I finally got my copy of Vista for my laptop yesterday, and after about a day of use, I am trying to gather my first impressions. I am going to ignore the installation process for this post. It is both what I expected and nothing like I would have imagined. I am also attempting to make the transition without looking things up on the internet. I will probably break before the day is out, but I figure this way I will find out where things are hidden in this version better.
I suppose the full name is Windows Vista Premium, which I think is one step below Ultimate. Here is a nice and shiny guide to compare editions. Looking at the guide, the only thing that Ultimate has over Premium that I am interested in is Bitlocker. And with the upgrade price coming in at $159, I won't be getting Ultimate. Hell, I am only using Premium because I got a free upgrade from XP for my laptop.
The first thing I noticed about Vista, other than the extended boot time, is the UI. My system is apparenty nice enough to be able to run Aero Glass which is the shiny shiny version. Had my system had not made the cut I would just be using the shiny version. Aero does have a couple of nifty little thing with it. Windows can have a level of transparency, but the only part that is transparent after the windows are open is the title and border, and only if it uses the Windows GDI to draw them. A program like iTunes, which draws all of its components, ends up with no transparency and ends up looking even more ugly and out of place than it already does. I think I would have been more impressed with this if you could set transparency levels for individual windows or even having the windows in the background being transparent. I know they could do this, because the windows fade in and out win maximizing and minimizing them. There is also a 3D flip for the different open windows. Just like tabbing through windows with alt+tab, but the windows move instead of just getting a little box with pictures of the windows. Um, it looks cool to flip through the windows, but I will probably only ever use it when showing it to people.
The second thing you notice is that you don't have a menu bar on any programs that use the Windows GDI...so, basically every other than iTunes. Apparenty, after years of doing one thing well, which is having a level of consistency accross the board when doing things, they have opted to throw all that out. Damn you Office development team. So yeah, good luck finding things. I had to jump into the help system to find the dialogue that adjusts the folder view...lame.
And more changing of things: When you right-click on the desktop there is no longer a 'Properties' option that opens the 'Display Properties'. Now it is called 'Personalize' and it opens a window with all the Appearance and Sound options...except for the more detailed items.
The sidebar...meh? I remember back when the wife decided that Konfabulator
(now Yahoo Widget Engine) was something to obsess over and I thought widgets were incredibly lame. Her obsession fascination only lasted a short time, and she dropped down to a couple of usefull widgets...I still thought they were totally lame. Then I got a laptop and decided I needed a better way to see how much power I had left than this tiny icon I had to hover over that sat in my system tray. So, I decided to try widgets again and found a couple worth using, and have happily used them ever since (and trying not to admit she was right). Well, Vista has a widget engine built in along with a sidebar to display them on. The widget gallery is still unimpressive to me, but I am sure it will get better. The sidebar itself annoys me. It makes a portion of the desktop totally unaccessible, you can't adjust the size, and you can't minimize it. It would also be nice if you could adjust the padding between widgets and remove the page flip/add widgets buttons from the top.
The taskbar is pretty much the same. The start menu is now a circular button that no longer says 'Start'. They have also segregated the core windows function icons from the other icons in the system tray (which was changed to 'Notification Area' in XP I think). At first I thought it was an alignment issue, then realized that it was always the same 3 icons so figured it was done on purpose. Later, when looking at the 'Taskbar and Start Menu Properties', I noticed that there is a listing for 'System Icons' and sure enough it was those three icons.
The Start menu itself is funky as hell, but I have not really messed with it enough to know if I like it better or not. Again with the total departures on this one. It is smaller-ish than XP version, but does not feel any more organized. A search bar has been added to do quick searches of installed items, favorites, and user's files, so yay, I guess. As far as the 'All Programs' listing goes, it is all a single pane with sliding panels. I think I would be more impressed if the folders were on top...like any other directory listing anywhere shows.
User Account Control: OMFG annoying. I tried to do everything with this on, but my sanity would not let me. After I am content with how things are working and I have gotten everything installed, I will turn this back on. I mean, it is a good idea to some extent, and I fully support good ideas.
I might write more as I play with it more. I really need to get in and tweak things. I am not happy with the overall performance just yet, and I am hoping I get to where I am happy instead of getting to a place where I have to settle. I am not quite dissappointed with the upgrade, I am just not sure if 'upgrade' is the appropriate word to use.
