Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Monday, 28 January 2008 14:27
Opinion and Analysis
Page 2 of 3
Unless you’re in a business situation that dictates the use of XP – give Vista a go, especially if it is already pre-loaded onto your new computer. Especially after a year of updates, it’s a much better operating system than XP, and while there is a learning curve, it won’t be long before you’re used to the changes in Vista and are a happy user.
If you have specific XP requirements, you can either load XP onto your new computer, or run it virtually using tools such as Microsoft’s free Virtual PC software, VMware or Parallels for Windows.
You can always run your old Windows XP side-by-side with your new computer for a while, too, just to make sure you can still do everything you need to until a transition to Vista is complete.
Yes, it will depend on how much spare room you have, although space constraints can sometimes be alleviated by the use of a KVM switch, letting you swap between two separate computers with ease while using the same monitor.
But for many people, a virtual XP inside of Vista will do the job, until the software or hardware they need in XP either gets updated to work with Vista, or is replaced with a new Vista compatible version.
Although rumours of an early release of Windows 7 have floated around the Internet, supposedly as a very early build to show to hardware manufacturers, the earliest we could see a Windows 7 release would be in the third quarter of 2009 to coincide with that year’s Christmas/holiday shopping season, much as happened with Windows XP.
So, if you’re an XP user, should you skip Vista and wait for Windows 7 instead? Please read onto page 3...
