@George: Indeed, Vista just isn’t doing it for me. I’ve had enough of that ‘Vista’lytic non-sense.

And yes, they do have a tradition of releasing good OSes in alternate cycles. I’ve noted that in my next post which I wrote yesterday and published today.

I agree that a little aged is better, but I don’t think an OS should have a life of more than 3-4 years, personally.

Oh well, Microsoft tends to release a totally worthless OS once in awhile (WinME, anyone?). Let’s hope the do a better job with “Windows 7″ and get it out the door in a timely manner (but they shouldn’t hurry it, of course, otherwise we could end up with another Vista).

Though Vista is replacing an ageing OS, the fact is that the ‘aged’ is better and a more mature product than the newer one. And that’s where everyone is pissed off. With regards to Macbook, I’m hoping to get one too. Good to know you’ve got good revenues from your blog to pay for it (me too )

So far, XP has been my favorite of Microsoft’s OSes (I’ve used 98, Win2k, and XP). I can see why MS is pulling the plug on XP, it’s been seven years since it’s release, an unbelievably long time for an OS. I’ve used XP pretty much since it’s release, and I have to say it’s far better than it’s predecessors, though it’s far from perfect.

I can’t see, though, why they’d fully discontinue it when their current product is a lemon. From what I’ve seen, it’s just XP with a new interface and some security fixes bolted on. It’s overpriced, doesn’t have great hardware support (which is half the fault of the hardware people not supplying working drivers), and it’s bloated. It takes an ungodly amount of RAM and hard drive space, and it *requires* a dedicated graphics card to run (the *OS* thinks it needs accelerated graphics!). I’m betting there will be a lot of people pirating XP…

By the way, I’m writing this from my shiny new MacBook. I’ve been saving up for one for a few years, and my blog finally pulled in enough money to help pay for it. I have to say the Mac OS is excellent, and has been real stable over the past couple months. I’ve pretty much moved over from Windows, but I still have to use the XP-based desktop in the living room once in awhile (for Adobe Premiere and the like).

@Josh: This isn’t a ‘vista sucks’ article. This is about bidding farewell to XP.

I just don’t understand how anyone who actually USES Vista themselves (and is therefore qualified to make a judgment on it) could seriously consider XP a better OS.

“Vista has had hardware incompatibility issues (for an OS whose predecessors had little or no problem), hefty hardware requirements, security flaws and more. While Microsoft hopefuls anticipated improvements in Vista SP1, very little of their expectations have been met.”

Sure I wouldn’t recommend going out and upgrading, but downgrading is simply ridiculous. Yes, Vista has had a lot of compatibility issues and I wouldn’t have recommended adopting it in the first year or so, but amazingly, XP had exactly the same issues when it came out to! The statement “for an OS whose predecessors had little or no problem” is just complete bullocks. Just have a quick Google and you’ll see.

Intel wouldn’t upgrade back then either and people complained it was resource intensive, unstable, insecure and inferior to Windows 98.

“we’ve prepared a more shiny and expensive version of Vista, and we’d like you to blow $1000 on hardware upgrades plus $300 on the OS and move to it“.

Can I ask who does that? Sure, if you have XP and don’t want a new computer then stick with it. If you want a new computer you can spend anywhere between $800 – $5000 and get Vista. $1300 would get a decent middle of the range comp very likely superior to most users existing machine.

Performance wise suggesting XP is superior is now completely untrue, Vista performs equal to BETTER on the same hardware with the updated drivers.

Security wise Vista is better then XP in every way.

Feature-wise Vista again, blows XP out the water.

And the Interface… the glassness is a non-issue, if you dont like it download a patch and skin it, or just change back to the classic look. Once you’ve used the integrated search and start menu of Vista going back to XP will seem archaic.

And can I remind you that Windows 7 IS Vista. Vista was a major rewrite and architectural upgrade which is why it suffered so much compatibility issues, Windows 7 will simply build upon this..

I’m not a Win fan boy, I just like to see people write balanced and unbiased and actually assessing all the statements they make.