Greetings Michael;

I installed Vista on the three computers in my home months ago (I think it was
April), and my daughter has it on her laptop (Dell 6400 Inspiron, bought early
June) as well. My advice is that unless in your reading you can find a Vista
function or application that you feel you need, stay with XP until you find a
reason to change.

That being said, my Vista experience has been mainly positive, with one major
exception. My son's computer has had repeated problems with spontaneous reboots
and various programs shutting down with and without Vista informing me of their
status (although to be fair Vista has been kind enough to inform me most of the
time). These programs range from AVG to various games to task manager to sidebar
 to just about anything. Often the system will just have been booted and no
other software opened, and yet it will still state that some software has shut
down or is not responding. 

I have done many reloads of his system, as well as retesting all components,
although they were all taken from a system that ran perfectly with XP. While the
system runs reasonably well on initial install, as soon as a few games (Star
Wars for example) are installed, problems begin. Amongst the many other attempts
and efforts I made, the only change I found was when I downloaded video drivers
directly from ATI's site instead of using the Vista installed drivers. That
seemed to have solved the problems for a few days, and then it was back to the
usual difficulties. The number of program installations required to trigger the
problems has varied. I hesitated buying any new components in the hope that the
issues would be resolved.

I'm on vacation at present, but about five days before we left MS distributed a
compatibility update which had my son's computer running with only one or two
minor difficulties over that time. It was a very noticeable change that I can
only attribute to the update at present. Also, it is being reported that MS will
soon be releasing a number of updates that, amongst other things, resolve video
driver issues. I remain hopeful that the problems on my son's computer are, or
will soon be, resolved. Also, my daughter has nearly the exact same system,
other than an Asus motherboard, the model of which I can't remember at present,
and an ATI 9600 video card, and her system has been running flawlessly. She
plays less graphically intense games than my son, but she has it running almost
every hour she is home (IM, Office, playing music, several mystery games) and
she has never once had a problem.

I have been running Vista on a system I built earlier this year (AMD 4600+, Asus
M2NE (sp?), 2 GB RAM, ATI 1650, 300 GB Sata 2 HD) and have had only a few minor
issues over the months except with on old game that I still play on occasion
(Civ 2).

Vista is a nice upgrade from XP and has a few nice features, but it is not worth
spending money on at this time. If I was buying a new laptop or pre-built
system, I would not hesitate to buy it, based on my own experience. But I would
not upgrade an XP system unless it was necessary. My reason for the upgrades was
that my kids were both still running 98SE and I needed to upgrade them. Also, my
mother needed a new computer so after building my new system and building the
best two systems I could for my kids with the remaining components, I then built
a 1.4 Ghz Athlon system with the rest of the components and my old XP for my mother.

Now you have my humble opinion and my experience with Vista. Probably far more
than you wanted, but I hope that you find it helpful making your own decisions.

Bill


Son's System

Gigabyte MB (GM-400 (sp?) I can't remember exact model
ATI 9550 Video Card
1.5 GB RAM 
AMD 2600+



Quoting "Michael A. Wosnick" <[log in to unmask]>:

> Hi all,
> 
>  
> 
> I have been off the list for an extended period and have just returned and
> would like some insider advice. I know that reams have been written about
> Vista vs. XP but wondered if some of the regulars here had a CONCISE
> recommendation to make re: why (or why not) I should upgrade from XP Media
> Center to Vista.
> 
>  
> 
> I have traditionally been an early adopter when a new version of Windows
> comes out, but not this time. I want to get past the hype and marketing and
> learn if there are some really salient reasons why an upgrade may benefit an
> above-average and reasonably computer savvy user. Or should I still sit on
> the sidelines and be happy with XP MC.

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