In The Beginning XP Sucked As Bad As Vista - Oh Really?

Wednesday, February 27th, 2008
by Ron Schenone

I really had to laugh when I read Ed Bott’s article about when Windows XP originally came out and all of the complaints users had at the time. It is also funny to read his take that many users proclaimed they would not upgrade to Windows XP from either 2000, 98 or whatever they were using at the time. Cited in the article was an old review done on Windows XP citing some similarities in the alleged assertions being made about Vista.

I don’t recall being anti Windows XP. In fact I originally recall being excited about using Windows XP and immediately upgraded all of my systems when it became available. Yes, there were some hic cups and yes there were some minor issues, but overall the upgrades were basically uneventful as I recall. I do remember having to wait for an HP upgrade to the software I needed to use my than HP all-in-one [I think it was the 500 model], which took about 6 months to get. But I was able to use the all-in-one to do basic printing.

I also don’t recall having to upgrade my hardware to get Windows XP to work. But with Vista, using the Microsoft Upgrade Advisor, neither of my laptops would support Vista using Aero. I would have to opt for using Basic since my video card wouldn’t support the new GUI. Using Basic didn’t really make much sense, at least to me, since it would basically be like using XP in looks. I can protect my own system very well thank you, so the need for answering Yes or No to security questions was not high on my list of must have options.

So though I do agree with some of Ed’s assumptions, there were also some of us who were told by Vista, ‘you can’t use me dude!”

What do you think? Is Ed right?

Or were you like me and had a system[s] that could not be upgraded, i.e. video, to support Aero and using Basic didn’t make much sense.

Comments welcome.

Full article is here.

[tags]windows, xp, vista, upgrade, article, same, complaints, [/tags]

6 Comments

the oracle

February 27th, 2008
at 6:19am

I find the ZDNet people increasingly pro-MS, for no apparent reason other than revenue. Adrian Kingsley-Hughes seems to be the only one who has not had a full dose of the Kool-Aid.

I, too, was very anxious to get XP going on my machines. I was less than enthusiastic about SP2, as I had read about all the programs it broke. I was happily surprised to find I did not own any of the broken apps, so again SP2 was a simple thing. It was SLOWER than SP1, but not an order of magnitude different as XP SP2 is to Vista. (as I’ve stated before, XP did things that any pre-XP OS did not do - not true of Vista)

Mike

February 27th, 2008
at 6:59am

Totally disagree with this comment about XP being as bad as Vista–that’s garbage!!! XP never had this many issues and most issues were resolved very quickly and then we went into the usual patch/update cycle with an occasional service pack.

Vista was simply released too early and are dealing with the consequences..

peace

Denny

February 27th, 2008
at 9:17am

Hi….Ron

As I Remember I couldn’t wait untill I could afford to get a…XP…Machine
then I could tell everyone………YOUR STILL USIN WINDOWS–2000..!!
You people are still in the Dark Ages……

Now people are Lookin to see where they can still get XP–
To Avoid Vista………

granitw

February 27th, 2008
at 11:41am

lol I remember many people complaining about Windows XP, but I think most were just people already making fun of Windows 98 and ME.

Actually Mac OS X, when it first came out with Mac OS X beta($30 cost), and the final, Mac OS X Cheetah 10.0, it was HORRIBLE!!!

I’d say Vista is in the same boat as OS X was back in 2000-2001. Of course to fix a lot of problems Apple released OS X 10.1 six months later while people today are still waiting for SP1 over a year later for Vista.

Scott King

February 27th, 2008
at 6:55pm

I think XP is the best version to come out of Redmond. I have only had a few issues installing and using XP, unlike its predecessors, out of the hundreds of installs I have done, most of it due to oddball hardware. But when you cannot use Vista with common hardware, I think Bill and the boys jumped the gun releasing Vista. Of course the hardware vendors are cleaning up selling “Vista compatible” components to customers who must have the latest operating system.

Ron Schenone

February 28th, 2008
at 5:55am

Thanks everyone for leaving a comment.
Regards, Ron

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