7 is amazing, and less resource intensive as Vista. You may still have to buy a new printer though.

This guy speaks like he barely uses computers. If he would have bought a decent computer a year ago with vista it would have ran fine. Yes vista is intensive, but the specs for computers have increased so much that it's a wash really. Buy a cpu with 4 gbs of ram and a core 2 duo or amd phenom and your fine. Most printer manufacturers also have drivers for old printers on vista now. Even 7 won't fix the fact your printer is old.

I have a decent laptop with vista on it and it is a complete POS. Countless times to have to restart explorer, due to lockups, and rekey my password in to get email......while USUALLY checking my email! Welcome to 2009! One huge step backward for mankind. And while I'm at it, it wastes so much time on checking to see if updates are available, but never seems to fix ANYTHING about itself.
It will probably freeze up when I add this comment.

It sounds more like your Internet browser sucks, Michael R..

XP is simple, light (compared to Vista), and still well known the world over. So it's a benefit to the consumer to keep XP around for the Netbook craze. The biggest question is, how long will XP last? I remember Windows 98 remained compatible with a lot systems for many years.

Wow, I'm not sure where to even start about what's wrong with this post or some of the comments.

1 - Upgrade to SP1, and then SP2. It's pretty obvious none of you have. MS has fixed majority of the bugs, and now Vista is ROCK SOLID. Yeah, I said it. I run Vista at work, and at home. Zero crashes. Get the Service Packs.

2 - I'll concede Vista is more resource intensive than XP. Have you ever thought it's because, well, it does more? If you find things like Instant Search, Widgets and the host of other things to be a huge pain in your ass then ok yeah.. don't upgrade.

3 - I read your 08 article. You bought a computer from a store. Ever think this PC, or the software that came pre-installed was the issue? I suggest the following. Keep your OS key, and download a copy of Vista off of Bittorrent, and use the 100% LEGAL key you have purchased to do a clean install. I guarantee your isues were caused by the software on the machine.

4 - Why shoot Win7 in the face because of Vista? Everyone now knows, good or bad experience, that XP is not the same as Vista, nor is Vista to 7. And here's the true deal. Windows 7 is AVAILABLE for you to try in the form of RC 1, direct from Microsoft, and for free. Take and old hard drive, or slice off some space on a partition, and try it. It's absolutely rock solid. As a matter of fact, I really can't find a single deal breaker about this OS. Less than 25 mins to install, and it takes HALF the memory that Vista does on my machine, and even outruns XP. Obviously you haven't tried this one either.

5 - If you REALLY dispise Vista, and apparently 7, so much, why not just hit E-Bay and buy a copy of XP to put on any laptop you want? I mean even all of my bitching aside, that'd be the easiest thing to do.

Yeah this guy is confused. He can't help but show his hatred of Microsoft for moving forward to make a profit, but he also hopes it will save the world. If he had any tech sense, or a friend that is, he wouldn't have any problem with Vista. As one poster already said they have developed drivers for most older hardware. If it is extremely old then you may want to consider upgrading anyway to save on operating costs. But, if you looked you would find that there is most likely a Vista driver out there for your product. Want to know if you will like Windows 7? Try it. You can try it for free up until next spring. There is be minor differences between the RC and final, based on feedback, but you will be able to test the core of the system. It uses about 1/2 the RAM as Vista and has many more features. XP Mode is cool. Only hope they decide to include 3D support for it.

Much of what is bad about Vista is how Microsoft changed the way the system works. The revised start menu is perhaps the worst GUI mistake of the century.

I turned off all the widgets, the backround tasks, the intelligent updating, and the security prompts. I still hate the way the OS works. It causes usability problems and interups my workflow. The same Adobe programs run faster on my four year old Athlon 64 system with 4GB of ram running XP64 than on my new CoreDuo laptop with 8gb of ram running Vista SP2.

The truth is Vista is a terrible OS. Even worse than Windows Me.

There are also still driver issues with many older HP products. I can't use my mutifuntion printer or my older scanner. My scanner is a far better unit than anything new and cost $800. I'd rather keep XP than use Vista and have to buy a new inferior product just becuase someone can't write a driver, which is more HP's fault than MS.

so don't keep old junk. Do you still have devices designed for Windows 3.1? No. So don't expect devices to be forward compatible forever. OSs move on. Your peripherals should to. They are tech devices, not washing machines.