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    An XP lover is falling for Vista

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by LGt400, Oct 4, 2008.

  1. LGt400

    LGt400 Notebook Geek

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    So last night I switched my T400 to XP Pro from vista business, and right now I'm back to Vista business!.....I'm a hardcore XP fan, but something just doesn't seem right in XP.

    As soon as I switched to XP I had a memory error!, next I tried to add the vista sound pack and the panel got stuck replaying the files every time. I am not complaining, XP is a well matured interface. However, I think thats where its weakness lies to, i.e. more prone to attacks, vulnerable by experienced hackers who know the ins and outs of the system e.t.c.

    Performance wise NOTHING beats XP.... I mean, compared to vista's 1.5GB memory usage....XP Used 308 MB!....Everything seemed fast, even under the Energy profile.

    Aside's from the security issues with XP, I started hating the layout. I think this is where Vista gains some points. Everything seems a bit more organized. And for all business users, the professional looks of vista can't come close to the XP.


    Another thing I noticed was tha XP ran at a cool 14.07 W while browsing the internet! On the other hand Vist is only 11.04 W....I made sure I matched the power settings and conditions were same from vista, but didn't notice any improvements.

    So I'll put up with the slooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooowwww starting and hibernating vista in exchange for a better interface that works well for me and gives me a good battery life.

    Additonally, I think it's time for a switch, since I was always a bit jealous with mac's cleanliness.

    In conclusion, XP is the best performaing system out there. On the other hand, Vista seems to be more focused on security and layout with the advantage of a better battery life (in my case?!).

    p.s. forgive me for not spell checking, wrote this pretty fast.
     
  2. andyasselin

    andyasselin Notebook Deity

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    It nice see some people with good opion post about vista I guess blanced out all bad post about I agree one get used to vista is become addticted :>
     
  3. elijahRW

    elijahRW Notebook Deity

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    You'll go back home to XP in a few week or a little longer, maybe even 2 or 3 months.
    I and many other people have though that we could tolerate vista but after time we got smart and went back to XP.
    ;)
     
  4. ARom

    ARom -

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    Vista is fine once you disable that ridiculous side bar. :D

    I'm only on 1gb ram, don't know what the fuss is about.
     
  5. Gigiya

    Gigiya Notebook Guru

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    I just got my T400 with Vista Business on it two days ago. Hate the 1.3GB of RAM used idle but otherwise have no problems after following the Vista tweak guide on these forums.
     
  6. talin

    talin Notebook Prophet

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    I don't know why people complain about the high Vista RAM usage, just disable a few services (mainly search, readyboost and superfetch), and you could easily get it down to ~400MB or so. :rolleyes: Atleast I did.
     
  7. chun9430

    chun9430 Notebook Evangelist

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    I use XP pro on my desktop (I love xp). I use vista business 64 on 1gb. I get 800gb of ram ideal. I turn off index search etc, etc. I love the vista business notebook and it'll be amazing when i get another 2GB stick in there.
     
  8. brutalturtle

    brutalturtle Notebook Consultant

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    disable superfetch. I sat there for 5 minutes waiting for the hard drive to stop pounding my table to bits after boot up. Disabled, no more 100% load.
     
  9. AKAJohnDoe

    AKAJohnDoe Mime with Tourette's

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    Vista/SP1 with ZoneAlarm AV, PerfectDisk, RocketDock, NetMeter, WMDC, and TaskManager running on top of the usual Vista suspects with a few tweaks, described here.

    [​IMG]
     
  10. jaredy

    jaredy Notebook Virtuoso

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    I use server 2008 which is almost like vista without the extra crap. You just need a decent amount of ram to use it as a work station, but it is snappier than XP just not always absolutely faster in synthetics...
     
  11. hellomuggle

    hellomuggle Notebook Enthusiast

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    hey guys..i own a t400 and havent put xp on it, not cuz i love vista but cuz..er.. im lazy :D i like xp a lot but i'm slowly getting used to vista.. haha. anyways i just wanted to point something out:

    the high ram usage of vista is intended, because it learns what programs you are most likely to run and starts loading them into memory 'just in case.' if the memory turns out to be needed, evicting what's stored in cache is very fast and seamless.. this feature is the 'superfetch' that another poster has mentioned... i guess some people are disabling it for battery life, but i left it on and on the t400 i haven't noticed terrible battery life.

    basically, it's not a bad thing that the OS is using up a lot of memory; in fact it's the other way around. if you have a lot of ram and it's not being used... isn't that a waste? whereas if the OS is trying to anticipate what you're going to use that ram for, and loads things into it, you'll see a performance gain more often than not.
     
  12. BinkNR

    BinkNR Knock off all that evil

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    While I don’t agree with much of the OP's post, it’s time more XP users stop blindly listening to the media and giving a modem OS a try. If you have a decent modern system, Vista flies—you’d have to pay me to use Windows XP.
     
  13. BinkNR

    BinkNR Knock off all that evil

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    These “some people” don’t know what they’re talking about. The active management of SuperFetch is almost completely shut down when on battery. In addition, because your commonly used stuff is already cached, battery life might actually increase since the HD doesn’t need to spin up.
     
  14. Tripper_

    Tripper_ Notebook Enthusiast

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    What do you actually gain from using vista? I've tried it and prefer XP.
     
  15. MastaMarek

    MastaMarek Notebook Evangelist

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    Vista is a great product. I really like it. The people that complain most about Vista are gamers cause they loose 1-2 fps while playing but the real world truth is that Vista is a real mature product. I do no want to go back to XP.
     
  16. hellomuggle

    hellomuggle Notebook Enthusiast

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    hey..i didn't know that. awesome! thanks for the info.. you learn something new everyday =) i hadn't turned it off before but i wondered about if it would save me battery life and now that's one less thing to worry about.
     
  17. sp00n

    sp00n Notebook Deity

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    I find that Vista getting better battery life than XP hard to believe. Even Lenovo's tech specs list XP having slightly longer battery life than Vista.
     
  18. melcron

    melcron Notebook Guru

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    It is true on my A45-S250... I get about 30 minutes more when booted into Vista. I also don't understand why people keep mentioning 1.5GB memory usage... Mine has never reached more than 500MB idling.
     
  19. BinkNR

    BinkNR Knock off all that evil

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    I REALLY don’t understand the complaints about Vista’s memory usage. I think they’re all from clueless people. I have 4GB of RAM and routinely 1-2GB is devoted to SuperFetch. However, if something else needs the RAM, SuperFetch gives it up. Really, Vista plus 4GB RAM screams in a way XP never could/can.
     
  20. 000111

    000111 Atari Master

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    i can't seem to get into vista. i've got ultimate and went back to xp. maybe i'll try vista again, but i don't think so. guess it's probably mostly because i'm just lazy and don't want to 'learn' how to use vista when i already know xp in and out.
     
  21. Jmmmmm

    Jmmmmm Notebook Consultant

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    I've been using vista for about a week, and so far i dont like it. And it has nothing to do with RAM usage or the speed; it's perfectly fast on my computer. It's not all bad, but it just seems overly complicated and far less intuitive than XP. However, some of the things i could easily adjust in XP are hard to find or take 6 extra steps in vista. I've also had an issue installing some programs (it smply won't let me install them, and i have not found any way around it).

    It seems the security settings are excessive and too strict. And what's with all the stupid warning messages where I have to approve everything I want to access or change? Sure it's probably more secure, but for someone like me who doesn't download a lot of virus laden files, it's just a hassle. I'll probably get used to it over time, but so far I'm very lukewarm on it.
     
  22. hellomuggle

    hellomuggle Notebook Enthusiast

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    Jmmm it sounds like you're running vista in the administrator account (the default one) .. you should create a standard user that doesnt have admin rights. for some reason, the endless checkboxes/warnings go down like 75%.

    and it's more secure ... go figure >.<
     
  23. AKAJohnDoe

    AKAJohnDoe Mime with Tourette's

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    Better security, standarization as to where user files and data are located, more granularity in the Event Viewer logs, a more advanced Task Scheduler, .... more
     
  24. happyfirst

    happyfirst Notebook Enthusiast

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    I've gotten Vista Bus 64 running on my T500 (4gb). Not cause I want to (I prefer XP also) but because more and more clients are running Vista and everything that I'm used to is in a different place so I might as well start learning where everything has been moved to. I'm sure the next version of windows, everything will get moved around again in the name of "improvement" and "easier to use".

    Personally, I don't think Vista offers anything new that's really important except eye candy. And I simply don't understand why Vista at a minimum even after leaning it out, still requires at least 700+mb just to run at idle. It's absolutely ABSURD. I can get XP 32 running happily with less than 100MB. And it can do basically anything. But then it can only use 3gb. I have lots of VMs I use for development so extra mem is nice to have. Well with Vista 64, now I can access 4gb, but 600mb more of it gotten eaten up just to access that extra 1gb, so the reality is I only gained like 200mb.

    What is Vista doing OVER XP that it needs 600+mb of EXTRA mem just to run at idle?
     
  25. Tripper_

    Tripper_ Notebook Enthusiast

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    I agree that's the argument some people make. But what are the trade offs bloated software, DRM, significantly increased system requirements. The truth is Vista doesn't increase productivity over XP. Security is more of good habits versus OS.
     
  26. AKAJohnDoe

    AKAJohnDoe Mime with Tourette's

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    You know, the first computer I used was a mainframe. It had 64KB of memory. Current mainframes start with 16GB of memory and go upwards of 1.5TB.

    Times change.

    Read the quotation below. ;)
     
  27. pcharouz

    pcharouz Notebook Evangelist

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    The best feature for me is the new start menu, I love to just press start, and type in the program name, filename, or a website,(it even searches emails in outlook) and hit enter....

    I also like Aero, xp is just too old and booring looking, it uses a little more resources, but we have those, why not use them? :D

    I like the built in entire HD backup in vista bussiness, it works like norton ghost, but you dont have to install anything extra, and its free, you also dont have to carry around a northon ghost cd with you

    I love the new performance monitor!!! if in vista, press start, and type performance, it tells you detailed stats of what is using your HD, memory, average cpu usage for different processes, network stats...

    And you can turn most of these off it you dont like it, I use vista basic theme when I am on battery sometimes...
     
  28. Tripper_

    Tripper_ Notebook Enthusiast

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    That is a feature I do like.
     
  29. sefk

    sefk Notebook Consultant

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    There is something that people don't understand about ram's usage:
    If you have 4gb of ram and the system uses only 1gb, it's not efficiency: it's ram/HDD lifespan/time/money wasted.
     
  30. melcron

    melcron Notebook Guru

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    I'm in XP right now and the difference in memory usage is 200-300MB. I do find that Vista increases my productivity. I do like the backup features and the new start menu which greatly increases the speed I can locate programs or documents and launch them. I also like the visual improvements (minus the sidebar which I disable right away).

    Why is it that people have such an issue with increasing operating system requirements? Have you not noticed all previous operating systems were the same in that regard? You may not find Vista more productive... don't use it. Many people out there find Vista saves them time.
     
  31. happyfirst

    happyfirst Notebook Enthusiast

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    I'm able to easily get an XP Pro SP3 running in under 100mb without doing much. Worst case 100-200mb. The best I've ever gotten Vista is down to 750+mbs. Still at least .5 GB WASTED.

    Start menu increases access time to get to applications and documents? I'll agree but I never use it. Does that really need 500 extra megs of memory? I also agree backup is nice addition but it shouldn't really be adding to any runtime overhead. Let's say, theoretically, Vista could be trimmed down to just 100-200mb but you had to give up those two features. And in order to gain AT LEAST those TWO features back you needed to waste another .5gb of runtime mem, would you readily give that mem up just for those two features?

    I don't have an issue with a manufacturer increasing the operating system requirements to a new version of an OS. But the increase in requirements for Vista over XP compared to what additional PRODUCTIVE benefits it really yeilds is just so out of whack, it's ABSURD. In general, compared to xp, it's graphics and memory requirements are 4-6 times that of XP. I highly doubt that Vista can be increasing your productivity by that amount.

    I prefer XP. Vista is "acceptable". One just needs to come to grips with Vista's high memory requirements. If I only had 3gb of mem, than I'd be staying with XP. But since I have that extra GB of mem that XP 32 can't access then I might as well start learning Vista now.
     
  32. melcron

    melcron Notebook Guru

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    I have an old computer... I run Windows XP.
    I purchase a new computer... I run Windows Vista.

    If my productivity on this newer computer is even marginally higher on Windows Vista how is it not worth it? If I do like the visual improvements how am I making a sacrifice if my video card is already up to par?

    BTW: At the moment I am in Windows Vista and my memory usage is approximately 400MB. And yes I am willing to use 300MB more of my memory to gain access to the interface and start menu.

    If my work requires that I have access to that much memory I will boot into XP. If I am going to be studying, browsing the web, word processing, general university activities I will boot into Vista. I know both operating systems very well and I am comfortable with both.
     
  33. happyfirst

    happyfirst Notebook Enthusiast

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    For users that really have enough memory to run Vista, there really isn't an issue and they just should use it unless they really need every available bit of memory.

    Productivity is general is very vague. I don't see what Vista offers that improves productivity in general for everything. I mean are people buying JUST Vista and using only Vista for what it offers? Not installing a single other app? Then yes maybe they can be more productive since it offers more features! Or are they installing applications and using those applications? Every app I've used within Vista in general productivity is the exact same as before. The apps don't work any different under Vista. I'm not able to write code faster. The source code doesn't compile faster.

    If anything, at least for me, productivity in Vista is initially HAMPERED dealing with just trying to learn where everything is, what it's been renamed to, security issues, etc. Productivity in Vista seems to be a very controversial subject.


    I would love to know how you've gotten Vista down to just 400mb. I've read various online tweaking articles and the best I could do was get into the 700s.

    Another thing that amazes me is that I have two IE browsers open right now (one tab open in each). One is using 83mbs, the other 56mbs. I've noticed under Vista, IE really eats up memory.
     
  34. AKAJohnDoe

    AKAJohnDoe Mime with Tourette's

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    Vague? Not at all! Certainly subject to interpretation, though! Here is a definition.
     
  35. sefk

    sefk Notebook Consultant

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    Deuh...

    "OMG the OS uses all my ram! OMG! Vista sucks!"

     
  36. LGt400

    LGt400 Notebook Geek

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    exactly my thought....i mean, yes vista uses more resources, but if you are buying a new computer, most likely it is capable of what vista demands. Both my Toshiba laptop and Desktop system have xp on it. However, My lenovo has vista on it.


    BTW, i didn't want this thread to end up in which one robs less resources argument. The system has some features that demand memory, big whoop. It is the same situation as going from windows 95 to XP. Imagine how much more memory power, XP is robbing compared to its predecessors.
     
  37. TravisBean

    TravisBean Notebook Evangelist

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    I have a great deal of respect and admiration for all your posts simply for the reason that you quote Zappa in your sig, but a picture of task manager without the shutdown/restart tab at the top, well ,thats like breakfast without orange juice, Cheech without Chong, Hendrix without a Marsh...........
     
  38. AKAJohnDoe

    AKAJohnDoe Mime with Tourette's

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    I though it was simply a Task Manager, silly me.
     
  39. Tripper_

    Tripper_ Notebook Enthusiast

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    lol, That's a totally different thing. The difference between 95 and XP are huge. XP opens things separately instead of stacking. Talk about lost productivity one thing crashes in windows 95/98 would bring the whole system down(remember blue screen of Death). Listen I'm not a Vista hater. It's just not that big of an improvement. It looks pretty and it adds some positive things with some negative side effects. If you like Vista great. I know Microsoft will be pleased.