Vista is bad, and this is coming from somebody who has used both on the same machine. Vista is NOT more secure. It makes you think that with the UAC and other BS like that, but if you use XP (up to date w/ service packs) and a good free antivirus like AntiVir, you will be fine. Vista is more friendly to government agencies who want into your computer to spy on you.
Really, you should go with whatever is cheapest and just put kubuntu on it, and use Wine or Crossover Office to run your windoze apps.
In Thailand in the IT Plaza the computer are lined up with different prices if it is cracked version or it is the real system. If would buy a new computer now I would buy VISTA since you get it almost free with many new computers it is in the package deal so to speak. Sure XP can be faster but as some one said Vista is the next step why step back and if you have to buy the XP then it is even worse. When I am buying my next computer and I am putting a Vista in it if they give me a good deal on it.
That's what I'm thinkgin. Right now I have Windows XP Pro.... I have two options to upgrade when I purchase my new system, both costing the same. (Options are: XP home or to Vista Home Premium.) If I stick with XP... I'll have to stay with the home version (Which is a step down from what I already have).
Leave vista alone unless your new pc would be state of the art. What you listed isn't such a great spec for a new pc. 4gb ram recommended for vista so i heard.
take a look at http://badvista.fsf.org/what-s-wrong-with-microsoft-windows-vista before you buy it. and 128MB gfx ram? dude, my notebook has 512MB gfx ram (plus 2gb system)
Don't get a mac unless you are familiar with it. Vista is awesome. If your specs are good. I have vista and yes at times the loadup is slow which I don't know why. But its all good when you got a fine @$$ PC
If your question was conrcerned about updating the XP the answer was easy: Why bother spending hundreds of dollar. But the question get a bit tricky when it is which one to choose. You are going to pay for an OS anyway and the question is which one. I would say you are one of those that are the victims and must go ahead for the rest of us. You are domed to get Vista, it would be very difficult to pay for XP which is something for the past. I personally wait until the clauds clear and the problems solved.
adobe premiere 7 won t get patched for Vista, If you need premiere, y ou ll have to buy CS3 and will will cost you an arm and a half O
Both my Dell laptop and Dell XPS have Vista pre-installed and they are both fast and easy to use. It didn't take long to start seeing the benefits of Vista over XP. I was getting tired of the XP interface anyway. I've heard horror stories about upgrading from XP to Vista, so don't upgrade whatever you do. Get it pre-installed.
My computer came with wireless internet networking and it works just fine with Windows Vista. I download @ 300kb/sec-500kb/sec.
You did OK except for the video card. 128MB is not enough anymore. You are going to have to move to a 256MB PCIe card. So with that being said... you're sticking with XP Pro if you are a developer and XP Home if you are a general user.
Keep in mind if you bump up to 4gb of ram no matter what version of windows your running it will need to be 64bit to take advantage of all the ram.