Tiberius wrote:
> The implementation of a 3d desktop and a nice looking theme is desirable.
> Unfortunately Microsoft blundered in both. Let me explain why:
>
> 1) You could have had a 3d desktop with all those effects using older cards.
> This is 100% true, for example
> beryl does this with lower powered GPU cards.

(slowly!)

> 2)Microsoft lied (again) about vista "gracefully" downgrading for lower
> power GPU.
> Even the classic theme is sluggish, the drawing of the windows is incredibly
> slow... compare that to XP on the machine and the difference is striking.
> Some people report classic to be slower than aero glass... how stupid is
> that.

It's not. That's the way it should be.
Aero loads textures into the graphics card memory and then simply
instructs the graphics processor on where to put them on the screen when
you move windows around. The eye candy is simply the natural result of
somebody recalling that graphics processors handle transparency, and
pretty effects, natively in hardware.
In order to do this, the graphics card has to support the shaders that
are used (which is why you need a moderately modern graphics card).
'Classic' involves blitting bitmap data to the screen, and handling all
the graphics processing on the CPU.

Unfortunately, some very cheap hardware basically emulates some of the
shaders with software in the drivers, so in those cases Aero is slow.

Alun Harford

Would anyone please tell me the pro can con, Windows XP or Vista, the
comparison?
I need to buy a laptop, am not sure which one is better XP or Vista.
Some of my friends consider XP professional is better than Vista
business.

thanks

ck wrote:

> Would anyone please tell me the pro can con, Windows XP or Vista, the
> comparison?
> I need to buy a laptop, am not sure which one is better XP or Vista.
> Some of my friends consider XP professional is better than Vista
> business.
>
> thanks
>
I replaced XP Pro SP2 on my older laptop ('03 Compaq) with Vista Ultimate.
Aero will not run so I'm in Basic mode but everything else works just fine.
BTW, I only do clean installs.
Frank

"ck" <cljlkck@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1180659659.592479.120620@g4g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
> Would anyone please tell me the pro can con, Windows XP or Vista, the
> comparison?
> I need to buy a laptop, am not sure which one is better XP or Vista.
> Some of my friends consider XP professional is better than Vista
> business.
>
> thanks

I'll give you a heads up right now. You're going to get mixed responses from
everyone here. There are linux and xp trolls roaming around giving their
2cents when its not wanted.

But I'll give the low down and try to be as neutral as possible.

XP:
+Stable drivers.
+Uses less ram.
+Faster for games (by 10fps is the common consensus).
+Most applications are designed for it, so they all work.
-Although not outdated, vista makes it feel outdated. At least it does for
me.

Vista:
+Little things that make it better over xp. By that I mean the start menu is
cleaner and more functional by including a search bar where you just type a
keyword and it works (example: type calc, the calculator will launch... type
google, and www.google.com will launch, assuming its in your history.
-Having the above search makes your hard drive work a lot more when you
aren't at your pc. Its annoying to see your computer working when you aren't
doing anything, but this is usually indexing your files for search or
defragging.
-Compatability issues with some applications and games. I have not
experienced any problems, but many people have (which cannot be ignored).
+Cice, clean, and very pretty UI.
-Most drivers for popular hardware are in beta, which means that you may
experience BSODs. Although I haven't, many I have talked to have.
+/-UAC makes your pc more secure, however, many turn it off because of its
obtrusive behaviour.

Actually, I could keep going with many more pros... but it would be too
long. Personally, I would go with Vista, but do that only if you don't mind
finding workarounds for some problems you may face. If you are not a pc
enthusiast, stay with XP.

That is, unfortunately, not a question that can be answered as asked.
Whether XP or Vista would be better for you depends on what you need, what
you want, and what laptops are available with each operating system.

--
Richard G. Harper [MVP Shell/User] rgharper@gmail.com
* NEW! Catch my blog ... http://msmvps.com/blogs/rgharper/
* PLEASE post all messages and replies in the newsgroups
* The Website - http://rgharper.mvps.org/
* HELP us help YOU ... http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm


"ck" <cljlkck@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1180659659.592479.120620@g4g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
> Would anyone please tell me the pro can con, Windows XP or Vista, the
> comparison?
> I need to buy a laptop, am not sure which one is better XP or Vista.
> Some of my friends consider XP professional is better than Vista
> business.
>
> thanks
>

That's right, but there are some things to consider. What kind of software
do you use now? Have you bought a lot of packages that aren't yet
Vista-ready?

I can't document the following assertion, but I suspect that a lot of
software companies are going to come out with a new version of their
offerings that are Vista-ready and require a paid upgrade. Some already
have.

The following is not a flame against Vista, but...

A lot of reviews of Vista have raved about the Aero interface. Yep, it's
neat, but it also is a processing hog. I turned it off in my new computer
and have noticed a very definite speed improvement. My laptop is supposedly
only marginally ready for Vista (3.1 on the Windows Experience Index, with
the problem being the video processor).

I don't need Aero. It's eye candy.

Yes, there are some refinements and improvements over XP. But I don't think
they're all that important, especially when you factor in the learning curve
needed to use them easily. But eventually you're going to use Vista (unless
you're driven to Linux), so maybe learning it now is better than later.

But I'm probably going to dust off my XP disk and install it on the new
computer, with the option of changing back to the preinstalled Vista when I
have no other choice. I hope that the software upgrades I'll have to buy
eventually will have enough new features to be worth it.

"Richard G. Harper" <rgharper@email.com> wrote in message
news:%23dgqx3%23oHHA.3320@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> That is, unfortunately, not a question that can be answered as asked.
> Whether XP or Vista would be better for you depends on what you need, what
> you want, and what laptops are available with each operating system.
>
> --
> Richard G. Harper [MVP Shell/User] rgharper@gmail.com
> * NEW! Catch my blog ... http://msmvps.com/blogs/rgharper/
> * PLEASE post all messages and replies in the newsgroups
> * The Website - http://rgharper.mvps.org/
> * HELP us help YOU ... http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
>
>
> "ck" <cljlkck@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:1180659659.592479.120620@g4g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
>> Would anyone please tell me the pro can con, Windows XP or Vista, the
>> comparison?
>> I need to buy a laptop, am not sure which one is better XP or Vista.
>> Some of my friends consider XP professional is better than Vista
>> business.
>>
>> thanks
>>
>
>

There is no cut and dry answer. It depends upon what software you wish to
run upon what hardware.

If you are buying a new computer, and plan to purchase all Vista compatible
programs, you will have little to no problems.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

"ck" <cljlkck@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1180659659.592479.120620@g4g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
> Would anyone please tell me the pro can con, Windows XP or Vista, the
> comparison?
> I need to buy a laptop, am not sure which one is better XP or Vista.
> Some of my friends consider XP professional is better than Vista
> business.
>
> thanks
>

Although XP is far-far better than vista...

unfortunately I have to advise you to get vista with the most powerful
laptop you can afford
with lots of cpu power and ram.... 2 gigs minimum.

Why am I saying this? Because vista will have better support in the
future....

Have in mind though that vista has many problems and you might run into
them...

I and many others have shown their concern about vista..So don't listen
blindly to some of these guys who say vista is great.

Some of these guys are "vistaboys" and keep claiming that vista is great for
them.. therefore it must be for others too.

Out of their enthusiasm for Vista and ignorance about computers in general,
they mislead people...
I can assume that they are not doing this on purpose to harm you or
others...

Read lots of the posts in here and other forums ask friends and
knowledgeable people... then decide...make up your own decision.

I would personally would get vista with a new laptop, but eventually dual
boot it with xp pro..and probably use XP more than vista
until service packs come out for vista and more programs get updated to work
smoothly with it.

Have in mind also that XP is faster on the same hardware and more compatible
with hardware and programs at this time.
New high end programs will however take advantage of some of the features in
vista....


Good Luck







"ck" <cljlkck@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1180659659.592479.120620@g4g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
> Would anyone please tell me the pro can con, Windows XP or Vista, the
> comparison?
> I need to buy a laptop, am not sure which one is better XP or Vista.
> Some of my friends consider XP professional is better than Vista
> business.
>
> thanks
>

You sound almost sane with your post... not bad advice...

now

Me tarzan tiberius.. you jane NOT tiberius...

why did you change your nick from julie smith into something that looks like
mine?

That is a sign of a troll you know.... its not a good idea.

> "ck" <cljlkck@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:1180659659.592479.120620@g4g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
>> Would anyone please tell me the pro can con, Windows XP or Vista, the
>> comparison?
>> I need to buy a laptop, am not sure which one is better XP or Vista.
>> Some of my friends consider XP professional is better than Vista
>> business.
>>
>> thanks

So many people put down Vista's shiny, new User Interface and dismiss it as
eye candy, but I strongly differ. Microsoft has clearly upped the bar on
good-looking desktop graphics and it's about time. Part of modern computing,
I feel, is that it SHOULD look amazing and draw us into the experience of it
all.

After 2 weeks on Vista, whenever I had to use XP on another computer, it
felt dull, dry and just plain boring. Check out the 'Vista Transformation
Pack' on www.Cnet.com and see how many people with XP are trying to make
their User Interface look like Vista. Indeed that may be the best of both
worlds: the look of Vista with the stability and compatibility of XP.

Also, like other guys have said here, even though there are some
shortcomings of compatibility with Vista in the short run, Vista's your
better bet in the long run, since XP will be supported less and less over
time.

Good Luck, Frank B.