So... any advice on this 'Windows' thing?

[Untadaike]

I'm glad you got so lucky, Ren. On my comp, it randomly deletes shit, everything crashes, I get the blue screen from time to time, and I've only had it for 3 months! I don't even know why! And no, it isn't a virus. (Yay Avast! Thanks again Lotus for directing me to it!)

It bugs me that the login password isn't case-sensitive, and that it automatically updates everything on boot, without you seeing what it's doing. Arg.

[Renegade_Turner]

I'm glad you got so lucky, Ren. On my comp, it randomly deletes shit, everything crashes, I get the blue screen from time to time, and I've only had it for 3 months! I don't even know why! And no, it isn't a virus. (Yay Avast! Thanks again Lotus for directing me to it!)

I've never gotten the blue screen, had it about a year or two I think. Nothing really crashes for me, either. Some emulators have, but that's to be expected, it does that on every platform. Nothing has been randomly deleted. That's odd.

I can't imagine that would happen without the user installing something funny. It might be a bad driver, and I don't see why it couldn't be a virus. There's absolutely no reason that Vista would randomly start doing that, unless it did that out of the box, in which case you probably just got a bad copy with the computer, and you should be able to get a new one.

My thoughts exactly. I've had Vista running for multiples of that length of time and never have I found anything close to that without there being something wrong with my computer that didn't concern Vista.

However, on this subject of compatability, as Uberbeard says, I don't really have much specific input here, so you should probably listen to him instead of me and go with XP or 7, because he seems to know what he's talking about and seems fairly objective about the topic, as opposed to Sandurz and Untadaike, who just sound strangely biased.

[Fournine]

I've been running Vista for three years, and have few problems with it.

There are issues when trying to run old games - like System Shock 2 or Half-Life. Sometimes these can be resolved by adding exceptions to the DEP list.
Vista does have some annoying habits where she'll ignore the needs of the user in favor of her own interests. I've been kicked out of a game by her when she wanted to do a Windows Update, and she tends to eat up my HDD access time in order to mess around with the registry.

I'm considering switching to 7 should I decide to do a major update on my rig or grab a new HDD. The smaller footprint would be appreciated.

[Renegade_Turner]

Smaller footprint? To what end? Elaborate please, I'm uninformed.

[Fournine]

The only problem with Vista is that you'll need more system resources to run it, which is why I say you should go with 7, since it's much lighter overall.

If true, I'd appreciate the smaller footprint. Freeing up my existing resources would be a nice way to improve the running efficiency of my rig.

[Renegade_Turner]

Oh right. I'm just confused by what you meant by footprint. I thought you meant to cover your tracks when contacting other computers over the internet or something along those lines.

[Fournine]

This is what happens when I go to a college with a "green" outlook, and then go work for a company that is trying to replace petroleum - I end up using environmentalist terms to describe ideas in other areas.

[Untadaike]

This is what happens when I go to a college with a "green" outlook, and then go work for a company that is trying to replace petroleum - I end up using environmentalist terms to describe ideas in other areas.

High five.