Stick with your current version of Windows. Vista will just drive you insane and not to mention, help build Gates corporate empire while leaving you bankrupt.
Tons of great included features. If you are working with videos and pictures, you want Vista. I have a new HP Pavillion with Vista. It is far better than XP. More security features and awesome multi-user capability. I realize most of you probably don't like any one else using your computer (me included) so the multi user feature is a non-issure but if that's not the case... The video editing is so easy my 10 year old can make pro quality videos with almost no help from me. Rock on Bill Gates!!!!!
I have been using Vista for 6 months. It looks a lot nicer, but otherwise it sucks. It is a big hog on resources (you need a much better PC to get the same performance as XP). A lot of stuff does not work with it. My Blackberry sync only works 1 in 5 times I try it. I had to get rid of an old printer because there was no driver support. And then a lot of other little pieces of software don't seem to work right.
Personally for work I prefer WinXP. It's far more mature, troublefree and I feel much more comfortable with it.
if you don't upgrade now...eventually you will...because Microsoft is squeezing out the older versions of Windows. I have Vista and there is nothing great about it...the only nice things is the appearance. The one major issue I have (other than many of my devices and software were not compatible and the navigation is a little difficult to get used to) is that when you save a word doc, by default it saves as .docx and people who do not have vista can not open it.
to me i like VISTA but the only thing you need it RAM .. the more you have the more you will performance.
I just received my new dell inspiron 1521 w/ the AMD Turion 64. It's good unit. But I don't like vista. I've turned off all of the froo-froo fancy crap like glass and transparent windows and anything that is not necessary for me to get my work done. I've also turned off a lot of crap in msconfig and now that I've done so, the unit actually performs quite well on 2gb of ram. I'm adding an additional 2gb from cdw and I guess I'll stay w/ vista on the laptop. I just really hate that they've moved things like add/remove programs. It took me forever to figure out what they had renamed it. Then there's the stupid "public folders" crap. WTF is that about? I don't get it. Anyway, I've got most of the crap turned off and configured to look and feel like XP. Vista: the OS that nobody wants
I have seen it in operation with 2.5gb of ram and its awful. Slow!!! And it asks 100s of questions. Should I block this that and the other! ITS TERRIBLE, BUT LETS FACE IT SOON ITS GOING TO BE A MUST HAVE AS XP WILL STOP MAKING SERVICE PACKS AND UPGRADES AND CUT OFF SUPPORT. LIKE WINDOWS 98
Ask yourself this: Is your computer running fine right now? Do you run a lot of third party apps? Is your computer more than 2 years old, or is it a budget PC? If you answered yes to any of those, I would not recommend Vista at this time.
Vista is good if you have really good ram, but for people who have low ram you might cry by the time your done with vista.
I agree that Vista is a resource hog. If XP is working for you, then stick with it. I certainly wouldn't upgrade a system that is working fine now. You will be disappointed.