Getting Dell laptop XP Prof versus Vista Business

[MJ]

I decided to take a laptop this time when I return to SEA. The one I have is just too heavy to travel with. Since I have used Dell for many years, I got the lighter Dell D630. This is the 1st PC that I actually ever paid for. My 4+ year Dell laptop was a small consolation prize from my former boss when he laid me off. I was leaving the company anyway, though he did not know it yet but that is old history.

Has anyone purchased this model?

The D630 at no charge, comes with either XP Prof or Vista Business, so being conservative, I ordered XP Prof. My old laptop which I used both for business and personal has the very stable windows 2000 (NT) which has performed flawlessly with many years.

But I thought would ask if anyone has used the Vista Business or Ultimate version ($50 more).

Any thoughts?

Thanks

MJ

[twaddle]

My BIL has a similar model, the D620, and loves it. Have you looked at the D420 or D430? If you're traveling, go light.

Also, check used and new prices on eBay or the dell outlet. Dell sometimes has great prices for new stuff, but you should compare to the eBay market value first.

Edit: nm, I see you already bought it. Sorry, no idea about Vista.

[maddythebeagle]

I think the general problem with Vista is any existing software might not work on it...I had to wait a few months to get some stuff to work after getting a new computer earlier this spring....getting my scanner and printer going was a hassle...

[MJ]

Quote:

Originally Posted by twaddle My BIL has a similar model, the D620, and loves it. Have you looked at the D420 or D430? If you're traveling, go light. Also, check used and new prices on eBay or the dell outlet. Dell sometimes has great prices for new stuff, but you should compare to the eBay market value first. Edit: nm, I see you already bought it. Sorry, no idea about Vista.

Actually, I just ordered it so I could change my mind.

I checked Ebay and even Dell's outlet and my new unit cost less. The base price was $849, I got a wi-fi card upgrade, 1G SDRAM, 1 dimm, my choice of OS, and 3 year international next day onsite service, all for $1096, delivered. Who know what problems you would have with an Ebay purchase and try to return it.

Thanks.

MJ

[twaddle]

Sounds like a good deal. You can also check sites like FatWallet for coupons and cash back:

Dell Small Business coupons and cash back

[Nords]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MJ But I thought would ask if anyone has used the Vista Business or Ultimate version ($50 more).

I'm still waiting to read something nice about Vista. My impression is that it's a lot more secure & virus-resistant, but that doesn't appear to compensate for the buggy software of all first releases.

For an exhaustive & detailed review of one user's Vista experiences, I'd suggest you send CFB a PM asking him how it went. His comments start with "What a piece of crap" and go downhill.

You wanna learn? Buy Vista. You wanna get something done? Buy XP.

[W2R]

My laptop cratered a couple of weeks ago, and I got one with Vista with 1 GB RAM. (Be sure you get at least a gigabyte of RAM with Vista, and 2 GB is not unreasonable.)

Most of my programs worked just fine. One, that is no longer being sold or supported, just wouldn't load (and turned out to do nothing I couldn't do other ways). The other, an old version of Paint Shop Pro, runs but gives me weird messages about not being able to write the registry and suggesting that I manually edit it (yeah, right? I think not!). I will probably shift to another program for that, too. All the rest of my software installed and ran with no problems. So for me, the software problems were non-existent.

Vista is SLOOOOOW to boot up, in my opinion. Once it has been started, I was surprised at how fast some of my programs would run.

I like Vista. Bear in mind that I love to explore new operating systems and programs, whereas most people don't like change quite so much.

I'd suggest getting the Vista version, unless you have a known problem running some of your software under Vista. Pretty soon, everybody you know will be running Vista and XP will seem as outdated as Win98 does now.

[MJ]

Quote:

Originally Posted by twaddle Sounds like a good deal. You can also check sites like FatWallet for coupons and cash back: Dell Small Business coupons and cash back

Thanks. I did all that but none were available for the Latitude series.

[MJ]

Quote:

Originally Posted by twaddle Have you looked at the D420 or D430? If you're traveling, go light.

The D430 was just too rich for my blood.

[Goonie]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MJ The D630 at no charge, comes with either XP Prof or Vista Business, so being conservative, I ordered XP Prof. My old laptop which I used both for business and personal has the very stable windows 2000 (NT) which has performed flawlessly with many years. But I thought would ask if anyone has used the Vista Business or Ultimate version ($50 more).

I, too, ran Win2000 flawlessly for several years on a couple of PC's, and have been running XP mostly flawlessly for a number of years on several other PC's.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nords I'm still waiting to read something nice about Vista. My impression is that it's a lot more secure & virus-resistant, but that doesn't appear to compensate for the buggy software of all first releases.

And like Nords. I haven't heard anything too impressive about Vista. I have several friends who run it, but they are usually complaining about it. A few have gone back to XP. They say they'll wait until MS gets the bugs out of it before they'll switch back over to Vista.

As for me, my next Windows upgrade will be to either LINUX or a MAC. Billy Gates can go scratch!

[ERD50]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Goonie I haven't heard anything too impressive about Vista. I have several friends who run it, but they are usually complaining about it. .... They say they'll wait until MS gets the bugs out of it before they'll switch back over to Vista.

Geez, I can understand that for the first month or two, but wasn't Vista released to retail in January? Some of their bug fixers could have conceived and delivered babies in that time. wiki says ' Development was completed on November 8, 2006'.

I guess since it took five years to develop, we need to allow extra time to fix all those new bugs they worked so hard over.

-ERD50

[W2R]

I remember when XP first came out, the moaning and groaning about it was awful!! I didn't get it until later or maybe I would have joined in.

I have had Vista for 2 weeks, and I have found no bugs at all. I like it, it's fun (for me, anyway), and I wouldn't go back to XP for all the tea in China!

OK, now be nice, OK? Just an innocent Vista user saying what I think so far.

[Goonie]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ERD50 Geez, I can understand that for the first month or two, but wasn't Vista released to retail in January? .........'Development was completed on November 8, 2006'. I guess since it took five years to develop, we need to allow extra time to fix all those new bugs they worked so hard over. -ERD50

'Development was completed on November 8, 2006' then Billy Gates gave his nod of approval to release it in January to MILLIONS of BETA Testers world-wide the the general public.

But before it was released, the MS development team had to be sure that certain software products would NOT be able to work under the Vista platform. Products such as anti-virus programs......because they would surely find that Vista was actually not an operating system, but rather a malicious virus that was developed to irritate the H3LL out of it's users!!!

[BUM]

My Toshiba Tecra A6 EZ6311 cam with XPpro and the Vista upgrade appeared in the mail several weeks later. Twice I started the install and chickened out both times... still running XP.

[MJ]

Thanks for all the replies. I think I will stick with the XP. For me time is short. I should get the Dell laptop the 1st week of October, I will have 3 weeks to make sure the unit is ok, b4 I head for NYC just for 2 weeks then I am off to Thailand again.

MJ

[sweetana3]

Husband has been fighting with Vista which will not interface with Corporate systems they use and has issues with Ebay sales tools.