Last month I got a new computer. Nothing top-of-the-line. Nothing bleeding edge. Nothing terribly fancy, just an Acer Extensa 5620 with a gigabyte of RAM and Windows Vista Home Premium. I got a lot of raised eyebrows when friends and coworkers found out I’m running Vista now. There have been a lot of prejudices and rumors about this operating system, so I’ll address a couple today.
- Things aren’t where they used to be. Yes, new things tend to be different than old things. Change can be confusing and disorienting at times.
- Vista prompts you to give permission for every little thing. This is something everybody has known about Vista from its earliest release candidates. Well, it just isn’t true. I’m not a Microsoft apologist, but I haven’t had to give anything special permission to do anything in days. When you’re installing new software, you’re exposing yourself to some security risk, so Vista prompts you to confirm that you really intend to do it. If you want to completely reset your Internet Protocol interface, maybe something sketchy is afoot. Maybe you install four or five programs a day on your box, but I don’t, and neither do most people. Even geeks.
- Vista is a resource hog that requires way more processor speed, RAM, and hard drive space than is reasonable. This one’s totally true. Right out of the box, with minimal junkware I’m using ~800MB of RAM before I explicitly launch a thing. With only a gigabyte of physical memory, that leaves me pretty pinched. Loading up takes a while, longer with my dual-core processor than my clunky old workstation takes to load XP. At first, it seemed like running various applications took too long, also, but it looks like Vista has adapted itself pretty handily to my habits after a couple weeks. Vista is supposed to optimize its file system over time, and my experience tends to confirm that this isn’t all hype.
- Vista is a pain to upgrade to. Wouldn’t know. My old computer has a perfectly good OS on it already. Why would I upgrade it? The license for my new laptop was bundled into the price of the hardware, so whoopity-doo.
- You should really just run Ubuntu instead. Sure, I’ll agree to use Linux desktops when you agree to use Microsoft servers. Are you nuts?
- Most of the new features are things other systems have had for ages. Of the features I’m enjoying in Vista (such as the contextual search when browsing folders), this is completely true. I understand that cars had steering wheels before Toyota made my car, but that doesn’t detract from the value I find in having one.
- Widgets are a resource hog. True, but it’s 21° and partly cloudy at Kirkwood right now, and I know that by glancing to the right a little from where I’m typing.
- You should wait for SP1. Service packs are good, you’ll get no argument from me on that point. That said, all indications I’ve seen are that the updates in the service pack are mostly performance tweaks and trying to get a handle on some of the compatibility problems that have plagues the Vista release. I welcome the tweaks and have no compatibility issues of my own. Your mileage may vary.
Overall, I like Vista Home Premium so far. It’s going to take years before the new graphics engine is well and truly embraced by the software industry, but spending a little time as a relative early-adopter isn’t going to cause you many fits unless you insist on dragging your old hardware along with you, or you have the misfortune of being an accountant; most tax software doesn’t like to handle old forms.
Post Windows 98 I would agree that the windows desktop became one of the most user friendly operating systems. While it could not compete with some of the Mac OS features, it had a bigger install base and it enjoyed great success. XP was a step forward but overall the experience stayed the same as in 98 SP2. Not much changed for the general user.
Vista has been a pain in the butt to install even to experienced people because it is not as compatible with XP as it should be. In new computers it is less painful, but I even thought it was ok, but I am waiting until the first time I have to do a reinstall on the one computer that I support right now that has vista on it (my uncle’s).
I am content with XP, in fact I was content with win 2K and would not have upgraded I did not have to do a rebuild. I am not too eager to upgrade to vista because when it is a pain to get something working on it, it becomes really frustrating. For what I use my computer, I don’t need a resource hog.
Ubuntu is becoming more and more an option to other OS’s and I am happy using it on the desktop I have it on now. I think Vista went back on the user friendly side and put Ubuntu a little ahead. For now I am happy with XP, when I built my next machine I might just try Ubuntu first before I do Vista… or just go Mac and call it a day.
Logtar: I’m particularly interested in your insinuation that Windows Vista is less user-friendly than Windows XP. Aside from a few things simply not being where they used to be — something particularly stunning in the 2007 Office suite — I’ve found it to be quite amiable. It makes most elements of its display useful in some way. I’m chiefly thinking of the navigable breadcrumb trail that replaced the old path display here.
Have you been getting cryptic error messages or something of the sort?
I agree that Mac has historically had the advantage on creating a warm, fuzzy user experience, though Leopard may be a bit of a step backward.