After my computer decided to stop booting Windows XP Pro I decided to download and install Windows Vista Beta 2. It's been an interesting trial and error experience but I finally have it installed and running. I first had to ditch my old computer (Vista doesn't support the IDE driver that was built in 2001). I was able to install it on a brand new Dell, but I wasn't able to upgrade Windows XP Pro, I had to install from scratch. I'll probably be better off in the long run, I still hate how Dell insists on installing four million applications by default.
My first impression of Vista: "Cool Stuff". I like the visual changes they have made, I like the fading, the new transparency, the new start menu, the new explorer. I also like the gadget side bar, the new task bar, and the new task switcher. I also like IE 7, but there is no way to change the default search bar. It looks like it just hasn't been added yet, I am sure they will let me change it to Google eventually.
It comes with a few new apps like Windows Calendar and Windows Contact Manager, but they don't seem very useful. There is also some sort of collaboration app built-in, but that doesn't seem very useful either. Perhaps I need a few other users to help me test. The built-in search bar in the start menu seems to be a Google Desktop wannabe, but it appears to work rather well (I don't have a lot of data to test with yet).
I have only needed to install the following applications so far (they all work great w/ Vista):
Firefox
OpenOffice (Site doesn't work w/ IE 7 yet)
GAIM
Putty
Programmers Notepad
TurtoiseSVN
Thunderbird (for testing)
One really annoying "feature" that took two days to figure out is how to make my fonts look like crisp and clear. I was about to give up when I stumbled upon this setting:
Start->Control Panel->System and Maintenance->System->Advanced System Settings->Performance Settings->Click "Custom"->Uncheck "Smooth edges of screen fonts"
That setting has made all the difference in the world. Maybe today I can go home without a headache from my monitor.
Another issue is that I upgraded the video driver to the recommended version and I lost all of the cool transparency and window effects that I had on day one. :( I also haven't figured out how to turn off the annoying security pop-ups that open anytime I try to access an "Admin-Only" section of Windows.
I am finding the new control panel very complicated. It reminds me a lot of Perl in the fact that there are 50 ways to accomplish the same task. Navigating around the new control panel is frustrating, especially with the annoying "Admin Only, Are you really sure you want to do this?" pop-ups everywhere.
Overall, it looks like Microsoft has security as a top priority for this release. They are also finally catching up to Apple's cool windowing effects. And it won't take much more before they are caught up to Google on their desktop search capabilities. I can't think of any real compelling reason for anyone to upgrade besides the improved security features. Perhaps I'll find more in the coming days...
