Microsoft Vista

[Lera]

Hi guys! Microsoft Vista has just been launched in Italy, and today I saw a poll, according to which the majority of people here is not going to install it on their computers in the near future. I myself think that I will use it only if I will get a new PC, and that is actually was the second most popular answer after "no, I don't even think about installing it". I wanted to know, how many of you are already using it and do you like it?

[Cleo]

I found this an interesting read on Vista.
http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/living/16555680.htm
Seems for many it will mean buying new hardware.

Vista's pretty, but it's a shameless Mac OS X imitator
I praise Microsoft's new Windows Vista operating system, and I also curse it.

Vista certainly is pretty. PC users long used to the dowdy Windows XP will do a double take at Vista's translucent images and groovy 3D effects. Vista also is crammed with powerful, useful new features, like lightning-fast file searching, photo organizing and movie-DVD burning.

But after waiting five years — as in half a decade — for this thing, I think I should get something revolutionary, a PC operating system so astonishing it makes the competition look laughably primitive. The almighty Microsoft made this, right? So Vista — being released to consumers Tuesday — has to be jaw-droppingly superior, right?

Well, it's not. Vista hardly rocked my world during weeks of testing. It's a fine Windows upgrade, but it's also a shameless rip-off (and not quite the equal) of another major operating system, Apple Computer's Mac OS X.

That begs the question: Why not just use OS X?

Those upgrading from XP likely will have to get a new computer anyway because Vista doesn't work properly on most older PCs. (See my recent column, "Take your time buying that new computer," for details on this.) So, instead of purchasing a Windows PC, they could — and typically should — get an Apple Macintosh computer running OS X.

Apple is about to release an OS X upgrade, nicknamed "Leopard," that will make Vista look archaic in some ways. But Vista does retain the upper hand in certain respects. Here's how the operating systems compare in essential categories:

Appearance. Vista looks amazing. Its windows cast subtle shadows and sport translucent borders, for instance.

But OS X has had eye candy like this for years. Oh, Microsoft throws in a few enhancements. Users can adjust the border translucency, for instance. But Vista is still only an OS X clone — and a slightly inferior-looking one, at that.

Finding stuff. With so many documents, pictures, video clips, e-mails and the like on today's computers, search is an essential feature. Thank goodness Vista is vastly superior to its XP predecessor in this way. Click the Start button and type your search queries into the window that appears just above. Presto! Your results appear in seconds.

Hmm, does this sound familiar, OS X users? That's right, the Spotlight search engine does the same thing.

Vista helps you keep track of stuff in other ways. If you start getting confused by all the windows that are open on the desktop, click Windows-Tab. Ta-da! Windows tilt slightly and group themselves together in an easy-to-skim Flip 3-D arrangement. That's handy but hardly new. The Exposé feature in OS X does pretty much the same thing.

You also can create intelligent Search Folders that automatically fill with data based on criteria you set. Cool, just like the Smart Folders in OS X.

More secure. Windows XP is notorious for its gaping security holes, which Microsoft has scrambled to plug in Vista. Whether it has succeeded remains to be seen — hordes of cybervillains will do their darnedest to compromise this version of the market-dominant Windows, as well.

Vista's safeguards do seem impressive, though. You can't install anything on a Vista PC without clicking through confirmation windows, for instance. Seem reasonable? Sure it does — OS X has boasted this feature for years.

Wid(gad)gets. So-called "widgets" or "gadgets" are everywhere. The miniapplications show weather forecasts, track packages and much, much more. And everyone from the Yahoo and Google search engines and the Opera browser maker to the TypePad and WordPress blogging services offer their own variations.

So do Windows Vista and OS X. Microsoft's gadgets could be called rip-offs of Apple's widgets. But, to be fair, OS X widgets are rip-offs of Konfabulator, a pioneering widget technology now part of Yahoo and dubbed Yahoo Widgets.

A boob tube. By now, you'd surely assume that I'd recommend avoiding Windows PCs like the plague. Far from it. Budget permitting, I'd own both a Mac and a Vista PC — the latter largely because of its "Media Center" capabilities.

These allow PCs with integrated TV tuners to work as TiVo-like digital-video recorders once connected to cable-TV feeds. I've used a Dell desktop PC with Vista for weeks to record "Heroes," "Jericho," "Smallville" and "Battlestar Galactica," and I'm thrilled at how well this works. While Media Center isn't new (XP versions have been available for years), it has been improved and polished in Vista.

Nothing on the Mac quite compares. You can't get Macs with integrated TV tuners, and TiVo-style features are available only via add-on hardware and software that are inferior to Vista's elegant, built-in Media Center features.

But beware: Microsoft's close ties with entertainment companies are painfully evident in some ways. You won't be allowed to burn certain Media Center recordings (such as PBS' "Prime Suspect") onto blank DVD discs, for instance.

Bonusware. Microsoft has bundled an assortment of useful programs with Vista, which means you won't have as urgent a need to invest in additional software.

Windows Photo Gallery has nice tagging and rating features, for instance. Windows DVD Maker (a companion to the old, scarcely improved Windows Movie Maker) is handy for burning family videos onto blank discs that are playable in any home DVD player.

But these programs are no match for what is available on any new Mac. Every Apple machine has iLife, a suite of interlocking programs for editing video, burning DVDs, organizing photos, composing music and even creating slick Web sites. These make Vista's offerings look insanely inadequate. New PCs do often include extra programs from third parties for enhanced capabilities, but a software hodgepodge doesn't have iLife's tight integration.

Vista also bundles in Windows Calendar, Mail and Contacts, which are rough equivalents of iCal, Apple Mail and Address Book on Macs.

What's next? Apple this spring will release OS X version 10.5 with advanced features that will leapfrog the just-released Vista.

While the new Windows has rudimentary data-backup capabilities, for instance, Leopard will include something called Time Machine that will transparently replicate data on a backup drive and allow for point-and-click retrieval of existing files (and even old versions of those files).

It's also important to note that Apple has offered OS X upgrades at roughly yearly intervals during the half-decade that Microsoft has labored on Vista. Apple is an innovation engine; Microsoft, not so much.

Bottom line. Get a Mac with OS X unless your home-computer needs are Windows-specific, or if the fine Media Center is a must for you. You likely won't regret a Vista-PC purchase, but I'm betting you'll enjoy a Mac much more.

[kitty_kate]

My boyfriend works for a PC repair shop (in Italy, off course) and today they sold the first Vista Bussines machine a dual core p4 2 gigs of ram 10k rpm drive. He said is pretty, but too many bells and whistles.

One of the suppliers they use sells only vista now, xp is gone from their listings.

[cd34]

An interesting article about a writer that switched from Mac to Vista...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16873608/

Cleo will appreciate the irony.

[Cleo]

Originally Posted by cd34

An interesting article about a writer that switched from Mac to Vista...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16873608/

Cleo will appreciate the irony.

He did have lots of good things to say about Vista. Oddly he did switch back to a Mac in the end.

My next Mac laptop will have Windows, whatever flavor, via Parallels so that I can run some Windows stuff like testing my pages under IE. I've been holding off getting a new laptop until Adobe CS3 and Leopard is out, both expecting in the next few months.

[SirMoby]

18 months from now Vista may be a fine OS. Why even think about it until then?

[ArtWilliams]

Ubuntu Linux

[ecchi]

I'm still using '98. I tried XP when it was newish, decided I did not like it and went back to 98. I may try Vista when I next upgrade, but I may not because this thread put me off with the line "translucent images and groovy 3D effects", I want a simple, functional desktop, not a dazzling display of clever computer effects that simply use up the processor's time and waste mine.

Cleo, posting that Vista is a rip off of Mac OS then posting that quote that basically says Vista is a sickening mess of visual effects (my interpretation of the quote) kind of put me off Mac. My last experience of Mac was nearly ten years ago, and on machines that were old and obsolete even then. At the time I considered the OS a poor rip off of the Amiga GUI. More recently it has crossed my mind that as I loved the Amiga, but it has not been developed in over a decade then an OS that started off as an Amiga rip off but has been constantly updated may be exactly what I want. However if the OS has followed the machine's cases in becoming a triumph of style over functionality, I think I'll give it a skip.

[Cleo]

ecchi today's Mac OS is actually NeXT's os updated to work similar to the old Mac classic os after Apple bought it since their own os efforts to replace the Mac classic os failed. If you used the old Mac os you would have very little problem using Mac X but really it is nothing like the old Mac classic os.

[SirMoby]

Originally Posted by Cleo

ecchi today's Mac OS is actually NeXT's os updated to work similar to the old Mac classic os after Apple bought it since their own os efforts to replace the Mac classic os failed. If you used the old Mac os you would have very little problem using Mac X but really it is nothing like the old Mac classic os.

The original Apple GUI was a direct copy of an experimental system developed by Xerox. Xerox also developed Ethernet. Unfortunately for Xerox their management didn't think that anyone would need PCs and continued to focus on copiers and word processors They allowed both the GUI interface and Ethernet to become public domain.

[kitty_kate]

Originally Posted by cd34

An interesting article about a writer that switched from Mac to Vista...

I think that article is a bullshit.
It keeps saying that Vista is cute because of ....... and ...... and ....... (feel free to fill in the blanks) but my Mac is nicer (without bringing arguments). Beside that, half of the article is about the nice hardware he got or he intends having. This is what I understood from that article.


This style of writing makes me think that he was paid to write an article like this or the publisher had an empty space and did not had anything else or the guy is simply stupid.

[johnnybg]

service pack 1 is already announced for this year... I'll wait until then.

[Linkster]

I want my GEOS back!!!!!!

[kitty_kate]

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/01/29/xp-vs-vista/

Now this is interesting reading...

I'm posting from Vista now, I upgraded my old Barton 2500 to a p4 3Ghz. It's nice, altough it has too much anti-alias for fonts. And I need a more powerfull video card, because the interface isn't translucid.

Hope all my software will work on vista.

[MrYum]

Originally Posted by SirMoby

18 months from now Vista may be a fine OS. Why even think about it until then?

Having been around Windoze operating systems for the past couple decades, that would have been my answer too

Don't get me wrong, I have no problems with Windoze. And I think XP Pro is the best o/s ever put out my MS. But, I didn't touch it for the first year and a half either...takes em a while to shake things out in the wild so to speak.

[Torn Rose]

I bought my mom a new Dell Desktop, monitor and printer last night... VISTA...

She hardly knows how to work a pc as it is and I give her a OS I have no clue about.

This is going to be fun.

[Useless]

Mmmm Vista! MML just sent this interesting Vista tutorial to me...
http://web.mac.com/opant/iWeb/Site/Windows Vista.html

[Jim]

I have been using vista since the first beta came out. I did have some initial problems with a few things. The biggest problem was my network card incompatibility. Thankfully, I have a wireless card on my pc that did work with vista. So, I was able to get the driver for my real network card. Since then, no problems at all. I also have the new office and I have learned to save as an older file once I sent out a few invoices that nobody could read

There are a lot of cool features and it really only took a little while to get it right. But, I wouldn't even attempt to use it on a pc that is even a year old.

My PC did say Vista ready and it still had some problems.

[kitty_kate]

After my short experience with Vista, I decided to go back to XP. Maybe I'll switch again to Vista when all the apps I'm using will work.

I'ts nice, but is not ready yet for me.

[ecchi]

What I am reading, I do not like:

a large list of programs have compatibility problems with Windows Vista

The end user license agreement grants Microsoft the right to regularly check the legitimacy of certain programs, possibly delete those programs without any user consent, and the right to revalidate the software or require the user to reactivate if they make changes to computer components (such as a hardware upgrade).

There are several reports of Microsoft telling developers that current games will run 10 percent to 15 percent slower on Vista than on Windows XP

The day before the official consumer unveiling of Windows Vista, 6 updates were released to patch the new operating system.

Vista isn't compatible with AOL, MSN, Yahoo and Real Arcade games, among others.

[Lot]

The friend of mine downloades it...we'll see what he thinks about it..