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Background
Let me start off by saying I've been using home computers since 1980 and have never been fond of Microsoft. I had Apple hardware until 1986, ran DR-DOS instead of MS-DOS for several years and installed and used OS/2 on my machines through most of the 1990s. It wasn't until Windows 2000 Professional that I started using MS operating systems full time - mostly because OS/2 would not run my 32 bit Windows apps.
I also have been using and programming on UNIX for 25 years so I have an appreciation for what a real OS looks like even if I don't understand all the gritty details of the kernel.
What I am about to comment on is Windows Vista Home Premium which came with my new VM machine. What you are going to see is an honest assessment based on my early experience, not MS bashing.
Interface
Let me start with the eye candy. I really like the new interface. I know, I can hear some groans out there already, but this is an intelligent, well thought out, user-friendly interface. For example, in XP I never found "Show common tasks in folders" particularly useful. The items on the left side were too high level to save me any effort. I like to organize my desktop into "Essential Things I Access Often" like (My) Documents, (My) Computer, Network, Recycle Bin and Downloads, and "Application Folders" where I put shortcuts to all my applications grouped in the following categories: Internet, Financial Applications, Games, Applications, Utilities and Programming. In XP I would open all my application folders upon startup and minimize them to the taskbar so that I had ready access if the desktop was covered (which it is if I'm using it).
This was more efficient for me than using the start menu. With Vista I only need to open one of these and all of them are listed on the left side under the Desktop.
I like the new explorer and how all the windows have the same look and feel regardless if you are opening folders or "Computer" or Explore. In XP there were subtle differences. In Vista, the only differences are on the menu bar and only change if it makes sense. I like that you can toggle the views by simply clicking on the "Views" menu on the menu bar. I like being able to navigate to a higher directory by simply clicking on it in the address bar. I like the "Switch Between Windows" 3D window chooser.
I also prefer the new start menu with the integrated search. I know MS has been roasted for getting rid of the "Run" command on the start menu, but it really isn't needed. Want to run "regedit" or "msconfig" or "cmd"? Just type it into the search bar and hit the "Enter" key. That's one less mouse click than before. Frankly, the more I use the Interface, the more I like it. I even like the new sounds better.
This is all little stuff that indivdually means practically nothing but when taken together is a big step forward for Microsoft. I care not whether MS copied from Apple or whoever, I'm just glad these GUI improvements are there. Whining Mac users can go straight to /dev/null. (How many of you kiddies understand that one?)
Included Applications
Microsoft has done its best to include just about everything a Home or SOHO user might need (except for "office-type" applications). I don't have a use for everything they've included, but the machine is set up to perform most basic things an average home user wants to do: browse the internet, email, IM, watch a movie, listen to music, manage and view photographs, burn a DVD, keep a calendar, keep a journal, play games and a few others I've certainly missed. The new Chess Titans and Mahjong Titans are visually pleasing and a fun diversion. I don't know how skilled the chess game is at higher levels (there are 10), but at level 2 it blows. One thing I hate are the new card decks. I find them difficult on the eyes - all of them.
In the past I've been critical of MS bundling applications with their OS, but I've mellowed over time. Joe Average User (JAU) who has just spent (for him/her) a lot of money on a machine and just wants to do basic stuff wants these kind of applications bundled. I may not, the average enthusiast here might not, but JAU most emphatically does want this stuff. So I'm OK with MS trying to make it easy on JAU. If I don't want to use their stuff, I'll just let it rot.
What I will be critical of is the sidebar and the gadgets. I know many people will like this implementation, but I don't. I think this idea was better implemented by Stardock on OS/2 10 years ago. Frankly, why do I need a clock gadget that takes up a lot of screen real estate when I already have a nice small one on the taskbar? Yes, I know I can disable the taskbar clock, but why? The standard gadgets are underpowered in my opinion. For example, all the "Notes" gadget allows you to do is to write short notes. You can't resize them, minimize them, set alarms, etc. The weather gadget only gives you the current conditions in a picture (I can look out the window for that) and the temperature. Having the forecast high and low and precipitation probability would not be that difficult to do and would make it, um, useful? The "CPU Meter" provided is useless on a dual core machine. I found a more useful one on the internet. The "Contacts" gadget is pretty worthless. There is no way to add or edit contacts directly from the gadget. At least give a right-click menu option to open your Windows > Contacts folder. There are so many better implementations of this concept.
I know everyone criticizes MS for creating bloatware, but you have to have minimal features to make these things useful. Perhaps the stuff that's included is simply a proof of concept. I'm sure we'll see a flood of these things by non-Microsoft vendors over the next year and I'm sure most will by a lot better than what MS provided. The one positive thing I will say about this implementation is that you can change the opacity for each gadget.
Under the Hood
In my opinion this is where Vista has made giant leaps forward. I think it is obvious that they have finally decided to learn from UNIX. There have been significant improvements to the kernel, security and, yes, performance. This has been posted before, but you can view some of the gory details for yourself in the following articles:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/technetmag/issues/2007/02/VistaKernel/default.aspx
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/technetmag/issues/2007/03/VistaKernel/default.aspx
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/technetmag/issues/2007/04/VistaKernel/default.aspx
My two favorite features here are ReadyBoost and SuperFetch. Combined, these two improve task switching by leaps and bounds. For many people this will be a big yawn, but for me these are a godsend.
There are new command line features in Vista as well. Here I can really see the UNIX influence. How about TASKLIST (ps on UNIX) or TASKKILL (kill) or SCHTASKS (cron)? MKLINK allows the creation of symbolic links which have existed on UNIX since just about Day 1. (If you have ever programmed on UNIX you know how useful this is). Granted, most of the new stuff here is also accessible via the GUI and of no interest at all to Joe Average User, but administrators and developers will definitely find some of this stuff useful.
What would really be useful here would be to have the ability to log into another machine with admin priviledges with a "console" screen to be able to TASKKILL a program that has locked the GUI (for example). That may be possible, but I have yet to figure out how to do it. (Remember, I'm running Home Premium).
People who criticize Vista as nothing more than XP with a bloated GUI don't have a clue as to what they are talking about. From what I can tell so far, this is a whole new (and much better) OS under the hood.
Drivers
This is a touchy issue with a lot of people. Who's responsible? Microsoft or the Vendor? In the case of peripherals and high-and audio and video, I'd say it's the vendor's responsibility. For everyday standard stuff (like hard drives, optical drives, generic sound and video) I'd say it's Microsoft's responsibility. When I bought my new system I had to buy a new printer because my trusty Lexmark X75 all-in-one had no Vista drivers. I blame Lexmark for that. I had an incident with my machine yesterday where I suddenly could not read CD-ROMs. Driver issue? Something else? I don't know but rebooting fixed it. If it is a driver issue, it's up to Microsoft to fix it since cdrom.sys is their baby.
I would never install Vista on my 4 year old HP machine because I'm too afraid that there won't be working drivers for my old components. Maybe it would work, maybe not but I'm not taking that chance. Should Microsoft develop for 4-year old hardware? That's a business decision and if I was a MS shareholder (I'm not) I'd only want them to do that if they could generate enough upgrade sales to justify the cost.
I think the driver situation is adequate at the moment. I also think it will get better as the year progresses. In my opinion, 99% of the people who have had "stability" issues with Vista have actually had driver issues. The best solution to this problem in the short run if you are building or buying a machine is to make sure you are getting parts that are on the Vista hardware compatibility list.
Applications
We have all heard application horror stories. However, I firmly believe the problems are due to people not understanding the new security paradigm. I searched the internet for tips and suggestions for 2 weeks before I got my machine and the best damn advice I saw came from bbz_Ghost right on this forum. I want to publicly thank bbz_Ghost for his informative and enlightening posts. He actually knows what the hell he is talking about which is rare in cyberspace. (In fact, I took his process as I used it for Quicken 2005 and posted my version of it on the Quicken forum. It has been the most viewed post there in the last 24 hours, LOL. Even the Quicken tech support people don't understand this process as far as I can tell).
Let me start by agreeing with bbz_Ghost that turning off User Access Controls is NOT the answer. I've had to do that only once when I screwed up an install. The uninstall failed to clean up correctly and locked up a couple of files that Vista would not let me delete with UAC on no matter what I tried. (Even command line tricks didn't work). That was an exception. For those of you that have not seen the basic process, you can find everything you need on this thread. Read that and the companion thread and you will be enlightened.
By following his advice I successfully installed over 20 applications in the first 24 hours I had the machine. This included an old 1993, 16-bit version of Quattro Pro 5.0 (still one of the best damn spreadsheet applications ever written), legacy 32 bit software from the late 1990s that I still use and more recent stuff including applications that said they specifically ran under Vista. Everything runs great although I'm getting used to the new font rendering in Vista. Firefox, Thunderbird and OpenOffice all run beautifully. I've heard that some people have had trouble making Firefox the default browser, but I was able make it stick without a problem.
I had only 2 install issues that were not the result of my own idiocy. The first was with an old freeware Post-It note program from 3M called PSNlite. The installer choked with a message about me having the wrong OS. A simple right-click to change it to run in XP compatibility mode fixed that problem. The other was with a financial program that has a USB security key. The install went OK, but when I plug in the security key, Vista wants to install a device driver that does not exist. XP was smart enough to realize that the key didn't need one. Because of this, the application can't sense the security key is plugged in and will not start. I'm working with the vendor on this one. I may also contact Microsoft.
So far I think Vista is and excellent application platform (and better than XP). For people that actually use their computers, being a great application platform is the only reason to care about the operating system at all.
Conclusion
Is this the best damn OS ever written? Probably not, but it has the potential to be. I've been critical of Microsoft in the past, but I have to give them props on this one. For an OS that has been out less than two months it is amazingly stable and, in my opinion, the best application platform they've ever put out. We'll see if I feel this way two months from now.
Let me start off by saying I've been using home computers since 1980 and have never been fond of Microsoft. I had Apple hardware until 1986, ran DR-DOS instead of MS-DOS for several years and installed and used OS/2 on my machines through most of the 1990s. It wasn't until Windows 2000 Professional that I started using MS operating systems full time - mostly because OS/2 would not run my 32 bit Windows apps.
I also have been using and programming on UNIX for 25 years so I have an appreciation for what a real OS looks like even if I don't understand all the gritty details of the kernel.
What I am about to comment on is Windows Vista Home Premium which came with my new VM machine. What you are going to see is an honest assessment based on my early experience, not MS bashing.
Interface
Let me start with the eye candy. I really like the new interface. I know, I can hear some groans out there already, but this is an intelligent, well thought out, user-friendly interface. For example, in XP I never found "Show common tasks in folders" particularly useful. The items on the left side were too high level to save me any effort. I like to organize my desktop into "Essential Things I Access Often" like (My) Documents, (My) Computer, Network, Recycle Bin and Downloads, and "Application Folders" where I put shortcuts to all my applications grouped in the following categories: Internet, Financial Applications, Games, Applications, Utilities and Programming. In XP I would open all my application folders upon startup and minimize them to the taskbar so that I had ready access if the desktop was covered (which it is if I'm using it).
This was more efficient for me than using the start menu. With Vista I only need to open one of these and all of them are listed on the left side under the Desktop.I like the new explorer and how all the windows have the same look and feel regardless if you are opening folders or "Computer" or Explore. In XP there were subtle differences. In Vista, the only differences are on the menu bar and only change if it makes sense. I like that you can toggle the views by simply clicking on the "Views" menu on the menu bar. I like being able to navigate to a higher directory by simply clicking on it in the address bar. I like the "Switch Between Windows" 3D window chooser.
I also prefer the new start menu with the integrated search. I know MS has been roasted for getting rid of the "Run" command on the start menu, but it really isn't needed. Want to run "regedit" or "msconfig" or "cmd"? Just type it into the search bar and hit the "Enter" key. That's one less mouse click than before. Frankly, the more I use the Interface, the more I like it. I even like the new sounds better.
This is all little stuff that indivdually means practically nothing but when taken together is a big step forward for Microsoft. I care not whether MS copied from Apple or whoever, I'm just glad these GUI improvements are there. Whining Mac users can go straight to /dev/null. (How many of you kiddies understand that one?)
Included Applications
Microsoft has done its best to include just about everything a Home or SOHO user might need (except for "office-type" applications). I don't have a use for everything they've included, but the machine is set up to perform most basic things an average home user wants to do: browse the internet, email, IM, watch a movie, listen to music, manage and view photographs, burn a DVD, keep a calendar, keep a journal, play games and a few others I've certainly missed. The new Chess Titans and Mahjong Titans are visually pleasing and a fun diversion. I don't know how skilled the chess game is at higher levels (there are 10), but at level 2 it blows.
One thing I hate are the new card decks. I find them difficult on the eyes - all of them.In the past I've been critical of MS bundling applications with their OS, but I've mellowed over time. Joe Average User (JAU) who has just spent (for him/her) a lot of money on a machine and just wants to do basic stuff wants these kind of applications bundled. I may not, the average enthusiast here might not, but JAU most emphatically does want this stuff. So I'm OK with MS trying to make it easy on JAU. If I don't want to use their stuff, I'll just let it rot.
What I will be critical of is the sidebar and the gadgets. I know many people will like this implementation, but I don't. I think this idea was better implemented by Stardock on OS/2 10 years ago. Frankly, why do I need a clock gadget that takes up a lot of screen real estate when I already have a nice small one on the taskbar? Yes, I know I can disable the taskbar clock, but why? The standard gadgets are underpowered in my opinion. For example, all the "Notes" gadget allows you to do is to write short notes. You can't resize them, minimize them, set alarms, etc. The weather gadget only gives you the current conditions in a picture (I can look out the window for that) and the temperature. Having the forecast high and low and precipitation probability would not be that difficult to do and would make it, um, useful? The "CPU Meter" provided is useless on a dual core machine. I found a more useful one on the internet. The "Contacts" gadget is pretty worthless. There is no way to add or edit contacts directly from the gadget. At least give a right-click menu option to open your Windows > Contacts folder. There are so many better implementations of this concept.
I know everyone criticizes MS for creating bloatware, but you have to have minimal features to make these things useful. Perhaps the stuff that's included is simply a proof of concept. I'm sure we'll see a flood of these things by non-Microsoft vendors over the next year and I'm sure most will by a lot better than what MS provided. The one positive thing I will say about this implementation is that you can change the opacity for each gadget.
Under the Hood
In my opinion this is where Vista has made giant leaps forward. I think it is obvious that they have finally decided to learn from UNIX. There have been significant improvements to the kernel, security and, yes, performance. This has been posted before, but you can view some of the gory details for yourself in the following articles:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/technetmag/issues/2007/02/VistaKernel/default.aspx
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/technetmag/issues/2007/03/VistaKernel/default.aspx
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/technetmag/issues/2007/04/VistaKernel/default.aspx
My two favorite features here are ReadyBoost and SuperFetch. Combined, these two improve task switching by leaps and bounds. For many people this will be a big yawn, but for me these are a godsend.
There are new command line features in Vista as well. Here I can really see the UNIX influence. How about TASKLIST (ps on UNIX) or TASKKILL (kill) or SCHTASKS (cron)? MKLINK allows the creation of symbolic links which have existed on UNIX since just about Day 1. (If you have ever programmed on UNIX you know how useful this is). Granted, most of the new stuff here is also accessible via the GUI and of no interest at all to Joe Average User, but administrators and developers will definitely find some of this stuff useful.
What would really be useful here would be to have the ability to log into another machine with admin priviledges with a "console" screen to be able to TASKKILL a program that has locked the GUI (for example). That may be possible, but I have yet to figure out how to do it. (Remember, I'm running Home Premium).
People who criticize Vista as nothing more than XP with a bloated GUI don't have a clue as to what they are talking about. From what I can tell so far, this is a whole new (and much better) OS under the hood.
Drivers
This is a touchy issue with a lot of people. Who's responsible? Microsoft or the Vendor? In the case of peripherals and high-and audio and video, I'd say it's the vendor's responsibility. For everyday standard stuff (like hard drives, optical drives, generic sound and video) I'd say it's Microsoft's responsibility. When I bought my new system I had to buy a new printer because my trusty Lexmark X75 all-in-one had no Vista drivers. I blame Lexmark for that. I had an incident with my machine yesterday where I suddenly could not read CD-ROMs. Driver issue? Something else? I don't know but rebooting fixed it. If it is a driver issue, it's up to Microsoft to fix it since cdrom.sys is their baby.
I would never install Vista on my 4 year old HP machine because I'm too afraid that there won't be working drivers for my old components. Maybe it would work, maybe not but I'm not taking that chance. Should Microsoft develop for 4-year old hardware? That's a business decision and if I was a MS shareholder (I'm not) I'd only want them to do that if they could generate enough upgrade sales to justify the cost.
I think the driver situation is adequate at the moment. I also think it will get better as the year progresses. In my opinion, 99% of the people who have had "stability" issues with Vista have actually had driver issues. The best solution to this problem in the short run if you are building or buying a machine is to make sure you are getting parts that are on the Vista hardware compatibility list.
Applications
We have all heard application horror stories. However, I firmly believe the problems are due to people not understanding the new security paradigm. I searched the internet for tips and suggestions for 2 weeks before I got my machine and the best damn advice I saw came from bbz_Ghost right on this forum. I want to publicly thank bbz_Ghost for his informative and enlightening posts. He actually knows what the hell he is talking about which is rare in cyberspace. (In fact, I took his process as I used it for Quicken 2005 and posted my version of it on the Quicken forum. It has been the most viewed post there in the last 24 hours, LOL. Even the Quicken tech support people don't understand this process as far as I can tell).
Let me start by agreeing with bbz_Ghost that turning off User Access Controls is NOT the answer. I've had to do that only once when I screwed up an install. The uninstall failed to clean up correctly and locked up a couple of files that Vista would not let me delete with UAC on no matter what I tried. (Even command line tricks didn't work). That was an exception. For those of you that have not seen the basic process, you can find everything you need on this thread. Read that and the companion thread and you will be enlightened.
By following his advice I successfully installed over 20 applications in the first 24 hours I had the machine. This included an old 1993, 16-bit version of Quattro Pro 5.0 (still one of the best damn spreadsheet applications ever written), legacy 32 bit software from the late 1990s that I still use and more recent stuff including applications that said they specifically ran under Vista. Everything runs great although I'm getting used to the new font rendering in Vista. Firefox, Thunderbird and OpenOffice all run beautifully. I've heard that some people have had trouble making Firefox the default browser, but I was able make it stick without a problem.
I had only 2 install issues that were not the result of my own idiocy.
The first was with an old freeware Post-It note program from 3M called PSNlite. The installer choked with a message about me having the wrong OS. A simple right-click to change it to run in XP compatibility mode fixed that problem. The other was with a financial program that has a USB security key. The install went OK, but when I plug in the security key, Vista wants to install a device driver that does not exist. XP was smart enough to realize that the key didn't need one. Because of this, the application can't sense the security key is plugged in and will not start. I'm working with the vendor on this one. I may also contact Microsoft.So far I think Vista is and excellent application platform (and better than XP). For people that actually use their computers, being a great application platform is the only reason to care about the operating system at all.
Conclusion
Is this the best damn OS ever written? Probably not, but it has the potential to be. I've been critical of Microsoft in the past, but I have to give them props on this one. For an OS that has been out less than two months it is amazingly stable and, in my opinion, the best application platform they've ever put out. We'll see if I feel this way two months from now.
