Seven (don't choose only because you use it at the moment)
XP
these are two vastly different operating systems, personally i have had less problems with XP, ive had a lot more crashes with 7. and theirs a lot more compatibility problems with 7 than xp, Obviously this will change over time, so i have already bought my copy of win7
Let's not forget that a lot of the problems people report about win7 are due to:
1. inexperience with the new OS
2. inexperience with any OS, but they try setting it up themselves anyway.
3. people trying to install Vista and XP drivers in absence of Win7 drivers.
4. drivers being in there first stages of development
5. people trying to install Vista and XP tweaks on Win7
6. people expecting miracles on their old hardware
7. win7 being an OS that isn't even for sale yet. (I bet it will have a dozen updates already when it is in the shops)
Let's be fair and refresh our memories.
1. XP has had the largest amount of patches, updates and fixes in the history of any OS.
2. It took 3 giant service packs to make it what it is today, and still every week there are new patches and updates, and even security holes that will never be fixed.
3. it has 9 years and millions of hours of 3rd party development on tweaks and hacks to make it better.
4. it has 9 years of driver development, to fine tune every aspect of it, and even today there are still updates for XP drivers being made.
note:
Windows XP without service packs is so full of security leaks, your pc will be infected with 200+ different types of trojans and viruses before you have even downloaded the first updates.
XP before SP1 gave more blue screens than any other OS before (except for "windows millenium")
Now compare that to Win7 and be fair to conclude the Microsoft developers have come a long way.
By the way, Xp is a fine Os now too.
.
I'm using Windows 7 and I absolutely love it. I started out with XP Professional x86 (I wanted to get x64, but my cousin advised against it) and it was pretty fast and stable, but I just felt like I wanted more, so I downloaded the Windows 7 RC and I have been using it ever since. I have noticed that my apps tend to crash more in Windows 7, but I blamed this mostly on the fact that Windows 7 was still only a RC at the time while XP has gone through 3 Service Packs. For a RC, Windows 7 is actually performing very well. It's very fast (apparently faster than XP) and the system itself is quite stable. I haven't gotten BSODs at all while on XP, I got one while trying to install the Zune Software.
Also, when my applications do crash, it's much faster to get them back up and running than it was in XP. In XP, you had to go into the task manager and press End Task, which took forever, or just press End Process. However, in Windows 7, it will automatically detect that something has stopped responding and try to fix it on its own. I have never had to go into the task manager and press End Task or End Process. Usually something will just pop up saying "*Insert App Name Here* has stopped working" and then all I have to do is wait while it sends info to Microsoft. In roughly less than a minute, everything is fine again and I can restart the app while in XP, clicking End Task and waiting for it to finish took roughly 5 minutes. Clicking End Process near instantaneous, but I never liked to do it because the system warned that it could damage the system.
I would also like to point out that the System Restore function on XP was somewhat flawed. There were many cases where you could not restore your system because antivirus was interfering with it or it just did not work. In Windows 7, I have performed numerous system restores and it has worked perfectly fine.
Overall, I must say that Windows 7 is much better and deals with crashes better.
You too? I Also got started on a ZX Spectrum. The +3 to be precise, which I still have for sentimental reasons :)
But like you, I prefer 7 because I also like learning new things. That's the beauty of being in this business in the first place - it's constantly evolving.
The poll should not be taken too seriously, because the OP negleced to include Vista as a choice, but even if he had, I would have voted for 7 (as I did) because it's faster, more stable and more secure. Everything about 7 is just better.
This post s so true that it hurts...most people are so thick they don't relaize that if you work on something for almost 9 years I would expect resonable progress out of it. Honestly I think those XP comparisions to 7 should be made with Windows XP Pre-SP1 to Windows 7 Pre-SP1. That is a no contest if there ever was...Hell XP Pre-SP1 vs. Vista Pre-SP1 was also a no contest. Vista starting out was bad but XP was so terrible...If in 5~6 years we compare XP SP3 to 7 SP3 you will see that it has never been a contest...7 will always win
after dual booting xp and win 7 for a month or so, and realizing _everything_ i use on xp works perfectly on win7(even if in compatiblity mode or with a program update) i made a backup of the xp disk and deleted it!
Love windows 7, even if it does eat abit more resources and tend to make the pc run abit hotter, the eyecandy, compatibility, security, built in features all make it worth it!
there are even afew programs that i use that run MUCH better on 7 than they did on xp, which was the main reason for me making the switch.
The only thing i dislike is not being able to use the onboard videocard and the pci card i have at the same time and keep aero on, which can probably be fixed with enough tweaking, but seeing as i barely use a 2nd moniter anymore let alone a 3rd(which is what the onboard was for xp), theres no need
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