Pete said:
Was Vista built with XP software compatibility in mind, or is half
my stuff mostly not going to work? -Big part of my decision to move
or not.
I always keep up on the latest operating systems by reading news
groups.
When XP was still in testing (as Whistler) I heard nothing but good
about it and decided to give it a try. It certainly has been a
stable and easy to use OS.
However...I have not seen anywhere near the same kind of enthusiasm
for Vista.
Assuming your present system is working fine...why would you want
to risk moving to an OS that you aren't sure of?
If you are the type who always needs to try something new...
play it safe!
Install Vista on a separate partition and dual boot...
Hmm - interesting take.
When Windows XP was in testing - I remember seeing mostly negativity
(similar to Vista) and problems with older hardware/software working, the
usual problems associated with going from one operating system version to
another. This was exasperated (with Windows XP) by the fact that a lot of
Windows XP users were previously Windows 9x users - not Windows 2000 - which
Windows XP was based on. Lots of Windows 95/98/98SE and the poor Windows ME
users were seeing things as very bad - since they assumed that Windows XP
was just the next revision of Windows 9x/ME - when it was, in fact - based
off a whole different kernel.
There are always 'early adopters' and the problem with listening to them is
that an early adopter is not usually limited on what they 'early adopt'.
They likely have the latest hardware/software and such - just out of habit -
and thus - the new OS for them is 'great and wonderful'. Then you have the
'it must be better because it is new' crowd... Who will have mixed reactions
depending on the level of their 'must be better' addiction. You also have
the 'maybe it'll fix all my worries and woes' people - who don't realize
that getting rid of old worries and woes usually creates whole new ones -
and the new ones are less likely to be solved because no one else is having
them! Listening to any of those people and not taking it in with a bit of
knowledge can be one's downfall.
What I am saying is that *I* have seen the same situation developing around
Vista as I saw around Windows XP and Windows XP Service Pack 2. People do
not - many anyway - embrace change. Especially when other situations (and
there are many different hardware configurations and software configurations
and combinations thereof out there...) deem to make it difficult to follow
through with any certainty of success.
Your advice to dual-boot is not horrible, it is likely a pretty good one -
but you could also recommend 'imaging' the current configuration and
installing Windows Vista fresh (or upgrading - as with Vista, it is as close
to a clean install as any previous upgrade has come) - and trying it out for
a few days - being careful NOT to save anything critical on the internal
system - but to external media. Then - if things are not going as desired
after a couple of weeks of trying - revert back to your image - and you have
lost little but time (and money for Windows Vista if you cannot return it in
the allowed time) and gained knowledge that might keep you out of trouble
when you do upgrade (if you do) and that you might share with those planning
to upgrade.
