In Which Vista (for once) is Not a Total Bitch
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
Excuse the moment of glee, that's pretty much my reaction over a new computer. Slaved over it for all of 48 hours or so to transfer files and install drivers and Firefox plugins, but now I'm done.
I love the monitor. My old one might as well have been a TV. And the CPU runs really quietly. No dull roar here.
So, been running the new system for all of two and a half days now, and Vista isn't that bad, honestly. I actually really like it. My thoughts on various aspects of it:
Pros: I do sort of miss the 'Up a Folder' button, but the new line for where the folder is located is more functional than I thought it'd be. And the search located in the menu is handy. The graphics are a lot better, and italics are anti-aliased so nothing looks remotely jagged anymore. The desktop gadgets? Pretty cute, and some of them are fun to play with. Nice to have a little slideshow of your photos if you want. And the little note pad is kind of endearing. RSS Feed is good for a quick look at the news.
A lot of the classic games (i.e. Solitaire, MineSweeper, and Hearts to name a few) have been given a facelift with some animations, but you can turn off the animations if you'd rather not have them on.
The interface is exceedingly shiny and colorful. Everything's neatly done, and the Aero is pretty beautiful, but there are cons to that. Windows Movie Maker has been given a revamp, with some new pan/zoom effects. All PlaysForSure/Certified for Vista devices should integrate natively (like my Zen V Plus), so there shouldn't be problems there. iTunes, Firefox, AIM, Paint.NET, AVG Free, Spybot, and a few other third-party programs have all integrated just fine, along with 7-zip, my RAR file unpacker. All of Microsoft's Windows Live stuff has worked, of course.
WMM's changes allow a lot of new effects to be written easily, so this should be interesting to see what custom effects end up headed our way.
Directx10. 'Nuff said, I'm waiting to see StarCraft 2.
Overall, not as bad as I thought it'd be. But there's not much here that wasn't already available in XP.
Cons: So. Much. RAM. Needed. It's honestly ridiculous that M$ thought that a computer with 1 gig of RAM could run this - I only had Firefox (one tab) open the other day when I checked, and it was still pushing 1.3-1.5 gigs of RAM. I can't give a decent comparison now because I've got Teatimer and AVG running in the background as well, but geez. I see why it was laggy or not even working for a lot of people now. Epic phail in efficiency there, M$. Only reason mine hasn't gone whacky as well is because I waited around for a computer with 4 gigs of RAM to go on sale.
UAC popups are an annoying one or two clicks more, but much improved with SP1, I hear. SP1 was preinstalled, so not many worries there. Though it blanking out the screen before going to the UAC popup is a tad aggravating. No prompts to rename any folders or anything.
Compatibility, right now, is the main problem for a lot of people. I don't really game, so the only one I might play is StarCraft, and that's supposed to still be compatible (despite going through Windows 98, Windows XP, Macs, and Vista now; holy wow, Blizzard). However, a lot of the thirdparty programs known and love may not as of yet have a Vista counterpart, and if you're running a 64-bit, that pushes it a bit further. The only program I'm waiting around for is Unlocker's 64-bit version, but it's a little odd to feel so limited in the way of third-party applications.
Windows Movie Maker has been changed up quite a bit, so for WMM fans it's definitely a downfall to lose Hitthebongo's lovely transitions. Sigh. Otherwise, not much there to talk about.
GIFs can no longer be viewed within Windows except for the first frame; to see the whole animation, you have to use a browser or another program that can view them. Shouldn't be too much of a problem, though it is a few extra clicks for what was easily done in XP.
Shinier and slightly cleaned up in some areas, somewhat lacking in a lot of others. Vista is probably not too bad for the general user, will be a bit of a terror to some gamers, and horridly laggy without the right amount of RAM, which seems to be in the range of 2 - 4 gigs as a bare minimum.
As for me? I'm just happy I'm no longer running something with half a gig of RAM. ^_^
(and omg I have a DVD drive =.=;; It is extremely sad that i'm getting gleeful over it, of all things)
Excuse the moment of glee, that's pretty much my reaction over a new computer. Slaved over it for all of 48 hours or so to transfer files and install drivers and Firefox plugins, but now I'm done.
I love the monitor. My old one might as well have been a TV. And the CPU runs really quietly. No dull roar here.
So, been running the new system for all of two and a half days now, and Vista isn't that bad, honestly. I actually really like it. My thoughts on various aspects of it:
Pros: I do sort of miss the 'Up a Folder' button, but the new line for where the folder is located is more functional than I thought it'd be. And the search located in the menu is handy. The graphics are a lot better, and italics are anti-aliased so nothing looks remotely jagged anymore. The desktop gadgets? Pretty cute, and some of them are fun to play with. Nice to have a little slideshow of your photos if you want. And the little note pad is kind of endearing. RSS Feed is good for a quick look at the news.
A lot of the classic games (i.e. Solitaire, MineSweeper, and Hearts to name a few) have been given a facelift with some animations, but you can turn off the animations if you'd rather not have them on.
The interface is exceedingly shiny and colorful. Everything's neatly done, and the Aero is pretty beautiful, but there are cons to that. Windows Movie Maker has been given a revamp, with some new pan/zoom effects. All PlaysForSure/Certified for Vista devices should integrate natively (like my Zen V Plus), so there shouldn't be problems there. iTunes, Firefox, AIM, Paint.NET, AVG Free, Spybot, and a few other third-party programs have all integrated just fine, along with 7-zip, my RAR file unpacker. All of Microsoft's Windows Live stuff has worked, of course.
WMM's changes allow a lot of new effects to be written easily, so this should be interesting to see what custom effects end up headed our way.
Directx10. 'Nuff said, I'm waiting to see StarCraft 2.
Overall, not as bad as I thought it'd be. But there's not much here that wasn't already available in XP.
Cons: So. Much. RAM. Needed. It's honestly ridiculous that M$ thought that a computer with 1 gig of RAM could run this - I only had Firefox (one tab) open the other day when I checked, and it was still pushing 1.3-1.5 gigs of RAM. I can't give a decent comparison now because I've got Teatimer and AVG running in the background as well, but geez. I see why it was laggy or not even working for a lot of people now. Epic phail in efficiency there, M$. Only reason mine hasn't gone whacky as well is because I waited around for a computer with 4 gigs of RAM to go on sale.
UAC popups are an annoying one or two clicks more, but much improved with SP1, I hear. SP1 was preinstalled, so not many worries there. Though it blanking out the screen before going to the UAC popup is a tad aggravating. No prompts to rename any folders or anything.
Compatibility, right now, is the main problem for a lot of people. I don't really game, so the only one I might play is StarCraft, and that's supposed to still be compatible (despite going through Windows 98, Windows XP, Macs, and Vista now; holy wow, Blizzard). However, a lot of the thirdparty programs known and love may not as of yet have a Vista counterpart, and if you're running a 64-bit, that pushes it a bit further. The only program I'm waiting around for is Unlocker's 64-bit version, but it's a little odd to feel so limited in the way of third-party applications.
Windows Movie Maker has been changed up quite a bit, so for WMM fans it's definitely a downfall to lose Hitthebongo's lovely transitions. Sigh. Otherwise, not much there to talk about.
GIFs can no longer be viewed within Windows except for the first frame; to see the whole animation, you have to use a browser or another program that can view them. Shouldn't be too much of a problem, though it is a few extra clicks for what was easily done in XP.
Shinier and slightly cleaned up in some areas, somewhat lacking in a lot of others. Vista is probably not too bad for the general user, will be a bit of a terror to some gamers, and horridly laggy without the right amount of RAM, which seems to be in the range of 2 - 4 gigs as a bare minimum.
As for me? I'm just happy I'm no longer running something with half a gig of RAM. ^_^
(and omg I have a DVD drive =.=;; It is extremely sad that i'm getting gleeful over it, of all things)