I have friends asking if they should upgrade to Windows 7. I tell them, "No," and here's why:
Vista
If Vista is running fine on your computer, you gain nothing by switching to 7. The bugs are largely shaken out of Vista, but new bugs are added to 7. Witness the full day I wasted trying to solve the problem of 7 unnecessarily shutting down power to USB ports connected to drives -- in addition to downloading hundreds of megabytes of driver updates from HP and nVidia.
(The only reason I upgraded to 7 is because I am a technical writer, and so screengrabs in my publications need to look up to date.)
XP
If your computer runs XP, you especially don't want to upgrade. Here are three reasons why:
1. You printer will probably no longer work, because the printer makers (here's looking at you, HP) didn't bother updating software drivers for Vista of many models, even relatively recent ones. This diabolical move to boost sales of printers also affects 7. I experienced this problem, as have friends.
2. You need to wipe the computer's hard disk and start all over. This cruel fact is not uppermost in Microsoft's marketing, but they do admit it in the fine print when they talk about backing up all programs and data before upgrading.
3. Windows XP with SP3 (service pack 3) is benchmarked as the fastest and most power efficient of the three dialects of operating systems. Got a netbook? Keep XP for sure, or switch to a mature operating system. (I find 7 painfully slow compared to the Linux Mint with which I dual-boot.)
The Fifth Reason
Those are four practical reasons to not upgrade; the fifth is political. There is no need to give Microsoft even more money, especially with it holding $27 billion in cash.
Vista
If Vista is running fine on your computer, you gain nothing by switching to 7. The bugs are largely shaken out of Vista, but new bugs are added to 7. Witness the full day I wasted trying to solve the problem of 7 unnecessarily shutting down power to USB ports connected to drives -- in addition to downloading hundreds of megabytes of driver updates from HP and nVidia.
(The only reason I upgraded to 7 is because I am a technical writer, and so screengrabs in my publications need to look up to date.)
XP
If your computer runs XP, you especially don't want to upgrade. Here are three reasons why:
1. You printer will probably no longer work, because the printer makers (here's looking at you, HP) didn't bother updating software drivers for Vista of many models, even relatively recent ones. This diabolical move to boost sales of printers also affects 7. I experienced this problem, as have friends.
2. You need to wipe the computer's hard disk and start all over. This cruel fact is not uppermost in Microsoft's marketing, but they do admit it in the fine print when they talk about backing up all programs and data before upgrading.
3. Windows XP with SP3 (service pack 3) is benchmarked as the fastest and most power efficient of the three dialects of operating systems. Got a netbook? Keep XP for sure, or switch to a mature operating system. (I find 7 painfully slow compared to the Linux Mint with which I dual-boot.)
The Fifth Reason
Those are four practical reasons to not upgrade; the fifth is political. There is no need to give Microsoft even more money, especially with it holding $27 billion in cash.
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