Back by popular demand: Windows XP

Chris Maunder

Back by popular demand: Windows XP[^] "We heard you loud and clear on bringing the Windows XP option back to our Dell consumer PC offerings," Dell responded in a web posting Thursday.

cheers, Chris Maunder

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Marc Clifton

Chris Maunder wrote:

We heard you loud and clear on bringing the Windows XP option back to our Dell consumer PC offerings

Good for Dell! Microsoft must be rolling over in their grave. :rolleyes: Marc

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Christian Graus

My two favourite comments was MS saying that this was a response to a 'specific request' ( it was, the request was, don't make us install Vista' ), and that Microsoft needs to 'ramp up marketing for Vista' ( I find it hard to believe they've not already done that )

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vijay_aroli

Christian Graus wrote:

the request was, don't make us install Vista'

:laugh:

Regards, Vijay. God may not give us what we 'want', but he surely gives us what we 'need'.

Marcos Meli

Thats a very cool fact =) A real taste of what of the users feels about WinVista =) I have reinstalled now 5 new notebooks that comes with Vista for WinXP, the final users dont like Vista and their notebooks look like 286 PCs with Vista, after reinstalling XP they get a really fast machine Cheers Marcos

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Dan Neely

Microsoft countered that Dell's move was in response to a "small minority of customers" with a "specific request." Michael Burk, a product manager for Microsoft's Windows Client group, said in an emailed statement, "The vast majority of consumers want the latest and greatest technology, and that includes Windows Vista". This should be easy enough to confirm one way or the other in the coming weeks if dell is willing to share sale numbers. Unless MS changes its mind on stopping the sale of new XP licenses at the end of the year, this option'll get a lot more expensive on consumer machines when instead of paying for XPhome they have to buy vista-business to get the right to do a downgrade. OTOH vista SP1 will probably be out by then disarming the "never buy an MS OS prior to the first service pack mantra".

-- CleaKO The sad part about this instance is that none of the users ever said anything [about the problem]. Pete O`Hanlon Doesn't that just tell you everything you need to know about users?

Jim Crafton

Christian Graus wrote:

Microsoft needs to 'ramp up marketing for Vista'

Apparently people haven't been sufficiently "wowwed" by the Vista "Wow" factor. Humph, what a surprise!

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Matt Newman

Marcos Meli wrote:

A real taste of what of the users feels about WinVista =)

I don't think thats what Win Vista users feel about Win Vista, thats what people afraid of change feel about Win Vista.

Matt Newman

Matt Newman

Just because its popular it doesn't mean its a good idea

Matt Newman

Dan Neely

Matt Newman wrote:

I don't think thats what Win Vista users feel about Win Vista, thats what people afraid of change feel about Win Vista.

I have to agree. I bought a laptop with vista because I didn't want to pay the difference between retail sale prices and a dell latitude or the equivalent. I've spent less time swearing at it than I did transitioning from 2k to XP. The only UI feature I've turned off in vista is the taskbar thumbnails, in XP I turned off every change I could. Eventually I have ended up using the new start menu and tray icon hider after I found I could override MS default hide settings. I haven't had any issues with apps not working with UAC, it's basically had the same user footprint as the ZA firewall I used with my 2k machine. The only long term issue I see is that most of the control panel applets have been redesigned to be more task oriented and I can't find a classic view. From what I've seen for the semiclueful user trying to find something him/herself instead of calling someone else for help it's a definite step forward. Even with the new more obvious design though it's still annoying to have to stop and read instead of autoclicking to known locations.

-- CleaKO The sad part about this instance is that none of the users ever said anything [about the problem]. Pete O`Hanlon Doesn't that just tell you everything you need to know about users?

Marcos Meli

The problem is not that there are "afraid" Maybe the problem is a useless upgrade :P in fact these users are HAPPY with WinXp, They are productive in the old OS, all the programs work, the OS is completely stable, their machines work better with Xp ... So give them a real reason to upgrade... For me there are no ones. Best Regards

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Daniel Grunwald

The control panel has a classic view, you can switch it using the link at the left side (just as in Windows XP). However usually I just search the control panel using Explorer's search box. Sadly lots of advanced settings in the "classic" dialogs cannot be found by the search. E.g. searching for DEP doesn't help you, instead you have to click "System and Maintenance", then "System", then "Advanced system settings" (UAC prompt here), then "Settings", then "Data execution prevention". But one can find it if one knew where it was in XP (in the "System" dialog) - and if one didn't knew that, it was near impossible to find in XP, too.

Russell Jones

doesn't necessarily make it a bad one either. Russell

Matt Newman

Marcos Meli wrote:

useless upgrade

I have three points to my response 1. You have never used Vista 2. XP is not more stable than Vista 3. If an upgrade is "useless" why are they buying new machines?

Matt Newman

Matt Newman

Russell Jones wrote:

doesn't necessarily make it a bad one either.

Indeed :)

Matt Newman

Dan Neely

Daniel Grunwald wrote:

The control panel has a classic view, you can switch it using the link at the left side (just as in Windows XP).

I did that, but IIRC you still get the vistaized applets instead of the classic ones.

-- CleaKO The sad part about this instance is that none of the users ever said anything [about the problem]. Pete O`Hanlon Doesn't that just tell you everything you need to know about users?

Marcos Meli

Matt Newman wrote:

I have three points to my response 1. You have never used Vista 2. XP is not more stable than Vista 3. If an upgrade is "useless" why are they buying new machines?

1. I just try it out a bit on the beta stage, I use the final version in a friend PC and I feel that I dont need nothing of the features in Vista or I can mimic them with apps for WinXP 2. Sorry but.. What stability problems do you have with XP ?? check out out there, Vista has a lot of problems, some interesting bugs, problems with DRIVERS that are not very good yet, so I must to repet that WinXP is more stable than Vista. 3. They buy new machines to run new version of apps for XP, for example, Office 2007, Photoshop, internal apps of their companies, etc to play games etc, and the main point !! TO SEE THEIR MACHINE RUNNING FASTER !!! So if you buy a new machine to get a performance enhace and you get a downgrade, not is this useless ??? Best Regards

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Matt Newman

Marcos Meli wrote:

1. I just try it out a bit on the beta stage, I use the final version in a friend PC and I feel that I dont need nothing of the features in Vista or I can mimic them with apps for WinXP

Use it on your own machine for a while and you will see the useful features.

Marcos Meli wrote:

2. Sorry but.. What stability problems do you have with XP ?? check out out there, Vista has a lot of problems, some interesting bugs, problems with DRIVERS that are not very good yet, so I must to repet that WinXP is more stable than Vista.

So problems you are having with Vista have nothing to do with Vista. Furthermore, dells shipping with Vista have pretty good driver support in my experience.

Marcos Meli wrote:

3. They buy new machines to run new version of apps for XP, for example, Office 2007, Photoshop, internal apps of their companies, etc to play games etc, and the main point !!

I've got six machines with vastly different hardware and they all run faster with Vista.

Matt Newman

Marcos Meli

Matt Newman wrote:

Marcos Meli wrote: 1. I just try it out a bit on the beta stage, I use the final version in a friend PC and I feel that I dont need nothing of the features in Vista or I can mimic them with apps for WinXP Use it on your own machine for a while and you will see the useful features.

Maybe some day I will love Vista and give you the reason, but is not the momment, still happy with WinXP and belive me that is not fear to the change. What I can want, a UI no way, a better WinExplorer.. let me with TotalCommander, a pic viewer, let me use infranview, a better win media player, let me with WinAmp and BsPlayer or mplayer port.

Matt Newman wrote:

Marcos Meli wrote: 2. Sorry but.. What stability problems do you have with XP ?? check out out there, Vista has a lot of problems, some interesting bugs, problems with DRIVERS that are not very good yet, so I must to repet that WinXP is more stable than Vista. So problems you are having with Vista have nothing to do with Vista. Furthermore, dells shipping with Vista have pretty good driver support in my experience.

I dont have problem with Vista, I read a lot of post about problems, side bar hang up, etc A big for problem for my clients was that their Enterprise Apps got problems running Vista, and about the security, Nobody can said now WinVista is more secure than XP, only the time can give us the answer.

Matt Newman wrote:

Marcos Meli wrote: 3. They buy new machines to run new version of apps for XP, for example, Office 2007, Photoshop, internal apps of their companies, etc to play games etc, and the main point !! I've got six machines with vastly different hardware and they all run faster with Vista.

I cant belive you in this topic, I agree that Vista can run perfectly in your new machines, but no that Vista is faster than XP, from the GUI to the security checks it is imposible Glad to talk with you Best Regards Marcos

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l a u r e n

they have said they will not allow xp licenses in jan 2008 ... cos by then we will all KNOW that vista is the best thing since... since... since... winME? :rolleyes:

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