For anyone running Vista, it's absolutely crucial to get ALL the updates. Even after you've updated, see if there are any updates available. People who know more about this stuff than I say that the last several updates essentially replaced blocks of Vista code with what later became Windows 7.

I still have Vista 64-bit running on a PC Audio Labs laptop, I do all my video editing at trade shows on it and it has been totally rock solid.

As to XP...it took me a long time to upgrade to Windows 7 on my desktop machine because XP worked. I finally had to update to run particular programs, and kicked myself for not having done so sooner. The performance improvement was huge.

I personally had a very poor experience with Vista mainly because of the networking. That (for me) was a disaster. I have never had such a dodgy network experience in my whole life. It's work one minute not the next, on multiple different networks as well which pretty much rules out network config issues.

That could be said to be user error I guess, but the exact same laptop on the exact same networks ran perfectly with XP, like some intermittent disaster with Vista and now still works perfectly with Windows 7. That says something about Vista to me. I never used it on an audio machine though so I have no idea about that side of it.

It's all a bit irrelevant now anyway really. It's going to take a  lot to shift me from Windows 7, I just don't 'get' the fascination with touch screen at all. (Luddite that I am... )

FastBikerBoy

, I just don't 'get' the fascination with touch screen at all. (Luddite that I am... )

I am with you on that one. I am continuously cursing my fat fingers using my phone and wishing I had bought one with real buttons (but then the screen would have been too small and I would have been cursing that).  As far as I can see the main advantage of touch screens is miniaturisation , not an improvement in control.  
 
I will however go to Windows 8 when I get a new DAW, just so it current and hopefully more future proof, but I don't think I would bother to upgrade a DAW already running Win 7.
 
In the meantime Vista 64 is rock solid for me even though a lot of the software I am running is "not compatible" (X2, NI Komplete 8, BFD Eco etc.)

i hope all the other updates only runs with win 8
the first thing for all pc users is to update the OS !!

ronkenobi


i hope all the other updates only runs with win 8
the first thing for all pc users is to update the OS !!

Thankfully that is unlikely to happen for a while.

Anyone deciding to wait on the Windows 8 upgrade... keep in mind that right now you can get the Windows 8 Pro upgrade for a mere $15 if you're upgrading from Win 7. Yes, it's legit...
http://thenextweb.com/mic...ows-8-pro-for-just-15/

If you're not upgrading from Win 7 but from XP or Vista, you can still get it for only $39.99...
http://www.ghacks.net/201...ws-8-pricing-overview/

But this promo period only lasts until January 31st. After that, the price will jump to almost 3 times as much.
http://www.ghacks.net/201...ws-8-pricing-overview/

Just thought you might want to know... 

Scott

--
Scott R. Garrigus - http://garrigus.com
* Author of the Cakewalk Sonar and Sony Sound Forge Power book series: http://garrigus.com/?PowerBooks
* Author of the Cakewalk Sonar ProAudioTutor video tutorial series: http://garrigus.com/?ProAudioTutor
* Publisher of the DigiFreq free music technology newsletter: http://digifreq.com/?DigiFreq
* Publisher of the NewTechReview free consumer technology newsletter: http://newtechreview.com/?NewTechReview

aka

Why is anybody still using XP? :)

It was clunky, had horrible hardware/software issues, was unreliable, had a habit of self destructing and if you pushed it 'hard' needed re-installing every 6-8 months.

I have never had these problems with XP, but I was late coming to it (2006), so maybe the bugs had been ironed out by then.  Your description fits with my experience of Windows 2000 though.  I used to reinstall it every few months.

My current DAW PC is dual-boot with XP and W7.  Exactly the same hardware and software is installed in both setups and there is no obvious difference in performance.  I don't see what all the fuss is about really.

ronkenobi


i hope all the other updates only runs with win 8
the first thing for all pc users is to update the OS !!

Well, large parts of the UK's government and civil service still use XP on workstations/laptops. So do many private sector companies.


In a production environment, stability and user familiarity with the interface are very, very important, and there may be thousands of computers to manage. The downside is that nothing is rolled out until thoroughly understood and tested, with the (potentially dangerous) result that security updates may be very delayed in implementation.


Personally I tend to wait until a new version of Windows has been out for a at least a few months before I consider installing it. That way (hopefully) the worst of the bugs have been fixed and hardware manufacturers have stable drivers released.

The reason I do this? Experience of successive releases of Windows since Windows For Workgroups (version 3.11, a truly horrible operating system even in it's day).

Interesting that "Win95/98/ME get a mention in this thread, but the best MS operating systems of that period, NT4 and 2000, don't.

NT4 was very good in its day - the Win95 style interface but with security, decent multi-tasking and reasonable crash-resistance. NT4 was the foundation for XP onwards far more than the Win9x series was.

Interesting that "Win95/98/ME get a mention in this thread, but the best MS operating systems of that period, NT4 and 2000, don't. 

I mentioned Windows 2000, but not in a positive way.

Another o/s not mentioned was the lesser-known Windows 2003.  Sonar apparently worked ok on this platform, but the lack of hardware drivers for this o/s made it a no-go.