Windows Vista forum: Should I wait for Windows 7 or move on to Vista now?

First, let me give you a word that may contain some opinion that is slightly off the beaten path. You have, far and away the most stable, smoothest, easiest-to-live-with operating system that Microsoft has ever produced. I wish I still had a copy of Windows 2000 Pro.

I am working with a beta copy of Windows 7. My initial impression is that it has retained several characteristics of Vista. This is a negative. It is no more stable than Vista - perhaps even less stable. By and large, the look and feel is still Vista. This is a negative. The file system (how it handles and displays your saved files and folders) does not seem to be improved over Vista. This is a negative. There are several software incompatibilities that didn't exist even in Vista. This is a negative. 7 has a completely new taskbar that is a huge improvement over everything previous. This is a significant positive.

I am not sure at this point whether the instability is caused by Windows 7 beta or Internet Explorer 8 beta, but I have to re-boot quite frequently. All in all, If I had a copy of Windows 2000 Pro and it already paid for, and would have to spend market price to move to XP, Vista, or to Windows 7 beta I would remain with 2000 Pro. I would hope to be safe in assuming that a lot of what is negative about Windows 7 beta will be corrected before the final version and based on this assumption, I would avoid Vista at all costs. Windows 7 needs work before public introduction, but it shows much more promise than Vista.

I wouldn't move on to Vista, and while I was excited briefly about Windows 7, I heard that it is based on Vista but named differently for marketing purposes. Vista has apparently been a dismal failure. If there is any way you can keep and upgrade your current computer, I'd say that is the way to go. If I were absolutely forced to get a new computer, I'd wait to hear more about Windows 7 and also look into Mac and Linux systems.

To be totally honest I am getting tired of MS Windows, I've done Windows OS since Windows 3.0 and with each "upgrade" it gets more buggy and resource hungry. We bought our daughter a MacBook (her choice) for college this year and honestly it is more stable, powerful and easy to use then any windows OS to date. I honestly think my next upgrade will not be to Windows 7 but to a Mac!! What's next, Windows 8 in two years?? Not again..

Rule of thumb has been for a lot experienced of people who use MICROSOFT products is not to be the first person on the block. Usually it is a two year process to work out the bugs. By Service Pack 2 or 3, the product is usually stable as much as Window can be. If the product is so bad -- trust me VISTA is not a great one -- they usually will discontinue it and move onto the next one calling it something else.

I don't know how they go about, but from DOS to Windows95 to VISTA, it doesn't seem like they know how to get the bugs out of the product before releasing it. Perhaps mass releasing is the testing, as a friend of mine use to joke.

Even though MS offers some telephone assistance, when a new release comes, it usually is understaffed or they will blame your box for the problem.

So wait if you can before purchasing and see if the product has staying power. Also, before you convert, be sure that what you are running now will run on it. VISTA had a lot of problems with backward compatibility. It was Bill's way of selling more product I guess. And there is lag time between say a non MS vendor has to work out the patches for their product to work well with the new MS OS.

On the other hand, consider moving over to Apple or Linux. The platforms are more stable. There are versions of Linux that will run XP programs and there are ways to install XP on an Apple computer where they run better because of better memory management.

Wait.

I have had my PC since Feb 2008, I have Vista Ultimate on it and I have to say I love it, much, much easier than XP and from using XP from 2003 till 2008 I prefer Vista much better.

To be honest from what I have read, Windows 7 is going to be an evolution of Vista rather than a revolution, fair enough Windows 7 is supposed to be having the option of touchscreen, but I for one would not want to have to touch my glossy monitor screen everytime I wanted to do something, the fingerprints would drive me mad.

Has for any Operating system when its released, they will be bugs and some incompatibility issues which will take some time to be ironed out, so add this to the time it is till Windows 7 is supposed to be released and I can imagine that you are talking roundabouts 2 years, can you really wait that long?

windows vista needs to be setup properly many people chose too ignore the simple fact that you donot run in admin mode if your pc is completly worn out and you need too replace it right now then any vista machine will do . ive built my own systems can not see what all the nay sayers are talking about vista problems the system is fun and enjoyable too use . Im testing windows 7 on my machine and as it does look good it is in early beta stages so who knows when it actually will come out . xp is dead in the water as far as im concerned it has problems with many viruses,worms and it does not have the ability too stop or slow down botnet attacks as for linux when they can get a os that comes complete with proper drivers and can run programs without emulatig windows will it become a viable alternative to windows

I had Vista on my d530 2.8Ghz 2Mb ram , 7600gs video card 2 80Gb hard drives and a 40Gb hard drive and in worked like crap. I repair computers in my spare time and have a lot of people call me and ask if they can have XP installed on their new computer. Sure I say! Vista is a performance HOG!!! When I had it on my computer I noticed the hard drive light NEVER stopped flashing. I found out why and shut down those services. It still didn't work NEAR as fast as XP.
Just my experience, DON'T BUY Vista if you want performance.

Why not make a bold & daring move. Download PCLinuxOs 2009 when the Distribution final is released. Burn the ISO image to a cd-r or cd-rw and try it out live without changing your windows setup. If you like it and want to install it you can do that directly from the live cd. You can install as a dual boot, install as your new os, install it in a virtual machine and run within Windows, or install the PCLinuxOS 2009 as your main os then install windows within VirtualBox and have the most secure and stable Windows installation that you ever had. Go ahead, Experiment and have some fun computing! The top 100 Linux And BSD distributions are listed at www.distrowatch.com. (At home I run PCLinuxOS 2007 on an HP Media Center model from 2005, Intel Pentium D 3.0 GHZ, 4 GB ram, two 19" wide screen monitors, no anti virus or spyware programs)

Putting aside the raging debate between 98SE, ME, 2000, XP, Vista, 7, MAC, and Linux. If you need to purchase a new PC and are happy with windows up to this point, purchase a Vista machine. Since you billed yourself as an administrator you are capable of yanking all the bloatware that manufactures load on the machines these days. I bought a Acer Vista Laptop from Staples a year ago and the first thing I got rid of or disabled was all the bloatware that Acer had loaded on it. That and a memory upgrade sped up the machine. Do not every run any software on the minimum requirements if you are looking for decent performance. Yes, there were problems with running my printer and palm at first, but you can not really blame MS. The "3rd" party companies that provided the hardware and software did not step up to the plate with updated drivers. I have used the laptop for the past 12 months and cringe when I have to go to work where we are stuck with 2000 Pro and XP Pro. SP1 allowed my laptop to see all 4GB of RAM I put into it in the first week. Windows 7 is not that different. I've downloaded the Beta and have it on an older machine at work as a test. It might be good for someone that wants to save an older machine, but at this time I don't see that much improvement over Vista. I jsut recently installed an OEM Vista Home Premium on my desktop, a Celeron D 2.9 GHz 2 GB of RAM with on board Video. Overall it has been performing very well. Yes, messing with a large folder of pictures or multiple applications will slow it down, but overall again I am enjoying the Vista experience.
For the Linux people that will attack me. Been there, done that twice. Way too much hacking and coding to get it to work for me. As many have stated here, if that works for you, great. I've got better things to do than hack at my OS everyday to get it to do something that I can do with a few mouse clicks in Windows.

I have been using Vista for 14 months with no problems! I use my Laptop for Work & play. My work consisits of presentations, documents, giving training courses on our products,etc. There is a learning curve involved, of course. Vista is FAST! I hear and read of problems, but I am just your average working guy and I like my music. If someone can't appreciate Vista, maybe they are just 'Whiners'. I started with 'Windows 3.1 if I am not mistaken. A true Macintosh was my first 'real' PC. In other words, I have been using computers for over 25 years & if I can use Vista anybody can. I love Windows for it's ease & user-friendly approach. Sure problems are there, mostly due to constant 'Hackers' who like to destroy everything they see as a game. Jump on in 'The Water is just fine'!

and it is awesome
I would wait until you can get it
I play a multitude of online games and
xp and vista crashed when tabbing out
Windows7 does not however and it has exceeded my wants and needs
This is A true Gem Microsoft has come up with

Willing to wait?

Since DOS, Microsoft has had a history of good/bab/good/..releases.

Dos 3.x, good.
Dos 4.x Dog
Dos 5.x Good
Windows 3.0 dog
Windows 3.1 good
Windows 95 dog
Windows 98 good
Windows ME dog
Windows XP good
Windows Vista dog
Windows 7....Good?

Do yourself one other favor, wait until your new PC will ship with Windows 7 Service Pak 2.
MS also has a history of SP1 dog and SP2 good.

If you need a new machine get one with an option to 'downgrade' to Windows XP Pro. HP still provides this option. Run with XP until Win7 Service Pack 2 is available. Never buy new Windows when first released except in the case of Vista - never buy Vista (full stop - period).

you should DEFINITELY wait for windows 7. I messed around with the beta, and it was incredible, it was so much better. Windows Vista is horrible, and the way things are going, microsoft might release Windows 7 this year. however, you could just buy a vista computer and upgrade it when it comes out, because windows 7, or at least the beta, takes up way less hard disk space, and needs way less hardware.