By Natasha Lomas, 13 November 2007 17:21
NEWS
In a fight between a penguin and a leopard which one wins? The leopard of course - but when it comes to choosing an operating system, Windows XP is top dog for silicon.com readers.
Asked which operating system they would use if they had a choice, Windows XP was named by almost half (42 per cent) of respondents as their numero uno.
And while that may sound like good news for Microsoft, there is a sting in the tail for the folks in Redmond. Among silicon.com readers at least, the most recent iteration of Windows - aka Vista - garnered just 14 per cent of the vote, making it less popular than both Mac OS X and Linux.
Only an option for 'other Unix' gained fewer votes, being first choice for a marginal one per cent of readers.
Mac OS X came second, with the backing of close to a third (27 per cent) of readers, followed by Linux which was first choice for 16 per cent of those polled - just pushing Vista off the podium to squeeze into third place.
Earlier this year, PC maker Dell back-pedalled on its position of offering almost all its systems as Vista-based - giving consumers the chance to opt for XP instead. The company has also bowed to customer pressure to offer PCs with Ubuntu installed, for Linux lovers.
Vista is unpopular with many silicon.com readers as they believe it doesn't offer substantial benefits over and above XP - and yet in their view it does come with clear disadvantages, from the 'hassle factor' of upgrading from something that already works, to it being a bit of a beast when it comes to system resources.
Describing his experience with Vista in a recent Reader Comment, silicon.com reader Anthony Hunt, a software developer from Maidstone, Kent, said: "After using Vista Ultimate for four months, I got fed up with the slow and unstable OS, plus the dusty scanner and webcam staring accusingly at me, unused because of no driver support. Even the 8800 card (DX10) runs faster in XP. Vista just doesn't offer anything positive."
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An anonymous IT manager from Scotland echoed this sentiment: "Of the nine new PCs I've dealt with in the past few months, I've been asked to remove Vista from eight of them. Vista came along more RAM hungry, more CPU hungry and more disk hungry but doesn't really offer enough to justify it over XP for the average computer user."
While Rob Taylor, an IT director from West Yorkshire, said: "Vista - Very Glossy - but not user friendly and incredibly buggy, every PC/laptop we purchase now comes with Vista and is instantly downgraded to XP."
Another reader - going by the name Richard A - said he was "shocked" at how slow the OS ran on a new Intel core duo Sony Vaio laptop. "Why anybody would willingly trade a stable and established XP environment for the wading though treacle experience of driverless Vista is quite utterly beyond me," he said, adding: "Granted, it has borrowed a few nice flourishes from the Apple Mac user interface but it really has little else to recommend it above XP. Apart from security, of course."
Neil Thatcher, an IT manager from the South East, summed up many readers' views with his Reader Comment: "The changes to Vista over XP are simply gloss and change for change's sake which translate as nothing more than annoyances."
Microsoft was unavailable for comment at the time of publication.
The poll was taken by more than 1,600 silicon.com readers.
Comments
There are 12 comments. Join the discussion
1. Graham Coles
Why is this good news for Microsoft? Surely it is a disaster.
Ever tried getting hold of a machine with XP pro installed? Apparently the poll suggests that two fifths of business users want to stick with it, yet MS want to bury XP so they can sell Vista (which, by the poll results, almost nobody wants!).
Also, given that the poll was likely responded by people at work and therefore from a population which is probably almost entirely XP users, you could also say this is not good. About three fifths of those surveyed want something else (and of the alternatives, the other windows offering, Vista, came in last with most people who want a change preferring either Mac or Linux).
Good news for Redmond? I think not. Only a political party could get away with spinning this as a majority. Without spin, you can take your pick of statements:
'Majority of users don't want to use XP'
'Vista last OS of choice for business users'
'More business users would rather use Linux on the desktop than Vista'
I can't see Microsoft being overjoyed at hearing this.
2. Rob
Blimey, still can't believe how many people are having a bad experience with Vista. Mine's working better than XP did!
Got no driver issues, no system speed issues. I have had 1 BSD which was caused by a bad driver in AV software but an update pushed out the next day fixed that.
Not even experienced the file access issue where copying and deleting can take forever.
3. Lionel A Smith
I recall way back Intel’s first iteration of the Pentium getting a PCW Turkey of the Year award, maybe it is now Vista’s turn.
If not Vista then perhaps the award should go to Microsoft’s spin on this story.
4. Roy Judd
It’s particularly good to see both OS X and Linux punching above their weight. With Apple shifting more Macs than ever before and Ubuntu really simplifying the Linux experience, we may start to see real competition in operating systems once again. Bad news for Microsoft admittedly, but a challenge I’m sure it can and will rise to. The biggest hurdle for Redmond though, is Vista. All the evidence you’ve presented suggests that an uncomfortably high percentage of users are voting with their feet and reverting to XP. Microsoft ignores this at its’ peril and, if Vista is the best Windows flavour they are able to offer, then some hard times lay ahead.
5. Rory Choudhuri
You've certainly put a rather strange twist on the results. Given that well over 95% of the corporate market runs Windows, isn't it surprising how many of those would prefer to be running something else.
In the UK, probably fewer than 3% of corporate machines are Macs, yet look at how many would prefer to be using one.
Although the silicon.com readership is probably more geeky than the world out there, more people wanting Linux than Vista is a massive indictment.
Good news for Microsoft? I think not!
6. anonymous
Outside the world of IT (and silicon readers) nobody really cares that much as long as it works.
7. John Maher
Does Natasha know the difference between a Panther and a Leopard?! I suspect that most of those replying to your survey are still using Apple's 10.4.10, that is Panther. The new release, Leopard, 10.5 was released nearly at the same time as the survey. It looks great!
8. Thomas Carley
10.4 is Tiger not Panther. If memory serves Panther was 10.3.
9. Dave
Sorry John, actually 10.4 is known as Tiger. 10.3 was Panther. This must be scary for M$ seeing how long the OS was in development and how little people care.
10. anonymous
Ahem. John, the latest Panther version is 10.3.9. Tiger is at 10.4.10.
11. David Fletcher
Driver issues?
A couple of nights ago I picked up an old but almost unused HP scanner from a fellow freecycler because "you can't get drivers for it".
I took it home, plugged it into my computer running Kubuntu Feisty (Linux), started up xsane (the scanner software) and it "Just Worked". xsane automatically configured itself with the very small feature set available on the HP scanner, and it scans.
Next I switched on my Epson Perfection 2450 Photo, and again started up xsane.
NOTE:- same open source scanner software, different model scanner from a different manufacturer with a rich feature set but the same fantastic user interface.
Now, xsane configured itself for choice of flatbed or transparency scanning, higher resolution, choice of focus distance (on or off the glass), exposure control, etc. etc. none of which was available on the freecycled HP scanner.
WOW WOW WOW WOW That's damn clever. Guess which operating system I prefer to use.
12. Karen Challinor
Rob from herts said - "Blimey, still can't believe how many people are having a bad experience with Vista. Mine's working better than XP did!
Got no driver issues, no system speed issues. I have had 1 BSD which was caused by a bad driver in AV software but an update pushed out the next day fixed that.
Not even experienced the file access issue where copying and deleting can take forever"
this is something I don't understand
everyone with vista is running the same software albeit ultimate/business/home/etc variants but it's the same software
and a small but persistent group of people keep saying it's the bees knees and they've had no problems with it and aren't even experiencing the file transfer issue
I have no reason to doubt these people
but nor have I reason to doubt the much larger and extremely vocal group who say they have problems
so the question is, as this is the same software everyone is running, why isn't everyone experiencing the same problems or lack of problems ?
what are people doing differently that either causes or cures these issues ?
is it the machine architecture .. a hardware issue ? is it regional some bug that only shows up at specific times in specific locations ? or are the users doing something ?