Which Vista?

I'm getting a laptop in the summer; after my exams and I'm just trying to decide what OS to get.
I'm going to say right now that it's either Vista Home Premium or Ultimate; Leopard doesn't appeal to me at all and Linux is simply a naggin curiosity I might try later.
What are the pro's and con's of each?

Also, although I would consider myself on with above-average computer knowledge , I'm still stuck with Windows 98/ME, so anything introduced after will need a bit of an explanation.

What are 32-bit/64-bit OS's? I'm pretty sure it has to do with the CPU, but I'm not 100% sure, so a simple explanation would be appreciated.

 

Summer or winter?
Well, 64 bit OS run only on 64 bit CPUs,like the Core 2 Duo`s or some AMDs , like the turion 64,and will get a performance boost,but not a very big one,and support for 64 bit applications is still far away for some...
Go with Premium because it`s cheaper,ultimate is more for bussiness corporations and people with need for ultimate security and all....premium has enough of the benefits to run smooth on a system and still look better than XP.

I personally have home premium 64,and could not say I saw an improvement over premium 32 bit...

It comes down to a matter of choice,but I would suggest Home premium either way .

 

well, by the time u get into summer, more choices and great prices will be available.
So cost difference between Vista Home Premium and Ultimate will not be so that u must settle for a "lower" version. Take the Ultimate, saleman might throw it in for free.
For difference explanation, Microsoft has the better description on their site.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/editions/default.mspx

32/64 bits hardware - a simple presentation
"* Almost all new servers sold within the last two years from AMD or Intel will have x64 capability.
* Most mid- to high-end desktop processors from AMD or Intel within the last year have x64 capability.
* Some higher-end Semprons have x64; lower-end Semprons do not.
* No AMD Durons have x64.
* All AMD Opteron processors have x64.
* All AMD X2, FX, and Athlon64 chips have x64.
* All Intel Pentium D and Celeron D chips have x64.
* All AMD Turion notebook processors have x64.
* All Intel Core 2 processors (mobile, desktop, and server) have x64.
* No Intel Core Duo notebook processors have x64
* No Intel Pentium M notebook processors have x64."

Running 64bits is cool (for some and many) if u are up to the drivers challenges. DO lot of research on ur needs and capability before jumping onto it.

cheers ...

 

For the southern hemisphere summer is just starting (depending on where he is from it could be now or in 6 months)

As for Vista editions, here is a good feature comparison. Price of Ultimate is usually too expensive to justify its features, IMO the best choiceis Vista Business (domain support, terminal server, IIS etc.). However, if you are not interested in those features and if Media center and XBox support is important then get Home premium; but there are much better 3rd party media players/ applications to do everything Home Premium offers.

I would stay away from 64bit for now (because of driver issues), besides still very few applications take advantage of 64bit computing.

 

64bit is not needed unless you need huge amount of memories.Current 32bit supports to a maximum of 4GB Ram.

I'd recommend getting XP Professional over Vista Home Premium for a start, but opinions do differ. I'm still using XP on my desktop. For Vista, i'd recommend Home Premium 32bit.

 

32-Bit OS's can only recognise approx. 3.25 GB of the 4GB RAM. You would need a 64-Bit to recognise the full 4GB.

 

Thought it was 3.2 gb... not 4...

Makes little to no sense to go xp then vista... well, less now since vista sp1 (even if RC) is out.

I'd say go with premium... but then I don't know you, your budget or what you will be doing with the computer... I can recommend that you read this: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/pr...mspx?wt_svl=10000VH_OS_Other1&mg_id=10000VHb1 and decide for yourself....

 

If you (not you specifically, but in general) don't know which Vista you need, then you need Windows Vista Home Premium.

 

Get Windows Home Premium 32bit. The Ultimate is just extra features you're never gonna use.

 

premium all the extras of ultimate can be had with free or cheap alternatives if you decide you want them ive went back to premium from ultimate

 

Premium is perfect for customization without the hassle of deleting unnecessary/useless programs.

 

I have better performance in Vista 64-bit than in Vista 32-bit, also less problems with games (for example The Witcher plays better, though it's only 32-bit game), I got more 3dMarks too (like 3900 vs. 4200+).

On my system Vista 32-bit recognizes only 3.0 GiB, 64-bit one recognizes 3.93 GiB of memory (should be 4.0 but I won't cry). There is absolutely no way to have recognized more in many systems, because Microsoft has limited it's mechanism to handle more memory since XP SP1, due to hardware compatibility, so max you can get is both hardware and software dependent. But this amount of memory is still not really needed...

Vista 64-bit has some limitation when it comes to drivers, many of them can be resolved, not always though.