Dear Colleagues

Last night I was playing with Vista. My expectations where very high based on the fact that Microsoft had 5 years of product development and an investment of a couple of billions USD....

In short I think Vista will have a major impact on the PC experience of millions of users in the years to come. But I don't have the impression that this latest OS is a killer product, nor something our clients necessarily need or want.

Good looks are Vistas key selling point!! This OS offers a graphically intensive interface that is very different from Windows XP, that's one of the reasons why Vista is so power hungry. I'm sure IBM, DELL and HP must be very happy about that. :-)

Installing Vista :
Remember the time when we had to help our friends to install Windows 95 or 3.1. This time is definitely gone. Since XP we have a very decent installation process, now with Vista it's even easier...
"Now everyone can install" or was it Everyone can fligh....

System Performance Rating Tool
Vista does scan your computer when you install it and applies a performance rating to your system. Microsoft calls this testing / rating the Windows "Experience Index".
(Wow! What the f%#* is that.)

The software then adjusts its installation settings to best match your hardware's capabilities.

I was humiliated to learn that my Intel 3500+ PC with an Nvidia 6800 Ultra graphics card, 1 GB of DRAM required was just good enough to run Vista. I got a rating of 2.5 out of 5.9.

Microsoft started a competition among us. Who has the higher Microsoft Experience Rating..
What's your rating? What you can not compete! Man you are a looser....

How Different Is It?

Again, the first thing you notice about Vista when you start it up is its beautiful graphics.

Other than the new graphics, Vista's overall look and feel are not very different compared to XP.

Vista has some new features like media center, networking and other features that XP does not, so far I have yet to find a single feature which not already available with Linux.

The new e-mail software, Windows Mail (replacement of Outlook-Express), is the same compared to Outlook Express.

But I’m just a user maybe there is more in the underlying Vista engine that I can not see yet...

Adding Peripherals
Surprisingly I had some big troubles with my peripheral hardware.
My Logitech webcam and HP DeskJet printer can just not run under Vista. With XP works just fine...

Not so sure what the problem is but I hope you guys will not face the same issues out in the field....

Security and Privileges

Security has been one of Microsoft's key selling points when promoting Vista. Given the problems that constantly emerge within Windows XP.
Vista does make some new simple security features available that you would previously have had to install separately under Windows XP.

The future will show us how secure Vista really is. If you belief some seasoned software engineers, Vista will face the same issues us XP and soon you will be flooded with patches and service packs.

Let's face it, Microsoft did not rewrote the underlying OS, therefore it's just natural that Vista will inherit a lot of XP problems...

My conclusion

Yes, it looks pretty. Do I really need it? No.

If possible, wait a year or more to start investing in the operating system. By then, numerous patches, hardware drivers and service packs will likely have been released....

Please let me know your views on it. Would love to get to know your impression and experience with it.

Cheers
Daniel