Linux is by far the most flexible and configurable and fairly easy to use. XP is easy to use and hard for users to break (assuming it’s set up properly and regular users aren’t using an Administrator account). Mac OS X isn’t really that bad, but Apple has an odd way of doing certain things that doesn’t always mesh well with other systems without jumping through a few hoops.

Vista, however, is an IT nightmare. I’ve had to deal with numerous compatibility issues, even on systems that came with Vista pre-installed. It doesn’t seem to work very well with other systems. Installation, particularly on a RAID system, is a huge hassle. And the overly-zealous User Account Control is a continual headache. The recent service pack helped some, but not nearly enough to make me want to ever install Vista on one of my personal computers.

That being said, the people who use the Vista machines like them. Vista looks pretty, and does have some nice features, like the search integrated into the Start menu and the breadcrumb navigation in the Explorer address bar. But these users also don’t have to administer these computers. If these were their personal computers, and had to manage them and install software and such themselves, they might have a slightly different opinion.

As for myself, I have two computers at home: a fairly new laptop and an older desktop. The desktop came with XP preinstalled, and while I initially formatted the drives and reinstalled XP to clean off the junkware that came with it, I haven’t seen any reason to change from XP. The laptop, however, came with Vista preinstalled. Upon purchasing it, I called the manufacturer, told them I refused to accept the Windows EULA, and demanded a refund (as per the EULA). I was refunded $150. I then installed Ubuntu Linux (for free). That was six months ago, and I don’t plan on changing anytime soon.

I’ve tried Vista, I’ve used Vista. By itself, it’s fine, really. But whenever Microsoft releases a new OS, it always ends up slowing down the performance of the system I’m using at that time.

As some of you may have noticed, I’m a gamer. See the blog shown when mousing over my name? I take the performance of my PC seriously. So even if I don’t update my machine every six months, I still want to make the most out of it.

Vista causes my two-year old PC to slow down significantly. As a result, I went back to XP. And the price I pay? I don’t get to play Halo 2 and Shadowrun, which aren’t really that great to begin with.

If I ever did get a new PC, I would still stick with XP because I could get much better gains there, compared to the incremental improvements offered by Vista. Sure, there are new features that impress a lot of people, but to gamers, speed is top priority.

I think the people that Microsoft included in this “experiment” of theirs are either paid, or are completely clueless as to what Vista truly is. M$ should have gotten more gamers and PC geeks. Then again, their “experiment” won’t be as favorable if they did that.

Personally I am going to stick to XP and my macs.

& Phil, I agree that the search function works great but for the love of god, its a simple search function, it should have always worked.