Microsoft is officially launching Vista today, the latest and “greatest” in its line of Windows operating systems. I say greatest in quotes because I for one have not been too overwhelmed by Microsoft’s latest OS. Microsoft claims that Vista is their most stable system yet, and that its new Aero interface improves usability. I caught Bill Gates on the Today Show yesterday with Meredith Viera, and she asked him why she should buy it. Gates proceeded to go into a rambling about Vista this and Vista that, but in the end didn’t really say anything convincing enough. Fortunately I have been able to try it for free, the full retail version, through Microsoft TechNet.
I installed it on this current laptop I’m writing on now (which has since been converted back to XP). While initially I was delighted by the “eye candy” aspect of Vista, I soon realized I was losing productivity. My laptop had constant issues with it, frequent rebooting itself, not detecting peripherals properly, etc. Granted, my laptop manufacturer will certainly be making a firmware update for Vista, but at a little more than a year old, it shouldn’t have to. Microsoft should accommodate to my needs if they want me to install Vista. I already had to double my RAM just to run the thing, I’m not willing to make any other concessions at this time when my XP works just fine and if I’m going to spend any money I’ll be looking into OS X before Vista.