To Vista or not to Vista

19 Dec

Posted by Andy Brudtkuhl under Microsoft, Reviews

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Vista Logo

Everybody from bloggers to major publications like PC World are writing about Vista - what it does, why it’s great, why it sucks, how it copies Apple’s OSX, etc, etc, etc. I shared my first impressions on Vista - “Loving it!” - shortly after my first week of using Vista Ultimate. Zane says he will be waiting a few months to roll out Vista for CCU.

I couldn’t agree more. At this point it simply is not a feasible upgrade. So why do I love it but not recommend it for businesses? It’s simple - XP will be just fine for the forseeable future. Of the major benefits of Vista - Security, Usability, Efficiency - none provide benefits to warrant such an expensive upgrade. The opportunity cost of Vista adoption does not stack up to the ROI at the bottom line, at least it won’t for some time. By the time your business needs Vista the TCO for the adoption of the new platform will be much less as hardware prices and licensing costs fall.

So why am I ‘Lovin it’? Well it’s the most complete operating system I have had my hands on. And then there are the little things. It’s significantly faster with the same hardware I used on XP Pro. The filesystem changes create a far more organized environment. The ease of media use and Media Center integration is amazing. Oh, and it connects to my XBOX 360 allowing me to stream all my digital media to my living room. Vista will be the backbone of my fully connected and digital home.

Around every corner there are niceties that create a great overall experience. That’s why I’m loving it.

I also wanted to note the IDC research study that pointed out the Vista release would produce more than 100,000 new jobs and $70 billion in revenue for businesses in 2007 (not-Microsoft).

Tags: Microsoft, Windows Vista

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8 Responses

Nick

December 19th, 2006 at 3:36 pm
1

And let’s not forget DirectX 10. That, combined with Xbox 360 support, are the two main reasons I’m getting Vista.

As for businesses, I agree - they do not need to upgrade for some time. Most businesses didn’t upgrade from Win2k to WinXP for a long time.
Andy Brudtkuhl

December 20th, 2006 at 10:55 am
2

Yes it is a must for mediaphiles (did I make that word up?).

It’s the future of home entertainment - pure and simple.
Get A New Browser » Blog Archive » More on the iPhone

January 10th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
3

[...] You may not of heard about the other major announcement by Apple since the iPhone has taken over the tech news wire. Apple TV is Apple’s response to the Living Room War. They want to bring iTunes and digital content to your living room. I’m not too excited about this. For the money - go buy an XBOX 360. It does the same and much, much more. (Especially once you buy Vista). [...]
Get A New Browser » Blog Archive » Windows Vista Test Drive

January 17th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
4

[...] And yes, I’m still lovin it. [...]
John

January 23rd, 2007 at 3:01 pm
5

Thanks for the recommendations.

I just purchased 2 new computers from Dell with the $10 upgrade available to Vista.

I have a small CPA firm, and am tied to Windows XP.

As soon as Vista is available, and the computers can handle it, I will upgrade, but not for now per your recommendations.

Also, I heard menus are gone. I do almost everything by keystroke (a mouse is too slow) Am I going to lose the ability to do a lot of functions by keystroke (save, copy, print, exit, etc)? If so, Vista is a loser. It takes me longer to input tax data now than it did 20 years ago due to the fact I have to use a mouse to move from screen to screen.

Thanks for your comments.

John Brozowski
Andy Brudtkuhl

January 23rd, 2007 at 3:31 pm
6

John -

Thanks for your comment.

File menus are still accessible but are hidden. You can make them visible by using the ALT key. I am also a non-mouse guy and do everything by keyboard, including using the run command to launch applications. All this functionality still exists in Vista. The run command is no longer in the Start Menu. But all window commands (window key->r for run, window key->e for explorer) still work exactly the same.

There is a common misconception of hardware compatibilities with Vista. Vista will run on pretty much any system from which XP will run. But some of the bonus features, like the AERO windows and other graphical elements, will not work as well. All these graphical UI enhancements can be turned off. I am running Vista on my old Windows XP machine (a DELL Dimension 8400) that is about 3 years old. I had to do no hardware upgrades. Vista performs better than XP on the same hardware.

Are you familiar with ALT-TAB to flip through windows? That helps me speed up transitioning between applications.

Again, thanks for your comment.

- Andy
???????

February 11th, 2007 at 3:18 am
7

Before you waste $500 on VISTA ask yourself this, do i download music, movies or pictures for FREE? if you answered yes than i recommend that you dont get sucked into vista. it is exactly the same as XP accept it looks cooler AND IT WAS DESIGNED TO BLOCK MUSIC AND MOVIE DOWNLOADING. think about it hundreds, thousands of bands trying to make money and everybody downloads thier songs off limewire or morpheus or where ever they can. and what about multimillionare movies, most people like you and i just download them. VISTA has come to gether with an idea, to block all websites that offer FREE DOWNLOADING, to block all P2P software. the other day i decided to upgrade my morpheus and to my surprise anything that i wanted to download would be blocked, i typed in a song, tried to download it and it says, THIS IS A COPY RIGHTED VERSION. they are taking over our entertainment. in 5 years vista will be installed on every computer in the world. go to your daily harvey norman or WOW catalogue and what do you see, every single laptop, pc, now comes with vista. vista only came out like a month ago they would have to be mad to offer it already installed. maybe if you listen to the song DOWNLOAD THIS SONG by MC LARS you will understand. pass this on. tell everybody you know, about VISTA. just amagin, teenagers of the future having to pay for their music and movies.
everywhere you look there is freakin vista. we have no choice they are forcing us to upgrade, thats why all the new computers and laptops are coming out with vista, and then you have to go and buy xp because your not happy with vista. it sucks
Andy Brudtkuhl

February 12th, 2007 at 8:23 am
8

Let me clear up some things from our anonymous commenter (??????)…

First off Vista is not $500.

Secondly it does not block music and movie downloading. I am still able to use P2P services like bit torrent.

By the way ???????, if you are using morpheus you probably NEED vista’s extra security so your computer doesn’t blow up as morpheus infects your PC with virii.