 3.1
and
5. MS-DOS 4.0 lasted all of 5 minutes testing on a new PC before MS-DOS 3.22 was reinstalled.

This is disastrous news for business users, Some companies have still not adopted XP now and still use Win2k yet their upgrade path will now skip XP.

Effective support relies on a consistent platform a known platform and above all a mature platform, neither Vista nor Office 2007 meet this criteria, I am already suffering because my clients cannot buy Office 2003 and are considering the switch to Openoffice (which I have used for years) now they will be forced to buy Vista on new PCs yet several apps do not run well on it (if at all).

Microsoft care little for their customers but a lot about their profits.

I've been using XP since, yeah I can't remember.It's the best Microsoft has made, solid as a rock, and easy to use and guide people around. I've tried Vista, very bad experience and not easy to use. When freinds or family ask about Vista, I say: change back to XP. In my work we need to "downgrade" to XP due to lack of support from software makers. It doesn't seem correct that you buy a new laptop or desktop computer, and you need to change to the OS that was before the new OS. Think about that. I strongly advise everybody to tell freinds about this mission. Thanks for this idea.

I am satisfied with XP for my computer needs and do not like Vista! Too much to learn for the little that I do on the computer. A simple print function requires several different steps (or at least it did on my computer at work) and I don't like changing 'just because they say so'. I am sick & tired of FASTER, FASTER, DIFFERENT all the time.

One of the main problems with Vista is that the developers seemed to have no understanding of human engineering. After years of learning/using XP, Vista arrives with a new set of access points to operating functions. The user must learn entirely new ways to perform common tasks. It is like randomly jumbling all the alphanumerics on a QWERTY keyboard, then concealing them under abstract characters and still expecting the typist to hit 100 wpm. MS blithely assumes everyone will intuit their intentions. The Vista learning curve requires too much effort for such negligible results.

I have xp on my home pc and vista on my laptop. vista doesnt like most of my programs that work well with xp. I dont have the extra $$ to go out and buy new programs to go with the vista and would love to have had the ability to purchase a new laptop with xp NOT vista

Amazing. All this. Just got a new dual core laptop with Vista. It runs at 2GHz with 2 Gigs of ram. It runs slower than XP on my trusty old 1.3GHz Celeron with 512Mb. A freshly booted XP uses some 180Mb. A freshly booted Vista uses 800+ Mb. Ubuntu clocks in at 170Mb, - inclusive a graphic gui way beyond Vista. They all allow me to do the same things. Web, mail, office, movies, music and even windows applications. Except Vista... it has problems with certain business applications.

Hello.
It's time to claim our rights as customers. Vista isn't something new (only the aero style is and you have to buy the expensive version and change many hardware parts in order to work without problems) Its more like a new-big- XP service pack.
Also I don't like the company's logic. Its like if you have a 5 years car and when the new model arrives they say to you "My friend, you have to throw away your car and buy the new one.
P.S Me and my friends have start to learn about Linux. And if Microsoft insist we will stop using the companies products.

I agree with some of the posters that computer users need to take a hard look at Apple and Linux. I never used Linux before Vista came out and now really see some advantages to Linux builds like Ubuntu for many computer users: Less hardware requirements, free, complete software package, free, far fewer security concerns, free, great community for help.

Vista works, sure enough, but very slowly without expert help to tweak it and super modern hardware to run it. Microsoft screwed up, again...look to Apple and/or Linux or just stay with XP.

I still have clients using Windows 98 for basic word processing, email, and Internet and they get along fine...no need to keep upgrading if you don't need to.

I agree, Microsoft is trying to force something down our throats when it does not even work properly. XP has become a fairly stable environment, and yes sometimes enjoyable.
I am more a linux user at the moment and only use XP for gaming and a bit of dotnet dev. So I will not change to VISTA.

I'm a XP user, from Brazil. I produce software with Visual FoxPro 9 and don't see enough benefits in spend money and time moving to Vista, too.

I'll try Ubuntu or another GNU/Linux OS.

With Vista SP1 - performance has certainly improved - yes you can now copy files without wondering if it will finish before your retirement party. Switch off the ACU and its nowhwere as annoying - reckon this 'feature' was just a little joke by the Vista programers :)

Unfortunaly the GUI and the crazy way they have altered the locations of things - indicates the Vista designers must have been smoking something pretty powerfull.... plus their manager to allow them to get aways with it.

Besides that its fine ;)

I have both Vista and XP on a Dual-Boot. I have 4 gig of Ram. XP is still faster and smother than Vista. I also like how they made it so Vista can talk to an older Windows OS, but those Os's cant see or talk to the Vista.

Another problem I have found is that in some of these newer systems made for Vista, There are not always XP drivers available for a clean install of XP. This has happened on a newer Toshiba with a Nvdia video card.

So not only do we need to keep XP alive, but also for the makers to have XP drivers available for the new tech. Got to hand it to Microsoft, they created a good trap.

Next I will play with Linux, Even as a PC tech for years I have avoided this. I play WOW and i keep reading of issues and slowness in Linux. If anybody wants to tag me and really help me with this I would appreciate it. sirjadith@yahoo.com

I'm a software developer. So I have a large number of sophisticated products that have to be able to co-reside and work together on my Windows platform.

My company has had several developers forced to Vista while servicing our clients. The result has been an absolute nightmare. Applications don't work, drivers collide, the screen loses integrity at random times, we encounter file data loss or corruption, our network-based automated backups don't work, etc.

I am absolutely, positively not going to Vista. I've decided that if the day comes that a client or a new laptop is attempting to force me to Vista, or if Microsoft won't continue to make XP available and provide me with sufficient and timely support, I'm making the jump to Linux.

All time that I spend building, maintaining, debugging, and yelling at Windows is time that I am not spending developing capability for my clients. (It's also not billable.) I can't afford that. So before I'll be forced to go through a "required" migration to Vista, I'll make the plung to Linux and take over control of my own destiny once and for all.

I friend of mine has bought a DELL laptop with pre-installed vista. Pre-installed is not exactly the correct word, as you should complete the vista installation on first use. By the end of the day the vista started with the blue screens and stuff or taking days to load an application. All blue-screen errors ended up with "A device driver error, please keep up sending error reports to Microsoft. Was this information helpful? Yes / No" Insane!...

I have tested both Ultimate editinos - 32bit and 64bit. Both are hopeless in respect to drivers, the only good thing for 32bit Vista is that you may be lucky to run a XP installation in compatibility mode. Sometimes it works.

Vista seems to be somewhere where Windows ME ended up - in the middle of nowhere, where only a few enthusiast have had it working and waited for the XP.

Vista to me is nothing but more restrictive facelift of windows XP, powdered up with thousands of DirectX "goodies" that make you suffer even if you have more than 2 gigs of memory. And, the 32bit version of Vista still cannot comfortably handle 4 gb of ram :).

I would buy this OS, if I do not need to work on the computer, but only go for picture viewing, movies, internet and chat, and EVENTUALLY games, as there are so few supporting dx10.

Microsoft is pushing the users to Vista, and is going to kill all previous versions, as Vista is a losing card and the only way not to suffer enormous loss is to leave no choice to the unexperienced users, which are majority. I will squeeze the XP to the utmost before changing the OS. Hopefully by that time Apple makes a PC-compatible version of their OS, otherwise I will switch to linux :)

I don't really care about WXP or Microsoft since I'm using GNU/Linux, but I do know a couple of things about the differences between Vista and XP, and if I'd have to choose I'd definitely want to have XP rather than Vista.

I signed.

Vista is bloated, expensive and buggy as hell.
I love my XP.
Save XP Please :(

Windows Vista was the reason I bought a Mac mini. I didn't want my only choices to be an operating system that would soon be obsolete (XP) or one that was buggy and would "break" much existing hardware (Vista), and I'm not enough of a geek to use Linux (do things from the command line? Puhleeze...). The Mac, with the OS X Tiger operating system, was very stable, then along came Leopard and broke a few things, but Apple is about to push out an upgrade that supposedly will fix most of Leopard's issues. Personally, I wish someone would come out with a Linux distribution that would not require (or even hint) that someone should use the command line, ever, for any reason (and where anyone suggesting that a user do something from the command line be shot on sight!) ;-) I would be happy as a clam with an OS like that, and would probably not have bought a Mac if certain Linux factions weren't so anti-GUI. Linux users are their own worst enemy sometimes, they are letting a golden opportunity to convert Windows users slip through their fingers. Meanwhile, I am not unhappy with my Mac, but I'm not one of those "Apple can do no wrong" fanboys, either.

I am XP user from Czech Republic. I have tried Vista and since that Vista is my PC nightmare! Everything in Vista is so different and complicated! It slowed my laptop, so I've had to return to "old" reliable and well-arranged XP.
If MS stop to support XP, I'll probably use Linux instead of the horrible Vista...
How many people have to stop using MS products until they start to listen....

I don't need a beautiful OS. I need an OS which is stable to learn, play, and work. Vista compared with XP, it is not so stable. Many software compatible with XP are not compatible with Vista, especially for the s/w not having Vista version.

The purpose of Microsoft releasing Vista is to earn more and more money.

Au lieu de perdre du temps et de l'argent pour développé sans cesse de nouveau programmes, que l'on améliore ceux qui existent, qu'on les rendent moins gourmands, plus stables et plus fiables.
C'est toujours la course au profit, il n'y a plus rien de durable.
Quel gaspillage d'énergie!!!
Laissez-nous windows XP, et au contraire il faut l'alléger, le rendre modulable suivant les besoins de chacun et les configurations des PC.
Il y a tellement de personnes qui n'ont pas besoin de toutes les possibilités offertes par les versions de base,surtout lors d'une utilisation familiale et bureaucratique.

Translation:

Instead of wasting time and money to continually developed new programs, what if it improved existing ones, which would make them less greedy, more stable and reliable. It's always the race for profits, there is nothing more constant than that.
What a waste of energy!
Let's keep Windows XP, and instead speed it up, make it flexible based on the individual's needs and on the configurations of the PC.
There are so many people who do not need all the possibilities offered by the basic versions, especially when used by families and offices.

Hi there.

My comment could have been almost exactly the same as Jack's (Jack at January 24, 2008 12:04 PM) except for the fact that I don't use Mac. Besides, like many users I don't feel any need at all to change my current OS since it allows me to do everything I need to do. Even more --I was more than happy with Windows 2000. By the way, I still use Office 2000.

No need for more. No need for fancy, translucent GUIs. No need for software bloated with useless features. Don't want to pay an exorbitant price for a mere computer (Mac). Don't want to use command line ever (GNU/Linux). When I say 'ever', I mean 'ever'. I do know how to use command lines but I just don't want to.

I hope to continue with XP for as long as I can. In the worst of cases, I guess the next Windows version will be ready and working fine.

Windows Vista, is the reason I went back to Microsoft.

After years of XP related software/hardware/update/SP issues and crashes, I decided it was time to move to Linux. In the interim, Windows Vista Beta became publicly available. I figured, 'what the heck?', while I'm testing out different OS's I might as well give Windows Vista a shot.

It proved stable, more personal, and --to me-- faster. I still have a few copies of Linux running on a test box as a dual boot, and a up-to-date version of SuSE on a older laptop, but Windows Vista is my main OS.

For you all to remit change so desperately, tells me, you're all missing something in your lives. Use what works for you. If you don't want to switch to Vista, fine. XP will have some support left over the next few years. But, making a "Call to arms" for a Company to back-peddle innovation and change is the lamest activist I could imagine.

There's hundreds and thousands of other causes out there that some of you could be putting you energy into; instead of hanging onto an aging development path you have no control or actual involvement.

Innovation and change will always have hurdles --just look at what the internet did: it brought all the plebs closer and made each of them think they had a voice.

That includes myself.

Now if Vista was the seventh sign of the Armageddon, destroyed data, completely restricted user confidence--then fine, burn it at the stake. Otherwise, find a healthy cause and give back instead of this dribble.

For God's sake grow up children; I've heard it all before...

It's Bloatware!
It's Slow!
It's Unstable!
It's Incompatible!

These insults and hundreds like them have been levelled at every version of Windows since 1995. If it was left to bunch a whinging blog trolls like you we'd still be stuck using MS-DOS. As for Mr:

"I will never atop (sic) using xp. It does everything I want it to do. If
ms thinks they can force me into vista they are wrong. I will quit computing first!"

I bet you $1m he will be saying the exact same thing about Vista 5 years from now.

You need to be as shallow as Paris Hilton so that you're willing to go through the hassle of "upgrading" to Vista just for the sake of it. There's no benefit in it except perhaps for the fashion factor. Let celebrities and their pets upgrade to Vista and leave XP for the rest of us.

Vista is merely Microsoft's way of reminding the world that it's out there while Apple and open-source OS projects continue to gain ground. I have XP MCE 2005 and I have an upgrade to Vista, but I really don't see the point. If I'm working with applications like Flash and Photoshop there's really no reason to have translucent windows being continually redrawn while I work. If you can't stand living for one more second without a start "orb", go to crystalxp.net and download a free Vista skin. I swear, it actually sped up an ancient Emachines T1090 that I still own. I have nothing against Vista, but the average person doesn't meet the hardware requirements, or doesn't want 256x256 photorealistic icons and psuedo-3D alt+tab replacements. So, until Microsoft comes out with another OS like Vista, I'll stick with XP because it is the more stable, familiar, and friendlier lesser of the two evils.

Just get the proper hardware. If you stay with your legacy hardware (2 years and older), stay with the Legacy OS XP. Anyone really passioned by IT and Technology wants to move. I am always up to date with the newest hardware and run vista like a charm. I'm an IT power-user and am very demanding for both my own hardware and all my applications. If you whine about memory, it's time to grow and get some more. I use linux and windows so i'm not a ms-groupie.
Just stop whining and stay with your old "crap", just don't say vista is bad because your hardware sucks and can't handle it. Its the time for quad-cores, virtualization technology and DX10.

I see no compelling reason to upgrade to Windows Vista. In my own opinion, Vista is just a lot of "eye candy" designed to lure those interested in sweets. I'm running Windows XP Professional on my desktop & Windows XP Home Edition on my laptop and both operate just fine... I have no compliants. Period!

Microsoft, I hope you are listening to this uproar...

Personally, I do not want Windows Vista on any machine I own, EVER. We don't need a completely new OS saddled with bloat, new bugs, and features we don't need and never asked for! What we DO need is Windows XP, Service Pack 3... and 4... and 5... for as long as it takes to totally stamp out the remaining bugs and add the features people actually *want*.

DirectX 10 ought to be back-ported, I don't care if M$ says it isn't possible. And the rest of the Vista "features" can just be thrown out: onerous user-account security of dubious value, DRM up the wazoo, slick GUI that gobbles memory, etc. Who really needs any of that???

Go Vista! XP is gone folks and there is nothing that you or anyone else can do about. Bill Gates will still be seated at the time of initial departure and he will not leave us in the past. Grow with your computer and move into the new age.

One of you said Vista is all about "eye candy", the only sound reason to say this is because your system hardware is lost in yesteryear. It is important to remember that XP only took into consideration the hardware that was available at the time of conception. That means the dual core performance enhancements, great memory and larger storage capabilities are not completely available to you XP. The list goes on and on and on...so remember if you want to use legecy hardware then you have nothing to worry about, you can stay with your soon (very soon) to be no longer supported operating system.

Quick story: As an IT professional I have seen many cases of this "scared to change". One such case occur in the late 90's with a company that had been on Windows 3.11 (yes I said Late 90's). With Windows 98 second edition already released this organization was 3 version behind and did not want to upgrade. It took an act of congress and a list of hardware and software incompatabilities to get it done but the IT director finally switch during the Y2K "scare".

The IT director (12 years of service), because of his personal believes which are unsupported by fact, was up rooted and asked to resign during a department restructure that put a CTO, and Assistant to the CTO above him. Do be this kind of person...don't let your unsupport personal beliefs scare you into staying with the outdated operating system. Move forward, stop whining and enjoy life, afterall that is what we are on this planet to do.

Okay well have fun complaining and whining about XP and I will sit back and enjoy all the new features of Vista. And when you have a problem, software or hardware incompatability remember one thing..."I Told You So".

This topic clearly has wide appeal. If you want to know my reaction to Windows 6, well I've used every versn of Windows from NT onwards.

Vista is fine for a new powerful PC. It uses a lot of resources; it is usually stable and Micro$oft have responded to the UAC issue. The new vista boot system is obscure and for a real challenge , learn how to repair it. I think it's better to keep Vista away from laptops that have less than 2G of ram, just too slow. There seems to be a case also, that Vista is generally over-priced.

I am hoping that the sound and fury about vista will encourage Microsoft to build another version of Windows that's lean, mean and has adequate driver support. My decision is for XP until this happens, or whatever version of Linux. Thanx for listening.

Save XP? Yes. Until the release of "VistaViable"

All right, so what are we going to do? I've got a thought, Let's slow down the national economy just a little bit until all of the small businesses in America are "comfortable" with Ubuntu. (No wait! , uh, my bad!)

I work phone support for a large computer manufacturer... (I wont say the name, but it starts with"DE"..ends with.."LL"). I've been supporting XP and Vista on notebooks and desktops since Jan.2007.

So when I hear a call come in on my headset, I usually guage the "temprature" of the customer in about two seconds.
If the customer is at temp."10", I just know they have Vista. At this point, The customer usually needs a few minutes to unload before I can start talking. I need to wait. So as they are ranting, I listen for something new with one ear while I check out my intuition by looking at the contact info for the installed OS version. Eighty percent of the time, it's Vista.

Whats the worst and longest resolution time for any of my calls?
It's a data migration issue from an XP machine to a new Vista box. Some poor customer has used FSTW (Microsoft's File and Settings Transfer Wizard) and migrated their old XP settings, Office 2003 and apps dumping them into the Vista box with Office 2007.

Once the customer gets down to around temp 5 or 6, I explain the problem, I then have to defend sales department for selling them a $5.00 Belkin transfer cable with the new system. (Our phone calls are recorded)

What "expectations" do I communicate to the customer at this point? Usually , suggest an OSRI. Unless of course I want to totally destroy my AMPR metrics (Average Minutes Per Resolution statistics for the support reps.) by spending two hours on the phone just to get the machine somewhat stable again.

Vista is not a viable "migration path".

Microsoft is holding a sabre to our back and forcing us into the water.

DON'T WALK THE PLANK!!

...my two cents/words.

Vista sucks.

Have two desktops, AMD 3300+ and Intel Duo Core 2.

One with 1GB of Ram and the other with 2GB. Marked difference in running Vista Premium. Games? Microsoft Flight Sim X is a piece of crap like Vista.

Went back to XP Pro on both machines, they run faster and no problems running apps, games or whatnot. Oh went back to FS9

Neighbour just bought a new Dell with 4GB of Ram. Can't remember the CPU. Not even a day old and it BSOD's.

Went to back up their Windows Mail and it can't back up to a Thumb drive or even a Temp folder on the C: drive. Goes through the motions and then locks up.

Won't wake up out of Sleep.

Installed Word and had to reply 3 times to the security pop ups allowing me.

Wait, the first one should have been sufficient, why ask me two more times.

Nothing like overkill.

Vista, Son of ME.

I must admit I used to have the same views that Vista is terrible and repeatedly said I will stay with XP for some time. But I have made the switch and currently running Vista Business 64 Bit on my laptop. A 64 bit operating system typically receives even more grief because of lack of driver support and compatibility issues.

For the last 6 months my Vista experience has been nothing but a pleasure. Vista obviously looks better and also feels more secure due to asking permission to do certain tasks. Currently my system is using about 860Mb of RAM and really never goes above 1100Mb.

Vista is nothing like Microsoft ME, I remember the driver issues that this operating system had along other random errors. Vista recognized every piece of hardware in my laptop and have yet to have any real issues.

The only real issue you run into with is if your PC is older and have outdated hardware. The specs for my laptop are: Intel Core2Duo 2.00, 2GB of RAM, 54,00 WD HDD, 256MB ATI Radeon 1400 Graphics card. By all means the PC is not high powered but runs Vista very well. Also Microsoft is scheduled to release Vista SP1 today Feb 4th so this should aide in making Vista even better...

People tend to forget quickly but XP had many many problems when it first came out. But over time Microsoft will release SP's to fix the issues. Vista I believe is off to a better start than XP. If people would just upgrade their PC more than once every 5 years they would be able to run Vista... Just my 2 cents

As a former Microsoft employee in the Windows product group I know firsthand that new product features are generally determined by what the employees think are cool and NOT by quantitative mass market research. With Vista, they missed the mark in a big way.

I wonder if Microsoft realises that most Universities here in Australia will not let Vista capable computers by students because it is not mature enough and Universities do not trust its Security all students leaving Secondary School that go onto University here in Australia have to using Vista have to Downgrade to XP and will have to in the near future because of the Security issue.Did Microsoft think of this issue when relasing Vista ?
Microsoft has rushed this product out too early and completely fixed all issues before relasing products and make them hacker proof.

Vista is great if you have a modern computer. But keep in mind the kinds of hardware available when XP first came out. Top end hardware at that

Athlon XP 1800+ (1.53Ghz)

256MB of ram was commonplace, 512MB for gamers. IDE drives at 80GB. Geforce 3 Ti500/Radeon 8500.

Bill Gates is choosing the best time to leave Microsoft: as the world groans its disgust with Vista.

Dell Inc. sells desktop and laptop PCs with Ubuntu Linux pre-installed. System76 (http://system76.com/) does the same.

Don't wait for Steve Ballmer to wake up and smell the coffee concerning XP. And don't put much hope in "Windows 7" as a lifesaver in the midst of turbulent seas. The same team that "crafted" Vista is behind Windows 7 (think: "out of the frying pan, into the fire").

Bill is leaving Microsoft... it's time more of us consider his example and do the same.

Remember the days when XP came out. Alot of people whined just like a lot of u ppl who dont like change. Vista improves of loads of features such as security, and applications than run on dual cores or more will have a big performance increase. Vista also has DX 10 and thus will be supported by the gaming community. Face it this is evolution. Bad thing like XP die out, better things like Vista become dominant. Vista is way better than XP, just quit running it on 7 year old Machienes. I have a Q6600 CPU a Nvidia 8800GTX GPU for graphics and 3 GB of ram at 600Mhz and Vista runs faster than XP. U need new tech to run new OS. Its that simple.

Releasing an unnecessary, defective downgrade (Vista) and then forcing it on users by eliminating the previous product (XP), for the sole purpose of keeping the revenue stream coming in, is what a monopoly does. This is the result of the government's failure do it's job and break-up the MS monopoly years ago. It's easy to say "just switch to Linux" but that is not for the "faint-of-heart". IT's and other computer experts readily can do that but the other 99.9% of us are forced to stick with MS. If someone were to bring out a package of Linux open source apps that are able to communicate and work with ALL apps designed for MS, so computer illiterates can use them right out of the box, then Linux will have a chance to compete with MS. Until that, it ain't gonna happen.

Just because Microsoft is stopping sales doesn't mean you are forced to upgrade to Vista for christ's sake. Everyone who has signed the petition already owns at least one copy of XP anyway. And I reckon at least half of you have never attempted to use Vista for more than a week, and about three-quarters have no idea of the improvements made behind Vista's glossy exterior (nor could understand these improvements).
Though I guess there's no point in telling people to get off the "hate Vista" bandwagon, people are just sheep anyway.

Vista, Bob and ME. They don't have a great track record on OS releases with funny names, do they?

Vista is clear evidence that MSFT is suffering from big-company syndrome, big time -- Feature creep such as Vista is attempting to deliver is a clear sign that the feature set is chosen bureaucratically, not logically, and perhaps it's time someone who actually graduated from Harvard needs to take over.

Products have to be market driven, and Vista seems to have lost the plot. Can't be buggered trying to make it all work, I'm sticking with XP Pro and specifying it for as long as I can. Then I'm recommending a move to Apple.

I find the people who bother to post on here in defence of Vista to be laughable. You obviously are not professional IT people. You are viewing the problem from your one or two machines that you have at home. You probably don't run into a lot of the issues that us professionals have to deal with, and therefore don't fully understand or appreciat why we don't like Vista. Sure, it may run fine for YOU and what YOU do at HOME on your NEW computer. How ever there are MANY business users who CANNOT do what they need to properly in Vista. The damn thing doesn't even work correctly with Microsoft's current server offering, Windows 2003! There are MAJOR problems with using Vista in a business network environment. You home users who bought Vista so you can Play Halo 3 have NO idea what you are talking about when you say "Vista works fine". It is very obvious to me that most of your expeirence comes from the handful of Vista gaming machines you people have been exposed to, because no REAL IT person with any level of expeirence would be defending Vista right now. It's not a matter of being anti-microsoft or not. The product simply DOES NOT WORK. There is NO CHOICE in the matter, if you run a business network you simply cannot use Vista because it DOES NOT WORK! No matter how man nice things you try to say about it that doesn't make up for the fact that it is uselss to most business users and to many home users. So GET OFF IT, stop trying to tell us we are wrong in wanting to be able to run XP for the forseable future! YOU ARE WRONG, VISTA IS BROKEN, STFU!

I like Vista and I've had enough of the "XP was perfect and Vista sucks" bandwagon where most of the people riding it felt the same way about XP when it came out, and many hate Windows in general and only now say XP was perfect because it means they can say that Microsoft dropped the ball.

The only thing worse in Vista, compared to XP, is Explorer (where there have been numerous ill-conceived UI changes, such as the removal of the Parent button), but Explorer sucked in XP anyway and people should be using a 3rd party file manager either way.

Don't get me wrong, I agree that Vista doesn't include many visible, compelling features that make it a must-have upgrade, but that doesn't mean it isn't better than XP. In fact, under the covers, Vista is full of improvements (e.g. SuperFetch) that people may not notice -- you only notice when your computer is running slowly, not when it is running smoothly -- but which do make a real difference. Finally having proper 3D acceleration integrated on the desktop, for more than one application to use at a time, is a big step forward as well, but until Vista is the norm developers aren't going to use it much.

No, there aren't many easy-to-understand/see features to compel users to upgrade, but there is a lot of good stuff in Vista and, Explorer aside, it is certainly no worse than XP and better than XP in many small, or somewhat hidden, ways. I wouldn't tell someone with XP to go buy Vista right away, but nobody buying a new system should avoid it.

It is so simple, boycott Microsoft Windows - all versions, and run GNU/Linux or BSD. That's what we did at our company about 5 years ago and we have never looked back.

BobSongs have a Q6600 CPU, Nvidia 8800GTX GPU and 3 GB of ram and "Vista runs faster than XP". Lets make some calculations. My company have about 50 computers (if Vista, then Business edition) - 50*139 =6950$ for Open Value license, also we need about 50*350$=17500$ to upgrade computers, so they could work with Vista. Total: 24450$. It's not really BIG money for us, but still it's money.
Question 1: is it really necessary to spend this money on Vista, if with XP every thing's great?
For a long time we work with XP, and all we need we have in XP. To work with Vista we need lot's of new programs (AutoCad 2006 DO NOT WORK WITH VISTA, for example), and of course we need to spend lots of time to make Vista work properly (for example, do we really need such things like UAC?). My company have about 50 computers and every one of them I need to configure to work properly. it's a great amount of time.
Question 2: do we have so much time to configure our computers to work with Vista?
The answers is "No" on both. So the answer on Vista is "No" to. This is business, nothing personal.

PS. Sorry for my English

I have a brand new Vista machine at work. I always expect a new version of windows to have some incompatibility issues. But for the most part things usually work just fine. With Vista I was suprised with some of the bad issues that are related to the file system. It is extremely slow moving files and directories back and forth between network shares. I also had to hunt down and find all those pesky services running in the background that cased my drive to spin constantly. I am going back to XP Pro. Hopefully a service pack or two fixes these problems.

For some of us, the operating system is primarily a program launcher and a file handler.

For me there is nothing to make me move from Win XP and Linux.
Will I ever purchase Vista......probably not as I hopefully will never need it.
Will I ever purchase another copy of Win XP.....probably not as the current machines will do what I require of them.
Would I purchase a new operating system if it was more efficient, worked faster, used less resources...etc than what I have now ....probably yes, even if I did not have an overriding requirement for it.

Admit it folks, most of us here are just dinosaurs and maybe Microsoft don't realy require us....and likewise we don't realy require Microsoft.

When XP is no longer available or supported, it will be time for Linux. Everyone I know with Vista on new computers has problems, some caused because they will nt upgrade their applications, but they are still problems.

I have half a dozen examples of where XP is better than Vista. personal experience with both OS's and have confirmed to me that Vista is worst Desktop OS on the market today or anytime on the last two years.
I ordered my daughter a dell PC bottom of the range. It came with Vista ( because Dell charge £30 to put XP Home on!!!) so I thought we'd try it and see. It was slow, Very slow, slower than my sons 2 year old bottom of the range Dell PC running XP!! even though the new machine has more memory, a faster CPU and better GPU. It took over 20 seconds to display the normal Windows Control Panel!! and had driver issues(ie there isn't one) with a web cam. The USB wireless device only reported 80% strength even though it was only a meter from the router!(and didn't come with a Vista driver so I had to go hunt one).
After one day we gave up and installed XP - now the machine is seriously faster than my sons machine. Wireless strength is 98%, webcam works. Quake3 fps doubled. So much nicer to use. Now my daughter is happy and I'm happy.
MS Lost the plot a while ago and now their new OS is unusable on machines bought today, let alone the millions of PCs out there running XP perfectly well.
If the raw kernel of the OS is not capable of running on a current low end PC then why bother running it on a high end machine - I pity all those people that think their new duel core machines with 2gig of memory is running vista fine, because the reality is it would also run XP or Linux fine too and use less resources, which means when YOU actually NEED to run a program those resources are there waiting - instead of the program YOU want to run having to FIGHT vista for them.
Vista is a backwards step in so many ways it's like MS are testing us. It know it's has a captive market place and it's happy to release any old rubbish because it can and people will have to use it. The fan boys will just buy new hardware so they get the same performance as before. The intelligent will move to Linux or the Mac. The stupid masses will continue to make MS the richest and the most arrogant company on the planet.

Purchased a new laptop with Vista Ultimate in December 2007. I have had to restore Vista once, and recover once, in two months. The ONLY software I have added is MS Office 2007 Pro and CA ISS.

Being an IT Support Professional, I am relieved that my company has decided to not deploy Vista or MS Office 2007. XP works great, and meets our needs.

I experienced the Windows ME fiasco all too many times; Vista is poised to be the next ME.

In my opinion, it is impossible to expect MS to keep XP indefinitely; however, they should keep XP until Vista or its successor is stable and viable in the business community.

Microsoft... If I wanted MacOS I would Buy a Mac, stop trying to be them. Upgrading from 98 98se and me to xp fixed alot of issues like (fat32 to ntfs, graphics updates, networking and usability issues) that WERE much needed. What does vista do thats soo great? My xp-64 machine can get on-line, play games, share pictures, burn discs and such at a great speed! Vista slows down the machine, hogs memory, is HUGE, and is basically version 2 of the "paperclip guy from office" if you know what I mean.

...start rant... Hello im an xp machine {you want me to turn off the lights} - done. vs. Hello im a vista machine {you want me to turn off the lights}, um, did you know that it might not be safe to turn off the lights because a burglar might try to break in? ALSO did you know that by turning off the lights you might stump your toe in the dark? Are you sure you want to Turn off the lights? Thanks Im done now

I think if I'm forced off XP then I'll make the inevitable move to an Apple computer instead.
I hope that doesn't happen though.

As Computerworld Australia reports, Microsoft says it's aware of the petition but that it's "listening first and foremost to feedback we hear from partners and customers about what makes sense based on their needs."

Listening to customer needs? You are CLOWNS, MICROSOFT.

YOU HAVE A GLOBAL MUTINY ON YOUR HANDS. IF YOU DO NOT LISTEN, THE NEXT STEP WILL BE A BOYCOTT OF YOUR NEXT OS.

BOYCOTT MS PRODUCTS.....THEY DO NOT DESERVE ANY SUPPORT.....THEY HAVE ABANDONED THEIR USER BASE

As a Sys Admin myself, I am staying away from Vista for as long as possible. There are many issues with our software and incompatibilities when using Vista which our vendor is still working on fixing. Everything (finally) runs well with XP. We have very few and very minor issues and I don't plan to rock the boat anytime soon.

We have zero need for anything Vista offers and anyone else who is a Sys Admin knows, when users are presented with new software it can be very difficult to teach them and get them to learn and accept something new, no matter or different or similar it may be.

I wonder how many out of those 100 million copies of Vista that Microsoft claims to have sold were explicitly bought by users, i.e., NOT simply bundled with the purchase of a new machine?

Just try to buy a new machine nowadays with XP Pro; you either end up with a reconditioned machine or end up spending more for the same hardware (or both).

MS is practically giving away Vista to the hardware vendors precisely so they can say they sold 100 Million copies.

Only three things keep Microsoft in the game,
o Pre-installed computers force ppl on Windows.
o Linux lack drivers for WiFi and such.
o WINE isnt finished just yet.

After that it's check-mate.
GAME OVER Microsoft.

All the people that I know create "business account" with DELL just so they can continue to buy XP machines to use at home. Vista is nothing more than Windows Media - not a suitable O/S for any serious tasks.

I HATE Vista! I have one of the fastest computers available on the retail market, quad core proc. 3.2 gig ram, 500 gig hard drive, all the bells and whistles, bad ass video cards ... etc. It's sitting on the floor not being used right now because I have another system that's 10x as fast only running a standard video card, 1.5 gig proc. 556 ram and like 200 gig hard drive ... blah blah blah ... point is it's half the computer but 10x faster with XP. Vista sucks. I don't like IE7 either .... if Microsoft keeps forcing change down my throat like a buncha nazis I'll one either quit computers and go to paper or switch to Mac! The XP Theme sounds good in vista but only if it's an exact twin to it. Don't just half ass it guys ... do it right and make it work. Seems to me it might be worth the BILLIONS of dollars you're going to lose if you force Vista down our throats!

I run a small consulting business in California. I purchased two machines last year with Vista installed, but certain software that business requires does not run on Vista. I've had other issues including slow performance and that's despite tweaks. XP, in my opinion, was the most stable version of Windows that I've run and I have been a Windows user, well, since I stopped using my Atari 520ST just after college.

I recently tried out a Mac for the first time in years. I have to admit that cost has been a consideration in purchasing hardware here in the past, but we are at least starting to consider looking beyond Microsoft operating systems.

I'm reading a few entries that are inferring that people just don't want change. I can't speak for the rest of them, but as for me, I do want change IF IT'S HELPFUL. I welcomed XP because it was HELPFUL. My computers used to always crash on Windows '98. XP fixed that. What does Vista do? I mean besides slow down more expensive machines, and make your windows prettier?

I won't use Vista. Not if chili goes to $5.00 a bowl.

MS erred terribly. It will be better for them to admit the failure, learn from the error, and go back to the drawing board.

If they think they can do better than XP, try. If they think Vista is better, then they are crazy, stupid, or criminal.

[Future MBAs will write dissertations about how MS lost the significant business market by attempting to force large IT departments into Vista.]

Hasta la Vista

I love Vista. I would never go back to XP after using Vista. Vista has never crashed for me, yet I have numerous problems with XP.

Vista Rocks!
Everyone should go to Vista!

I've settled in with XP. With SP3, everything that I need my OS to do, XP does. I really don't want to spend the time to learn yet another new system. No need to change or fix anything right now. I wish Microsoft would listen. I feel trapped and I have no say in the result.

I hope the petition will rattle some cages.

thanks

I had to deinstall Vista from my sister's state-of-the-art-hardware new notebook, 'cause it was working so slow and switched to XP, running smoothly.

I use Windows XP, at home and at work. I like windows, but if I had too use Vista, I would switch to Linux for sure, I'll only miss the full up-to-date functionallity of Total Commander (MC is not exactly the same)...

I am responsible for Medical Billing at a OB/Gyn Specialist practice. We use one of the most popular computer billing programs, Lytec. Lytec does not work with Vista. The Federal government insists that any MediCare claims be sent electronically. We are required to use computers and follow these regulations, or we go bankrupt. How dare Microsoft as an American company interfere with medical practices treating employees and family members of workers by eliminating necessary mechanisms to bill for medical services?
Please do not let this happen. Thank you.

Serioulsy, where validated systems are involved and in any case where a company has a clear IT strategy, there is dire need for XP!
Imagine a company that supplies measurement instruments that are set up in GLP areas like quality control: The software for the instruments has to be validated together with the OS underneath, so if M$ forces users to shift to Vista, any supplier has to re-develop and re-validate his software for and with that new OS, or perish in the project.

How many smaller companies cannot afford to take that effort in a short time or do not have the capacities to do so?

Besides that, how would you explain to a customer who wants to buy another set of instruments that this time he has to buy a PC that is more powerful and expansive and that the software he needs for the measurement equipment is more expensive, all because the "old" but fully functional and reliable OS is no longer available?

Been using XP for good while now and don't see any need to switch to another os ,it does all need and much more that i don't as it is

En tiempo del presidente Fox en México se implementó el programa Enciclomedia, que consiste en computadoras y proyectores para dar clases en educación primaria, Todo el proyecto esta basado en PC con Windows XP y el paquete tiene 45 Gigas al instalarse, Enciclomedia no puede ser instalado en Windows Vista.

¡¡125,562 aulas con Enciclomedia!!

¡¡¡¡¡Salvemos Windows XP!!!!
Y mi trabajo.
http://www.enciclomedia.edu.mx/Conoce_Enciclomedia/index.html

Translation:

In President Fox's tenure, Mexico implemented the Enciclomedia program, which consists of computers and projectors for teaching in primary education. The entire project is based on PCs with Windows XP, and the package is installed at 45 gigabytes. Enciclomedia can not be installed in Windows Vista.

125,562 classrooms with Enciclomedia!

¡¡¡¡¡ Save Windows XP!
And my work.

I tried Windows Vista last week while testing my employer's product in that environment (they've got to support it, like it or not). The user interface has changed so much that I, and the IT guy working with me, found it hard to use. It was like we were complete "newbies". Just trying to set an Environment Variable took us a long time to figure out!

If I have to spend that much effort learning a new OS GUI then I think I'd rather invest the time on a good Linux system, like Ubuntu.

I'm a systems architect with a background in electrical engineering and computer science, have even done some device driver development, so I know what I'm talking about.

At home I have a Dell GX260 with a Pentium 4 and Windows XP Pro, and recently bought a Dell 531 with dual core AMD 5000+ and NVidia 8600GT 256MB, plus 2GB of memory and Vista.

The Vista machine is a nightmare! I get BSODs constantly, especially when entering sleep modes (do a search on the internet, you will see the problems Vista has with this). Applications crash or hang regularly, network connections disappear, randomly Vista decides to freeze applications. It's horrible! I spent more time trying to fix problems than I can effectively use the machine. It's buggy, slow, unpredictable, ineffecient, user un-friendly.

When the Vista machine hangs or reboots, I luckily can use the 5 year old XP Pro SP2 machine. It's solid as a rock, runs applications FASTER than my newer Vista machine. How can that be?!! How dare MS sell us this cr*p that Vista is?!! And now they're even pulling XP from the marketplace. Are they insane?

Dell won't help me with this, other than suggesting I should completely reinstall Vista. What a braindead "solution"! All the more because the crashdumps show exactly at what places it goes wrong. It is most of the time in some piece of driver code. "Of course" Windows Update does not show newer versions of the driver, so I'm basically scr*wed with this.

My only hope it to get the opportunity to legally install XP on my system, like Microsoft has offered to customers of Vista Ultimate, or that Vista fixes its problems in SP1 or SP2 or SP....

What a total letdown of the customer by Microsoft!

Oh you people are just hopeless. I started using Vista in Feb 2007 as dual boot with XP. After 2 months I never booted back to XP. Now almost all my development systems are Vista as well as my wife's system and my parent's office computers. I have one laptop left with XP as I currently have a contract where I have to work in a corporate network. I hate to work with XP now. Visa saves me so much time and it's been absolutely stable on all machines.

For those of you who complain about the UI changes. Grow UP! After a week you know the UI like the back of your hand. Also RAM is dirt cheap, last time I checked 4GB was €90. And Vista gets faster the more you use it. The first week it's kind of slow, but once it has settled down - pure joy.

The longer XP is supported, the less support there will be from 3rd party vendors for future OS' and the creativity that comes from that. In my opinion (what's that worth? -not much), saving XP will do more to harm the desktop OS world than help. Saving XP is not about pushing away Vista, but more about holding down Microsoft so that Linux & Mac OS can try to catch up on market share. I have read articles where "supposedly" Microsoft now understands where they went wrong with Vista and are already trying to rectify that in Windows 7. From a UI perspective Wi7 will have Vista's look & feel, but more modularized so you have a much small footprint - much closer to XP's. I for one, want to see XP go away and bring forward the lighter more nimble Wi7.

This is hilarious... I'm not saying that MS is unique in this situation; in fact it's very similar to the move Apple made from OS 9 to OS X... perhaps not a brain transplant of *quite* the same proportions, but lots of the problems are the same, with fundamental changes to driver architecture, application compatibility etc.
The big difference is that 1) Apple *rapidly* refined the OS and provided users with a more polished product that has actually *increased* performance on the same hardware with each release, and 2) apart from a tiny minority of blowhards, most Mac users knew there was no future in OS 9, and could see the real-world benefits that a stable UNIX foundation would bring.

MS doesn't seem to understand that they need their customers to *want* to upgrade. I know very few people who have *chosen* to move to Vista, most of them just got it because it was on the new machine they bought and didn't know any different.

I am primarily a Mac user but have been using Windows to run certain professional programs and gaming. After using XP for 2 years without any unusual problems (granted there was the occasional blue-screen, and authentication issue) I purchased Vista and did a clean install. This proved to be a costly mistake. Performance and reliability dropped significantly. Compatibility proved to be problematic (e.g. most Games don't work). And stability of the OS decrease with each update. After 6 months of headache I've downgraded back to XP and while it is far from enjoyable or perfect, at least I can run the software I want to use.

A lot of people are missing the point. It is whether Vista is good or bad, better or worse. Vista is, undeniably, DIFFERENT. Significantly different. What possible reason is there for users and organizations not to make up their own mind?

MS should abandon XP when the overwhelming majority of users have already made that choice. Any other decision is user hostile.

Come on you crybabies, wake up. XP is dead and Vista lives. It's not THAT bad and ALL new OS's have teething troubles. Remember when XP came out? All the whiners who would "rather die" than abandon the 9 series? I've been programming since DOS was king and I've gone through ALL the different permutations of MS's OS's. Stop whining about the phasing out of buggy whips and learn how to drive. Or else go live with the Amish. Grow up.

I hope you'll forgive the serial commenting...

Reading how some businesses are absolutely dependent on XP brings up a public policy question: Should there be limits on the right of an intellectual property holder to cease sales of an essential technology? Copyright and other intellectual property protections are legal frameworks created to serve public policy goals -- it's not as if some natural "free market" is at work here (if it were, we'd import the $1 copies of XP from black markets in Asia).

In exchange for the exclusive right so sell and profit from it, we certainly have a right to require that a holder of intellectual property that thousands of products and millions of users are dependent on NOT withdraw that technology when it is essential. The businesses above that CAN'T move to Vista shyould be writing their congressperson asking that use of an essential discontinued technology be a fair use exception to copyright and IP licensing.

(And obviously the very smart people at MS should have the foresight to nip that idea in the bud by merely continueing to sell XP.)

I don't know who I feel more sorry for. Those of you that are desperately clinging to an obsolete POS (Proprietary Operating System) that is about to be scrapped by MicroSoft for the sole purpose of squeezing more money out of you, or those of you who are falling for the same con all over again, and will be crying "Save VISTA!" when (if?) "Seven" is dumped in your lap a few years from now.
Then again, I guess it really doesn't matter, because in either case MicroSoft is *still* going to have you by your tender bits...
Never forget that the most useful, important, and valuable part of your computer is *YOU* no matter what operating system it's running. Without you, it's just a High Tech doorstop.
In 2003, I learned how to be free,...
...and the lesson was Linux.

The Vista Capable Lawsuit is now a class action lawsuit.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/352442_vista23.html

The question that popped to mind was what kind of relief will those winning such a class action lawsuit get? Coupons for Microsoft software, said software being written for Vista?

I propose another remedy. How about using this class action lawsuit to force Microsoft to extend the life of Windows XP by five years or so?

"I PERSONALLY got burnt," wrote Corporate Vice President of Windows Product Management Mike Nash in another e-mail. "Are we seeing this from a lot of customers?...I now have a $2,100 e-mail machine."

http://www.adtmag.com/article.aspx?id=22047

I have a nice little Windows XP Laptop from Toshiba, including restore disks, not just a restore partition, that is Windows Vista Capable (Right on the little label with the Microsoft Windows logo on it that says designed for Windows XP) I have not even considered trying to install Vista on it, and obviously don't want to try. But what if something goes really wacky, and even the restore disk won't recover the system. How about I should be able to get a replacement Windows XP? Even if I have to purchase it retail price, or better yet, get a MS discount coupon for replacement disks. That would be a really sensible resolution to this Vista Capable suit!

For those that just write emails, browse the net, do text documents, calculate, give presentations and many other home tasks...well, just give a chance to linux. There are many flavours, so one must like you and suit your hardware.

Installation knowledge? No problem, just easier even than XP.

Example, backup you data, insert "Mandriva One CD", and let the installation program guide you!.

Support? Well may need some but the magic word come to you: Googling! A great community helps us all.

I ran Mandriva One with 256mb of ram! I may not get dizzy with speed but I do my work with no problem.

Wont regret it.

Dont be so bloddy rediculous, keeping XP available indefinatley is ludacrous. So you expect to still be using XP in 2020? Times change & technology moves on, get used to it. It is like saying that Windows 95 should still be available because some people liked it. If people want to keep XP fair enough, just buy another copy before the deadline. Nobody needs to upgrade to Vista & if buying a new PC just do a clean XP install from a copy purchased before the deadline or XP from your old PC. I have Vista & love it. It is not that different to XP but is much better, sure there were bugs & driver problems but 99% have been fixed & most drivers are now available. Vista does everything XP does & more. I just find it very sad. If I were not such a big gaming fan I would move to linux but thats not an option for me. As for businesses NEEDING XP, vista is more productive & secure so why they NEED xp is beyond me. It took me all of 10 munutes to figure out how to use Vista as it is pretty much the same as XP but easier to use. Anyway just get RID RID of XP & move with the times or are you still wacthing betamax films on 4:3 crt analouge black & white TVs & listening to music on an cassette deck? Get a GRIP

"If people want to keep XP fair enough, just buy another copy before the deadline. Nobody needs to upgrade to Vista & if buying a new PC just do a clean XP install from a copy purchased before the deadline or XP from your old PC."

That will be a *complete* waste of money if MicroSoft won't support it with activation codes, etc. You would be better off spending it on a new Everex gOS from Wal-Mart, then at least you would have a complete working computer that will be supported indefinitely for the same price.

"It is not that different to XP but is much better, sure there were bugs & driver problems but 99% have been fixed & most drivers are now available. Vista does everything XP does & more."

If this were true, the whole "Vista Capable" class action lawsuit would be a Non-issue. It isn't, and a lot of people were screwed.

"As for businesses NEEDING XP, vista is more productive & secure so why they NEED xp is beyond me."

Where I work we still have a few dedicated computers running '98 because the software and device drivers we NEED won't even run on XP!
For stability and security, the clear choice for corporate use is Linux with the few necessary Windows apps running in a virtual environment.

"If I were not such a big gaming fan I would move to linux but thats not an option for me."

Put the money you save by NOT buying Vista towards an X-box, Wii, or a PS3?

"Anyway just get RID RID of XP & move with the times or are you still wacthing betamax films on 4:3 crt analouge black & white TVs & listening to music on an cassette deck? Get a GRIP"

As a matter of fact, MY computer gets it's power from a Steam Engine! Nowadays, most people call them 'Nuclear Reactors', though.

{NEW && DIFFERENT} =! {BETTER}

I just installed Vista Ultimate for the first time. I recall my adjustment period from Windows 3.1 to Windows 95, so I was expecting some issues. I spurned all the warnings about Vista, chalking them up to some anti-Vista campaign orchestrated by Mac zealots. OMG!! You were ALL right!!! Vista sucks harder than any OS I have ever used - it is probably on par with Windows ME or BeOS. Vista might just be the catalyst that makes me convert to Mac or Linux for good. I'm dumping all my Microsoft stock tomorrow. Luckily I only own $10K worth. Microsoft is a sinking ship if they're going to put out dribble like Vista. If they're not going to cut their losses and shore up XP and continue blindly down the path of Vista... Ballmer truly has lost his mind... or maybe he never had one to begin with.

I have been ready for a new more powerful desktop with a larger capacity hard drive for two years now but I am damned if I am restricted to getting it with Vista. I like XP. It's worked well and reliably for me. I swear I'll switch to Apples if Microsoft won't give us a choice and remove XP from the market.

I am afraid Microsoft are making a big mistake. Rule no1 for any business is to give customers what they want and in this case : NEED! Vista is a bloated ineffective system that requires all the software written so far to be rewritten, this on top of its higher cost. No matter how much computing power you buy Vista will eat it up. The problem is that so little software is compatible with vista that companies that rely on components bought from other companies will either go out of business or take a profit dip. Worse for MS is that they will abandon Windows altogether. This is not a question of diapers or technophile vs techophobe. It is a question of business. In the Internet age, multi-billion companies are made or sunk by sound understanding of customer needs. Only by making its customers earn their money will MS make its own money. Hope this helps.

The only major advantages with vista is direct X 10 and 64 bit OS. However, vista has problems with 64 bit drivers so instead you get a 32bit OS with 32 bit drivers. That defeats the purpose of upgrading. You also have performance losses of 10-20%.

Most people use their computers for email and word processing with some games. Almost every computer in the last few years does that just fine (excepting games). What people don't want to do is pay hundreds of dollars for a computer that no longer works with their old software.

I have nothing inherently against Vista, but my system works fine so why would I spend hundreds of dollars for Vista? This is even more true for small companies where replacing your entire line would be thousands of dollars for 5 employees (pay consultant, make sure software is compatible, training, update your entire line of products that are not compatible, plus loss of productivity, update your hardware).

Vista is not even been bool legged and pirated at a fast rate that XP was. XP is the best thing in OS after windows 3.11 and Windows 98. I like Win98. If Microsoft discontinue XP, then I will goto Ubuntu Linux. It free and do everything my Windows XP machine can do - for me.

After 2 weeks of pain trying to make Vista work, when I received a new laptop with Vista OEM installed. I am fed up with it. For one can not find know functions in the new interface as everything is on a different place. Stuff that works on XP is painful to migrate to Vista (drivers drivers?) No hell I am staying on XP, who is MS to force its users to always move to the next level? One learn from past experiences and build on it, not throw away and start everytime all over.

"For one can not find know functions in the new interface as everything is on a different place" thats the point of a new OS. Whats the point of developing a new operating system if you are going to keep everything the same as the previous one?

vista has worked fine for my personal use,and my guess is we will see a save vista site in a few years.

"vista has worked fine for my personal use,"...

I've seen a number of Pro-Vista comments just like this one. While I find it encouraging that at least a few people claim they are pleased with it, very few of these posters mention exactly what they use their Vista computer for...So, what is it exactly -
3D graphics rendering? Website Design? Video Editing? E-mail and Pron surfing? Doorstop?

"my guess is we will see a save vista site in a few years."

I'm not thinking so. Where were the disappointed masses over the death of ME and Microsoft Bob?
When 100K people complain that something is a bad idea, only politicians and greedy monopolies turn their deaf ear.

I have a new computer with Vista on it and I have no problem with it. In fact, there are many things I like a lot. I've been using win2k ever since it replaced NT4, but it's a real pain to install on a new machine now. It can't see all the drive, for a start.

What I do have a problem with is Microsoft. I find them arrogant, consumer-unfriendly and they need a big boot up the backside. I remember when they were the good guys. Now they just stink. Their marketing is terrible and they're forcing you into a whole lot of options that you neither need nor will ever really want. They have decided they know better than you how and why you use a computer and the home/business labels make me vomit.

I think the anti-Vista feeling is really just an anti-Microsoft feeling. I get terribly negative feedback about Vista from people who have never used it. The good guys have turned into a greedy monopoly and need to be spanked.

Vista with SP1 will satisfy most of you guys. Just like it said above, users were stuck with 2 bad options, Windows ME and 2000 RTM.. Then they said that 2000's first Service Pack was released and that was the option. I wouldn't call Vista the second Windows ME, it is more like 2000. It's not a minor release like ME was, there were major changes, like 2000. 2000 to XP was more like 98 to ME than XP to Vista is.

And this only really effects new computers. They are not forcing you to install it on your current machine. And you can still get XP for the next few months if you want a new machine soon. But by then Vista SP1 will be well and truly out, and it will be fine for users all around. I haven't had a problem with Vista since SP1 was installed.

But I must say XP (with SP3) is still very good. XP on 2 machines, Vista on my main PC.

Nevermind save XP, what about Windows 2000? It runs any functions related to finding things on the hard drive (open or save as dialogues for example) much faster than XP. Instead of coming up with a slower, slightly improved OS with a few more CPU consuming bells and whistles, how about getting XP to run at least as well as 2000? We're not getting the benefit of Moores law when each new generation of Windows sucks up any improvement in PC speed. It takes just as long or longer to boot and open or save files in Windows XP on a today's PCs as it did to do the same functions on Windows 95 using the PCs available 1997.

I run a computer support business. Like us our customers are small businesses. Currently we have a choice of buying a duel core cpu, 1 Gb ram and on board graphics with XP and being happy as, OR paying lots extra for a quad core, 2 Gb ram and a mid range graphics card to run Vista. The benefits of Vista, NONE, the down side, 50% extra cost for the hardware and its still slower.

Why would I suggest Vista to any of my customers?

I provide general IT support for a number of small business customers. I am encouraging my customers to stick with Windows XP as there is no economic value for them to upgrade, but it is worth the extra cost to specify WinXP when configuring new equipment. My experiences with Vista to date have been generally negative; slow, comtibility problems, difficult to navigate, no real value in a business environment running bread and butter applications, and more expensive when considering the hardware required to achieve it's functionality. I think Vista is the best thing that could possibly have happened to Apple.

I have a question. If Microsoft is going to discontinue sales of XP on June 30, what then of the OLPC and Intel Classmate XP projects that they been working on so diligently? These lightweight, inexpensive computers run on Linux, and were developed primarily for impoverished children in the Third World nations. They will never be capable of running anything like Vista, yet Microsoft wants to establish and maintain a presence in these areas.
Are they going to continue making XP available to Third World nations only, (like their $3 Starter Kit), or is the whole thing just a ruse to weasel a few months of feel-good PR on the coattails of a world charity?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Microsoft will continue to sell XP for these cheap PCs for the emerging nations. Which begs the question if they will continue to sell XP in Bangladesh, why not in Baltimore or Brussels?

Thanks for your answer, and that's exactly my point.
The primary argument for running XP instead of Linux on these OLPCs is so the Third World children can learn to use the same software that the rest of the world uses - a feckless notion if "the rest of the world" is forced to move on to Vista! Why shouldn't the *First World* have access to the same, familiar OS, when even at 10 times the (Third World) cost people would still buy it?
I have played with "Sugar" (the Linux OS for the OLPC) on my own computer, and it's VERY good for it's intended purpose. If Microsoft plans to compete against it with XP, they really need to re-think their strategy and keep XP alive until they can release an OS for the *World Market*, otherwise they will lose it all to those who are already doing it.

I'm a small IT consultant whose clients don't like to keep paying for new operating systems ("we just learned this!") and the more expensive hardware to run them. For them, the intangible "benefits" offered by a reworked (again) interface and behind-the-scenes security enhancements are useless - all they see is the bill for the upgrade and the sluggish response Vista offers. ("This is supposed to be an improvement?")

For me, the path is simple. I'll support Windows XP for them as long as I can, and then I'll shift them to a Linux distribution. Ubuntu is looking good, but so is SUSE. I can configure it to look just like Windows. That won't cost them anything but my time.

Sorry folks, you Vista supporters are completely out of your minds. I have run it on a business laptop for several months as the industry is being forced into it--it's coming off and I'm going back to XP. We are a small to medium business, and our fleet of 500+ P4 to dual core vintage machines run brilliantly.

Points to consider:

1) There are STILL companies out there with Vista drivers for hardware still in BETA.

2) There are countless apps that still won't run on Vista (did I mention the crappy financial apps that still won't run on IE7????)

Um...anyone hear of this little application called Oracle E-business suite that doesn't run on Vista???

3)Vista is a performance nightmare...END OF STORY

I could go on, but then I would be wasting the time it will take for me to reimage my machine with XP and reinstall my apps.

Yeah that's great...Microsoft has this shiny-clunky OS, but I dare say that companies run a few apps beyond Office and Sharepoint. We are at the mercy of 3rd party vendors who still have not caught up to Vista.

Businesses need raw performance, not bubbly interfaces on top of incompatible OS's that eat 1/2 the system resources!!!!!

What would be a true milestone is if Microsoft offered business customers a choice until they get a viable OS in place....

ClubbyG has it right on the money.

Businesses that rely on mission critical apps won't go anywhere near Vista, not even the so-called 'Enterprise' version. Would you put Vista in front of the CEO or the top financial trader of your company and expect positive results? Better be updating your resume at the same time!

The time and money lost on supporting Vista can be spent on other resources, like improving XP/Linux for the business user.

I agree with saving XP, it's a great system and you can't argue with it's stability. A lot of people are comfortable with it, it works, and there is no compelling reason to kill it off. It essentially boils down to being an undue burden on users to have to buy new computers or pricey upgrades to existing machines - never mind the recycling and landfill issues for those "obsolete" systems, but I digress.

Having said that, Vista will eventually get up to speed. There are problems with it, but XP had problems out of the chute too - my guess is that some here may not have that long of a memory...

Windows XP was a great step forward. Vista is a big step backwards, brought early to market by the MS sales department in a buggy, incompatible state. I upgraded to Vista then went back to XP Pro. Life is good again

i recently purchased a toshiba satellite unfortunately equipped with Vista but i have successfully changed my operating system to XP Pro. i found the drivers necessary on the european toshiba site. every day Vista presented more roadblocks to my operating and modifying my computer the way i wanted. it's my computer i should have the right to modify it as i see fit, it cost me $1500.00. Microsoft should not have the right to force me to use an inferior operating system(Vista). if i'd known how bad Vista was i would never have bought thie computer. IF XP GOES, I GO MAC!

Though I haven't had many issues with Vista, I have to admit that it made my trusty old Dell Dimension look like it was older than my september-2000 iMac. The OS made the PC (which I beefed up by the way in terms of RAM, hard drive capacity and mega-whizz-bang graphics card) sluggish and opening a PDF file was a real pain. I'm back to XP and amply satisfied with my decision. As for Linux amateurs out there, I tried during the week-end the installation of three flavours (Mandriva 2008 - an excellent choice - Kubuntu 8.04 Beta with KDE 4 - how come I was no longer in control of my system ? - openSUSE 10.3 - with lots of configuration pains - and openSUSE 11.0 alpha 3 - didn't install @ all :( ) and none was able to achieve the level of user-friendliness I've been used to in Windows. I wouldn't advise Vista users to switch to Linux... A downgrade (or should it be upgrade ?) to XP is a more sensible choice.

KEEP XP - just make it better not different!!!
I know were all preaching to the converted here but...I'll have my say anyway.
Sometimes change is good. Sometimes its not especially if its for the WRONG reasons.
I think many or most would suspect that Vista is driven by marketing. Wrong reason.
That said, XP is / was a great improvement and an engineering summit over the platforms that came before it. Its taken this long to get a stable product that works well for most everyone - techie and Joe average alike. This is not a time to change but to improve upon. Yes - recompile it, make it faster more secure and call it...I dunno... XP Supreme. Looks the same and imagine how fast it would be on new machines - we could finally get a good system that would be truly great. Secure, familiar, blazing in speed. C'mon Microsoft - do the right thing!

Please keep Windows XP, as it is by far the best Operating System that has been created!
Vista is the worst thing to happen to Windows!
Microsoft what were you thinking?

Well, with the demise of XP also goes the demise of my semi-promising computer building company. I refuse to install Vista on ANY of the machines that I build. And seeing as that I'm just starting out, I don't have the cash to buy up the remaining copies of XP. Hopefully, they will have SP2 out and fix the problems.
One of my customers decided to install Vista Ultimate and he has had nothing but headaches from it ever since. Microsloth, you are truly the idiot OS manufacture.

Just as I was finally getting XP to do what I wanted and was ready to get a laptop, they started only shipping them with Vista. Not a problem, I always wanted a Mac anyway and now I have one. I only use my desktop with XP now for checking email and using ebay. I'll gladly sit back and watch the walls of Microsoft crumble while happily doing whatever it is I need to do on my Mac that works (all the time).

Good riddance.

Bonjour, à tous et a toutes, excusez-moi mais je suis français, je trouve tout cela pas normale, Windows XP est mon système d'exploitation préféré depuis bien des années, pourquoi changer, personnellement je n'aime pas Windows Vista, mon PC en était équipé, je l'ai tout de suite déinstaller pour y installer Windows XP SP2 edition familiale.
Windows Vista fait ramé les PC après quelques semaines d'utilisation dans pratiquement tout les cas, bien sûr sur les PC étant au paravent équipé de Windows XP même si sa configuration était au dessus du minimum demander par Windows Vista ... Et surtout les gros problèmes de lecteur avec les vidéos en format MPEG sous Windows Vista et les confirmations pour lancer un logiciel son barbantes à la longe, les remarques des mes amis sotn le plus souvant "mon ordinateur est plus lent sous Vista" "Windows Vista c'est juste plus beau a voir vu son beau design mais c'est tout !"

Et d'après moi pour les entreprise ce n'est pas très pratique, vu qu'il faudrait pour la plus par des entreprises aussi changer leurs PCs.

Voila, et que vive Windows XP !

TRANSLATION:

Hello, everyone , excuse me but I am French, I find this situation is not normal. Windows XP is my preferred operating system for many years, so why change? I do not personally like Windows Vista, and on my PC that was equipped with it, I immediately deinstalled it in favor of Windows XP SP2 family edition.
PCs running Windows Vista get mired after a few weeks of use in virtually all cases, of course, even if their configuration was above the minimum requested by Windows Vista. And there are especially big problems with playing MPEG videos on Windows Vista and all the confirmations to launch software applications. My friends remark most often, "My computer is slower with Vista. Windows Vista is prettier to look at, but that's all!"

And in my opinion for the enterprise, adopting Vista is unlikely, since it would require that most also change their PCs.

Therefore, long live Windows XP!

if only ms could include a tool with vista that got rid of all the crappy stuff [asking you for everything you try to do, hogging memory, making all the icons shiney and horrible, makeing the windows explorer look like a mac, ect] and skined it like xp, so even an xp user coudent tell them apart, then everyone'd be happy, you just choose to tuen the XP on if you want XP

im not changing to vista till its as smooth running/less crashey as XP is

matt.

I remember back in 2000, I could barely wait to install XP, I had seen it working taking notes of what would be broke with the transition (my MS ForceFeedback Joystick, lost not its driver support, which came embedded, but actually lost the ability to customize it through its application, there was no XP version of it).

Then I thought I had to stick with 98SE. I dual booted for a while. XP brought some general improvements that made its case. Finally I was using XP alone, 1 year after or so. That was when I got myself a new box.

This was an acceptable transition, and after all, a joystick is not something of essential use. Pros and Cons were balancing out to XP.

Some months ago I did a 5 year old upgrade. Complete new box. Quad core, 4g RAM, 8800GTX, new Sata HDs, etc. I was thinking in XP and for another 5 years or so to upgrade the hardware.

This machine is fast on XP! Its an hurricane in saturn. Storm scale 78.

Will I change to Vista and finally take advantage of the full 4Gigs I have, enjoy the eye-candy, etc? (I still use Windows Classic theme, 'cause of performace and the extra pixels :P)

No I won't! No reason I find to upgrade aside of a still not proven carrot named DX10, 64-bit support is here when and if I upgrade. In fact I have till December (perhaps more if this petition works) to buy a new CPU and bring on XP 64-bit with it, that's all it takes.

Am I acting like my old man: resisting innovation because my head can't take it, too much of a learning curve, etc. I learn new complex apps everyday twice the size of an OS. I installed Mac OS X, tested Linux several flavors (Slack, Vector, Ubunto, ...). NOT!

the point being
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The upgrades of a system (hardware and software) along with its complexity and added features. Should bring more, or at least the same performance of the previous iteration. When that is not the case, there should be a heck of a valid justification(s).
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Sometimes perhaps an added feature requires to bring a slow down in performance. Do I need it? Does it have to be active all the time? Am I able to at least shut it down? Is it imposed by the general use? or a bug? or design?

I just don't understand how is it possible to increase the requirements 8x from ±100Mb of RAM for those added features.

There was more of a correspondence between 98SE to XP improvements and its performance increase or lack of. That is not the picture today.

I will gladly stick to XP if Microsoft lets me.
Anyway I have other rooftops to keep me going.

I have a 7 year old Dell that runs XP, albeit a little slow, just fine for my children to play games and chat with their friends online. It is completely up to date with XP. There is noway it can run Vista.
I also have a brand new machine I built myself that is upgradable and probably more than ten times faster than the Dell that runs XP. I don't plan on paying a lot of money to upgrade to Vista just to slow my machine down. I have played with Linux for about 8 years on and off but was never really satisfied with the messing around you had to do to make things work.
A couple of weeks ago I took the Linux plunge again and installed Ubuntu and holy crap was that easy. It did everything by itself and in short order too. It fires up and shuts down 10 or 15 times faster than XP, can read the XP drive with no problem, play music, views pictures etc from the XP drive as if it is native Linux. All I have to do is tweak the video somehow to get the colors right when playing movies and I may not even boot the XP partition. Maybe to use MS Flight X but that takes forever to start as well so I'm looking for a good Linux flight sim and good bye Billy.

I was looking to buy a new computer. Since they all now come with Vista, I have put it off after working on a friends system that uses Vista. If they let individuals "downgrade" to XP, I will be buying a new one.
Vista stinks!!!

I have Installed Vista as 32 and 64bit, I have more then enough hardware to run this OS, even tho its a bit older then most, AMDAthalon64 3200+, Nvidia 6800XE 256meg vid card, 2gig atlas ram PC3200. Vista is a major PIG!! installed as 32bit I dont have as many conflicts but I do do have many. Even tho i can turn off the securty warnings everytime you try to run or open a app or disk its still a pain. I dont care for XP all that much either but with a lot of reg tweaks its not to bad, Ive been slowly migraiting over to Linux as I find its just a faster and better OS. MS cn take Vista and stuff where the sun dont shine..

I purchased a new ThinkPad with XP Pro in November 2006 and was able to obtain a free upgrade to Vista. When I installed Vista it turned out to be bloated, slow resource hog with a very pretty face that relly did nothing for me except slow things down and hog extra hard drive space. I kept it on for two days then got rid of it. I really feel sorry for those of you who paid for big bucks for this overpriced piece of bloatware.

The only good thing about Vista is this could be the end of Microsoft's domination of the OS field. When the only MS version available is awful, hopefully people will flock to Linux and Apple. Windows ME was terrible, but not as bad as Vista. I don't know why they keep releasing a new OS before it works. If Mr. Gates wants to lose customers, he's found a good way to do it. Sloppy work, sir, sloppy work.

Fortunately, I've paid some attention over the years. I watched as others suffered and so I skipped 98, 2000, ME and finally upgraded from Win95 to XP SP1. I'm not cheap, I'm just not a glutton for the punishment of paying to be a MS beta tester. Go on someone, point out an MS product whose release was held back until it was ready for market. (Excel 4 was pretty good.)

So I don't really learn so well after all. I recently got suckered into the Windows Home Server debacle. I must be just too stupid for words, thinking MS had finally gotten something right.

Anyway, let me echo the words of others: being forced from XP will not drive me to Vista, rather OSX or, even more likely, Linux will be my solution. Every day I grow more confident in the survival of XP for the foreseeable future.

It's awfully ironic that, in their history, MS has made one pretty solid OS and that is going to cost them more than any other mistake they've ever made. Hopefully they're not so smart that they will refuse to ever set the bar that high again.

Vista doesn't work for me. I detested having to get it on my new computer, and now I despise it even more. It freezes on me every time I try to move more than one file, and takes a while to even do something so simple as to open a new tab in Firefox. I have tried to install Microsoft Visual C++, and I had to wait over a month since I got my new computer to get a patch. Also, Microsoft seems to have wanted to drop almost all security for UAC. You can now terminate vital system processes and delete system files, all simply if you have admin privileges. How stupid! I have a high-end computer with 3 gigs of RAM, and I'm sure that it would be lightning fast on XP, but on Vista, it's another story. Save XP!

As far as personal computing goes,Vista has left me with a frightening outlook of things to come.
I preped my computer via microsoft websites,bought/paid for vista home premium and installed it pursuant to directions. I then ended up uninstalling/reinstalling it two more times just to come to the realization(with help from tech support)that vista is not compatible with my motherboard or several of it's attachments. So I uninstalled yet again,then regressed back to XP PRO,then updated thru SP3RC2 and could not be happier. When microsoft was on trial for monopolizing,I stood behind them. Now microsoft is going to treat it's loyal customers like chumps without any regards to their opinions or needs. If this is the respect we get for our support,then I guess that when support stops for us that it should also stop for them.it's no wonder APPLE/MAC has been the industry leader from the start and from the looks of things will stay that way,at least they show appreciation for their customers. Thanks for showing us what we really mean to you Mr. GATES ! Here's to years wasted in support of you and yours microsoft.

Last year I purchased a new laptop that came with Windows Vista. The performance of Vista was terrible and the functions had been scrambled making it difficult to use. So, I bought a 'Windows Vista for Dummies' to spin up quickly on its use. Then I had to upgrade the laptop memory to improve performance. Unfortunatly, using Vista was still disappointing. I didn't want to purchase WXP for $200-300. So, instead I replaced the main disk drive of the laptop with a new blank drive and installed the free operating system 'Fedora' which is the pre-release of Red Hat Linux. Fedora comes with office applications and pretty much everything that Windows provides. I was amazed at the performance, the speed was stunning compared to both WXP or Vista. The downside was installing the printer driver which required an hour. However, I've not gone back to either WXP or Vista and I'm just fine. From the MS Windows world, I definitely prefer WXP over Vista. Vista should be scrapped.

Vista has caused me to leave the MS world forever. I have stuck with them from DOS to 3.1->95->XP.

While XP is a pretty good system, Vista is horrible (even preinstalled), it's slow, cumbersome and bloated.

Most hardware I have played fairly well with XP, but I have had lots of problems with Vista drivers and all that compatibility stuff is a bunch of crap. All of the UAC stuff is just annoying, and as Windows has never had networking built in to it, there's really no need for it to be as intrusive as it is.

I am saying goodbye to MS forever. I have bought a mac and will never go back! It does everything I want it to do with no argument, no hassle. Everything just works, smoothly and predictably. No more crashes, no more freezes, no more forced shutdowns!

If you play with OSX until you get used to it, you will realize that you are dealing with an evolution of operating systems. I do know that OSX is based on different flavors of *NIX, and I wish I could use Linux because of the whole open source philosophy, (I did for several years, I just had bad luck due to the lack of corporate hardware support), I wanted a machine that would just work.

Also, for you system builders, get a mac pro and open the side panel. What do you see? No wires! Everything just slides into the proper place. Beautiful, elegant and rock-solid. Sure you can't willy-nilly replace parts like on a PC, but you will be relieved you aren't constantly going in and out of the case, and that the machine will perform efficiently for years.

MS needs to get rid of the DOS/Win95 core that has just made things murkier and really start to make an operating system that helps users instead of argues with them.