The Month of Vista

First it was Beta 2, then Pre-RC1, then RC1. I must say there has been a dramatic progression in build quality and stability. The only problem I am having with RC1 that I didn't have with Beta 2 is getting the ATI Catalyst beta drivers to install so my x300 would work properly. However, even without the drivers I haven't run into any problems running day-to-day apps. Granted, I haven't tried any games so I will have to fire up SimCity 4 or GTA: San Andreas and find out.

Overall I am quite impressed with the added features in Vista. One of my favorite and most oft-used features is the new "instant search" that is located right in the Start Menu. Just hit Start and start typing - it will instantly search your personal folder and all installed applications. So, if you want to start up MS Word, typing "word" and hitting enter will do the trick. Very quick and very nice. Another useful (and good looking) feature is the new Sidebar which takes full advantage of the new Aero graphical interface. It's not quite as useful as other widget programs out there - the ones I have personally played with are Google Desktop 3 and the program formerly known as Konfabulator (a much better name than Yahoo! Widgets) - but as I said it is pretty to look at and is able to give me up-to-the-minute weather and stock quotes. Another cool feature is Aero itself and all the visual neatness it provides, like the new Win+Tab shortcut. It is used to cycle through items in the taskbar but now it actually graphically reduces all open windows into a 3-D looking stack which can be cycled through by repeatedly pressing the Tab key while holding down the Windows key. When the desired window is selected, releasing the keys causes the window to slide forward to fill the whole screen. All this is flawlessly executed even with my weak x300 graphics card - very impressive.

Most of the apps that I was having problems with on the Beta 2 release of Vista are working now. The few notable exceptions are CD and DVD authoring programs such as Nero Burning ROM, but I have found several alternatives, the best being the free ImgBurn 2.0.0.0 (search FileForum or FileHippo for this program). Video playback programs (basically everything except for Windows Media Player 11) have to shut down the Aero enhancements to properly play video files. My understanding is that this has something to do with DirectX since when VLC is set to another mode (such as Windows GDI), this switch is not necessary. This being said, Vista is usually very good about re-initializing Aero once the offending program is shut down. Very rarely do I need to manually restart Aero, and this usually occurs when an Opera plugin such as Quicktime causes Aero to deactivate. In this case, Aero does not come back on until Opera is completely exited, and even then it may need to be manually turned on.

Having used Vista regularly (and as my primary operating system even though I was warned against doing so by Microsoft), I am happy with the changes and I look forward to officially upgrading to the final release next year. Granted, it is still Windows and thus is by far inferior to many OSes out there. My ultimate dream would be for the nice folks at Apple to release OS X for all computers since it is already ported to the Intel platform. Since this is pretty unlikely (although possibly beneficial for Apple), my plan is to buy an Apple some time next year after Tiger is released. So, what do I get? I have been desiring a laptop ever since my sister got one and I realized how handy it could be. Assuming that the MacBook Pro line will be refreshed with Core 2 Duo processors, I think a MacBook Pro purchase sometime next spring could be highly likely. However, based on Apple's track record, who knows what products will be released between now and then? In fact, maybe something cool will be announced on September 12th at their "special event." We all know part of the announcement will be the iTunes movie store, but Apple is famous for their "one more thing" announcements. I'll keep my fingers crossed.