Vista bugs revive XP

Those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it, said philosopher George Santayana. George (1863-1952) never got his paws on a personal computer, but had he lived to experience the switch from Microsoft's Windows XP to Vista he'd have had occasion to repeat his famous aphorism with some relish.

Dell, the number-one PC maker, is out to learn from the past and to repeat it, it seems. After a deluge of complaints from frustrated users seeking to master Microsoft's new Vista version of the Windows operating system, Dell's US headquarters says it will reintroduce the older Windows XP on some models.

In the US Dell replaced XP with Vista on all PCs and laptop models for the consumer market earlier this year. But now, after being blitzed with requests, it says it will offer six models with XP.

In Australia, this is less of an issue. Dell Australia, unlike its parent, has always offered buyers the chance to specify XP. Because all Dell PCs in this country are built to order, it's simple to load the chosen version of Windows.

It seems quite a few Aussies are taking the XP option. The funny thing is XP has generally been seen as the problem, not the answer. It doomed millions of PC users to endless rounds of patching to fix problems with security, crashes, freezes and other tedious issues.

Vista, Microsoft promised, would be faster, sexier and inherently secure. Users could expect "a rich digital lifestyle experience combined with secure operations and ease of use".

Alas, Vista has turned out to be a memory hog, especially if you want to access the sexy new Aero interface required for that rich experience.

Many users have also found that it won't run some older programs or allow their PCs to connect to some devices, including printers, scanners, modems, monitors and multimedia cards.

The latter isn't a Microsoft problem. It's caused by the tardiness of some third-party hardware makers in producing driver software.

Meanwhile, some security problems have already emerged with Vista, so many potential buyers of new PCs have been demanding the old XP.

Dell Australia has always been responsive to the situation, and its US parent finally got the message last week after consumers flooded IdeaStorm, a website where it seeks user suggestions, with requests for the resurrection of XP.

The company plans to take up two other ideas from IdeaStorm comments: a line of desktops running the Linux open-source system; and optional solid-state flash drives to replace traditional hard drives in some laptops.

Will Dell's move prompt a stampede back to XP by other makers? Double Click doubts it. Dell stresses that this is a temporary move until Microsoft gets the Vista bugs sorted and accessory makers update their drivers.

Also, Microsoft will stop supplying computer makers with XP software from early next year, effectively forcing all new Windows PCs to run Vista.

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