When it comes to op sys i ONLY use xp pro right now i dont have a computer at all just my ipod and soon will be getting a new computer i hope lol its realy funny when i go into a store to look at a computer the first thing i ask is can i use xp on it and the looks on there faces is priceless as thay ask me why the hell would i want to down grade a top of the line computer lol So i say that any thing newer than xp is compleat crap thay just up and walk away lol i can tell thay dont know much about computers as thay just turn away shaking there heads with out ever ancering my ? That i allready know lol but there is the od one that will say yes then i ask if i can get it cheaper without the os sys and any other softwere most say no it comes as is some say thay will ask ONE said yes

Who do you think i will get my new computer from lol

W7 is far better than XP pro on a modern machine.

Ubuntu is better than both but doesn't have the support for everything I need at the moment tired

Most the people who like XP over W7 havn't given it a good go or have old hardware that holds them back.

I like xp because its efficient , but they built in limitations for usable cores , ram and memory bandwidth so ultimately they force you to switch , but this is the very first machine I've had with win 7 and apparently this hard drive came loaded with it ! I lucked out. But it does seem to be snappy even running my pc at just 2ghz.

on video processing,and programming,office stuff,graphics and surfing the net,windows 7 is fast and great,but for robotics not

Hi all,

I am going to keep with my claim for Windows 7 again here. I think it is good to keep things lively and have both sides of the story presented.

I completely disagree about Windows 7 being a hype.

IT experts ...the engineers...and I don't mean IT guys from the shop down the street, i mean the ones from the major fortune 500 IT companies who really understand IOPS and Operating systems will tell you. Windows 7 memory management and security is way better than XP and power consumption (if Windows 7 is setup properly with appropriate chipset drivers etc) is just as good if not better.

Newer Robots are going to need/want processing power....do do more things and executing more complex code and start doing the things described above. The bot I am planning must have the ability to render 1080p video (perhaps multiple feeds concurrently), do voice recognition, and handle lots of scripts and control perhaps more than one EZB.

To address the issue about high end robots using XP PRO....they will not be for long ..once Microsoft no longer supports XP (I think it is end of life in 2014), the successful robot companies will either go LINUX or Windows 7/8. Windows 7 can cost more to implement too if a company has older hardware they are trying to keep around. Coding is also another reason you don't want to get stuck with XP......certain apps are already starting to not support XP.

To set the record straight I am not a Windows advocate. I can't wait for my Raspberry PI to get here......should be in next month.....

Windows 7 has many great features, I especial like the separation of Public vs Private Networks, alloying different firewall settings for each. But He's absolutely correct, on the exact same hardware, especially on Atom processors, Win 7 is much slower then XP... I've got 3 Asus Eee PCs with 1.66Ghz single core Atoms, 2 w/ XP, 1 w/ 7... Just an blatant example, the 7 one, with all the Windows 7 Visual enhancements disabled for speed, can't play HD streaming videos worth a dime, while the XP ones can do it perfectly while multi-tasking.

i was IT tech for bestbuy and do some work as IT person for my job now,and found out that if running windows 7 it does draw alot more current then winows xp pro very few robots need high end video unless you are using it has a computer hook up to hdmi tv or monitor ,then you will need it,dont need a very fast computer for a robot and about xp support will end at 2014,thats not a problem,just meen you dont get help from microsoft plus really dont need newer hardware unless you are using as a desktop computer all microprocessor boards ,sensors,and other robot parts still runs on xp pro coding is not a problem and most likely be a long that it will be,C++ and other programming software still runs on xp pro,and you dont need to upgrade if you dont want too even the LASTEST PROFESSIONAL ROBOT that came out QBO is using windows xp pro and i have yet to see a professional robot use windows 7 yet i found out that WINDOWS 7 is great for desktops,running high end video,programming software,video graphics ask you self why use 1080p video on a robot,when you need a large screen tv to see it can easy use a computer hook up to a hdmi large screen computer,high e nd video card if you look at the specs takes many amps as jstarne found out and need a ac power to use it

check the specs on 32 bit computer and compare to 64 bits used on windows 7 also double the power for same processor speed,one reason is double the bits,uses higher end video chip and more memory it all adds up

I lucked out at the old pawn shop yesterday and found a HP mini laptop for $100.00 with Windows 7 Starter and the Atom processor. Small and cheap, this will fit very nice in my robot. Now I can sell my Mini-itx board that I got for it and just run the laptop inside. The windows 7 solved several problems I had with my older laptop that was running Windows XP. Speech Rec was never loaded on it and it was a pain trying to find all the differant down loads to make it work. Even after I got it loaded I still had a microphone issue where it kept wanting to turn off. Also the tracking feature did not work well ether, the face and color tracking worked but I could not get the motion part to respond. Since I down loaded ARC to the new laptop everthing came up and works great, even the built in webcam works with the tracking. The only drawback is the mini laptop does not have a cd drive to load programs but thats it. So far I have not seen an issue running Windows 7 Starter with ARC.