PCWorld.com Users Say: Save Windows XP!
Back on January 30th, I wrote about our sister site Infoworld's SaveXP.com campaign, formed to give people who aren't happy about Microsoft's plans to discontinue most sales of Windows XP after June 30th. I also included a silly little survey about XP and Vista. Much to my surprise, more than 3500 folks took it. It wasn't the least bit scientific, but the results make for fascinating reading...and if you've already guessed that the sentiment ran strongly pro-XP and anti-Vista, you've got a good gut for this kind of stuff.
Herewith, the responses to the the questions I asked (some of the numbers don't add up to 100% because of "other" votes and/or places where folks could "choose all that apply"):
Which versions of Windows are survey respondents using?
64 percent use Windows XP
18 percent use Vista
8 percent use various other versions of Windows
6 percent use Windows 2000
5 percent use Windows 98
Where are they using it?
62 percent use it both at home and at work
36 percent just use it at home
Only 2 percent just use it at work
How do they feel about Microsoft's plans to discontinue most sales of Windows XP?
67 percent are very unhappy about it
16 percent are somewhat unhappy
(That's a total of 83% who are nonplussed to some degree)
9 percent are neutral
2 percent are somewhat happy
6 percent are very happy
If Microsoft changes its mind and extends XP sales, what are the chances that survey respondents will choose it for their next PC?
56 percent say they'll definitely choose it
23 percent say they'll probably choose it
(That's 78 percent leaning towards it)
8 percent say they definitely won't choose it
6 percent say they probably won't choose it
5 percent aren't sure one way or the other
Why do those who don't want Microsoft to discontinue XP feel that way?
48 percent think XP is a better version of Windows than Vista
27 percent worry about hardware and software not working with Vista
11 percent think it's presumptuous of Microsoft to discontinue a popular product
6 percent just like choice, thank you very much
4 percent are done with XP but think others should have a choice
What do survey respondents think of Vista?
22 percent think it's blah
19 percent think it's really bad
18 percent think it's OK
17 percent think it's bad
12 percent don't know enough to have an opinion
6 percent think it's excellent
Whew. Like I say, this response isn't statistically valid and may or may not map to the opinions of the public at large. But it's sure strongly felt. So are the thoughts of the almost 1100 respondents who took the time to give us their thoughts in more detail. Here are some examples--including some pro-Vista ones as well as pro-XP ones (the vast majority fell into the latter camp):
Windows XP is the ultimate balance between consumer and professional users that Microsoft has been targeting for years. Windows Vista has so many issues and is way too focused on consumers that it will lower productivity for businesses. This is something that the IT department does not want to see after investing in updated hardware & software. Out of all the future releases out of Redmond; Windows 7, Vista SP1, the third Service Pack to this tried & true OS is what I am more excited for.
In Vista's favor, it does have many features that are superior to XP, most of which are buried deeply in the operating system. However, Microsoft cannot expect Vista to become a mainline operating system with so many bugs, not to mention all the incompatibilities with existing peripheral hardware.
I don't know what people are whining about. We've known that this was going to happen for years. People used to say XP sucks, now they're saying Vista sucks and XP is the best thing ever. Vista has pretty much all of its problems worked out, so It's probably best for XP to end.
I have two XP Pro computers and a Vista Home Premium Laptop running on the same network. The Vista machine is the most powerful of the three (more memory and higher speed processor) and yet is the slowest of the three. I see no advantage in the "pretty" display capabilities. Vista did integrate into my network with ease. We need choice - "pretty" or performance.
82490 Vista is not a bad product. However, what it replaces, XP Pro was a stable well thought out system. The biggest Vista problem is Microsoft requiring digitally signed drivers which Microsoft approves only after charging the software/product developer a fee. This stifles new product development and encourages obsolescence of our present peripherals. For example, my 2 year old Asus motherboard's chip set has been reclassified from "cutting edge" to a "Legacy" product with no manufacturer's Vista support and limited Nvidia support. The new Nvidia Vista drivers even "dummy down" my boards capabilities, adding insult to injury! I bought this board specifically to compliment Vista 64 bit computing. Is there any wonder that people are crying out for the continuation of the XP product line when the cost of going Vista is so unnecessarily (corporate greed at its finest) expensive? Microsoft greatly mis-stepped this time. This is not like the XP introduction which mostly replaced Windows 98 a notoriously unstable crash prone system. NT and 2000 users had stability so they did not switch to XP for years. Here, the whole computing public, both corporate and home user finally had what visionaries like Bill Gates imagined in the seventies, a functioning, stable, productive and affordable computer. How somebody could have talked someone as smart as Bill Gates into throwing that out and replacing it with Vista, is beyond me.
I have Windows Vista Ultimate in a VM. I think it's safe to say I haven't started it up since November. Why? Because it's terrible. They just changed things for the sake of changing them. Example: Add or Remove Programs is now Programs and Features. Why? It was fine the way it was. And what is with their network properties/info/management tools? It took me almost an hour to configure simple file sharing. I like Windows 2000 the most, and XP is just as good. Vista, in my opinion, is comparable to Windows ME, and that's bad.
Currently XP to Vista reminds me of how aweful the Win98 to WinME transition went. I've tried Vista and bailed out of it faster than I did out of WinME. May be their SP-1 will cure many ills and I'll try it; but not before ghosting my XP image first.
I hated Vista at first. But after customizing it to my preferences, I actually like it. Vista is not as bad as a lot of people make it out to be.
Those of us in small business using a number of computers may have a lot of hardware and software that is "legacy" to Vista and unsupported or substandard. Heck, I'm just getting around to upgrading 98SE to XP on some machines (which usually goes pretty well -- XP is quite happy with a PIII 700 and 512MB). Small businesses often have small margins that can be dramatically affected by the cost of new equipment and software and the cost of learning curves. Please, just when we got comfortable with XP, let us enjoy the comfort for a while!
Vista has been out more than a year now, and it seems since the initial release things have gotten better with all aspects of the OS. Microsoft ending XP sales is just going to force those who are still in the past to come into the modern era. I don't think you'll see near as many complaints about Vista when more people actually start using it, especially with the upcoming non-beta SP1.
I'm more likely to buy a Mac than a windows Vista computer. I've been using XP over two computers for the last seven years, and have been pretty happy with it. Vista is slower, much more buggy, won't support all of my hardware and programs, and is just much less solid. If I don't have the choice of buying a computer with XP, I'm almost sure to buy a Mac.
I just bought a Dell Vostro 1500 laptop for myself as a Christmas present and one of the main reasons I bought it was because I could, and did, get it with XP loaded on it. If Vista was the only OS available I was seriously going to look at Linux!
Vista is INCOMPATIBLE with the software we use for our small business. XP works. We like it. We don't have to pay through the nose to upgrade all our software on all of our computers. My biggest complaint about Vista (yes, I do own a laptop with Vista pre-installed): if you do not have a laptop with a discrete video card and a decent CPU, it's pretty slow, even with 2GB of RAM. I tweaked Vista's services (turned off unnecessary services) and turned off Aero. It did make it a bit faster, but not responsive enough to my tastes. I installed XP onto the laptop -- dual boot with Vista -- and wow, XP runs much more quickly on my slow-CPU-with-integrated-video laptop. And this laptop was built for Vista! Vista also drives me crazy with incompatibilities: not recognizing my Sandisk Cruzer because the security software is not Vista complaint; not allowing me to adjust the printer settings on the network printer; many of my games cannot be played on Vista (this is a BIG ISSUE with me). In the end, Vista cost too much money (for software upgrades) and has too many incompatibilities. XP works. All our software are compatible. It's relatively secure with all the Service Packs, security software loaded onto them. Why upgrade?
Vista has nothing of the major changes that were promised -a bigger, bloated, slower O/S that requires more processing power just to chug the O/S along and 1 year later still has problems with drivers. Wake up - redo the O/S with a real new release and a new WinFS, don't support some older legacy HW+SW. Then you'd have a hot product. XP Pro is stable, faster & works - considering MS's poor track record why replace the great product with another overpriced poor one?
Bloat, bloat, bloat. That is what we've been hearing about Windows for years. Many users are concerned about how fat this product is getting. By now, you think someone at Microsoft would be hearing this chant and realize that a great population of Microsoft's customer base (mostly loyal, by the way) are looking for something slimmer in their operating system. Instead, Vista only made Windows 3 to 5 times fatter! Come on guys! How much code is really necessary just to provide the foundation for a computer, which is really what an operating system is supposed to do?
Harry here again...
If Microsoft does relent and simply keeps XP on the market past June 30th, I'll be startled. But I'd be even more surprised if the save-XP sentiment simply vanishes as of July 1st.
Any further thoughts?
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I own a computer store in KY. Since Vista was released we have sold 2 computers with Vista. We have sold many more desktops and laptops with Win XP( over 30 a month.) We have had over 45 computers(laptops and desktops) bought from other outlets, from both home and small business users, brought in and the os replaced with Win XP. Mr. Gates needs to take notice.....GIVE THE CUSTOMER WHAT THEY WANT...they want WIN XP. I appear on a local talk radio show and answer computer questions... the most commen question is "where can I get a computer with XP ?" Consumers need to voice their opinions... I am sure Microsoft can handle the e-mail.
Vista is cool, but it's not a great OS like XP is. It looks wonderful, it really does, and there are some cool features, I myself like being able to click on the start button(I guess it's the windows button now) and start typing in a file or program name and almost immediately have results almost immediately. Vista will run games at 10 - 20 fps slower, programs take longer to load and the os it self takes longer to boot. When I was working at a computer shop, we had a computer come in that explorer.exe would constantly crash and then try to restart itself no matter what you did. Also, there is no repair installation feature with in Vista like there is in XP. The system itself has huge memory leaks even when turning off services. They changed alot of features and services names. I had a customers come in once and tell me their grandson helped develop VIsta and I told them to tell their grandson that it was horrible and needed to be redone from the ground up if it was going to be great.
RUNNING WINDOWS VISTA HOME PREMIUM- RUNNING GREAT!
Here's a real giggle about Vista. It will not run software written for Windows 2000 or Windows XP (largely because Microsoft locked the Documents and Settings folder preventing installation). It will however run even older software (written for Windows 95 and 98) because those operating systems did not have a Documents and Settings folder.
I think it's totally reprehensible to try and boost software sales by preventing perfectly good software from installing. SHAME ON YOU Microsoft!
A rather simplistic analysis......"It's all about money". Bill Gates wants total control of the computer world. He typifies the word "greed".
Save... me from these articles trumpeting XP in the headline, wondering why the 'tide' runs highly pro XP. As a tech, I didn't have much trouble with 98, XP, or now even Vista. XP faster on newer hardware? DUH! Same gripes with every release except this time 3rd party vendors are even slower releasing their drivers and somehow this is Microsoft's fault? DUH. You don't want Vista? Stay with XP... you've got -5- more years of support at least. Stock up on your new machines with XP now and give the 'we need XP' crying a rest. Go get it, now! The rest of the world will carry on with the O.S. as they care to... Vista works, it works well now. You want to upgrade to Vista... do it with a new machine and don't buy a 'minimum requirements' box. Bill Gates has nothing to do with the marketing/packaging anymore... he's practically 'retired'. Give that a rest too. Microsoft carries the burden of 3rd party/legacy compatibility along, but Apple chose not to, once... imagine if MS tried that.
Sigh..same old "bait" Win version 95/98/XP/Vista is slow, buggy, bloated, my stone-age programs won't run well on it...and on it goes. It is not "compatible" (i.e. drivers) with every piece of legacy hardware out there (of course...what is?)
Vista runs absolutely fine on pretty much any newer dual core Intel/AMD cpu, with 2gb ram...which is dirt-cheap now days! My very pedestrian Vista based notebook, with 2gb ram, integrated Nvidia graphics, and a tame AMD Turion TL-58 (1.9ghz) cpu, runs all my normal apps faster than XP does on my older P4, 2.6ghz (Northwood), 1gb ram based desktop. PERIOD. And, that is with all the Vista Aero/eye-candy turned on.
You want fast? Don't run XP, heck, run Win 98SE...or how about MS-DOS? The hardware is faster and more capable, only makes sense to match it with an OS that does more...but of course there is a price. More capable means "bigger" (bloated), and more hardware-demanding. Works for me!
I am a web professional ,so I depend on a good, functioning computer. I've been sticking with my 5-year-old desktop and added more memory (which was hard to find after 4 years) rather than buy a new machine with VISTA. There's nothing in VISTA that I want, as others have pointed out its design is driven by Microsoft's greed, not consumer needs. I don't have time to waste learning to cope with an OS I neither want nor need.
When I realized that XP was about to be discontinued, I rushed to buy one of the few desktop PCs that still has XP, and bought an XP laptop for my husband.
I would have bought a more expensive PC if I could have gotten it with XP. If I couldn't find XP I was ready to switch us both to Macs, for the first time in my life - if I'm going to have a big disruption, why not get a better OS for it? Why aren't the computer manufacturers up in arms about the loss in sales that Vista has cost them? Why are they hyping VISTA?
NancyB
Vista has eye appeal, I'll give it that. But otherwise, it's just a bloated, slower, overpriced rendition of XP.
Vista is also a festival of bad decisions, so many of them I have to wonder if it's evidence of some kind of perverse streak running amok at Microsoft.
For example, in Vista you cannot add metadata comments for plain text files — something I find extremely useful in XP. Why not?
In Vista you can't view clipboard contents. A handy clipboard-clearing and viewing utility I had for XP won't work in Vista. Why not?
Windows Explorer in Vista is harder to work with, much slower and its folder icons are ugly and harder to make out visually.
Microsoft's decision to stop selling XP at the end of June is a bid to force Vista on a public that has had a year to compare the two products and overwhelmingly favors XP. Microsoft will get away with this in the short run. Longer term, it might be sewing the seeds of its own undoing.
In my world, speed and reliability are paramount; not cartoon like interfaces. At the end of the day, it matters how productive I am, not how happy I am with my expensive cartooney GUI.
Microsoft, if you're listening... SPEED, STABILITY, and SECURITY are the most important features you should be worried about -- period!
We have no plans to downgrade to Vista. We are, and will remain, an XP Pro shop until something truly better comes along.
Billy and the boys have a compound half way between Sequim and Port Angeles WA. Straight up Blue Mountain Rd. on the side of the mountain. Any complaints can be hand delivered there. Just follow the helicopters.
I'll probably get a knock on my door for that one!
Count me among the pro-XP group. Not that it will matter much. Microsoft long ago stopped asking the consumer "Where do you want to go today?"
Windows Vista is the new Windows ME. Anyone remember that? Those who do know it was best skipped. I'll wait for Windows 7 just as I waited for Windows XP.
I have an XP desktop and a Vista laptop. Which one is better? The XP desktop is way faster (it has 1 Gig of RAM and it's about three years old). Vista was nicer looking, no doubt, but slow...until I turned off all the Aero stuff. Once I did that, Vista sped up quite a bit. Vista is on a Dual-Core laptop that has -2- Gigs of RAM, and it still isn't as fast as the XP PC, even with Aero turned off. I have trouble with some of my open-source programs in Vista, like Inkscape and The GIMP....they often crash. Both of these programs work error-free on XP. Hopefully SP1 for Vista will improve it's performance and backward compatability...then it will be about a tie between the two operating systems. However, I am keeping my options open and have both PC's dual-booted with Linux Mint. ALL my open-source programs work flawlessly on Mint, plus it's faster than both Vista and XP. Linux is fast and free, but it's not Windows, so the learning curve with Mint will go on. But let's face it
I understand that Microsoft is going to be releasing SP-3 for XP. Will this extend the life of WIndows XP for two years till WIndows 7 comes out. Are we all going to be stuck with (forced) to migrate to the Vista? If it ant broke doing fix it. Windows XP works Vista doesn't. Enough said.
wake up everyone . . . as if microsoft will listen or even care what we all have to say about the bloated vista bill is the boss and we will all have to listen to him if we want to keep using a microsoft product and that i guess does not include win xp for long
DOES ANYONE REALLY THINK THAT MICROSOFT WILL READ THIS AND LISTEN TO US? quick poll yes or no ! ! ! we have allowed a bully to assume the driver seat and we will have follow his lead . . . unless you go linux ( and yes os 10 is a linux or unix operating system) gl and tc
Hi..
I used to hate vista... now i like it.. i tweaked it so much that it runs as well as XP and the superfetch just helps the matter of speed... by turning off services, take some visuals off, turning off start-ups, fine tuning the pagefile... and i have 1.5gb of ram and an AMD single core processor and im happy with vista... but i also have XP dual booted... so i can run either when i need them... iv had XP for 3 years since i got this computer and i really do love it... i think microsfot would make a big mistake stop seling XP there sales will go down in huge numbers and people will leave vista and xp for mac or linux because a lot of people dont know or want to make vista usable... (if you want to make vista as fast as xp its very easy just search the web) so yeah i like xp but vista is acceptible but i dont like the thought of loosing XP
I HAD Vista. Like with every new PC I tried the old tweaking routine. HUH?!?! Folders&Docs is not found. Whatthe...? More forays into forbidden Vista territory (just to get at the normal system folder) followed. "Are you sure you want to do this?" "Definitely sure?" "Don't you want to rethink?" I felt like a computer illiterate and not like someone who has been using them since they were nine years old. Graaah!
Now, I like to unload unnecessary baggage and processes from my OS and pretty much have experience doing so. Vista doesn't cooperate with any effort of slimming it down. You turn off the pretty graphics? No effect on speed and response times. Grah!
Well, I tried my last resort: Formatting and installing Ubuntu (Linux). VISTA DOESN'T EVEN UNINSTALL PROPERLY!!! I STILL HAD REMNANTS OF THAT DAMNABLE PROGRAM ON MY HD!!! I sent the laptop in to support with the promise to get it back Vista-free. I haven't so far, it's been eight weeks. What was it about the Microsoft virus again?
XP should never die, it's the best operating system Micro$oft gas ever made, if they descontinue XP I'll have the .ISO image for XP free on my website so XP will live on.
Everyone likes to have a cause to fight about and why night XP. If speed is what you all want then go back to DOS. What is DOS? It was the operating system that put MS on the map. Try Windows 3.1 and you'll see a major improvement in speed over XP. There is a problem with these ideas? Sure, your software and hardware won't work. I've been using Vista Ultimate since it first was sold and many of the problems I had with XP are gone. I have yet needed to reinstall Vista like I was doing with XP. With memory prices dropping into the cellar I recently installed 3G of Ram from 2G. Bingo the system runs like if I installed a turbo. I also use a ready boost which was MS's brilliant idea. Try loading your XP PC with tons of programs. I bet it will crash or run like a snail. Vista does a better job in managing programs. The bottom line don't deny yourself from the benefits of Vista. If you want speed buy a faster computer and use Vista Ultimate with SP1. You'll enjoy computing.