Computer OS question

[7rider]

Hey there.
Well, after coaxing my p.c. through over 8 years of use, I think it's time to finally pull the plug and upgrade.
I'm not looking for anything fancy - just with plenty of memory and power to handle my aimless computer play time, and not get hung up or fried in the process. Something that will make our cable ISP worthwhile.
I have a very computer tech savvy friend helping me in my search - who will also help in set up.
My friend, who is a Linux user, is viscerally opposed to Vista, and recommends at any opportunity that I dump any Vista OS and load up XP.
I did a search in this forum, cuz I know it's been discussed here before. But most of the Vista vs. XP vs. Linux vs. Mac discussions are over a year old.
My current p.c. runs XP. Couple of questions for you computer savvy folks:
1. Has Vista improved any over the last year? Is the current thinking still "dump Vista, go with XP"? Assume for the moment that I don't care to venture into Linux territory and a Mac is also out.
2. Could I transfer my XP from my current p.c. to a new one - i.e. "overwrite" any Vista OS it may come with?
3. Will my programs work with Vista (if I kept it)? I'm thinking primarily my Garmin training center and some photo and printing software that came with my Canon printer (and camera, for that matter). Okay...for discussion sake....would those programs work on a Mac, or would I need to get all new programs??
Anything else I need to know???
Thanks all.
7

[tctrek]

I'm no expert, but I agree with staying away from Vista. If you get a MAC, which is what I have, you will need a partition running Windows in order to install/run any of the software you are using on your old PC. MAC won't run any of it and chances are you won't be able to find a version of your software made for the MAC. If you're on a budget, probably Dell has the best prices for what you get and if your tech friend should be able to set you up similar to your current P.

[Kalidurga]

For what it's worth, considering I'm only a tech geek wanna-be:

I've heard all the grumbling about Vista, but I've been using it for over a year with no problems. All of the chat/music/photo-editing programs I used with my XP machine loaded onto my current PC just fine. I don't like the visuals used for Vista so I switched to classic view, but other than that I haven't noticed much difference.

There might be issues with your peripherals depending on how old they are, but hopefully you'd be able to download current drivers.

Now, Microsoft Office 2007 I've got some issues with...



Regina, I have to ask-- What are lunch legs?

[VeloVT]

I'm no expert, but I agree with staying away from Vista. If you get a MAC, which is what I have, you will need a partition running Windows in order to install/run any of the software you are using on your old PC. MAC won't run any of it and chances are you won't be able to find a version of your software made for the MAC. If you're on a budget, probably Dell has the best prices for what you get and if your tech friend should be able to set you up similar to your current P.

I think Mac is still behind the curve in compatibility with training software (Garmin, Polar etc), but it's just not true that "chances are you won't be able to find (most of the software you run on your PC) for Mac." Most (though not all) popular software is available for Mac. I have MS Office (Word, Excel, Powerpoint etc) on my Mac, I know you can get Adobe suite for Mac, you can get Internet Explorer for mac (although I can't imagine why you'd want to use IE if you could use Firefox, Opera etc instead). I'm sure there are some technical/specialized software packages that aren't available in Mac versions, but that's what boot camp/parallels/etc are for -- and if you're mostly just puttering around with word processing and email/web, then it's not likely to be an issue.

Edit: look -- Garmin finally has Mac software: http://www8.garmin.com/macosx/. So no need to partition/run dual OSs for that.

[Tuckervill]

I switched from a PC to a Mac last September. One software that is better on a PC is Quicken. If you use Quicken extensively as I do (I've been using it since '92), you will not be happy with Quicken for Mac. Thus, I used Boot Camp and set up a partition to run Windows programs. It really sucks!

Karen

[OakLeaf]

In that vein... you still do have to buy a copy of Windows, but I've been running XP Home under Parallels on my Mac. It's fairly seamless and you don't have to re-boot into Windows as you do with Boot Camp. Supposedly VMWare Fusion is even nicer, but I've never tried it.

Besides the fitness software, there's no good mapping software for Mac. DeLorme StreetAtlas and Microsoft Streets & Trips ... unfortunately neither of them does everything, so you may need them both, but neither of them has a Mac version.

Garmin Training Center has a Mac version. It's not identical to the PC version, and actually I use them both. Both are free. SportTracks runs fine under Parallels. My Canon G9 came with a disc that has both Windows and Mac software. Printer drivers are free downloads. If you want to print wirelessly from Mac, you have to jerry-rig it with some printers, but the software is free and very stable.

DH is mostly a PC guy, but he's a semi-pro photographer, and bought a Mac last year just for his image processing. He says there's a significant advantage. He also just got a new laptop with Vista. With that one, he's having trouble printing wirelessly to his Epson printer, and Epson says it's not compatible with Vista, but other than that, no problems.

[Cataboo]

Skip vista. Either run windows XP or wait for windows seven.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2341805,00.asp


I'd avoid a mac, but that's me. Some people seem to love them. I hate them with a passion And you'll end up spending more.

Yes, if you are no longer using your old PC, you can use your old windows XP disk & license - you just can only have it installed on one computer at a time (you can't have 2 computers connecting to microsoft update using the same windows xp copy & serial #)

Depending on what your old computer is vs. your new one, you may be able to just take your old harddrive out of your old computer and plop it into the new one instead of ghosting it or reinstalling. And then use the new harddrive as a 2ndary harddrive for more storage.

Depending on the age of some of your accessories (printer, garmin) - there may not be drivers for them that support using them in vista. You should check that specifically.

My little brother does run vista on two computers - and while he seems reasonably happy with it... it's been in a HUGE pain in my *** when I have to trouble shoot the computers when something really screwy happens on them, which tends to happen. The computers are also significantly slower than they were when they were running windows xp... So if you're going to buy the fastest newest computer - bogging down it's speed with a bloated operating system isn't quite how you're going to maximize it's potential.