GotNoRice
[H]F Junkie
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2001
- Messages
- 11,720
I totally skipped Vista and it never was an issue. Hell I upgraded to 7 when memory limitations in XP (32 bit) basically required it. I didn't think twice about trying 64 bit XP because everything I read said it was not good.
The reason why 64-bit XP sucked was because almost no 64-bit drivers existed at that point. Most hardware had a 32-bit XP/2000 driver, and maybe a Windows 9x driver, but that was it. In many cases when companies did release a 64-bit XP driver, there were issues with the driver such as slower performance or worse.
When Vista was released, Microsoft decided to only certify a driver if a company released BOTH a 32-bit AND a 64-bit driver. That created a flood of 64-bit drivers and finally made 64-bit viable. Toward the end of the Vista era, Vista Ultimate 64-bit pretty much had all the kinks worked out and was a great experience to use. When Windows 7 was released, it was basically Windows Vista with some minor UI modifications. Long story short, anyone who enjoyed 7 can thank Vista for making that happen.