What are the benefits of Vista?

[Underfunded]

I have my HTPC running pretty solid but lately have been having some hiccups that are leading me towards reloading my system. When I do I am tempted to install Vista Ultimate but am not really sure why. I think it might be due to the newness of it and I like the new layout. My HTPC is a general HTPC that is used for some minor web surfing and DVD ripping but not much else.


What are the benefits of Vista over XP?

[Brent]

Originally Posted by Underfunded

What are the benefits of Vista over XP?

It helps MS maintain their existence......


Seriously, I don't see any reason to upgrade unless it just comes pre-installed on a new PC. Even then, I'd be tempted to uninstall and start over with XP myself.

[Yooper]

I have upgraded all of my computers to Vista, EXCEPT my SageTV server and my video editing computer. The video editing software I use is still not compatible with Vista. Based on what I have heard on these forums, WinXP is still a more reliable install. Maybe after SP1 for Vista.

My SageTV server is in the basement and doesn't do anything else but video.

I do run Placeshifter on Vista laptops - no problem here.

[CyRex]

Originally Posted by Brent

It helps MS maintain their existence......

Precisely... And it helps to sell all that 'Vista-compatible' hardware. I can do without all the bells and whistles, and increased 'security' features. XP runs pretty stable these days (enough that I am running it on my server without issue for the last several years).

-Dan

[reggie14]

Vista has at least one important benefit to a niche market- I can get hardware accelerated video to play on a secondary monitor. I could never get that to work with XP. That's pretty important for dual monitor users.

[Polypro]

No need for FSE mode. You can use Business just fine, that way no VMC stuff can get in the way.

P

[[JiF]Mike]

Just my $0.02

I moved to Vista on my laptop and desktop shortly after it was released. A month or so later I upgraded to XP from Vista (lol) on them both due to poor performance. My hardware isn't top of the line and I saw a significant increase in performance when I went back to XP. I have ordered new hardware though (should arrive today) and I am thinking about giving Vista another try. I did like some things, but it really came down to performance and program compatibility for me. Those issues may be better now as I tried it pretty early on.

[ozfiles]

Just upgraded my laptop to vista and I have been so impressed, that I am seriously considering upgrading the htpc as well.
I did get hold of a copy of the soon to be released SP1 and did notice an increase in the overall speed of the operating system.

I remember when XP was released that it too, went through a period where nobody wanted to upgrade to it.

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by ozfiles

I did get hold of a copy of the soon to be released SP1 and did notice an increase in the overall speed of the operating system.

Sp1 has worked pretty well for me. I didn't really notice general speed improvements, but network transfers to XP systems are a whole lot faster. But, it seems strange that I can still transfer to an XP system a lot faster than I can transfer from an XP system. Hopefully that gets fixed; I do the later much more often.

[bcjenkins]

I use Vista on a client machine because it supports symlinks which is huge if you run a non-windows server. (OS X or Linux) This benefits comskip and ripped dvd playback.

B