Buying a new computer: Vista or XP?

[DrQuincy]

If you own a license of Photoshop and Illustrator for Windows can you switch to the Mac version or do you have to pay a new license ?

So long as you can prove you bought it you can contact Adobe and they will let you transfer it - it won't cost you a penny.

[Karl]

I've been running Vista for a couple of weeks on my main PC, nothing but good to say for it. It opens and closes all my apps faster, it cured some of the problems XP caused on my machine (XP didn't like having two RAID cards).

[aconic]

So long as you can prove you bought it you can contact Adobe and they will let you transfer it - it won't cost you a penny.

Yeah. I had this exact same question for Dreamweaver 8 and Photoshop about 3 days ago.

I called Adobe support and they said they can change it to mac for free as long as you provide them with the serial numbers. However, they have have to send you the software since it is a cross platform change, instead of having it easily dowloadable.

The only downside is they make your previous serial number invalid and give you a new one after the switch. So, if you have pc and a mac, you have to buy 2 copies to run them on different platforms.

[DrQuincy]

I've been running Vista for a couple of weeks on my main PC, nothing but good to say for it. It opens and closes all my apps faster, it cured some of the problems XP caused on my machine (XP didn't like having two RAID cards).

Hi - that's good news! What spec are you runnng there?

[Karl]

Dual Opteron 842, 2GB RAM, couple of RAID cards.

[akritic]

i'm thinking of getting a new computer in a few months also... but i have a nagging feeling...that i'll be getting a Mac notebook..this really should go in a different thread, cause my logical mind needs convincing...

it's true, but we're only human...

[DrQuincy]

i'm thinking of getting a new computer in a few months also... but i have a nagging feeling...that i'll be getting a Mac notebook..this really should go in a different thread, cause my logical mind needs convincing...

it's true, but we're only human...

The Macbook Pros are a sight to behold! You will not be disappointed. Rolls Royce don't make notebooks but if they did . . .

If you have any questions about switching post them here.

[mcsolas]

My dad just built a 64 bit amd 3800 dual core system just to try it out.
(I might mention that vista requires 1 gig of ram)

He tried to install cd burning software and it wouldnt install.. BUT .. it managed to change some arcane registry key in the process. Took hours to figure out & had to manually edit the registry to fix.

After we got it running, I sat down and clicked everything I could see .. trying to find a reason to use it.

From a visual standpoint, they did a pretty good job.

The primary functional improvement I found was in windows exploder. The 'breadcrumb' navigation in the address bar is interactive and quite useful for navigation throughout the various locations in the computer.

Minor improvements abound.. click the 'views' button and it cycles through the file views vs. (only) opening up a drop down in xp.

The 3d "Alt-Tab" app switcher is cool looking and does show the contents of the windows your switching to (xp shows only icons). However, I think they overdid that in the marketting because nothing else I saw is 3d, as you might think if you look at the vista box / ads which to feature that screenshot.

Finally, I started playing with Sidebar. A reasonably functional thing where you can put post it notes, calendars & tons more gadgets. Similar to dashboard.. it works pretty well although, I had trouble finding anything that really caught my interest.

2 hours later, I hung up the mouse and went back to xp. The improvements felt 'cosmetic'. Windows xp does all I need and after reading the links posted, you can count me out. Although, it was good that I had not read anything about vista before using it .. it helped me take a good, unbiased look at what the os can do.

[Lars-Christian]

I'll chime in and say that if you consider a Mac, you probably won't be left disappointed, unless you're a gamer of course - Macs don't have much to offer in that department.

I made the switch a few months ago, and honestly, the Vista release couldn't interest me less, while I probably would have been jumping around the stores to get it if I hadn't switched!

I know how annoying members of the Cult of Mac can be when trying to persuade people to switch, so I'll leave it at just letting you know that I've recently switched, and I don't see how anyone can be disappointed by doing the same

[darkecho]

Ive been using Vista Business for a couple weeks now. I got it from the PowerTogether Campaign. There are some ups and downs to Vista over XP.

Downs:
Every once in a while I have to go play with the sound max speaker settings to get the sound working again. Not a big deal but irritating when it does happen.
Not all programs/games work correctly. (Ive heard COD2 has some issues). Zend Studio 5.2 I couldn't get working but 5.5 works just fine.
Sometimes the Start menu is slow when browsing through your programs.
Memory hog (however having 2GB doesn't affect me to much)
UAC ( however you can turn this off)

Ups:
Eye candy
Fast Install (23 minutes from clicking shutdown in XP to logging into Vista doing a full install (format and all))
Better handling of program lock ups. Lets face it, we have all had troubles with XP having a program freeze. Vista has recovered the program every time for me so I just continue working.
Faster Downloads. I have done this several times and every my downloads in Vista have been faster in XP (downloading the same file). Sometimes its been significant, sometimes it hasn't. Now there are plenty of variables to go with them, however I have done this several times and Vista has always been on top.


My view on which you should have. I would keep with XP for the time being. Vista has just been released and people will probably run into problems that I have not run into. When SP2 of XP first came out it wasn't suggested to upgrade just then. A little while down the road you wanted to upgrade. I think the same will happen here with Vista. Personally I like Vista a lot, but unless you specifically want Vista I would go with XP at the time.

[covantage]

I think Microsoft finally did good with Vista - although it took 5 years.

[vgarcia]

2 hours later, I hung up the mouse and went back to xp. The improvements felt 'cosmetic'. Windows xp does all I need and after reading the links posted, you can count me out.

I can't count on both hands how many people said the same thing about the 2K to XP transition.

How many users do you know who are still on Windows 2000 by choice?

[mcsolas]

I can't count on both hands how many people said the same thing about the 2K to XP transition.

As soon as you turned off all the visual effects, windows xp worked -very- similar to 2000, especially when it first came out.

XP to Vista bridges 5 years .. a much larger jump than 2000 to XP was.
I find it hard to compare the 2 releases for that reason.

[brent5392]

I will recommend XP. Because there are lots of games/softwares that aren't working well on VISTA. Even my favorite game "CallOfDuty" is not working on VISTA

:O I am not upgrading to Vista then

[SydneySider]

Any actual Vista users out there? I need confirmation that Vista experiences problems viewing pages with Flash.

Thanks

[MaverickDesign]

Get a Mac. Or if you're a gamer, get a Mac and dual boot your old XP license with bootcamp.

Don't mess around with this: http://movies.apple.com/movies/us/ap...ty_480x376.mov

[Karl]

Memory hog (however having 2GB doesn't affect me to much)

I've not noticed that, my machine is using perhaps 50MB more RAM than it was under XP (and I know it's a valid comparisson because I actually did an upgrade install rather than a fresh install).

I find Vista more productive, it loads and closes apps quicker due to the various caching mechanisms in place - which is good for me, as I'm forever opening/closing apps and switching between them during the day,

[viegent]

Xp

[jimbo_dk]

http://www.clearification.com/

What's the deal with that? No doubt it's a well designed site, but what purpose it serves, I'm not too sure.

[Paid2postPoster]

Firefox isn't compatible screw vista. I can't live without firefox.

[splitzer]

I just bought a laptop and it came with Vista Ultimate, i'm already loving it. It makes things much easier. I'll be upgrading my other computers too to vista.

[technov5]

i'll recommend vista as it is the best OS that has come out, i don't think playing games on vista will be much of a problem. And you'll forget about games after experiencing vista.

[Euan]

If you don't play games then move to Mac

[alexisb]

I haven't used Vista yet, I have one PC with XP and two with Fedora Linux. I only use XP for Flash development and a few games (I'm not a regular gamer) and do everything on Linux.

If you're going for a new machine get a Mac, Mac OS X is based on FreeBSD, another good Unix, or buy a PC and run Linux on it. I'm sure you will get the most bang for your buck that way.

[EddM]

Any confirmation about DirectX 10 only being released for Vista?