[PLUG] XP or Vista?

[alan]

On Fri, 16 Feb 2007, Paul Heinlein wrote:

> On Fri, 16 Feb 2007, eehouse.org wrote:
>
>> I'm about to buy a new computer.  My first act will be to repartition and 
>> install Debian or Ubuntu.  But since I'm paying the M$ tax, I might as well 
>> think for a second about which of the currently available OSes I'd rather 
>> have for my ~$90.
>
> If you're after a platform that's stable and in reasonably good working 
> condition now, go with XP. I suspect Microsoft will still be supporting it 
> several years from now. If you're looking for next year's best gaming 
> platform, I'd bet on Vista.
>
> In fact, the only reasons I'd go with Vista now is for platform testing and 
> future gaming support.

Current gaming support on Vista is sub-par for anything that demands 
video.  The drivers are about 10% slower on Vista (mostly due to all the 
DRM crap).

If you want virtualization, you want XP.  If you want games to work today, 
you want XP.  If you want to watch movies or play CDs without the OS 
trying to degrade your unauthorized experience, you want XP. (Or Linux 
with xine and win32 codec support.)

I know of no good reason to get Vista at this point.  Microsoft will soon 
make it so you have no choice in the matter, but until that day, avoid it 
if you can.

-- 
"Invoking the supernatural can explain anything, and hence explains nothing."
                   - University of Utah bioengineering professor Gregory Clark