Is it a good idea to...

My question is is it a good idea to have my T500 come with the downgrade to Genuine Windows XP Professional. I have never used Vista so i wouldn't know first hand, but I have not heard good things about it.

Thanks

 

I use Vista regularly. Honestly I never had problems with it.

The thing I find very interesting is, everyone else always seems to have 'problems' with windows in general that just doesnt happen to me. People always complain about 'blue screen of death' that they complain to bad mouth Microsoft but honestly, from the windows 3.1 days up to now with Vista, I had very very little occurances with 'blue screens'. Certainy by the time of windows XP it was pretty much a non-occurance. I am inclined to think its the way they use their software.

Vista is has windows XP compatibility too so you can sort of run stuff in XP mode so to speak. Some software that otherwise doesnt work, works when you do this at least in my experience.

But you might want to wait for windows 7? Either way you're the user so you should decide.

There are many ways to tweak your vista experience to being similar to XP. This is what I did. I turn off all the gimmicky things like transparent windows and all this nonsense. After that you have a solid OS.

 

Vista is not as bad as people make it out to be and I never really had any problems with it (at least anymore than what I've had with XP). I would get whichever you prefer, but I wouldn't worry about the negative things you've heard about it.

 

I would wait to get windows 7 but I cant, because I have to get this laptop before August for school. And the main reason I am asking if i should get XP is because I have read that it could have some negative side effects on the T500, is that true?

 

Isnt there something like if you get a vista machine a while before microsoft releases windows 7 you get free upgrade anyway? So you might want to do that? Plus you have a few months and I hear windows 7 is being released soon.

It doesnt make sense why T500 will have problems with vista and that lenovo continues to ship it to their business customers.

 

I think asus has a program like that. Not sure about anyone else

 

I think vista is great! I actually chose vista downgrade to xp option when I bought my t500 2 days ago. After I got it, I soon decided to format the HDD and install vista, because I am just too familiar with xp and I realize that I want to have some change. Now I am very happy with vista and the super performance of T500, except for some screen problem.

 

Vista is stabler, safer, easier to use and a much better resource handler than XP. It had a bad launch (thanks, NVidia!) but the vast, vast, vast bad press it has nowadays is people who just really don't know what they're talking about.

 

Well Vista is not speedy right out of the box as Windows 7, but with tweaking it can perform good, it just came down to personal taste.

 

Vista stumbled out of the gate and because of it, has had a stigma attached to it. That was the reason for the 'Windows Mojave' experiment - an attempt to deflect the myths about Windows Vista. Windows 7 is on its way because no matter how much they improved Vista, the perception would never change en masse.

As a result, Apple jumped on the opportunity and has pulled many over to OS X. A brilliant move short term; however, IMO - will not hold long term because of their reluctance to lower their prices.

But I digress...

Most who use Vista on a regular basis will likely tell you that it's fine...because it is. I would recommend you go Vista 64 or try out Windows 7 RC.

 

I'd wait for Windows 7, but that's just me. I believe the date for Vista to Windows 7 free upgrades is June 26th, but I'm not sure what Lenovo's policy is.

 

Actually, I think there is a lot of anti-technological reactivism in this forum. I have never had any but good experiences with Vista.

Given the choice between Vista and a new os-I'd take the new OS, but that has nothing to do with Vista.

 

Board Malfunction.

 

Vista has an unnecessarily bad reputation which has carried over from the initial release. However, a lot of it also comes from people who complain about change and Apple, who, if nothing else, knows how to market to dummies and sheep.

Vista did have a bad start, but SP1 and eventual updates by major hardware manufacturers have mostly taken care of the compatibility problems. I suppose Vista is not as fast as XP, but just like how XP needed tweaks to run optimally, the same tweaks plus a few more need to be done to Vista. I mean, do you really want to run the default settings, such as disk indexing and variable swap file size, for either OS if you value performance? I bought a pre-built spec T500 that came with the XP downgrade. I decided to go straight to Vista SP1 despite never using it before and after making my usual tweaks, it has been more solid than any XP installation I've ever had. The only thing I still don't like is navigating Windows Explorer without the Up button, although I did just find out about this.

Windows 7, despite it actually being closer to the jump from 3.0 to 3.1 than XP to Vista, is being treated as an all-new operating system that will make everyone dump Vista. It's the right move from a marketing standpoint because Vista's reputation is far too damaged to make people willingly switch to it, but in reality, Windows 7 is actually Windows 6.1 to Vista's 6.0. Vista is not Windows Me.

 

wouldnt touch vista and i work for those guys.

 

Why bother waiting for Windows 7? Jump right in and use it, I say! I've been using Windows 7 for months now and it's performing like a champ. I've only encountered a SINGLE crash which, to date, I have been unable to reproduce so it was probably just a fluke.

Windows 7 is what Vista should have been. It's a legitimate step up from XP and it has some nice new features, like Libraries and Jump Menus.

Get the cheapest version of Vista available and then put on Windows 7 after the laptop arrives. That's what I'm doing.

 

Vista had bad reputation because of inaccurate hardware requirements. Many people were sold computers that were too slow to run Vista adequately when compared to XP. Furthermore, Vista had a lot of hardware incompatibility issues due to immature and/or lack of drivers (i.e. Nvidia and Creative).

 

To be fair, immature drivers are the only types of drivers offered by Creative.

 

Well I don't like Vista because it has annoying habits and I can' t find settings anymore etc. So I stuck with what I knew and liked Windows XP Pro. I have toyed around with Windows 7 and that looks much better. I despise Word 2007 since the layout is just not clear and the same goes with IE 7 & 8. Evolution means things should get clearer not more complicated. I think in general with Vista you need to click more options before you get where you want to be ...

 

Lenovo isn't allowed to announce their upgrade program for new Thinkpads until June 26 but it looks like TPs sold after June 26 with Vista Home Premium, Business or Ultimate only will come with a free upgrade to Windows 7.

 

Pacmandelight,
(And this is from a Vista fan)

I sort of come from the 'other place'. I think it's everyone's responsibility to know the requirements of the system they are running. Of course less-than-honest sellers should get what's coming to them, but so should the buyer's of equipment that's not up to the job.