My gaming computer doesn't lag. Those computers must've had bloatware or users who like to cram stuff into it and not maintain it
. Gaming computer the last time I gave it a reboot started Vista up in 20 seconds, and had everything including all of my gaming programs, IM, Firefox, and Aero, etc loaded within a minute, then the HDs were idle.
Otherwise, I'd have to say Vista. XP had the same problems that Vista used to have when it first came out, though because Vista is using the NT kernel still, it's still has the stability of Windows XP and Windows 2000, but there's a twist to it; closed system shell. Really, it's very hard to compare XP and Vista and which is better because of this closed shell. Honestly, many companies like McAfee and Symantec wanted Microsoft to open up the shell for their programs. They may have whined a bit, but they eventually had to recode their software since Microsoft wouldn't budge.
Believe me when I say this, I get calls all the time from around town and even sometimes out of state from family relatives and their friends asking me about Vista, and telling me all of the rumors they've heard. Mostly, it's about how Vista is slow and unstable, and uses too much RAM, and I always tell them that if they don't want Vista using so much RAM, I told them to simply shut Aero off, SuperFetch off, and the other new features in Vista and that'll easilly make it run with a very small amount of RAM. Also, I send them a picture of my uptime gadget from a C++ program someone created for me of my computer, which has recorded that my computer has been up and running for MONTHS without a reboot except for those that are for updates. Many times after them telling me this, we'll both sit in front of a computer, and I'll follow along where they are going to look for a new computer. Many times, they look at a Dell, and they ask me what system I recommend, and they tell me what they use the computer for and what they want to pay, and I'll either see if I can get them some good stuff either from Dell or another company, or if I can build them a faster one and ship it to them.
So honestly, I've only been with Vista for 6 months, but being that I have loads of experience with fixing and building machines and software, I can honestly tell you that Vista is better in the long run than XP. XP was just as bad (I has gotten XP the month it came out, you don't wanna know how many blue screens of deaths I had before I found out what was the problem lol).
Also, don't forget, most people these days can't use DX10 because DX10 cards from nVidia and ATi only started coming out around a year or so ago and they are pretty expensive for most people. I have two of these cards from nVidia, and they are awesome, but also don't forget that game makers that make games with DX10 still run perfectly fine with DX9 technologies. They're going to have to do this and will be doing this for a while until more and more people get better PCs. Take Crysis for example, Crysis locks out the Very High setting on non-DX10 systems, so it can adapt to it just fine.
I like all of the BS people say. Makes for a nice debate and a way to raise my telephone bill by $20
. The internet? Pssh, burn up bandwidth
