Vista Review

The post Does Linux stand a chance against Windows 7 got me thinking, Microsoft has really thought about the damage that Vista has done. I mean really, I purchased my Toshiba satellite laptop 2 years ago with Vista home on it and now it has dual-boot between Ubuntu and Vista home. Honestly I spend the bulk of my time in Linux (not Windows) now. But, there are (and were) tons of laptops that wouldn’t run Vista because of the hardware requirements. Now they’re saying that windows 7 has been optimized to run on anything from the smallest of sub-notebooks (netbooks) right up to high end desktops. Hmmm…..I think the biggest part of BS I smell in that article is the line on the second page that reads “The problem was that Linux could run on a netbook and Vista couldn’t, not any consumer or OEM love for Linux,” WTF – are you kidding me? Until the XP version was even available Linux sales drove the hell out of both the eee PC in addition to the Wal-mart bargain $199 desktop. I think it’s great that MS if finally trimming down the operating system for smaller and portable devices, but it’s pretty much a $1 short and a day late. I can boot about any computer in the world with my USB key!

With the release of Windows 7 drawing ever closer, there is definitely no shortage of articles about it and Windows Vista as well.

Let’s start off with a post about a version of windows Vista I didn’t know existed “Vista Starter. Apparently this version is about as stripped down as it gets, and was designed for “developing nations”. In other words “the poor”. If you don’t have money – then you can browse the web, and that’s about it. And people wonder why Linux is popular in these countries.

I was surprised to read on Slashdot (of all places), that the Windows 7 beta seems to be going amazingly well, purportedly the most solid beta version of Windows put out to date. It looks like it’s so popular that some people are installing Windows 7 on their netbooks.

Another surprising post this week comes from Gizmodo where they answer the question “Why should you go 64 bit with Windows 7?“. Apparently the answer is memory. Like I always said – why would you want to use 4GB of memory in your box when Windows Vista (or XP, or whatever) can only use 3.3GB of it anyway in a 32 bit version. That coupled with the fact that like a year ago all kinds of devices and drivers didn’t work for squat in 64 bit windows. No more is the case I guess, and guess what? With 64 bit Windows you can use up to a Terabyte of RAM!! If you’re considering Windows 7, I guess you should be trying the 64 bit version unless you have all kinds of legacy gadgets.

Another unusual post was the one about the Microsoft REC (Retail Experience Center) store. They have setup a 20,000 square foot store (that you can’t shop at) to show retailers how their products should be displayed.

And if you’re sick of all this Windows Vista and 7 Hype, read How to make windows XP last 7 more years – you’ll be glad you did!

There’s all kinds of Windows news about this week, including the new version of Mac OS – Snow Leopard. It seems there was no mention of it at MacWorld, and it was Apple’s chance to beat the Windows 7 launch in mid-2009.
It seems as though in an attempt to foster good thoughts after the bungled “Vista Ready” campaigns, Microsoft will offer free Windows 2007 upgrades for anyone that buys a PC after June 2009. Is that really a deal? I mean come on – windows 7 is supposed to be out by that date. They should offer Windows 7 for free to anyone who buys a PC in 2009 period. Looks like there are 2 restrictions to the upgrades, you have to upgrade to the same language version, and you have to upgrade to the straight path (ultimate to ultimate, etc).

You know, this recent article reminds me of one Vista quirk I never wrote about, the fact the IE stores all it’s downloads in My documents -> Downloads folder. It’s funny I think that Windows seems to remind you about every GD thing in the universe you don’t want to know about (storing passwords, visiting secure sites) – but it never bothers to tell you where the downloads go. New users are just confused until they figure it out.

I read a post about Michael Dunner comparing Vista and Windows 7 security, bringing to the surface once again the problems with the evil UAC (User Account Control) in Vista. This is by far the most annonying feature that Microsoft has ever invented. I’ve blogged about this before – but how come each and every time that the IT rags write about UAC they don’t just come out and say that Microsoft was blatantly copying Linux (Ubuntu) when they created UAC? I mean, come on – in Ubuntu Linux even if you were the one that setup the PC you have your own account separate from root. If you try to do something on Ubuntu that your privelege does not allow, it prompts you for the “root” password So many things in Vista are blatant rip-offs of both Mac OS X (based on UNIX anyway) and Linux it’s not funny – from UAC, to the sidebar, Aero, screen and window effects, and more…the “new” versions of Windows are oh so….COPIED!

I came across another feature I didn’t know about in Vista this week, it’s the hidden checkboxes feature. Wish I’d known about this one awhile back.

You might also like to know about the new “Pre-Boot shells” that are coming available with some newer laptops. You can surf the web without ever entering windows and save up to 25% of your battery life at the same time. Pretty cool. My laptop has a Linux/Vista dual boot – and 95% of my time is spent in Linux anyway.