To Vista or not to Vista?

Posted by Stropp on January 30, 2007

In a few hours, Microsoft will release the next incarnation of their operating system. Unless you have taken a self-imposed exile from all web, written, and possibly television media for the last twelve months, you should have heard about this.

The big question is if an upgrade to Vista this close to release is warranted at this stage. First however, a word of disclosure. I have been a Windows developer since the release of Windows 3.0. I’ve worked on a substantial number of software applications in the last seventeen years. However, I’m not a Windows Fanboi by any means. I also own a Mac notebook, and a Linux box. I’m into the best tool for the job.

Now having said that. Don’t upgrade to Vista at this time. Especially if you are a gamer. The platform is simply not ready for it at this stage. Read this article at Techgage for details. The major points are as follows:

1. The performance of some games is less on Vista than on XP with an equivalent machine.
2. Microsoft removed DirectSound and DirectSound 3D from Vista. This means that existing games with surround sound and other effects will revert to plain old stereo until new drivers are made up that allow these games to use the new OpenAL support.
3. New drivers for a new platform. It will take time for these new drivers to get the bugs ironed out. XP drivers are solid and mature, the Vista drivers will need some work. This work should also help with some of the performance issues.

My own point of view is that it is often simply worth the wait until the first service pack is released. If you are running on a solid XP system that suits your needs there is no need to upgrade, and lets face it, World of Warcraft runs well on XP. If you buy a new game that demands Vista or DX10, Age of Conan comes to mind here, then by all means upgrade.

I was feeling tempted by the lure of the Vista machine. I have decided now to wait until the first service pack is released, or perhaps later this year when AoC is released. I suppose if I buy a new machine before that time, I’ll get it then too.

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