Amid significant customer demand, the computer maker said on Thursday that it has returned to offering the older Windows version as an option on some of its consumer PCs.
Like most computer makers, Dell switched nearly entirely to Vista-based systems following Microsoft's mainstream launch of the operating system in January. However, the company said its customers have been asking for XP as part of its IdeaStorm project, which asks customers to help the company come up with product ideas.
"We heard you loud and clear on bringing the Windows XP option back to our Dell consumer PC offerings," Dell said on its Ideas in Action page. Users get to vote on various suggestions, and the notion of bringing back XP got 10,000 "points," making it among the most popular requests but well below top picks such as adding Linux or OpenOffice.org to its PCs.
Windows XP systems became scarce, but not impossible to find, after Vista arrived. For example, Hewlett-Packard said it would continue selling XP on some machines aimed at small and midsize businesses, while CompUSA still stocks a couple of business-oriented XP systems in its retail stores. Lenovo has also continued shipping XP on many of its business systems.
View: Full Article @ CNet
Link: Neowin Forum Discussion | Thanks Rappy
Like most computer makers, Dell switched nearly entirely to Vista-based systems following Microsoft's mainstream launch of the operating system in January. However, the company said its customers have been asking for XP as part of its IdeaStorm project, which asks customers to help the company come up with product ideas.
"We heard you loud and clear on bringing the Windows XP option back to our Dell consumer PC offerings," Dell said on its Ideas in Action page. Users get to vote on various suggestions, and the notion of bringing back XP got 10,000 "points," making it among the most popular requests but well below top picks such as adding Linux or OpenOffice.org to its PCs.
Windows XP systems became scarce, but not impossible to find, after Vista arrived. For example, Hewlett-Packard said it would continue selling XP on some machines aimed at small and midsize businesses, while CompUSA still stocks a couple of business-oriented XP systems in its retail stores. Lenovo has also continued shipping XP on many of its business systems.
View: Full Article @ CNet Link: Neowin Forum Discussion | Thanks Rappy
i could remember everytime i went to walmart there was always tons of people coming out with a windows me computer
(if you ask why walmart was where everybody was buying.. that was the only store that sold new computers in my town)
i stuck with my trusty 98.. untill i upgraded to xp
*cough* Vista *cough*
*cough* Vista *cough*
Uh huh.
The phrase "jumping on the bandwagon" seems an appropriate response to your two comments....
The phrase "jumping on the bandwagon" seems an appropriate response to your two comments....
*probably* is right. make sure you unclude that little modifier . . . "probably." Because alot of people "probably" have. And quite a few of them have been less than impressed.
Vista's reception by and large has been almost Zune-like.
Vista's reception by and large has been almost Zune-like.
Have you tried Vista then? What didn't you like about it?
And people who hate Zune compared to other media players are nuts also.
We're not talking about people who had it on their machine for 1 hour, and went WTF why does everything work different and run away; or people who are geeks and go waaaaa where's the up button in Explorer. We're talking about people who actually have an open mind.
I am open minded and if people seriously like another OS better than Windows then thats their business. But if someone buys a new Vista-compatible PC, optimized for Vista, and they want Vista uninstalled and replaced with Windows XP; thats dumb and probably ignorant. I feel sorry for people who buy a Dell with XP, because unless Dell offers them a free upgrade to Vista, they're going to want to buy a version themselves eventually once they make themselves feel better by the fact that SP1 is out.
And people who hate Zune compared to other media players are nuts also.
We're not talking about people who had it on their machine for 1 hour, and went WTF why does everything work different and run away; or people who are geeks and go waaaaa where's the up button in Explorer. We're talking about people who actually have an open mind.
I am open minded and if people seriously like another OS better than Windows then thats their business. But if someone buys a new Vista-compatible PC, optimized for Vista, and they want Vista uninstalled and replaced with Windows XP; thats dumb and probably ignorant. I feel sorry for people who buy a Dell with XP, because unless Dell offers them a free upgrade to Vista, they're going to want to buy a version themselves eventually once they make themselves feel better by the fact that SP1 is out.
Two things irritated me:
1) On my way to making restore disks (which took about 2 hours to get started) before I had any software installed, the Intel Video driver had window droppings. Explorer wouldn't always repaint correctly and I had to mouse around to force the screens to paint right. I would have thought that Intel wasn't in the brouhaha of driver problems but they are. This means that no company has Vista compatible video drivers.
2) Once I got "improved performance for the naive" (otherwise known as SuperFetch) and a few other things turned off I got pretty good performance out of Vista but one problem remained. It couldn't give good performance all the time. It was like a car that goes 70 most of the time but sometimes it decides that 15 is the top speed. Cars and Vistas that behave like that go back to the shop.
The real reason this system was upgraded to XP was because the software that was needed is so old and crappy that it's virtually 100% chance to not work in Vista. Vista gets too expensive to even be interesting when the replacement cost of all the other software is considered.
Vista ran poorly on that cheapo eMachines. XP runs fast and reliable.
Thats a pretty sad excuse to make fun of Vista. Its a next-gen operating system, so of course you need a new computer. Most people who ditch Vista and go back to XP because they think Vista is "slow" have old, ****ty machines. Any Vista premuim ready system can run Vista much faster than it can run XP.
Thats a pretty sad excuse to make fun of Vista. Its a next-gen operating system, so of course you need a new computer. Most people who ditch Vista and go back to XP because they think Vista is "slow" have old, ****ty machines. Any Vista premuim ready system can run Vista much faster than it can run XP.
Dude os x tiger will be pretty much new generation os but i can guarantee that it wil run better on most macs out of the box, even those that are 1 few years old. So there is no point arguing about it. U have to code well and optimize it to run better. Unfortunately i don't see it happening in this or next versions of the windows OS untill or unless they start to recode the OS again(just like apple did with os
Now Dell sell systems also without OPS so I know it can be done except buyers have to jump through hoops to make you do it.
Vista needs to go back to the beta testers.
Like I and many others have said before: billions of dollars, five years, a massive R&D budget . . . and you get this. Meanwhile a company that is a fraction MS' size, operating with far fewer employees, and with a smaller budget, is putting the rest of the tech world to school.
I'm no fan of Dell - high volume/small margins, a lot of cheap, flaky hardware being the result. But at least Dell is listening to its users.
Exactly.
IMO they are trying to gain market share they loss to HP.
I never say that XP is old or bad..but Vista is good & new! I use it in my PC & also one of several guys in my office to use it for development in production running mainstream sql 2005 & oracle, vs.net & SAP all in without issues with right patches & Servicepacks. Also running MSflight simulator X, Halo for pc without any issues.
I am also running it on my dell xps410 and I am also having no problems. I am typing this on a dell dimension 9100 with vista business also with no problems.
I don't see what the problem with vista is?
One thing I like about vista that xp had problems with is automatic updates. I have not had to manually insta;ll a single vista update so far. I would have to with xp every now and then.
From my own personal observations I can say that:
Vista is just as stable as XP, if not more so.
Vista runs games with comparable framerates to XP now the drivers are starting to catch up (bad nvidia!!
Vista has many small improvements that on their own don't seem like much to write home about, but put together make the Vista environment more more user friendly than XP.
Vista has a much improved sound infrastructure and network stack.
Vista runs all of the software I wan't it to run just fine, even on the x64 edition of Ultimate that I am using.
Vista has DirectX 10 which gives me great optimism for the future. Several of my games are supposedly to have a new patch that give them DX10 features in the future. This sounds very exciting and promises to improve gaming performance and make stuff look nicer. I just need a new DX10 card now
Granted one or two changes are not so great (I prefer XP's network panels for instance), but the majority of the changes actually work better once you have gotten used to them. Most of the people asking Dell to supply XP are simply afraid of change and wan't to put off learning a new operating system as long as possible. But in November (I think) they will be out of luck as OEMs will not be allowed to sell XP on their new machines any more so they will be forced to learn Vista at that point.
I moved on to Vista a long time ago, and I am not looking back. It's better than XP in nearly every way, I'm very happy with Vista, and have been recommending it to everyone.
overall XP still good os and some normal joe aren't going to switch unless they buy new system, and if there new super duper system bring Vista and they probably want XP back. let them have it is there money even if look stupid to you...
Offering consumers a choice is stupid? Wow, did you forget the </sarcasm> tag?
Vista is OK if all you want to do is run your PC. But once you start trying to use your expensive peripherals, then the driver problems start. And even the inexpensive peripherals - I have four USB memory sticks, only one of which actually works, and there is no indication why that one functions rather than the others? My two Skype phones don't work - why not? HP still have not produced scanner drivers - why not?
By contrast, everything works in XP, which has been around a long while, and therefore most devices have drivers available.
Putting it all down on paper, side by side, to evaluate the two OSs, on the plus side Vista can only offer some pretty shell improvements. There are still far too many negatives. But XP does everything OOTB and if you don't want pretty graphics, then it's just fine. And it's worth remembering that the Vista Basic edition doesn't even offer many of the pretty bits.
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