Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Monday, 08 September 2008 16:39
Opinion and Analysis
Page 5 of 6
Reason number 9 is the familiarity and evolution of the Windows desktop experience. Vista is unquestionably the best version of Windows ever, especially after the improvements in SP1 that reduced the number of UAC prompts you received performing different system tasks.
Of course, UAC prompts can be turned off altogether if you don’t like them, but Vista’s desktop experience is the most polished, and for years-long Windows users, by far the most familiar.
I’ve used Mac OS X for years, but I still find Windows so much more familiar. I guess that’s a personal choice, but Vista has a much better interface than XP, and I prefer it to Ubuntu, other Linux versions and Mac OS X.
Vista greatly improves the “Start Menu”, has an improved “Windows Explorer”, has smarter wizards, more options to tweak the interface itself, built-in search that works quickly, great improvements in the graphics used to represent the system and all its icons, the best “tablet PC” experience, a better “Media Center” than was available in XP, a better network and Wi-Fi management system and more.
Overall, Vista is the best looking and working version of Windows yet, with an OS like Ubuntu still having a long way to go to catch up.
Mac OS X, on the other hand, is also highly polished and certainly gives Vista a run for its money, but it comes down to personal preferences, and when faced with Ubuntu, XP, Mac OS X or Vista, my personal choice is the Vista desktop experience.
The 10th reason to choose Windows Vista is because of Microsoft. Yes, it’s the company many love to hate, but Microsoft see all the competitive threats out there, and continues to change, improve and evolve. My visit last week to the Australian Microsoft Tech Ed 2008 in Sydney certainly demonstrated that - to me, at least.
IE 8 beta 2 is arguably the best browser available, even despite the introduction of Google Chrome, the success of Firefox 3, the availability of Safari and the Opera alternative. That said, I have all five browsers installed on my system, and I actually like to use them all. It's something no other OS can claim!
SP1 fixed many issues from the original Vista. Microsoft has released an improved Desktop Search version 4 that improved on the one built into Vista. And improvements to Vista keep on coming frm Microsoft.
Microsoft is also taking all the advances in Vista and Windows Server 2008, and is building them into Windows 7. It will be the first version of Windows that will use the same drivers as the previous version – or at least, that’s the promise Microsoft is currently making.
Microsoft says this is because Vista made a lot of changes to the underlying hardware driver subsystem, and as such, there is no need to change them for Windows 7. We’re yet to see if this really pans out, but for now, this is one Microsoft promise I’m believing.
My final thoughts are on page 6. Please read on!
