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Is XP still the best Bootcamp OS?
- Thread starter Meever
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what computer do you have? win7 should be fine for pretty much all macs, it runs fine on my original MBP!!
vista is pretty much a no-go, XP is out-dated and getting way to old..
i have to say win7
vista is pretty much a no-go, XP is out-dated and getting way to old..
i have to say win7
Now that it's so close around the bend, Windows 7 is definitely the way to go. XP is indeed getting really old. I'm running Vista, as I bought it before much was known about 7. I have to say that Vista is a really fine OS, though, contrary to the general opinion on these forums. Of course I only bought it after SP1 came out, and it's been great. Since 7 will be a lot lighter, though, it's bound to even be a lot better.
Your desktop? What kind of desktop? Specs?
Vista was better for gaming than XP was, but now 7 takes that medal. Any drivers that worked in Vista will work fine in 7, although most manufacturers are already well into releases of drivers for 7.
XP is a dinosaur. It was good in its day but that day is LONG gone. There are so many under-the-hood awesome changes with 7 (and even with Vista) I don't know where to start.
Long story short: XP is crap. 7 is infinitely better. On that note though, if you're already running XP, just hold off for 7 to actually be released (October I think) instead of download the RC from Microsoft. The RC is very much outdated from what the RTM is.
Vista was better for gaming than XP was, but now 7 takes that medal. Any drivers that worked in Vista will work fine in 7, although most manufacturers are already well into releases of drivers for 7.
XP is a dinosaur. It was good in its day but that day is LONG gone. There are so many under-the-hood awesome changes with 7 (and even with Vista) I don't know where to start.
Long story short: XP is crap. 7 is infinitely better. On that note though, if you're already running XP, just hold off for 7 to actually be released (October I think) instead of download the RC from Microsoft. The RC is very much outdated from what the RTM is.
Another vote for Windows 7
Definite improvement over Vista and XP
Woof, Woof - Dawg
you would want to hope so!!
And yet not always the case!
Woof, Woof - Dawg
touche'! you just have to look at vista
touche'! you just have to look at vista
Vista gets a bad rep. Honestly it was a great OS on hardware that's 5 years old or newer. 7 is just so much better than Vista or XP could ever hope to be, and it's not even officially released to the public yet!
I have to agree with everyone else that says Windows 7. XP was good, but it is old and outdated. And you can run W7 easily on Boot Camp with the drivers meant for Vista. I've had it since the beta version came out and it's worked like a charm. I've had 0 compatibility issues, with the exception of Macdrive, which is kind of annoying. Go with W7, you will not be disappointed.
with SP1 vista has become somewhat usable, but M$ brought it on themselves! they made a bad product plagued with bugs and crappy slow-downs, im not going to tell people that its great, because it simply is not.
win7 is a better improvement, but still has the fairly high hardware specs, i only hope its more stable and not as annoying!!
Never upgraded past XP
and my old desktop doesn't have the juice for Win7. Are there compatibility issues with XP that anyone has IDed?
and my old desktop doesn't have the juice for Win7. Are there compatibility issues with XP that anyone has IDed?
From my experience XP is not stable on new macbooks - ones with 9600m GTs anyway. I recently bought the 2.8 MBP and whenever I try running games under XP i'm greeted with a BSOD. Oddly enough it runs fine the very first time I play the game (C&C3 in this case), but every subsequent time I try and load it = BSOD.
My advice - if you're planning to run windows games on a new MBP forget XP, you best have vista or be prepared to wait for Windows7.
Windows 7!!!
Look here and you shall find proof of Windows 7's superiority. The funny thing is, XP runs slower on the better computers!
http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=3236
Look here and you shall find proof of Windows 7's superiority. The funny thing is, XP runs slower on the better computers!
http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=3236
I had all sorts of problems with Macdrive 7 on XP. When version 8 was released, I cautiously tested the trial on Win7. It worked pretty well so I ended up upgrading. I can't comment on how well it writes to a HFS (I set it to read-only), but it is otherwise working just fine.
Never had any problems with macdrive either.
SLeopard bootcamp driver has built-in support for HFSx formatted drives as far as i understood.
Im' running Win7 on my MBP and my aging Dell P4@2.0Ghz and 768 MB ram.
Win 7 runs very decent with 768MB ram on a P4 if u only use it for light tasks (browsing +itunes etc)
SLeopard bootcamp driver has built-in support for HFSx formatted drives as far as i understood.
Im' running Win7 on my MBP and my aging Dell P4@2.0Ghz and 768 MB ram.
Win 7 runs very decent with 768MB ram on a P4 if u only use it for light tasks (browsing +itunes etc)
I hate Vista, however
Windows 7 is not bad. The GUI is Vista-like and for me that is a turn off.
I have to say though Windows 7 feels more stable than XP. When 7 crashes (expected in beta) it crashes eloquently, usually in my case allowing control to quickly get back up and running without restarting. W7 also has lots of built in features that work well and are nice.
For my needs XP seems like a better option though as I run engineering software that may not work with W7. That is all I do with Windows.
Ask your self what you need the OS to do then pick the one that will perform it the best.
PS: Windows 2000 still does what I need...buy what works and is cost effective not everything shiny and new is 'better'
At the moment my pick is XP for its maturity and software options...In the same breath let me also say W7, other than the akward GUI is getting off to a solid start.
I hope they later add options to revert to the classic GUI
Windows 7 is not bad. The GUI is Vista-like and for me that is a turn off.
I have to say though Windows 7 feels more stable than XP. When 7 crashes (expected in beta) it crashes eloquently, usually in my case allowing control to quickly get back up and running without restarting. W7 also has lots of built in features that work well and are nice.
For my needs XP seems like a better option though as I run engineering software that may not work with W7. That is all I do with Windows.
Ask your self what you need the OS to do then pick the one that will perform it the best.
PS: Windows 2000 still does what I need...buy what works and is cost effective not everything shiny and new is 'better'
At the moment my pick is XP for its maturity and software options...In the same breath let me also say W7, other than the akward GUI is getting off to a solid start.
I hope they later add options to revert to the classic GUI
It isn't in beta anymore. You can get the shipping release now if you have MSDN access.
This is over a year now since this thread first started, I need to put windows on my imac at home (via bootcamp) what is the best windows operating system to use ???
This thread was dead before Windows 7 was released.
Current consensus is summarized here: http://guides.macrumors.com/Choosing_which_version_of_Windows_7_to_install
Unless you have a specific reason to run XP (older Mac, support for particular legacy software/hardware, ...) run W7 and pick a 64 bit version.
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