Order Dell E6400, Windows Vista or XP?

Would like to order E6400 on Monday. Not sure if I should choose Vista or XP for my OS. I use XP all the time, no complains at all, but also welcome new Vista if it's as stable.

 

Windows Vista is fine. There are a few quirks that you need to get used to (like UAC), but it is very stable now (SP1). Windows Vista is the future (since Windows 7 is built on it), so if you would like to futureproof your investment, I would probably get Vista and get used to it since Windows 7 will support everything that Vista supports.

 

Or so they say... Can't help but be a doubting Thomas when it comes to Microsoft.

 

Vista is stable but has compatibilities with some older software.

If you aren't sure if all your applications will work with Vista then get the Vista with XP downgrade.

I had a year of Vista on my previous notebook but got the XP downgrade this time around. I'm getting a memory leak from something (might be a Dell driver) so I have to restart every few days, but other than that I'm happy.

John

 

Oder the XP downgrade version, so you can switch between XP and Vista. I'd go for Vista but'd order the downgrade option aswell. Vista is stable and does multitasting a lot better than XP (try to copy 20GB under XP and do some photoshop editing... in such situations Vista is a lot better). I just had one software incompatibility, which has been fixed in the meantime.

 

OK, 1 last question before placing order: should I order 32-bit vista or 64-bit vista? Dell offers this option and I read online 32 bit application will be compatible in 64-bit OS?

 

64-bit driver support is a potential problem. Do you have any older hardware (eg printers) which may not have 64-bit drivers?

John

 

Don't order 64-bit.

I'm not sure why you aren't taking the downgrade option, they send you both 32-bit OSes for your convenience.

The reason I say don't get 64-bit is that once you get the 32-bit CD, you can get a free 64-bit version of that same disk from Chris_M on dellcommunity forums. I don't think it works vice versa however. Speaking of Vista btw.

 

No they don't, I was told over the phone by sales that it would arrive with XP pre-installed and Vista on CD/DVD, that's exactly what I got.

 

i can confirm this, you get XP in your laptop and Vista on the DVD, that's also how my laptop arrived.

regarding the original question... that's exactly what i was thinking of, in the end i took XP. with support till 2014, it's not *that* old, and till then - for my next laptop - i hope that win7 sp2 will be available (ok, seriously - for me it was compatibility issues mentioned above, and also that i work both with vista and xp at work and i'm really happier with xp.)