Rodfather Mobile

I reinstalled XP Tablet Edition on my Samsung Q1 a few days ago.  Since I’ve owned the Q1, I probably went to Vista and back to XP at least 3-4 times starting with RC1 and now saying bye to Vista Ultimate. 

I’m glad I’m back.  The main reason I went back for the final time (I keep saying that), is stability.  Everything just works in XP.  The final straw was when my iPhone was stuck in Recovery Mode.  The Q1 with Vista Ultimate refused to see the iPhone in recovery mode and didn’t install the drivers.  My work laptop with Vista Business tried to go through with the recovery process but iTunes crashed.  That’s when I started to panic and turned on a Mac and finally got my iPhone going again. Two possibly unrelated problems happening in Vista just pissed me off.  I had to have at least one ’stable’ portable device, so back to XP on the Q1 since I use it the most.

Now, what have I gained back since going back to XP?

• GeckoTIP - I can open up a floating TIP while using Firefox.  The latest release isn’t compatible with Vista.
• Bluetooth Tethering - For some reason, Vista bluetooth can’t see my Blackjack phone as a Bluetooth PAN device.  It’s most likely the phone, but still, fact is it wouldn’t work.  The only way I could tether in Vista was through the USB cable.  Now I have both options back.
• Performance - Programs are loading up faster.  Videos are playing smoother.  I can play a 720p high definition WMVHD file again.  No disk thrashing.  Overall snappier experience.
• Battery Life - I’m getting slightly more battery life.
• Screen Brightness w/ hardware buttons - With Vista, the combination of the menu button + volume rocker only worked for reducing the brightness.  With XP, I can use the same combo for both brightness up & down.
• Robogeo - For some reason, I couldn’t get this to install with Vista.
• Stable drivers - I feel better not using, for example, beta drivers for my webcam.

What have I lost?

• TIP - The TIP in Vista is much improved.  It’s undocked by default and swoops on the screen.  Character recognition is excellent now and learns as you use it.
• Start Menu - I miss the search from the new Start menu.  Very useful.  I also like how the programs are arranged.  Always sorted and in one scrollable row.
• Security - Probably didn’t make much of a difference since I turned off most of the security features due to performance.
• Better NHC - Notebook Hardware Control gave me more options in Vista.  Allowing me to control the CPU speed for each profile.
• Origami Experience - Never used it.  It’s slow and felt bloated.  VLC played videos much smoother.  CarPC frontends made more sense.
• Media Center - Ran too slow, I never used it.

 So I’ll say it again, I will never go back to Vista on my Q1.  Doesn’t mean my next device won’t have Vista, just not the Q1.