Which is the best operating system between Windows XP and Windows Vista?

Answer 1

XP and Vista are different, each with strengths and weaknesses, so it is difficult to label one as "better", although many would answer based on personal preferences, and for most people that would still be XP.

In reality, the best choice between XP and Vista depends on where and how it will be used, due to the following differences:

Vista has higher system requirements than XP. While XP may run acceptably on a computer with 256 MB of RAM, a five-year-old processor, and a low-end video graphics, Vista requires a good processor, a good video card, and at very least 1 GB of RAM. Basically, only a good, new computer pre-installed with Vista will do a good job of supporting Vista, while you can run XP on more hardware.

Vista has newer software technologies than XP, which is both good and bad. The good is that its DirectX 10 3D graphics, some bundled software, the media center, the sidebar, system tools, and other aspects of the operating system are more advanced. The bad is that there are many more bugs in Vista than in XP and that some hardware and software will not work in Vista.

XP is an older system, so it has become quite stable over time, it works with just about all hardware and software, and it can do anything you need it to do. Even if Vista comes with some special tools, 3rd party software can take care of that for XP.

So for example. If you have a one-year-old computer with onboard graphics and 512 GB RAM, XP is better.

If you buy a new, highish-end computer with Vista pre-installed, you have a choice of replacing Vista with XP. If you want to take advantages of the new aspects of Vista, like if you want to play 3D Video Games with the most realistic graphics or if you really like the Flip-3D feature, you can keep it and hope you don't run into any issue that destroys your hard drive and all your precious files, and you can hope that any minor bugs won't be too annoying, or you can get a replacement CD for the slightly less-exciting XP and know that everything will be fine.