My Vista Experiences

Okay, so I've been a bit harsh on Vista lately. I used it lightly in pre-RTM form from Beta 2 until RC2, and generally found it to be pretty good, for a beta. But, as I became a more seasoned computer user, got deeper into Linux, and started researching more online, I quickly came to realize just how deficient it was compared to other options.

However, I like to consider myself a pretty level-headed person. While I love FOSS, I'm not an extremist, and I think closed-source software has its place in our society. A bit of yin in your yang if you will. So, when my university struck a deal with Microsoft whereby we get Vista Ultimate for free (well, 8 bucks for the disc and processing), I decided I should put my money where my mouth is and go ahead and give it a try. So last night, I got my copy and loaded it up on my M90. This thread is to outline my thoughts, good and bad, and give comparisons and useful insights where I can.

Note: I feel like my position and recent use of the pre-release Ubuntu 7.10 gives me a good point of comparison, and will make such comparisons occasionally.

Installation/Post Installation
While nowhere near the 30 minute install that Microsoft once promised, I found the overall installation to be pretty solid and easy. I went ahead and nuked my recent Ubuntu 7.10 alpha 5 partition and loaded Vista up (along with XP on another partition). One thing I really like about Vista is that it allows you to do a clean install to another partition from within XP. This was despite the fact that the Vista disc I have says "Upgrade Only." I think it's a really simple way to be able to install Windows, especially for people buying it and installing themselves. They can do a clean install without ever having to touch their BIOS configuration or a partition editor.

Post installation was also pretty good, especially compared to XP. Pretty much all my drivers were included on the disc, including wireless, graphic, and media card reader. Though, to be fair, Ubuntu also does this pretty well on my machine, but YMMV. One beef was that the graphics driver was really old... 97.49 actually. Vista didn't want to update to the latest versions (163.44 now), telling me that 97.49 was the latest. So, I tried uninstalling the drivers to install some Xtreme-G drivers. However, upon uninstalling the drivers, it completely lost sight of my graphics card altogether, forcing me to do a system restore. That was pretty annoying.

One thing that really bugs me is the resource usage. With Windows XP, I'm usually sitting at about 1-2% CPU usage and 300MB or so of memory usage. In Linux, I average about 2-4% CPU usage, but only about 200MB of memory usage, and that includes constant indexing of files. So, imagine my dismay when I booted up Vista to see an average of 5-10% CPU usage and over 600MB of memory usage. That's even higher than the Beta 2 days, back when things were really slow. After installing AV and a few applications, while running IE7 I'm currently sitting at 820MB. Good thing I upgraded to 2GB of RAM a few months ago...

Updates were pretty bad. I only had about 35 updates to install initially, which I did. I then rebooted, only to find two more updates to install. Okay, installed those, rebooted. That was yesterday. Today, I boot up to find 2 more updates to install... dated all the way back to May and June. Why didn't I get notified of them yesterday? I don't know. But hey, it's less than a clean install of XP, and certainly better than the 300 updates I had to do to Ubuntu alpha 5 the other day. Of course, Ubuntu is in alpha stage (with nearly nightly builds and updates) and Vista has been RTM for about 9 months, but compare them if you must.

Overall, though, it was a pretty decent installation experience. Stuff worked pretty easily, requiring only new graphics drivers and touchpad drivers. The install was nowhere near 30 minutes, and was quite longer than XP and Ubuntu (both of which I just cleanly installed this past weekend). But it was simple, intuitive, and had a lot of pretty, high-res, glossy pictures and icons. I had some frustrations from updates like always, but it wasn't as bad as I was expecting. We'll see if the easy install holds up 6 years from now just as XP is now much more difficult and time-consuming to install.

UI Changes
Well, Aero is pretty. I'll give you that. Coming from Compiz fusion with Linux, there's nothing here I haven't seen before. However, while Aero is less stunning at first glance, I do appreciate the more subdued look. Compiz is usally just too much for me for day to day use. The customization options are pretty drab though. And while I have found a few gadgets useful, it's nothing you can't get even through Yahoo widgets, and Sidebar consumes a lot of resources. In the interest of getting the full Vista experience though, I leave it on, though something keeps nagging me to turn it off.

I'm not a fan of the new Explorer. The up button is gone, which is annoying. Breadcrumb can be useful, but it only goes so far before it gets the address bar cluttered. Also, if you work in a business environment, you're often used to being able to type in specific addresses (especially for files and folders on network drives). Not going to happen with breadcrumb.

The menu bar is gone, but it's not really gone. You have to hit Alt to bring it up. It's not a big deal, but if you're going to hide it and then not immediately tell people how to bring it back up, at least make the options easily accessable (as in IE7's "Tools" menu). Apparently, Microsoft missed that memo though. The context-sensitive options are also gone, which seems dumb. There are just random questions and icons thrown throughout the system's Explorer windows, which just seems dumb. And while the icons are pretty and there are finally thumbnails (a feature in Nautilus and Konquerer for Linux for years, though just coming to OS X as well), the views just don't seem to be as functional as other systems, and more glitz over performance. This is a common complaint with OS X's Finder, though at least Apple finally got the message, and is revamping Finder for Leopard.

Also, what's up with stuff randomly changing folders? I suddenly go from my Videos folder (thankfully now it's own folder) to all of a sudden I'm in a "Public Files" folder. I would assume this comes from the remnants of Longhorn's Virtual Folders days, but it is pretty awkward.

Stuff is pretty hard to find in Vista right now. I understand things have to change eventually, but it's a bit jarring when you've kept system options and apps in the same place for the past 10 years and suddenly change it for no apparent reason. The display properties is completely hidden now, but it's still there (seems to be a recurring theme with Vista). They've stuffed so much stuff into the Control Panel that it's just getting way too cluttered. Indeed, they seem to cross-reference things over and over... why do I have a separate area for "Color Management?" Is it not enough to have that in my graphics drivers. Why couldn't you just put it in with the display settings? And why are Windows Defender and Windows Firewall not just included in the Security Center like in XP? These things just don't make sense and only clutter things up.

In the interest of not making this a novel, I'll stop here, though I could keep going on and on about the UI changes that just don't make sense. I may discuss them later in future updates. Later on, I'll tackle application compatibity, game performance, and so forth, so if you care, check the thread ever now and again. Overall, my experience is pretty mixed right now. There are things I like and things I don't, so I'll reserve judgement for now.

Paul Mom! Hot Pockets! NBR Reviewer

deputy963 Notebook Evangelist