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Maureristic · Jun 29, 2008, 02:02 AM

on a new Macbook Pro, 4 gigs, 2.4 GHZ.

I will be doing some gaming, yes - should be installing 32 bit XP or should I be installing Vista?

turtle777 · Jun 29, 2008, 02:38 AM

Vista is still not compatible with all games. XP is safer for gaming.

-t

Cold Warrior · Jun 29, 2008, 10:50 AM

I'd go with XP.

@pplejaxkz · Jun 29, 2008, 11:47 AM

XP hands down

seanc · Jun 29, 2008, 12:43 PM

I'd also agree with XP.

We also have a forum dedicated to Windows and other OSes which is what this thread is about - thread on the move!

mduell · Jun 29, 2008, 02:45 PM

XP

DX10 in Vista adds some neat stuff, but not worth the hassle of Vista for me (until I go to 8GB RAM).

ghporter · Jun 29, 2008, 03:27 PM

In terms of bang for the buck, XP still wins out. There's cool stuff in Vista, but the learning curve for an experienced XP user is not as flat as I'd like (I've been using XP since it came out and Vista still gives me fits). As noted above, Vista doesn't run as many games as XP, and additionally there are a lot of driver issues to deal with, especially with non-cutting-edge hardware. That means in some cases year and a half old stuff rather than five year old stuff. I'm not terribly happy with how well the Vista drivers support Mac hardware. I have a copy of Vista sitting there on my desk right now, and it has not even come out of the package.

Lots of words to say "XP for me too," but there are plenty of reasons for it.

seanc · Jun 29, 2008, 03:35 PM

Doesn't XP licensing die tomorrow (30th)? Or have they changed it again?

olePigeon · Jun 30, 2008, 11:36 AM

Google Alky Project. It's now been delegated to open source, but it enables you to install DirectX 10 onto Windows XP machines, so you don't even need Vista.

mduell · Jun 30, 2008, 07:50 PM

Originally Posted by seanc

Doesn't XP licensing die tomorrow (30th)? Or have they changed it again?

There's plenty of copies around to buy retail, and of course downgrade rights for OEM.

seanc · Jul 1, 2008, 03:42 AM

Originally Posted by mduell

There's plenty of copies around to buy retail, and of course downgrade rights for OEM.

I've been looking at those downgrade rights, they're damn confusing. So far, it seems that the customer has to provide me with their old XP license so that I can install it on their new PC. Then I have to activate it, fail, call Microsoft and explain that they've got Vista Business/Ultimate and that I'm using my downgrade rights. Which leaves me with no XP license for the old PC they may be returning.

http://download.microsoft.com/downlo...rencesheet.pdf

mduell · Jul 1, 2008, 02:54 PM

Originally Posted by seanc

I've been looking at those downgrade rights, they're damn confusing. So far, it seems that the customer has to provide me with their old XP license so that I can install it on their new PC. Then I have to activate it, fail, call Microsoft and explain that they've got Vista Business/Ultimate and that I'm using my downgrade rights. Which leaves me with no XP license for the old PC they may be returning.

http://download.microsoft.com/downlo...rencesheet.pdf

For most people, the downgrade rights usage is going to be via OEMs like Dell, who sell you an XP media and do the downgrade licensing for a nominal fee.
If you're doing it on your own, you install XP from the disk you already own (any XP disk will work), then call MS to exercise the downgrade rights.

seanc · Jul 1, 2008, 03:09 PM

Originally Posted by mduell

For most people, the downgrade rights usage is going to be via OEMs like Dell, who sell you an XP media and do the downgrade licensing for a nominal fee.
If you're doing it on your own, you install XP from the disk you already own (any XP disk will work), then call MS to exercise the downgrade rights.

Maybe I did completely misunderstand it

XP SP3 could make this useful, because you don't need to enter in a license when installing it.

So to summarise:

Install XP (Pro in my case - without a license if possible
Get my Vista license
Call Microsoft, say I want to downgrade
Get a new XP license? and then I'm done?

Maybe I'll call Microsoft tomorrow and see if they can give me a final answer, the longer I can put off having to put Vista on my PCs, the better.

mduell · Jul 1, 2008, 06:16 PM

Why bother with the Vista license? Just buy one of the millions of copies of XP in the supply chain.

seanc · Jul 1, 2008, 07:10 PM

Yes I know, but imagine there aren't any... I'm trying to work it out.

dustrho · Jul 2, 2008, 02:08 PM

XP SP2, SP3 is buggy IMO.

@pplejaxkz · Jul 2, 2008, 04:11 PM

Originally Posted by dustrho

XP SP2, SP3 is buggy IMO.

Definitely

mr. burns · Jul 2, 2008, 06:39 PM

All I use Windows for is games. Never had a problem with a game not running in vista64 but I don't play anything that's really old. Never had a driver issue. I use the 64-bit version of ATI's Catalyst for the video card and everything else is from apple.

Once you turn off the annoying security 'features', it essentially becomes a prettier version of XP. I have both an XP Pro partition and a Vista64 partition, but I don't really have a reason to boot into XP anymore.

kalex · Jul 4, 2008, 08:03 AM

XP SP2 is in my opinion better than Vista and requires less over head to run. It also installs and runs better in virtualized environment either vmware or parallels. So you can have it run through bootcamp or through fusion

Ozz_man · Jul 4, 2008, 09:32 AM

Are there any special procedures to install 64 bit XP or Vista? Or will Boot Camp just handle it all?

seanc · Jul 4, 2008, 09:58 AM

Bootcamp will handle it fine. Bootcamp is there purely to create the partition and make a driver disc, after that, it's just the same as installing Windows on a PC.

mr. burns · Jul 6, 2008, 12:59 AM

Originally Posted by Ozz_man

Are there any special procedures to install 64 bit XP or Vista? Or will Boot Camp just handle it all?

Apple doesn't have any drivers for 64-bit XP, just so you know.

Rumor · Jul 6, 2008, 03:29 AM

I would go with XP Pro. If you can get your hands on a 64 bit version, then that would be better. XP Pro 32 bit only supports 3 gigs of ram. Though, I am not entirely sure that the 64 bit version will support four either.

Ozz_man · Jul 6, 2008, 09:56 AM

Originally Posted by mr. burns

Apple doesn't have any drivers for 64-bit XP, just so you know.

So it's a waste of time to even try to install XP 64 bit on my iMac, right? Might as well go with Vista?

mduell · Jul 6, 2008, 08:23 PM

Why bother with 64-bit Windows on a Machine that only supports 4GB RAM?

Ozz_man · Jul 6, 2008, 10:42 PM

I thought 4 gigs of ram was sufficent to run a 64 bit OS?

mr. burns · Jul 7, 2008, 12:29 AM

The main reason people run 64-bit Windows is to be able to use more than 4GB or RAM, which is the max for 32-bit.

mduell · Jul 7, 2008, 01:20 AM

Originally Posted by Ozz_man

I thought 4 gigs of ram was sufficent to run a 64 bit OS?

Of course it is, but why?

Rumor · Jul 7, 2008, 10:57 PM

Originally Posted by mr. burns

The main reason people run 64-bit Windows is to be able to use more than 4GB or RAM, which is the max for 32-bit.

3 gigs is the max for 32 bit XP.

WestHej · Jul 9, 2008, 06:42 AM

Ok let's get the 32-bit 64-bit operating system and RAM story straight.

32-bit OS's can only address 4GB of overall system memory. That includes graphics card memory and any other so if you ahve a 512MB memory card and 4 GB of system memory your system can only address 3.5 GB of your local RAM.

64-bit OS's can address miles more GB of RAM so there is no issue with the above.

Having more sytem memory avaliable will usually make things run smoother depending on your usage scenario.

Ozz_man · Jul 9, 2008, 06:24 PM

Originally Posted by mduell

Of course it is, but why?

I don't know. Whats the real purpose of having a 64 bit operating system to begin with? This is all a puzzle to me I thought there was some sort of benefit to it.

mduell · Jul 9, 2008, 07:32 PM

You don't need 4GB RAM to run a 64-bit OS; they run fine on less.
One of the few reasons to run a 64-bit OS is that you have >4GB RAM.

Ozz_man · Jul 9, 2008, 08:13 PM

Because XP won't run 64 bit on a Mac that is sad, I tried Vista and I detest that OS. If that's my only choice then I would rather just stick with good old XP 32 bit to run my few games. I just thought it would be neat to try something new so I ordered 4 gigs of ram. I probably just don't need it (but damned it's cheap right now)