So, I finally moved onto Windows Vista. Actually, the word “finally” does not really fit here - it’s still very fresh, and if I had it my way, I wouldn’t be on it yet. But, after trying a Macbook Pro and giving it up, and realizing my laptop screen on my Toshiba laptop with Windows XP was a lost cauase, I finally had to move on.

Overall, I’d like to note that I am satisfied with Vista!

Pros :

• Cool design. It looks sharper and nicer than XP, or Mac OSX.
• Enhanced security - altho it’s no Mac when it comes to defeating viruses, it has a strict permission system on by default that prevents sketchy programs from running without your permission. I turned it off because I know what I’m doing - but for the everyday user, this is a much more reliable security gate than SP2 that was patched for XP a long time ago!
  
• MUCH MUCH MUCH easier navigation through Windows Explorer, control panel, etc. It has a top bar that shows the path depth, and all the items are clickable. Also, the tree is preserved, and there is a file preview/spec report bar at the bottom. Traditionally on XP, this was on the left-hand side, and would show only if you’re not in the explorer mode - it was either the preview, or the tree. I love the tree navigation, so this meets both my needs perfectly.
• Gadgets - Oh my god. Finally, something equivalent to the widgets on a Mac. Please don’t be an iFag and say “Well Mac had it a long time ago, they copied it, etc. etc.”. That’s not the point. Microsoft followed the good example, and they added it. That’s all that matters - it’s there. Also, there is a great documentation on line on how to develop your own gadgets.
• Better start menu. Instead of the squares flying out to show the sub-items, it does the sideway scrollling thing WITHIN the start menu box - just like Mac’s Finder does when you delve into folders. Another great copy from Mac OSX.
• Despite my worries, it ran Illustrator/Photoshop CS2 just fine without any noticeable lags.

Cons :

• My printer doesn’t work with it yet. I should have just plugged the damn thing in and let Vista configure it, but I made the mistake of inserting the original white CD that came with the Lexmark 6250. That driver wouldn’t work on Vista. After I installed that, Vista installed its own driver. Now, there is a conflict. I tried removing it and re-installing it. Did not work. I need to clean everything that has to do with my printer and start again.
• The task manager won’t end my tasks when I click on “end” when something crashed. It was weird - instead of just quitting it, it went on trying to “find a solution” for a full minute. When I clicked on cancel, it won’t shut down the crashed programs (Photoshop and Messenger crashed at the same time, somehow).
• Installation took so freakin long. It is a large chunk of a software. Booting takes longer than on OSX for sure - which is a shame. But if I upgrade the RAM even more (1.5 is what I have) it will be faster, and at the end of the day I’ll still pay almost $1,000 less than what I would have paid for a 15.4 inch macbook pro. I”ll do a detailed introduction on my new laptop tomorrow. I won’t disclose the model right now!
• Bloody thing won’t run Homesite properly. Well, let me explain more - Homesite opens files on my FTP servers directly through the Macromedia FTP/RDS server system. That thing doesn’t work on Vista very well. It opens existing files without a problem, but cannot generate new files on there. “Save As” is not an option, and neither is creating a new file. I had to scrap it, and finally move onto Dreamweaver, although I feel that Homesite was a much lighter, code-friendly software. Oh well.

I’ll keep writing as I go along - and you can decide whether you want to move onto Vista or not!

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 31st, 2007 at 12:32 am and is filed under Gadgets and Electronics, Software. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.