PC Vs Mac. Photo Courtesy Engadget.com image:36003:0::0

It took about five years for Vista to come out after Microsoft’s previous release of XP, and so far, the only users adopters seem to be customers who have it pre-installed when the buy a new PC or laptop. Many XP users are reportedly reluctant to upgrade to Vista; they would rather have XP which seems to be faster than Vista according to PC World.

PC World says Vista has some great features such as integrated security and parental controls, a nice interface, searching and wireless networking are much faster and easier to use than XP. But file management and its communication systems are not up to par in Vista. Reports indicate Vista has hefty hardware requirements such as 1GB (minimum) of RAM. They also say, despite all the speed upgrades, it's still lower than XP.

Some PC users are also sticking with XP because a lot of the software they are running is not compatible with Vista. (I heard some laptops and PC manufacturers provide a Windows XP downgrade software disc for new computer buyers who want to avoid Vista).

The prices of upgrade is ridiculous, and there are too many Vista versions available that confuse buyers. On the other hand, Apple provides upgrades for a measly $129 that are compatible on all Macs.

Because of all these issues, many users are clinging to XP "like shipwrecked sailors to a life raft" and some go as far as switching back to XP.

Despite its faults, Vista will still be the top-selling piece of software because PC computers dominate the industry, and most manufacturers pre-istall the OS on new units. PC World says the difficulty in finding a computer that doesn't come with Vista is one of the reasons the new OS is so disappointing.

CNet also had the same opinion about Vista in this article.

Do you feel the same about Vista?