Desktop platforms Toolkit 
Story: Windows XP outshines Vista in benchmarking test
XP is far superior...
I find that XP is far superior to Vista and is more stable with better reliability. Around one year ago, Microsoft recalled all versions of XP and retailers were barred from selling XP. PC Manufacturers were also barred from installing XP. However, this action by Microsoft, to force vista sales, backfired as many consumers started requesting "Open Source OSs" on their new PCs. Large organisations, companies, organisations etc. started looking towards "Open Source" as well. This rang Microsoft's alarm bells and they finally understood that their customers were not going to be forced into purchasing something they do not want and alternative OSs are now available (for free). Microsoft stood to lose a large proportion of their dominant market share if they continued with the forced sales. They then reversed their decision and rereleased XP with a couple of extra years of support and a third SP. Retailers and manufacturers have been instructed to continue installing Vista but "if a customer requests XP, XP can be sold or installed". Therefore, it is now clear that the advice to any person / company etc. that is intending to purchase a new PC / PCs, they have to request that XP is installed. IF they don't make the request at the time of ordering, they can not get XP. However, if after requesting XP, they find Vista installed, the retailer / manufacturer has to remove Vista and install XP at no charge (Sales of Goods and Services Acts). Finally, I believe that Microsoft should scrap Vista and spend another two years improving and further developing it before rereleasing it again. Each Microsoft OS is supposed to be an improvement on the last one and yet 98 was a major improvement on 95, 98SE was as bad as 95 and XP is nowhere near as good as 98. The best OS Microsoft ever released was 98 (not the SE (Second Edition) version though as that was as unstable as 95.
Full Talkback thread
