Resolved Choosing between Win 8 or Win 7

With both operating systems costing about the same, and 8.2 expected to be released next year, please help me choose by sharing your reasons I should upgrade my Win XP to Win 7 or Win 8. Also, please share your reasons for installing 64 bit or continuing to use 32 bit, as I have always done.

According to Belarc Advisor, here is what I have:
3.20 gigahertz AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition
256 kilobyte primary memory cache
512 kilobyte tertiary memory cache
64-bit ready
Multi-core (4 total)
Not hyper-threaded

Board: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. GA-790XTA-UD4
Bus Clock: 200 megahertz
BIOS: Award Software International, Inc. F2 12/03/2009

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

I'm more interested in safety and stability and reliability than being on the cutting edge of fashion or technology. I'm a strong believer of "if it works, don't fix it." Maybe that is the reason I'm still using XP. I only have 3.25GB of RAM (the max limit for my mobo), so I guess I should stick with 32 bit.

Any other opinions out there?

 

Personally, I plan to wait a while and see what happens. The present hostility towards XP reminds me of the attitude towards 98 in it's last days. I did not make the transition to XP until 2008. I spend a lot of time on the phone listening to my friends wail about their malware problems with Win 7, and repair W7 PC's that are infested. The talk of XP vulnerability is just spreading FUD. No flavor of Windows is secure.

Watching my children and grandchildren, it's obvious that their smartphones and tablets do everything they require. For gaming, they've all bought consoles. Add it all up, and they've spent more money than a good general purpose PC would cost, but a desktop is now grandpa's technology, something they have to use at work, but not something they lust after.

On Slashdot Jan 11: "The PC market continues to be in free fall, having now seen its seventh consecutive quarter of declining worldwide shipments. It's worth emphasizing that this past quarter resulted in the worst decline in PC market history. "

Win8 is a clunky mess of compromises, neither racehorse nor mule. Paul Thurrot quoted Jan 12 in Business Insider: "Threshold (Windows 9) recasts Windows 8 as the next Vista...there's no way to sugarcoat this. Windows 8 has set back Microsoft, and Windows, by years, and possibly for good. "

I converted one XP to lubuntu and like it a lot. If XP becomes untenable, I'm considering using linux to access the web, and do everything else on older machines. I'd rather stick with Windows, but can't bring myself to accept any of the choices available right now. In retrospect, passing on both Vista and Windows 7 saved me a lot of grief and money.

 

Never had any problems with Win 7 ultimate. I Have a Desktop PC from 2000 to the present. In November 2009 I wiped the HDD with Win XP Pro installed and then installed Win 7 ultimate. It' now 2014 and its still running great.

 

Windows 7 64-bit (The GA-790XTA-UD4 supports up to 16 GB of RAM).

Windows 8 was really designed to be used with touch-screen devices.

 

Thank you for pointing this out to me. I guess I read the 4GB max for 32 bit and overlooked the possibility of using more. I installed two 2GB dual channel modules. If I go to 64 bit and can install four 4GB modules, which ones would you recommend? I guess I'm leaning toward Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit, but I won't make the decision till at least this weekend.

 

Crucial's guaranteed-compatible RAM for your Giga-Byte GA-790XTA-UD4

 

Thank you for the RAM info. I hope this will speed things up, though I'll be going from CL7-8-7-24 to CL9-9-9-24. I guess the added GB will make up for the difference. Crucial wanted $212 + tax, so I bought it from B&H Photo for $169.95 (no tax or shipping costs). It was only $159.60CDN at Amazon in Canada, but they can't ship electronics out of their country. I'm looking forward to seeing the change.

I'm still leaning toward Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit, unless someone gives me a reason for choosing something else.

 

You're welcome. Good to hear you found it cheaper.

Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit is an excellent choice. Using it here.

 

I noticed the cheaper (by one penny) offer was no longer available, so I bought a Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 32/64 bit - Full Version, new in box for $90.01 on Ebay. There are still 2 left (at $90.02), if anyone is interested.

 

Don't buy the $90 Ultimate from Ebay. Ebay is pulling all his listings.

 

But now XP is broke. It was developed over 13 years ago, before the explosion in broadband to the home and before the explosion in malware and badguys on the Internet.

The problem is, after April 8th, XP will NOT stop working, but it will (shortly after that date) stop protecting you and your data. Major anti-malware program makers have already announced they will stop support when, or shortly after Microsoft does. And it is already noted in security circles that badguys have a cache of unreported vulnerabilities, waiting until after April 8th to release malicious code to exploit those vulnerabilities. Don't wait until then.

If buying/building a new computer, it is a no brainer - get Windows 8. Windows 7 is already pushing 4 1/2 years old. W8 is faster and more secure.

If the complaint with Windows 8 is primarily Windows 8 new "metro" style Start Page and UI, then I recommend you check out Start8. Start8 brings back the familiar W7 Start Orb and Start Menu and lets you boot directly to the Windows Desktop instead of the new Windows 8 "Start Screen" that so many people don't like. Then W8 works and looks and feels almost exactly like the familiar W7. It cost $5 (after a 30-day trial period), but is well worth it, IMO.

See also Classic Shell. This product also brings back the Start Orb and menu, is free and very popular too. However, it has extra features and goodies that many (including myself) feel is unneeded "fluff ". And perhaps because it is a free product it does not "appear" to have the "polished feel" of Start8. That said, it works very well.

See Start8 vs. Classic Shell for a good comparison.

See also Pokki, another popular start screen alternative.

 

I agree. When Microsoft stops writing patches for XP in April, it'll be open season for hackers.

Using good third-party apps and tools such as fully current browsers and anti-malware software will help keep you safe — but only up to a point. They'll do little or nothing to correct fundamental vulnerabilities in the base operating system.

There's no way to avoid the inevitable: come April, XP will be far less safe than any of the more modern Windows versions. XP was truly great, but its day is done.

 

As already noted and announced by several major antimalware providers like Norton and McAfee. They all rely on a fully updated OS to provide protected. Once the OS is no longer being updated and vulnerabilities remain exposed, those anti-malware providers will stop support.

I would like to point out Microsoft announced the April 8, 2014 "end-of-life" date over 5 years ago! IMO, there really is no good reason XP users have to not upgrade by now - even those on the most restrictive budgets. And while a lot of hardware from the XP era is not supported by modern Windows - thus forcing using to upgrade hardware, we have the option to use one of the many Linux alternatives for free.