Dell reintroduces XP on home PC selection

Author: Joe Martin
Published: 24th April 2007
Comments (57) Stumble
Dell received over 11,000 votes calling for XP to represented in their home pc and notebook range

Dell received over 11,000 votes calling for XP to represented in their home pc and notebook range

It doesn't look like it's been going well for Windows Vista so far, not only has it suffered from poor sales in China, but it now appears that XP is the preferred OS for the majority of Dell PC customers.

At the end of March there were only two home PC models sold by Dell that still came with Windows XP pre-installed, the vast majority of home PCs and notebooks having made the switch to Windows Vista.

However Dell's Ideastorm website, designed as a method for customers to give feedback, was soon flooded with over 11,000 votes for Dell to once more offer XP on home PCs and notebooks.

The company promptly responded, announcing on their website that;

""We heard you loud and clear on bringing the Windows XP option back to our Dell consumer PC offerings,"

Dell now offers a selection of six home PCs that come with XP Home or Professional pre-installed and the move has been widely praised by users who prefer Windows XP.

Previously over 100,000 people voted for desktop and notebook PCs with Linux OS preinstalled and Dell was quick to respond in a similar manner.

Given the choice, would you choose Windows XP, Windows Vista or Linux for your Dell? Cast your vote in our Forum.
Quote DougEdey 24th April 2007, 11:40
Don't you just love people that hate change for the better?
Quote wafflesomd 24th April 2007, 11:55
What was the point in getting rid of it in the first place.
Quote DougEdey 24th April 2007, 12:03
XP is being discontinued and Vista (IMO) is a letter better at memory maintenance and overall works better.
Quote Hamish 24th April 2007, 12:11
i would choose vista, i can always install my current copy of XP if i really want to :p

having played with vista in a VM for a bit the only thing that i really really dislike is the new explorer
i think its horrible and a far worse file manager than the old XP explorer

i dislike what they've done with some of the configuration options too (notably network connection config and display properties) but i can live with those being different as i dont have to change them very often
explorer is something i use all the time
Quote geek1017 24th April 2007, 12:12
Maybe Vista is great on the high end gaming PCs, but isn't it an absolute hog on less well spec'd systems?

I guess this goes back to the first days of XP.
I was/am in the boat that refused to switch from Win2k. I only use XP on this laptop because it came with it. And yes, the first thing I did was shut off all the bells and whistles and switch back to classic everything.
Give me win 3.1 that actually works. (:Ug: change is bad. :grunt:)

Not having tried Vista, I guess my opinion doesn't mean anything.
Plus the fact that I'll probably never buy a Dell.
That being said, I don't need DX10 for anything, so I'd sooner switch to Linux than Vista.
Quote mikeuk2004 24th April 2007, 12:36
On a a pre built machine from dell then yes to vista. But not for my home diy job as my components are not compatible.

I think Vista is too power hungry to work well on a laptop.
Quote Meanmotion 24th April 2007, 12:43
Seems strange, didn't know the Dell buyin public was savy enough to realise they can't play their games on Vista. Cause, let's be honest, what else does XP do better than Vista?! Still, choice is a good thing.
Quote JADS 24th April 2007, 12:54
Quote:
Originally Posted by DougEdey
Don't you just love people that hate change for the better?

I fail to see how Vista is a change for the better? Microsoft seem to have spent most of the development time building in restrictive DRM, tacking on useless user security features (UAC anyone?) and writing a slug of a GUI.
Quote Buzzons 24th April 2007, 13:14
[quote]I fail to see how Vista is a change for the better? Microsoft seem to have spent most of the development time building in restrictive DRM, tacking on useless user security features (UAC anyone?) and writing a slug of a GUI.[/quote

building in "restrictive" drm? that was hollywoods fault, and , look at iTunes and iPods.. DRM anyone?!?!?

UAC is not useless, how is it useless? It gets abused by companies that can not right GOOD software, that is NOT MS's fault. I assume you run linux? if not, there is a command called sudo (that lets you run an app as root) -- if every app in linux that you downloaded needed you to do that, would sudo be a useless command?

The GUI is fine? You need a good gfx card, just like you do for beril (sp?) etc on linux.. you needed a "good" gfx card for the XP gui as well when it came out...

It is all change, I do not see what is wrong with it...
Quote DougEdey 24th April 2007, 13:16
Quote:
Originally Posted by JADS
I fail to see how Vista is a change for the better? Microsoft seem to have spent most of the development time building in restrictive DRM, tacking on useless user security features (UAC anyone?) and writing a slug of a GUI.

What Buzzons said.

But also, the memory management has been a major gripe of mine for ages. I want my RAM to be used not ignored.
Quote quack 24th April 2007, 13:58
Heed Mark Russinovich's words! ;)
Quote DougEdey 24th April 2007, 14:23
Of course UAC isn't foolproof, and I guarantee it will have a huge patch in SP1. But It's better then nothing and to be frank, everything has holes in it, Mac and *nix but Windows' are the most exploited because thats where the users are that can be robbed.
Quote sadffffff 24th April 2007, 14:26
Quote:
Originally Posted by DougEdey
Don't you just love people that hate change for the better?
Quote fargo 24th April 2007, 15:13
Quote:
Originally Posted by Meanmotion
Seems strange, didn't know the Dell buyin public was savy enough to realise they can't play their games on Vista. Cause, let's be honest, what else does XP do better than Vista?! Still, choice is a good thing.

sounds like your getting a little cockney over there. us
dell users don't have to play a game on vista to know
its not working so well that info is all over the web that is if us dell users can read!!
Quote DougEdey 24th April 2007, 15:16
sad6f: was that a QFT or sarcastic quote?
Quote Bluephoenix 24th April 2007, 15:30
I wouldn't buy a dell in the first place anyway.

they re-wire their power supplies and connectors, making upgrades a chore, and often lock out the out of many crucial BIOS settings. (on my older dimension I can't even set the AGP ap to 4x even though the board is capable of it)

they also rewire the motherboard headers. :(
Quote Phil Rhodes 24th April 2007, 16:06
The problem is that they've now developed windows to such an extent that additional features really feel like frippery. As far as I'm aware the only real big change in Vista is DX10, and I don't really play games even if anyone was insane enough to release a DX10-only game, which they won't for a while yet.

There are a raft of known driver problems with Vista and it is even more of a resource hog than XP, which was even more of a resource hog than 2000. I rely on Windows PCs to make a living, so really, I have absolutely no reason to go elsewhere until something like After Effects requires it (I only went to XP because Adobe Premiere insisted I did).

So frankly, why the hell would I want to go anywhere near Vista? What would the advantage be? Lots of instability and bug issues.

Screw this noise, I'll wait for SP1.
Quote DougEdey 24th April 2007, 16:08
The thing is that Dell has one hell of a lot of clout and if Dell say they won't be buying stuff from manufacturers that don't support Vista then drivers will soon be changed over.

At the moment no-one wants to spend the resource to invest in vista because there isn't market penetration. Dell get most PCs to end users and businesses!
Quote steveo_mcg 24th April 2007, 16:18
I would probably get vista installed for the licence then retro install XP till SP1. I like the idea of a new shiny windows but quite frankly don't trust MS to get it right first (ish) time. Having said that i would probably go with Linux on a laptop any way since its likely to be a non gaming box any way.
Quote tech3312 24th April 2007, 17:21
In my opinion i think microsoft should leave Xp operating system cause what happend if they have a part that is not Vista capable? and they need window's Xp how are they going to get windows Xp. Next amny games are not Vista capapble and a Small gaming fan there are certain games that is not vista capable for example BF2 i have a vista computer and it is not running i was lucky that Diablo II *yea I play it* I was able to run it on vista. if it's discontinued they should leave Vista and Xp on many people like Xp cause
Quote Malfoleo 24th April 2007, 17:21
Wow, one would at least hope that people would try something, consider it, and then figure out some argument to rant and rave about. Rather than just picking out comments from other places, taking them out of context, and going all "change is for the worse!" on us.

I have vista on both my main room system, and my laptop. Not run into a single problem yet (no firewall/AV installed either). Rather I've had nothing but good times with it. Not even a single BSOD, crash, or freeze, despite having both computers on almost 24/7. Hell, my lappy even gets better battery life!

So here is one very strange idea that you lot should attempt: USE THE OS BEFORE BASHING IT.

Thanks.
Quote sadffffff 24th April 2007, 17:22
Quote:
Originally Posted by DougEdey
sad6f: was that a QFT or sarcastic quote?
a QFT. would have said that but last time i checked "QFT" was censored :p

edit: wait maybe for the win -> "***" was censored
edit2: yep.
Quote DougEdey 24th April 2007, 17:22
Quote:
Originally Posted by Malfoleo
Wow, one would at least hope that people would try something, consider it, and then figure out some argument to rant and rave about. Rather than just picking out comments from other places, taking them out of context, and going all "change is for the worse!" on us.

I have vista on both my main room system, and my laptop. Not run into a single problem yet (no firewall/AV installed either). Rather I've had nothing but good times with it. Not even a single BSOD, crash, or freeze, despite having both computers on almost 24/7. Hell, my lappy even gets better battery life!

So here is one very strange idea that you lot should attempt: USE THE OS BEFORE BASHING IT.

Thanks.

QFT!

The only time I got BSODs on Vista was when I was overclocking due to the enhanced memory management proving my RAM wasn't up to the job. Runs faster though then when it was overclocked on XP.
Quote Kipman725 24th April 2007, 17:54
love fluxbox best gui ever, shame that my silyl foxconn mobo dosen't play nice with linux I will have to sit down for a long hard day of hacking and get something installed though as xp is driving me beserk with it's slowness particularly in file management. Go try fluxbox it kills gnome KDE, xp and especialy vista on the speed front :D
Quote Kipman725 24th April 2007, 17:57
Quote:
Originally Posted by Malfoleo

So here is one very strange idea that you lot should attempt: USE THE OS BEFORE BASHING IT.

Thanks.

I did at a lan on someone else's pc, it was the worst os I have ever used ever, worse even than the faux 32bit crashathon that was windows 95a, at least windows 95 didn't display 3 warnings per operation and ran much faster on hardware about 50x slower.
Quote tech3312 24th April 2007, 18:07
Quote:
Originally Posted by Malfoleo
Wow, one would at least hope that people would try something, consider it, and then figure out some argument to rant and rave about. Rather than just picking out comments from other places, taking them out of context, and going all "change is for the worse!" on us.

I have vista on both my main room system, and my laptop. Not run into a single problem yet (no firewall/AV installed either). Rather I've had nothing but good times with it. Not even a single BSOD, crash, or freeze, despite having both computers on almost 24/7. Hell, my lappy even gets better battery life!

So here is one very strange idea that you lot should attempt: USE THE OS BEFORE BASHING IT.

Thanks.

Yes it is going to change for the worse and i got a couple of BSOD before i was able to fix it the only problem i have was when i run window's media center and when i quit it it alway's give me the BSOD. and last not all games is Vista capable they should push all games to be Vista capable that's the problem when they going to intorduce a new technology and going to discontinue the technology with out giving time for us to readjust and many people perfer XP, Next there going to spend like 160.00 *more popular* just to update the O.S So they won't be "behind technology" :'( :'(
Quote DougEdey 24th April 2007, 18:55
99% of BSODs in Vista is caused by faulty RAM. That's what myself and some friends worked it down to
Quote Bluephoenix 24th April 2007, 19:07
Quote:
Originally Posted by DougEdey
99% of BSODs in Vista is caused by faulty RAM. That's what myself and some friends worked it down to
exactly right.

I have already built about 15 vista systems for other people on campus, and when memory is bad, it BSODs with a mem error..

when I use XP on the same system, it runs fine until that mem sector is utilized.

this actually points to a better OS, because it recognizes faults before they become lost work.
Quote Stompy 24th April 2007, 20:21
Vista runs like a dream on my laptop, it has never ever crashed.
Quote Ramble 24th April 2007, 21:15
It's such a pity as well. Vista is actually a really good OS, and more importantly to me, represents a new thing for MS, they actually care about the security.

Vista has been out for 6 months now and if you include the RC's then it's been about 9-10 months. there are still no really good drivers for nvidia (And I won't even bother mentioning the POS that creative puts out). Any app compatibility issues still haven't been patched up.
That's pretty disgusting to me, and as a result, I will never buy another Creative sound card (The hardware isn't bad though).
Quote Brooxy 24th April 2007, 21:20
Vista is good, the only problem I have with it, is the way they've butchered the sound stack for surround systems, but I think I've worked out a solution for that now.

Only driver I've had issues with were earlier nVidia drivers, and belkin drivers, so I used a alternative wifi driver, and stuck with WDDM till the dirver i'm using now came out, and now life is good..
Quote Bluephoenix 24th April 2007, 21:41
I have only one thing to mourn, and that is the loss of directsound (what on earth possessed them to remove it!!)

@ramble - the above is why creative is having such a problem with it, the Alchemy project as made some success in re-activating hardware acceleration but really the entire architecture of soundcards has to be rethought.
Quote BioSniper 24th April 2007, 21:43
I've found Vista to be nothing more than a total pain in the behind, but then I found the same thing with XP until they patched it to SP1, lesson learnt this time and as such I'll wait before using the incompatibility fest that is vista.
Quote wafflesomd 24th April 2007, 21:43
Vista = ram hog.
Quote Bluephoenix 24th April 2007, 21:45
Quote:
Originally Posted by wafflesomd
Vista = ram hog.

keep a very close eye on how much RAM the OS uses depending on applications, when in an idle (no programs running) it will still read that the mem is being used by the OS (good) but when you activate a program the OS will release most of the mem it's using to that application. Remember, you bought the RAM for a reason.
Quote DougEdey 24th April 2007, 22:09
Quote:
Originally Posted by wafflesomd
Vista = ram hog.

RTFT
Quote wafflesomd 24th April 2007, 22:34
Quote:
Originally Posted by DougEdey
RTFT


Sorry it has to do with the thread?
Quote DougEdey 24th April 2007, 22:45
Yes, it's explained in this thread any many others that RAM usage is a good thing.

After all you don't buy a double bed and sleep in one corner in the foetal position.
Quote tech3312 24th April 2007, 22:58
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bluephoenix
exactly right.

I have already built about 15 vista systems for other people on campus, and when memory is bad, it BSODs with a mem error..

when I use XP on the same system, it runs fine until that mem sector is utilized.

this actually points to a better OS, because it recognizes faults before they become lost work.
doesn't happen to me
Quote wafflesomd 24th April 2007, 22:59
Quote:
Originally Posted by DougEdey
Yes, it's explained in this thread any many others that RAM usage is a good thing.

After all you don't buy a double bed and sleep in one corner in the foetal position.

And when you have 2 gigs of ram, games shouldn't run like crap.
Quote DougEdey 24th April 2007, 23:03
Quote:
Originally Posted by wafflesomd
And when you have 2 gigs of ram, games shouldn't run like crap.

That's non-optimized drivers from manufacturers. Microsoft has given plenty of time for manufacturers to sort their arses out.
Quote Bluephoenix 24th April 2007, 23:46
Quote:
Originally Posted by tech3312
doesn't happen to me

I said when mem is faulty, unless you're openly admitting you have mem with a faulty sector, which destroys any argument against vista you might make.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wafflesomd
And when you have 2 gigs of ram, games shouldn't run like crap.
it also depends highly on the other components in your system, and the speeds of the bus system. by your logic, sticking 2GB of RAM in a Dell Dimension 4300 with a Geforce 2 MX should make it play BF2. (the 4300's max agp ap is 4x)
I have a 4300 I got a while ago, and it will not play BF2 in any way, shape or form. BFV works, but forget about BF2 and that is with 2 GB RAM, 7600GS, and P4 Willamette 1.6

[as a side note, its interesting the leading response in the poll is "wouldn't buy a dell"]
Quote wafflesomd 25th April 2007, 02:29
Opty 148
DFI-Ultra-D
7600gt.
2gigs OCZ

I think my pc runs bf2 just fine.... At elast in XP.
Quote Bluephoenix 25th April 2007, 03:05
as doug said, drivers play a huge role in the efficiency of hardware, so once better drivers come out it should be much better.
Quote leexgx 25th April 2007, 03:07
{Wouldn't buy a Dell} as an Vote option

it should of been {Other OEM PC with vista / Other OEM PC with XP}
as other to options as saying {Wouldn't buy a Dell} as an vote (alot in here would probly not buy an dell any way)
Quote DougEdey 25th April 2007, 05:51
The Dell thing is because the News Article is about Dell. I personally have found that Dell make some of the best £/flop laptops available at present.
Quote Darv 25th April 2007, 09:47
I think people are missing the fact that Dell is a huge supplier for businesses. If they have 2000 XP machines that all work exactly the same and then they need an extra 10 machines they will probably want XP on them as well.

However good Vista is, it needs the hardware and software support before a business will adpot it. For one thing in my office we use AutoCAD 2006, which won't even run on Vista! Regardless of who's fault the lack of support is, if there are still compatability problems then it doesn't make sense to upgrade until it's sorted out.
Quote naokaji 25th April 2007, 13:27
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bluephoenix

[as a side note, its interesting the leading response in the poll is "wouldn't buy a dell"]

Because noone who knows anything about computers will ever buy the crap they try to sell (no, not only true for dell)....

proprietary connectors and form factors to prevent upgrading....
unbalanced components...
rip off prices....
special no overclocking option bios versions....
Quote Bluephoenix 25th April 2007, 16:32
exactly what I was pointing out, and QFT (from experience)
Quote Sonny 25th April 2007, 20:16
I took the plunge into Vista around late February, and at the time thought what the heck, might as well get the "full" value from that Athlon 64 and installed the 64 bit edition. I soon discovered the utter lack of any drivers for my sli video cards and sound card. So my first experience was less than satisfactory.Now that drivers are available I recently reinstalled the OS so that on my main machine I have both XP and 64 bit Vista installed. I'm finding that more and more often I choose Vista instead of XP on boot up, suffice to say it is growing on me. As far as Dell computers go, my mother and sister(who are both noobs, sorry mom) recently purchased machines from them and both absolutely love Vista, especially the windows-tab flip thing. Guess its who you ask. B)
Quote Tyr 25th April 2007, 20:19
I'd love to get a cheapish notebook for office, programming and photographic work dual booting XP and Linux, or better yet Boot Linux and run XP as a VM.
Quote speedfreek 25th April 2007, 22:17
I used vista for a whole day and it dosent look like I want to keep it. I will give it a decent length of time before I switch to something else but its too hungry for power.
Quote Bluephoenix 26th April 2007, 03:29
Quote:
Originally Posted by speedfreek
I used vista for a whole day and it dosent look like I want to keep it. I will give it a decent length of time before I switch to something else but its too hungry for power.

a common complaint, and for the moment, I agree. this can be likewise attributed to poorly written drivers not making efficient use of the hardware, but that will get better with time.
Quote Cthippo 27th April 2007, 19:30
I'd happily buy a lappy preloaded with linux, but otherwise I have no use for Dells. I applaud Dell for offering linux pre-installed, but really I hope this means that HP or others will offer it as well because I would rather buy from them.
Quote cpu121 28th April 2007, 21:41
Personally if I bought myself a new computer I'd get Vista. My current machine (C2D E6600, x1950Pro, 2GB) with Vista Ultimate 64 bit runs BF2 (albiet run as administrator in compatibility mode), Call of Duty 2 and Armed Assault flawlessly. I use the standard user accounts with UAC running all the time. Maybe it's just because I'm used to inputting passwords to log on, access sites and emails, but it doesn't bother me at all - I only get pop ups when administrator access is required.

However, I recently purchased 4 desktops from Dell Small Business for a new charity (40% discount. ) and chose Windows XP Professional over Vista Business as the OS. I believe Vista is too new and there isn't sufficient support. In a business environment (and as an inexperienced server admin) I'd much rather know that someone else has probably come across this problem and posted a solution, than to come across a new problem and try to solve it myself.
Quote Xir 26th July 2007, 11:40
Two friends of mine bought Vista laptops...both don't work right.
One Sony, one Acer, I'll talk about the sony here.

Hardware: Drivers are a problem.
Analogue modem? doesn't work (yes there are people living in no broadband area's) ;-)
Soundcard? Well it does stereo (and yes it should be more)
7-1 Cardreader, well some cards aktually work! Most don't.

Software: No Updates
Burn-Program? (1 year old) doesn't work, no update, why don't you buy a new one?
Paint program? (1 year old) doesn't work, no update, why don't you buy a new one?
Photoeditor (Expensive! 1 year old) doesn't work, no update, why don't you buy a new one?

So he tries to go Dualboot...on new Lappies you get no installcd, not even a recoverydisk, it's all on a special partition somewhere on the harddrive. As soon as he puts on a Bootchanger, the entire thing reinstalls itself.
Switching to XP means losing a legal copy of Vista, because it keeps reinstalling itself until beeing deleted completely, and you get no copy on a disk.

Updates are a pain in the @rse (although this is mainly due to the analogue modem not working right) :)

So for me? I'll wait for the SP1, until then XP is something that has matured to a point that it will just...errr.. work?

Xir
Quote specofdust 26th July 2007, 12:13
Well personally were I buying a Dell system I'd take XP. I just know and trust it more, and see no reason to "upgrade" to vista.
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