Windows 7 better than XP or Vista?

Martin L wrote on 9/23/2009, 1:45 AM

Hi!
What is the best OS to use for video editing? I Currently run Vista and hear from others that XP is much better.
Now Windows 7 has arrived. Is that an even better alternative for a new machine, or should I stick with Vista or XP? Will XP be outdated soon?
(Microsoft support for XP will be discontinued I understand)
What is the best choice for let's say 5 years to come?
Martin, Sweden

Comments

ushere wrote on 9/23/2009, 3:19 AM

my vote is for win 7 / 64bit

TheHappyFriar wrote on 9/23/2009, 5:08 AM

I doubt XP will be fully dropped. ~2/3 years ago when I went from 2k to XP they were still releasing security updates to 2k. I'm sure that will happen to XP as long as it's widely available.

Christian de Godzinsky wrote on 9/23/2009, 7:10 AM

Hi,

1 ) If you HAVE XP - keep it as long you're happy (don't fix what ain't broken).
2) DON'T touch Vista at this time, that is - if you are not already infected.
3) If you build new - go for WIN7. That is probably the bests windows (yet). And keeps you from grief when XP (and Vista) support some day ceases. XP is already quite close...

Just my 5 cents,

Christian

Woodenmike wrote on 9/23/2009, 7:15 AM

Here is a link to someone who posted a series of head to head tests on the 3 systems...interesting results.
http://www.testfreaks.com/blog/information/windows-xp-vs-vista-vs-7/

Former user wrote on 9/23/2009, 8:23 AM

Despite what the rest of the world and Microsoft try to entice you with - good ole XP SP3 still rules for both audio and video production.

I spent the last year testing Vista 64 and the last two months working with the final version of Windows 7 and to tell the truth - my return to XP after all that testing proved to be a much more productive.

As much as MS would like you to move to 7 - it's basically a money grab for them. Don't get me wrong tho - 7 is very good...much better than Vista was out of the box - but XP still has the speed, compatibility and overall stability experience that 7 cannot touch right now.

YMMV.

Cheers!

VP

othersteve wrote on 9/23/2009, 2:38 PM

It is absolutely worth noting that benchmarks fail to report the true real-world speed increases in Windows 7 moreso than any other OS in the past, however. Be very careful about how you interpret them! Here's one major reason why:

A major revision of the way GDI handling occurs implemented in Windows 7 was introduced to correct a problem inherent (and very common) in XP and Vista where multiple processes were hung, waiting on a single other process to complete its interfacing with the graphics hardware. It was an enormous bottleneck that never showed its true colors in benchmarking until real-world performance was measured through detailed data collection from beta testers of the OS. Now, parallel GDI processing all but prevents this from occuring.

Also, applications start noticeably faster in 7, and memory handling is superb. The OS is genuinely quicker than Vista and XP, no doubt about it. Rendering, on the other hand, might not be quite as speedy, but I sure as heck can't tell.

I just wanted to throw that out there. After moving to Win7 Ultimate 64-bit RTM, I will never go back for any reason at all. :)

Steve

lynn1102 wrote on 9/23/2009, 4:28 PM

XP Pro is still getting updates. From MS website, it looks like extended support till 8/4/2014.

Lynn

Philip Toews wrote on 10/5/2009, 7:13 AM

othersteve

Do you know if Vegas Pro 9 is multi-processor aware? I've got a Core2 Quad that I am about to install Windows 7 x64 on and I'm hoping Vegas can take advantage of all the parallel processing.

Rv6tc wrote on 10/5/2009, 9:16 AM

I love Win 7 so far and the performance has been great. But realize that when you switch over to Win 7 if you have any problems with Vegas, you cannot open a ticket with Sony. All they will do is send you a note saying that your OS is not supported. So you're on your own.

Jeff9329 wrote on 10/5/2009, 11:35 AM

Martin:

You asked what the best choice is for 5 years to come. Well, over the next 5 years MS, Google and others may have even more OSes out there. Who knows.

Im with the if it aint broke dont fix it crowd, and XP is working well for me.

If you are going to get a new box built by one of the OEMs, just wait until Oct 17th and you will have your choice of 7 in 5 flavors.

Im getting ready to buy a new HP quad core box for the kids when 7 is available. I read all the comparisons between Vista & 7 and there are lots of differences in the included features/eye candy. They stripped almost every Vista application out of 7, even down to the mail (Windows mail) application. It's still mega bloated compared to XP though, but I wanted those bloated apps for the kids, especially the photo manager.