Which Windows are you running -- XP, Vista or Windows 7 -- and why?

I am now on windows seven due to a machine failure that caused a new purchase. Clearly way better than vista and combined with the office 2010 beta I'm happy with a tight offering. As a measure of credibility I own many MSFT shares but became a complete Mac fan about 2 years ago. Microsoft is finally getting what they need to know about what users want. I have great faith in 7 based on my experience to date and have high hopes for server 2010 and office. As a side note. I would kill anyone who tried to take my Mac away.......

Wow, thats like asking which mine should I step on. I design security technology used by governments. I have stuck with XP for a long time, because it is a known risk. Although I run all operating systems I have always felt safer with a modified version of XP. However I have been looking at win7 for over a year now and have moved a lot of key systems to it. This is because of its speed and hardware support. It does actually look like they may have got it working well. (Just never upgrade alway full install) I skipped Vista completly for obvious reasons. I prefer Win7 for the under the cover work not the interface.

Dave
Cryptic Software Ltd (Founder) www.cryptic.co.uk

I usually run XP, it is stable reliable and the most widely used OS used by the governments. I run XP using VMware Fusion 3, I decided to switch to the Mac after more than 10 years using Windows... I really got sick of it. Vista made a great favour to other OSs (Mac OS, Ubuntu, etc.). Most people are reluctant to change, that is why they usually stick to an OS no matter how bad it is.

We run a fairly organic mixture of desktops. We had the main bulk of people on XP machines because that was the greatest available at the time that those machines were commissioned. We have a smaller number running Vista which have been commission in the last year, and a roughly similar number running Windows 7.

As a relatively small business (100 people in-house) we find no case to go upgrading the organisation as a whole. All the apps that are used run just fine on XP. The security differences have little enough impact on the desktop. The fact we have no inhouse people to look after the desktops means we'd have to do upgrades by reinstalling the OS and then reinstalling the apps on top of that and then restoring the data. That means that it's not worth the cost to the business to upgrade collectively.

Only IT have been installing latest versions of the OS as they come out because they either need to build software under latest conditions, want to test it, need it to get best performance out of newer hardware or just plain want to.

So our upgrade path is to just put the latest available business OS for a machine when it is commissioned. We get OEM licenses. It all seems to work

For me, it's that old question of requirements pull versus technology push. Right now, the requirements that I have for an operating system running under a PC hardware architecture are met by XP. I can run all of my applications, including Visual Studio 2008, all of the "standard" applications that I need for office automation, CASE, stats (e.g., SPSS), and the like under XP., and I have no motivation to upgrade to Windows 7. Also, Microsoft still supports XP with security updates, as well as the occasional defect-reduction upgrade.

If faced with the tradeoff between spending money to upgrade operating systems on my desktops and laptops and not running newer applications that only run on 7, in light of the fact that my current requirements are met with XP, I would have to opt not to upgrade. Of course, I could become otherwise motivated if my requirements change, but for now and the forseeable future, my needs are very stable.

For the longest time I ran XP and was fairly satisfied, until I contracted a nasty virus that all but disabled it. Eventually I had to reinstall XP and that led to problems with Microsoft, who claimed my machine and XP version didn't match (so I couldn't use the XP I had just reinstalled). With some trepidation, I then installed Vista Business and--despite all the bad press--it has been fast, easy and problem-free. Go figure.

Total XP Pro SP3 shop. Will start testing Win7 in the next month or so. In my business its not so much what we desire to run, as much as what our apps require. We don't use a lot of off-the-shelf software, so we have to wait for our vendors to certify their products on a particular OS. Overall I've been pretty satisfied with XP, but am looking forward to getting my hands on Win7 and moving forward on an OS refresh.

as per me if you have sufficient budget then go for windows 7 , reasons are as follows,

1). time saving for IT admin team,
2). user friendly
3). More secure
4). easy to understand
5). full of security.

in MAC you will get these all features but some of the application are not compatible with MAC , and in case of windows 7 it is possible.

I run vista on my notebook with an xp-pro virtual pc. I like vista. The only problem is bad software - eg cisco client for vpn is still not bug free on vista.
The xp-pro vm has declined in business use over the last 12 months, but still used 2-3 times a week to run apps that I don't want to or can't re-purchase for vista.
For my clients the upgrade holdup wasn't the os - it was the software upgrades this forced. Moving 200 desk tops onto a new version of office is too painful and costly to undertake lightly.

I still get the impression that SME (Uk

We run anything to hand on the desktop - winXP,Vista,7, Solaris, RedHat and for the right hardware MacOS. Windows 7 is pretty usable but like all OSes it's easy to pick flaws with the bit that doesn't work quite like I imagine it ought to (same with all the rest of the OSen).

We do organic migration of the desktops towards whatever is the current windows as we refresh them. We have no dedicated IT staff to performe any sort of migration.

For bonus points on the question though, does it matter what OS we are running? The end-user experience is smoother under the newer OS but does it really affect our day to day productivity or does it make anything possible we couldn't do with earlier versions?

And an additional question - what steps are people taking to test the new OS is suitable in their environments? How long do you run-in a new OS before you give it corporate approval? Is there a standardised way to see that the desktop passes muster?

Kate,

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I'm running Vistas, but only because that's what my laptop came with. I'd like to buy a new laptop/desktop with Windows 7 within the year.

Windows XP is still the choice way to go by the way of Windows. I refuse
to change my users over to anything else just yet. I myself have loaded
up Vista on my machine to prepare myself for the change over if and when
needed. Although I have not had any issues that users complained about
regarding Vista (like Win ME). When dealing with friends and family, I
found myself (by request) changing their Vista installation to "Classic
Look" so they can feel comfortable using their systems.

Another point that was brought up by these users were the UAC settings.
Although helpful.... very annoying. I decided to venture outside the
Microsoft box and ran Ubuntu for a great deal of time until Windows 7
was released and I felt that it was time to go back and "experiment". I
was excited about the new features and I wanted to know if it will be
good for my XP users.

Once again... I like the OS (running 64 bit version right now) but I can
tell that I will be getting a lot of phone calls. Not because there is
an issue with the OS but because a user will be lost. After throwing the
users into a dark hole, Microsoft has made it simpler to do many things
within the OS but it still retains the Vista look and feel and then
some. If I consider Windows 7 eye candy, my eyes would be rotting out my
head with the highly customizable Aero themes and funky widgets.

Eventually users will have to come to grip with the changes and learn
that without change you cannot progress. Microsoft realized that they
jumped the gun with Vista and decided to make things right with this
over-hauled version they call Windows 7. If the time comes... when the
time comes, I will walk with my users hand in hand and will help them
make the transition :smile:

believe it or not all Windows versions are still based on DOS. That's why you get all those blue-screens. It is the same crap. I don't use any of.
Version 7 is even worst. Just fancy but stability is minus 1. Not even 0.

Kate, on the desktop side, I am personally running Vista and Windows 7, and the 64-bit versions at that. I have moved away from XP on my home network since Vista was released, and unlike many reports, I found very few problems with it. Having said that, Windows 7 is much, much better than Vista in a number of categories, including performance and compatibility and integration.

Corporately, I never made a big push for non-technology team members to run anything but XP, but with the release of Windows 7, I'm recommending that we make that move. Also, any clients that I consult for are being recommended to set aside budget to make the move. Windows 7 is much more than eye-candy -- in critical areas like stability and security, it is MUCH better than XP, and its performance is better than that of Vista.

The real pluses of Win7 are the improvements over the problems (and perceived problems) of Vista, without an increase in hardware footprint needed. And, given that I've been largely 64-bit on the desktop since late 2005 (XP x64), most of the compatibility challenges have been worked out in my experience.

Despite the visual differences, I find that new users and regular business users take easily to Win7, as much of the OS is pretty intuitive for their usage. The problem is more with power users, who have grown accustomed to quirks and configurations of earlier Windows versions.

Overall, the verdict is highly in favor of Windows 7 -- 64-bit if you can help it.

-ASB: http://xeesm.com/AndrewBaker

i use windows 7.i think it is very useful and beautiful,so i sugget everyone could have a try.
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I am a oner man office and I use Vista as my OS as it came with the machine. I use Google Chrome as my internet explorer as I like it features better than Windows.