If you’re running XP, you’ve probably arrived at the conclusion that it’s getting a little long in the tooth. Shortly, you’ll be faced with the option of either upgrading to Vista or Windows 7. Which should you choose? True enough, Microsoft will still allow you to get a laptop loaded with a Windows XP downgrade license for a little while after Windows 7 is released, but at that point, do you really want to be two OS revisions behind?

Home Users Need Not Fear Vista

Much of the negative press about Windows Vista refers to its performance in networked environments and how it interacts in a large Windows environment. If you’re a home user, you may never experience any of these negatives. For users that adopted Windows Vista early on, they may wonder what all the fuss is about.

If you’ve stayed away from Windows Vista due to the negative press, you may want to rethink your stance. At this point, some of the original issues, like changing the registry , are settled. In addition, Windows Vista serves as the basis for Windows 7. As time goes on, you’ll find fewer legitimate reasons to stay with Windows XP or an even earlier version of Windows.

One legitimate reason to stay put (at least initially) was the hardware requirements for Windows Vista. If your computer doesn’t have what it takes, upgrading the memory, disk space or processor may seem like throwing good money after bad. In a way, it may be. You can get a computer with a sizzling fast processor, a good-sized hard drive, good video support a decent slug of memory and the latest version of Windows for a few hundred dollars these days; that puts you in the ballpark of what an upgrade would run for your existing computer.

Today’s desktop computers are more space-efficient and more memory-efficient, and come loaded with Windows Vista. Vista’s been on the market for a couple of years, and many of the software publishers have updated their software to take advantage of the latest operating system. Vista is more security-conscious than previous versions of Windows, and Microsoft has nailed the patch updating mechanism.

If you still need another reason to upgrade, consider support. Microsoft is still answering support questions on XP, and is still providing critical security patches, but at some point, the company will leave XP (and its remaining users) behind. That means no more bug fixes, no security patches, no new development and no new drivers from software vendors. Once they move their products to the next OS, only the diehards will be left.

Will you be one of them?

Photo Credit: Yves Le Bail, via Flickr