Given that MC3 works on both Vista and XP, I was just wondering if there were any real reasons to use Vista at this point.  My experience with Vista has been less than favorable overall -- I understand that it has better security, but it seems to run a bit slower, it requires more resources, and it removed/changed some things that I like in XP (for example, I like the functionality of Windows Explorer better in XP.)

I'm therefore wondering if I should just stick with XP for a while still.  If using Vista will offer specific advantages, this would be a good time to switch (I'm doing a fully wipe and new OS install), but otherwise I feel like XP might actually be a better choice.

What do others think about this?

Thanks,

Larry

I have the same question, and even wondered whether new systems are Vista-only, or if you can XP Pro on them as well.

MC3 definitely supports both OS's.  The release announcment says:

"This release continues to be supported in a Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista Business 32 and Windows Business Vista 64."

I'm just wondering which OS would be "better" to use at this point.  If there are no specific advantages to using Vista, I think I'd probably prefer to just keep using XP.

Thanks again,

Larry

The only real compelling reason to switch to Vista is security. Although, thanks to Symantec and McAfee it's been dumbed down a notch in SP1. (Vista now allows kernal-patching at run-time)

The back-up features in Vista are superior to XP, but there are 3rd party apps that do the same. Other features in Vista are the same, can be duplicted by 3rd parties.

In my experience, using Vista Home Premium for about two months, the overall computing experience is much better. It's all the little things that add up to a better, more secure OS. And, contrary to what you may hear/read, the hardware and software compatibility is really good.

BTW - On the config you see below, I have MC 2.8.1 running on Ultimate like a champ.

TowerFan:

BTW - On the config you see below, I have MC 2.8.1 running on Ultimate like a champ.

How were you able to achieve that?  I waited for 3.0 because of the vista support, and now I'm worried it won't work because of my graphics card (which is a GeForce 8400M GT).

TowerFan:

In my experience, using Vista Home Premium for about two months, the overall computing experience is much better. It's all the little things that add up to a better, more secure OS. And, contrary to what you may hear/read, the hardware and software compatibility is really good.

Thanks for the feedback.

This is obviously a very subjective issue, but my general opinion with using Vista is just the opposite -- after about of year of using Vista, my "overall computing experience" is much better with XP.  To me, most of those "little things" that Vista changed from XP were actually BETTER in XP.  Somehow the general design decisions that Vista uses don't agree with me, and I constantly find myself pleasantly relieved when I return to my XP system.

On top of this, I'm wondering if Avid will actually run a bit better on XP.  Most applications seem to have higher minimum hardware requirements for Vista than for XP, so I'm wondering if this will apply to MC3 as well.

Thanks again,

Larry

I've been using Vista on my (non-edit) laptop for over a year and love it. Hate going back to XP.

The question in my mind is not which one is a better OS (in a general sense, I find Vista far superior), but which one is better for an edit workstation that is not for general use.

I'll be trying Vista 64 at some point soon. There is a definite technical advantage - Vista 64 will make far better use of my 4Gb of RAM than XP currently allows (hell, Avid will actually have access to that 4th gigabyte). How this will affect Avid's performance compared to the less RAM capable but leaner (if not as nice to use) XP remains to be seen.

TommyAF:

 

How were you able to achieve that?  I waited for 3.0 because of the vista support, and now I'm worried it won't work because of my graphics card (which is a GeForce 8400M GT).

Don't know about your card but all I did to get MC to work was to try it. I probably should have qualified this by saying I'm a prosumer and I have a basic setup compared to the bigger fish here. And I don't depend on it for income!

There are two problems I have with it though. Avid doesn't understand the power options. No matter what I do in the Power Options I always get the warning about changing to the Always On option. The other is I had to replace my sound card. Avid didn't like my 16bit Soundblaster. No suprise there though. I replaced it with a Soundblaster Live 24bit. Works great. EDIT: Oh yeah, and I used the most current, non-beta, nVidia drivers as well.

lalittle:

This is obviously a very subjective issue, but my general opinion with using Vista is just the opposite...

 Definitely subjective. All I can say is I have relatively new and fast hardware, I use mainstream 3rd party apps, and all of my add-on hardware is pretty new. I did try to install Vista on my circa 1999 laptop. It was a smokin' machine at the time, but Vista ran like a total slug. So I have experienced both ends of the spectrum. My advice to friends and family who ask is to wait until they need a new machine, Don't upgrade your old one.

BTW - I have Home Premium on a media center computer and that's what I'm basing my overall experience on. I created a dual-boot to test Avid on Ultimate on my main XP production computer.