Vista

Now over the past few days, I’ve seen a huge amount of people finding my blog posts on Windows Vista. Truth be told, I’ve still got the beta 2 installed, though don’t use it very much. The reason is simple. I never got round to it.

With the launch of Vista and Office 2007 i got a nastly surprise – Office 2007 Beta 2 stopped working. In the most literal sense of the Word. i had to re-install Office 2003. I’m insensed at this as it didn’t even give me the opportinutity of convert all my 2007 format documents and spreadsheets back to 2003 format. Wake up guys. So what on earth am i supposed to do now?

On to Vista.

I think its nothing less that pure brilliance. Stolen Mac OSX features or not, its great. The central question that Vista begs us to ask is “What do we want out of an OS?”. Seems Microsoft/Apple ( Depending who stole what from who) have asked themselves that and come out with an asnswer.

The times that i’ve used vista, I’ve never once failed to be impressed by some small but incredibly useful feature.  the integrated search in the start menu is amazing. The new layout of the programs is even better, avoising huge cascading menus that can end up taking up the whole screen.

The Network Centre is extremely useful for allowing you to instantly deduce the problem. It interfaces well with my router (XP tells me the Internet gateway is on, even when it isn’t).

The huge array of options to personalize your computer is extremly important.  The need to create somthing that’s distinctivly you is found everywhere, from the organisation of your desk to the decoration of your room.

The sidebar is extremely useful, as is the option to cconfigure which monitor it appears in in a multi-monitor setup (Microsoft is acknowledging the increasing populoarity of multi-monitor setups in a bid to boost productivity) . I’ve heard that developing Widgets is not every progrmmers cup of tea or coffee.

The way the file system is displayed is imortant. The new look and feel is extremly diferent to Xp, mainly being more userfriendly( while displaying more info) and givingthe user a great number of choices.

The parental controls are included out-of-the-box and are integrated with the accounts and games aspects of Vista. While i have not actually tested this, it seems pretty good. this is essentially Microsoft serving notice of its intention to expand into this tradtitionally third party domain.

The Account profiles are interesting. The new range of restrictions that can be leveled on an account is extremly extensive. This should  life easier on pleantly is network administrators.

The integrated Windows Defender is an inutive idea. The main question is about what advantages it offers over a third party product (ie Norton or McAffee).If Microsoft say greater OS integration, then Microoft open themselves up to a repeat of the EU Competition Commission debacle (only this time from those third-party developers as well). Microsoft need to ensure that all third-party developers have the opportunity to achive the same OS integration as Micorosofts own offerings.

The Aero Glass interface needs no explaination as it speaks for itself.

The irritating security popups become less irritating as time goes on and seem to appear less frequently as well ( did microsoft allow it to remember preferences?) .

Vista is a real RAM hog. On my machine  while doing nothing, it takes up a full 200MB more then XP running  a full set of services ( i.e nortons firewall, Ghost etc) and Visual Web Desingner. I can’t even get a DVD to play properly on  Vista. microsoft seems to have spotted this problem and allowd the use of memory keys as  RAM (“ReadyBoost”).

Vista is so large I’m probably missing a few things. Vista brings an entirely new .Net Framework for developers to work with ( formally Windows Presentation Foundation). I’ve yet to get round to using it since I’m only now getting to the height of my .Net version two programming powers.  I should give it a try.

Finally, I think the number of Vista Versions gives people more choices for their wallets. Coupled with the  ability to upgrade when you need to, its a huge plus for business procurement departments and people on a limited budget ( half with this months budget, half with next month’s) . The only thing missing here is the ability to download Vista from Microsoft ( saves shipping time and cost).

The only question left here is when to buy Vista. Now with all the bugs that are sure to be found.Of after the first Service Pack. It s a choice between too evils. Contend witht he bugs, or contend with the now obselete Windows XP. Which is the lesser of two evils ?