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tzex2 · Jul 16, 2007, 04:08 AM

I got license for both XP and Vista. I'm contemplating on which version i should install into Macbook Pro (2.2 version) and what are their drawbacks, such as drivers support etc.

Suikolove · Jul 16, 2007, 12:40 PM

Until the number of people giving very negative experience feedback and reviews on Vista goes down, I would say XP is the safest. I'm in a website design studio right now, and a few people here have Vista installed. Some have problems. Some don't. Everyone here who has XP on their Mac, though, isn't currently experiencing problems with it.

For now, I would personally recommend XP. If you have indeed bought the licenses for both, you can always upgrade later should you decide to do so.

mduell · Jul 16, 2007, 04:18 PM

XP... cheaper and better supported.

ghporter · Jul 16, 2007, 05:48 PM

Welcome to the MacNN Forums!

Until ALL of your Mac's hardware has Vista drivers, you'll do yourself a favor by not even considering installing Vista on it. Plus Vista still has "issues" involving compatibility with available applications, so it's unpleasant to use if your particular apps are not supported.

XP, all the way.

One more thing: we have a forum for discussion of running something other than OS X on Macs, it's called the "Alternative Operating Systems" forum. This belongs there, and I'll move it there for you.

tzex2 · Jul 16, 2007, 06:35 PM

Thanks for the info.

ps. this is such a good forum for info.

ghporter · Jul 16, 2007, 07:45 PM

Originally Posted by tzex2

Thanks for the info.

ps. this is such a good forum for info.

Thanks for the endorsement. It's not often we get positive feedback-frankly people come here to post problems, not gloat at how well their system is working. That tends to make them forget to thank the folks (our members) who helped them out. I appreciate it and I'm sure most of our members here do too.

Cadaver · Jul 22, 2007, 05:19 PM

I will post a slightly contrary opinion.

If the software and hardware you plan on using is Vista-compatible, I find Vista more Mac-like and less Windows-like, if you can understand what I mean.

Vista has a smoothness to it, much like MacOS X does, in terms of windows opening & closing (think OS X's sheets), does a better job of font rendering, and tries its best (as best as Windows can without being a complete and utter abandonment of legacy code) to decrease the number of seeming randomly placed dialog boxes for various system functions.

Presuming my software was Vista compatible, I personally would choose it over XP. Games are a different story, but presuming standard desktop software, I'd rather use Vista.

I have an HP Compaq nx9420 (17" 2.16GHz C2D w/ 2GB of RAM and a 256MB Radeon X1600) - hardware-wise almost identical to a 2.16GHz C2D 17" MacBook Pro. And Vista Ultimate runs just great on it. While I'd prefer not to have to use Windows at all, I'm much happier using Vista than XP. However, Office 2004 runs like a dog on Mac Intel hardware, and I have to have complete file compatibility with Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Unfortunately, while NeoOffice/OpenOffice is good, its not perfect (can't be unless they do something illegal), and I need it to be perfect.