The Vista I see!

Vista is to be Microsoft’s next generation operating system. The English word vista is a synonym for sight or view. Synonyms are different words with similar or identical meanings and are interchangeable. Now thanks to Wikipedia we have a clear understanding of what Microsoft has intended for Vista to be.

I have not personally installed or for that matter ever used Vista, however I have read lots of reviews, and viewed screenshots and videos via the Internet. And thanks to Bernie, the CBWUG members were presented with a live working version of Vista RC1.

First off Vista lives up to its name, lots of visual effects and eye candy. Thanks to Aero you have visual effects such as glass-like interface elements that you can see through. A live thumbnail is displayed when placing the mouse pointer over a taskbar item, showing the content of that window. Windows Flip and Flip 3D allows you to flip through open windows providing a live thumbnail of each window. A new feature called Instant Search helps you find and start almost anything on your computer. Just type in a word, a name, or a phrase, and Instant Search will start your program, hopefully the one you wanted.

Vista contains a number of new security features that are designed to make Vista-based computers more secure. User Account Control is one way to improve security of your computer by giving you the ability to decide if software is allowed to make changes to your computer. Users normally run in a limited user mode and are ask for permission to do administrative task in Vista.

Windows Sidebar is a pane on the side of the Windows Vista desktop that organizes gadgets and makes them easy to access. Gadgets are mini-applications that sit in the Windows sidebar. Gadgets can connect to the web and deliver weather information, news updates and other useful web information. Gadgets can also have any number of purposes not web related such as games, sticky notes, and a clock.

I must say Microsoft has done a great job of integrating a lot of visual effects and security into Vista. While this may be new to Vista and Windows users, those of us that have been sampling the other operating system have already been blessed with these visual effects and better security.

Vista is hardware hungry; to fully get all the visual effects that Vista has to offer, you will need a very powerful computer. If you think you have a computer that has the power to run Vista, simply go for an upgrade. Before you run to the store and grab Vista and dive into an install, I would suggest downloading and running Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor. After running Upgrade Advisor, you may be surprised to find you computer is not as powerful as you thought.

Your other options are buying a Windows Vista Capable PC or a Windows Vista Premium Ready PC. Which one do I want? Here’s the scoop! Computers with the Windows Vista Capable PC logo will deliver the core Windows Vista experiences such as security, and Instant Search but may not provide Aero features. PCs meeting the Windows Vista Premium Ready requirements can deliver the Windows Aero visual effects.

Your last and most likely the best option, just wait and purchase a new PC with Vista pre-installed, everything should work. If things don’t work, all is not lost; you can make friends with some guy in India.

Now comes the fun part, what version of Vista do I want? Here’s how it works, Microsoft has made one Ultimate version and disabled certain features in the Ultimate version to create the other versions. Here are your choices: Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, and Ultimate. Home Basic is for low-end hardware or for users that have very limited needs. I would stay away from Home Basic; it’s cut to the bare bone necessities. Business is just what the name implies, has little to offer most home users and is lacking in multimedia features; I’ll bypass that version also. Looks like we are left with just two options, Home Premium and Ultimate. I think most users will find Home Premium will fill their needs with a modest price tag and most wanted features, however more green means the Ultimate computing experience, in Windows that is. The Complete PC Backup imaging tool and the BitLocker drive encryption feature are disabled in Home Premium. I guess Microsoft knows that most home users never backup or encrypt their data anyway. The Ultimate version is the only choice for serious Windows users.

Carolyn is a serious Windows user and I’m serious about getting X.org and the X Window System working on a Linux box. Well you guessed it, our next computer will have Vista Ultimate Edition!