Re: XP Home and XP Media Center Editions

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Bruce,

You make some very good points.

The people I end up helping, both offline and online, are those who have no clue. They just want to buy a tool and have it work. Some would argue that they should be able to do just that.

Do OEM's sabotage that effort with add-ons and customizations better left out? Yep.

Are they foolish for believing the hype? Absolutely.

Do I recommend they run out and upgrade? No. But if they are going to anyway, I want them to have the best chance of success. Am I recommending Vista just to get Aero, no. But my point is simply why get Vista without the eye-candy? (unless it really is super reliable, fewer required reboots, etc)

Is Aero mostly glitz? Probably. But so is the internet, and that's what people are buying.

Go to Youtube and try to find a video that's getting huge views and chances are:

1.) it shows some skin
2.) someone gets hurt
3.) there is a (at least implied) promise of either 1 or 2

I've long since given up trying to lecture people on their buying stupidity; I try my best to educate them and steer them toward a best reliability, long term solution.

My clients typically get 5 - 7 years of reliable service out of their PC's. Yes, we may have upgraded RAM or a processor in there; and certainly moved the PC down the office food chain. But it's thrown out only after 6 - 8 years. And that makes everybody happy (except Intel & Microsoft).

When I see home users getting 2 - 4 years out of their PC's, I just cringe. And of that 2 - 4 years, 1 - 3 years they've been unhappy with it. There's no good reason for it. I try to educate and guide them toward a happier outcome.

Are XP Home and MCE inferior? In my opinion, yes. Are you and the others entitled to a different opinion, you bet. Are you doing the right thing to wipe that OEM clean and redo it? Most likely, I sure believe it would help. Problem for me is that that isn't when the PC is brought to me for help. I get it a year or so down the road after a lot of frustration.

Thanks for keeping it civil.

Bruce Chambers wrote:
FreeComputerConsultant.com wrote:
I'm going to recommend Home Premium and above. Why have Vista without Aero?



Better question: Why buy a new OS whose only significant change from its predecessor is a useless and resource-wasting piece of eye-candy. Aero has got to be one of Vista's biggest draw-backs.


And no, I do not sell operating systems. What I have seen is people buy a "cheap" PC loaded with Home or MCE, take it to their office and find out it won't connect to their domain.



So you're categorically blaming the underlying OS for the problems your customers are deliberately bringing on themselves by "buying cheap," or by buying the wrong OS for their needs? That's not the fault of the OS, it's the fault of the uninformed purchasers.


Then I help them find the cheapest source of an upgrade and they spend almost $200 to upgrade - when an OEM copy bought online is only $140. Plus an hour or so to do the upgrade. How "cheap" is that PC now? They throw away the copy of XP Home and buy XP Pro for something short of $200.

And am I at fault for having told them, ahead of time, to make SURE they get XP Pro?



If you're telling them that WinXP Home and/or WinXp MCE aren't designed to meet their needs, and that WinXp Pro would be a better fit, that'd be fine. Instead, you're apparently incorrectly telling them that Home and MCE are inferior. This is an outright falsehood.


You guys say that my comments are going overboard or not relevant, and now you're talking about DataCenter?

Come on guys. My experience is apparently different from yours - I'm very happy for you; perhaps jealous. Last I knew I still had the right to voice my opinion - though maybe not for long.

I'm holding out great hope for Vista, but I think people are going to want Aero - so Vista Home Basic is out, right?


Well, it's true that most home consumers will probably be impressed with Aero, and buy the new OS for no other reason than its shiny new looks, but that's hardly a recommendation.

Having beta tested Vista, I'll be upgrading only when I have to; it holds no value-added features for me.


.

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