So, what is the answer? Is Vista good or not? Lot of headache & upgrading comes with Microsoft products! Why can they not make things easier for us users? We so loyal & using it for years, are they taking us for granted?
The primary benefits of Vista are (1) "eye candy graphics".. which require significant hardware upgrade to exploit, and (2) Directx10 for gaming. Microsoft has the same philosophy as the US Gummint. That is, "we want the money from the people"... no further justification for any of their actions is necessary. And the way they tried to jam it down consumers' throats is despicable! Simple Solution... Unless you want Directx10, forget you ever heard of Vista. XP will be good for at least 6 more years (support).
Just a reminder... today is the last day. Looks like, however, you could still get certain models with "Vista Business w/XP Pro installed"... for $149 extra. Vista Business option is $99, and you can get a copy of XP Pro from Dell for free under Vista's "downgrade rights". Dell is charging $50 to do the XP Pro installation instead of Vista... the catch, however, is that to get warranty service on the operating system, you'd have to get the $149 deal. Dell offers warranty support on the hardware and software which was "as shipped". So if you save the $50 and install XP Pro yourself, Dell won't help you (supposedly) with troubleshooting system problems. Nifty little catch, eh?
As soon as Dell figures out that their "make them buy now" sales tactic didn't work they will extend the date. Just watch. They are just trying to get sales up for the quarter.