Vista: First thoughts
January 8th, 2007
So I’ve been using Windows Vista for a few days now and I have some quick observations:
Hardware Requirements
Someone once said that what Intel gives, Microsoft takes - i.e. everytime Intel releases a massively fast processor, Microsoft makes an OS to ‘take advantage’ of this.
I don’t mean to say that Vista is a slow OS. On the contrary, it is quite fast, faster than XP in certain scenarios. But that speed comes at a cost: serious hardware requirements which means most current PC’s would be better suited to run XP.
So what are the requirements? Microsoft has an official post here. Basically Microsoft categorizes PC’s as either Vista capable or Vista premium.
Vista capable machines have at least an 800MHz processor, 512MB ram and a Directx9 capable graphics card.
Vista premium needs a 1Ghz processor, 1GB ram Directx9 WDDM card, audio, DVD, etc (though even a capable machine should require a DVD otherwise how would you install Vista?)
My recommended specifications would be any machine with a dual/quad/multi-core processor, preferrably 2- 4GB RAM (yes, GB) and any Directx9 WDDM card which supports 32bit color (for the aero interface)
Installation: mostly easy - boot off the DVD (Vista comes on a DVD, occupying around 2.5GB) and follow the prompts.
Stability: In my testing, RC1 was mostly stable. I did notice occational oddities (like Explorer swallowing 300MB of ram once but I guess that was temporary insanity and will be fixed with the RTM version.
Speed: very fast, but resource hungry.
Resource usage: 1GB ram, around 6GB of hard disk space (reqd min 6.9GB or so to install) and a lot of processing power. Quite simply this was unlike any OS I ever saw.
First Impressions - what’s new:
Vista represents a total redesign of Windows - yes it looks somewhat like XP but under the skin the architecture is totally different. At least that is what I heard. Anyway here are some of the features that I noticed as new. Yes, some of them were already in XP SP2..
- New Theme- Vista includes a new theme called Aero which includes transparent windows, (at least the frames are transparent) and cool special effects such as 3D flipping to select Windows. Lots of other little features exist like live previews of Windows in the taskbar and so on.
- New Interface - The interface has been mostly reworked. Basically clever scientists studied how trapped mice in mazes find cheese and decided to apply the logic to how humans find porn. Summary, you have to relearn a few things. Thankfully its mostly intuitive. Unthankfully you have to forget some of what you ‘learned’ with 95, 98, etc.
- New sidebar - It.. er… sits on the side of your screen and enables you to place little widgets - little mini programs represented which reside there. I see a big market for widgets in the future. Some say Microsoft were inspired from MAC OS X, when they developped this future. lies. Lies! all lies and malicious propaganda.
- Speed - On a fast PC, even with Aero enabled - everything seems to happen instantly - I think Vista achieves this by massively caching most of the operating system and preloading as much as possible into RAM. This is a very inefficient way of doing things, but it works. Think of Vista as the SUV of OS’s
- Security - Vista includes a Firewall and a Defender. The defender basically checks every program that attempts to run if it is a Microsoft program or not, and if not asks you whether you are sure you want to run it. Ok that’s an oversimplification but I’m feeling somewhat irreverant right now. (note: I think you can download Firewall and Defender for free if you use XP).
So why did Microsoft make Vista?
- Because XP is so yesterday. Vista is so wow.
- To battle spyware and virus (virii?): Millions of Windows PC’s belonging to clueless n00bs are being merrily hacked and attacked by spyware and viruses. Vista includes some stuff like Defender and Firewall which should make the PC more idiot proof. Problem is every time someone makes something idiot proof, better idiots (and hackers) come along.
- To keep up with fast hardware: Modern PC’s resemble workstations of the past - multiple processors, gigabytes of ram, and nothing to take advantage of that. So, Microsofts engineers probably had a conversation like this:
MS 1: Hey, people keep switching to Ubuntu. What can we do to make Windows better?
MS 2: I know, let’s make our OS load faster by loading it into RAM and cache everything we can. True it will be massively resource hungry, but that’s OK, it will be faster than anything else.
MS 1: OK done, but theres some leftover RAM still!
MS 2: I know, lets make a nice 3D interface and fill that up too! - The whole DRM thing: Somewhere along the line someone decided that an expensive PC should be used as a device for playing HD-DVD/BLU-RAY and other high def content. Microsoft wanted in on the action so decided to make an OS with lots of digital rights management built right in. Or so I was told by a chap with an eye patch. He muttered something about tilt bits but that’s all baloney!
So, is Vista for you? What advantages would you see?
Business clients: Recommended
- Security: Vista has a lot of security built in, plus it’s more idiot proof and harder to screw up than XP. This should mean less downtime, less tech support etc.Of course the new interface and architecture means a lot more complexity, and previous experience with Microsoft software shows complexity is proportional to number of bugs. Hope that aint the case here.
- Aero Interface: Nothing to do with Business as such but it’s cool and will match your art deco furniture.
- More support: By releasing Vista, Microsoft will slowly phase out support for XP. So, business customers should eventually need Vista over the long run. Unless they switch to something like Ubuntu. Or something.
- More software: Soon, we should see the first software applications that are made for Vista. They will make use of the Aero interface and various hardware tweaks to make your user experience more entertaining, secure, fashionable, and cure common problems like depression, insecurity, and the common cold, while making the world a better place. Expect to see that annoying message “This program is designed for Windows Vista” popping up pretty soon.
Power users: Depends
- L33t people will love the Aero Interface: Except for true h4×0rs who only use assembly language in a console, who will say “Bah”.
- Security: The security features won’t mean much to them as most power users have stuff like Zonelabs (Firewall) and Common Sense, to protect them from malware.
- Programmers: Those who use anything Microsoft will find benefits from Vista. For example, programs .NET will operate so fast that the results will arrive before you run the program.
- Gamers: In theory, Vista might benefit gamers, but Google tells me most games run slower.
- Photoshop users: People into graphics, rendering, etc may get benefits as Vista can use flash drives for caching… or you could take the $200 and buy a few GB of ram instead.
- HD: Vista supports HD (high definition video) support including HD DVD/BLU ray etc etc. it even includes all the DRM stuff built in so Hollywood will probably let you use it to watch an HD DVD or Blu ray disk. Or you could buy an Xbox or playstation. Still, its good to know… And, FYI linux probably won’t officially support this sorta stuff as linux wouldnt be able to legally licence the decoding technology.
n00bs, clueless people, parents, HP Users: Highly recommended
You know, those people who purchase their PC from a shop window because it looks nice. (no offense to HP), it could be Dell users…
- Aero interface is pretty and intuitive.
- Security features should help prevent their PC’s becoming zombie bots, and enable them to go online safely.. Or so we hope.
People with old hardware/on a budget: For older PC’s or those with less than 1GB ram, XP or Ubuntu would be better IMO.
Final thoughts:
Vista is the future, and it looks to be a colorful and interesting future. On the right hardware, it is faster than XP and more fun - thanks to the Aero interface it’s pretty and stylish, while the various security enhancements should help n00bs a lot..
So, um, that’s my preliminary review. I for one, welcome our new Vista overlords 
Update: Switched to a SATA 250GB drive and I was amazed that the whole installation process completed in around 20 minutes.
Update2: I’m told that Vista might not be able to play HD-DVD/Blu-ray and other HI def content on some PC’s due to licencing issues - for example where the PC’s monitor or graphics card do not support HDCP (but this applies to ALL OS’s and PC’s e.g. Apple etc, not just Vista powered PC’s).
Entry Filed under: Microsoft, Vista
my post is one year from the
10 Comments Add your own
1. JL | January 9th, 2007 at 6:06 am
Nice review.
Still don’t see what Vista has that can’t already be had for much less, in terms of cost and hardware requirements. Yes, it’s pretty… but so’s a linux box running Xgl. And you can run that on a computer from three years ago.
And I still don’t see any need to move away from XP. A properly configured SP2 install is very stable and you can easily match the functionality of Vista with third-party software. Plus there’s established driver support and proper support for OpenGL apps. If I recall, Vista only supports OpenGL in a DirectX wrapper.
In a nutshell, the only reason I see for Vista to exist is that Microsoft needs something new to sell, added to all the opportunities that a DRM enabled OS opens up for them.
2. n# | January 9th, 2007 at 3:46 pm
Thank you.
I guess they need something to Wow a new generation (and generate sales).
Vista is the way forward, whether people like it or not, millions of machines will have it so it’s existence affects PC users (whether or not we use Vista) in terms of future hardware trends, application compatibility, malware, and most importantly, cost.
The whole DRM thing will have legacy effects in terms of added hardware cost and processor overhead. Somewhere along the line we may see a split where companies make separate hardware for Vista (with DRM, etc) and normal hardware for ordinary PC’s for the rest of humanity. Or the companies may release drivers that disable all these (DRM) features for people using other OS’s.
I think Linux (and Windows XP itself) present Vista’s greatest challenge. Ordinary people who use Linux or XP will be hard pressed to find a reason to upgrade to Vista (except cosmetic reasons like Aero). However, hardcore XP users will find benefits in some applications running faster, so they are sure to make the switch.
I also think the hardware requirements, while not entirely necessary, will help push the sale of new hardware. I guess it’s a win-win situation - new hardware means money for vendors, and that hardware includes OEM Vista which means money for Microsoft.
Subtle hint of the moment: Vista show’s memory in gigabytes. So 1GB is described as 0.99GB. I guess that’s a gentle way to remind us how times are changing.
Something tells me windows 2009 will report my hard disk space in TB.
3. JL | January 9th, 2007 at 10:45 pm
Well, the Terabyte is almost here and it always amuses me how reviews of TB Harddisks feel the need to mention how many Mp3s you can store on them. The number is now so ludicrously high that it has lost all meaning.
Good points. I suppose I’m just bemoaning all that advancement in hardware being used to prop up an over-bloated Operating System.
If I remember right Vista’s DRM capability is supposed to go hand-in-hand with hardware based encryption which should be phasing in about now. Basically, what this means is that non-DRM OSs will simply not be able to access DRM content. I suppose it could be done, but it would mean a brute force approach which would be beyond the capabilities of most individuals.
I suppose I would find Vista easier to accept if there was a comparable commercial alternative. And the fact that I’ll be forced to upgrade at some point in the near future if I want access to the latest software.
4. xprt | January 11th, 2007 at 8:38 am
for me changing to vista was a desperate step (linux wasnt an option as all my needed apps were for win)
you know, the thing is, i bought an acer tm6460 notebook, which came with winxp pro and lots of preinstalled stuff, but after i installed all the apps i wanted to use, it started to behave like my 5 yrs old pc - running xp for that time, to be honest even worse! it took cc 5 minutes to completely boot all apps!!! amazing, isnt it?
of course i tried to restore my sytsem to factory state - no results.
so vista rtm seemed perfect, and to my greatest surprise vista is capable of recognizing almost all of my hardware and works perefectly - even battery time (wo original acer epower software) as acc. to factory spec. 3-3.5 hrs!
so i am quite satisfied with vista so far, its extremely fast, beautiful and definitely more stable than xp.
but, the downside is is sometimes quite annoying, vista is not bothered by the fact that i am logged on as admin, every time an app would need admin credentials the whole screen turns grey and waits for my command - that drives me mad, for gods sake i am the admin, i know what i want to do and i hate when a software thinks that i am not qualified enough (remember logged on as admin!)
properties of user accounts and accessing user folders neither so easy to do - it resembles like the way linux handles user accounts, but nothing that sophisticated - ms tried to hide other files other than that of users, but in reality, they only made the way of accessing them harder, but not impossible (i mean other users wo admin cred. are able to access not only user files on the hard drives (by default, with lot of work it can be solved, but anyways) - annoying, very annoying!
other os features, such as settings are also harder to access, as ms tried to make it easier for everyday user - so the result is that those who know exactly what they want to do, cant, because they have to go through endless procedures to get to advanced sytem settings.
for dummies and for people who only use some apps and internet regularly, the os is perfect, but for admins, its very easy to get extremely mad
still i dont seem to get the idea behind extreme system req, other than ms wanting more and more money…
5. JL | January 14th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
One if the problems I’ve found with branded computers, especially laptops, is that they are loaded with software that you will almost never need but are loaded by default and running all the time.
All these apps just leech resources and leave your brand new computer wheezing like a two year old geriatric. The absolute first thing I do whenever I get a new computer is to uninstall everything. If you look very closely at all this bloat you’ll find that the only reason that they are included is because the marketing department wanted to expand the feature list of the product. The actual benefit of all this software is as close to or equal to zero that you shouldn’t bother with it.
6. n# | January 15th, 2007 at 12:09 pm
When buying a PC from a manufacturer like Dell or HP, I usually reinstall the OS with basic driver support without all the crapware / nonsense ‘utilities’ but it’s becoming harder.
These days even buying a simple printer you need to install a 100mb driver and 2/3 spyware apps to ‘monitor’ your printer
Used to be easy to find the inf and dll’s necessary to make something work but thats rare now.
Thankfully Ubuntu is a breath of fresh air with things work minus junk. Though as Ubuntu and other *nix based platforms gain popularity I have a nasty feeling that manufacturers might look to these OS’s as their next target.
7. twitch | February 19th, 2007 at 11:52 pm
Besides the massive hardware requirements, does anybody not see the uncanny resemblance to Linux? I am a programmer who uses Linux on a daily basis, seeing as how it provides a C++ compiler ABSOLUTELY FREE, whereas Microsoft is going to easily charge you $600 for the full version programming suite(that being a low estimate). I mean, the “Show Desktop”, the “Gadgets”, the super bright interface that still seems low resolution, and the icons that by default almost identically match Linux sized icons. The main difference is that Vista costs $150 to $250 , which does not include Microsoft Office(Thats an additional $180). The other big difference is that Vista(atleast, every version on every computer I have seen so far, which is many) takes over 500mb of RAM to just idle! To sit there and do nothing! Now lets look at Linux. 100% Free, includes all office software for free, that is able to be read on Windows machines(yes, 100% transferable from one to the other), and it can easily be ran on machines that are 5 years old(if not older, the harddrive space is really the limit for Linux). I wish that everyone could break their Microsoft addiction and realize that for day to day tasks such as net surfing, word documents, music, etc., Linux is perfect! Super easy to use, and it’s FREE! Help bring down the greedy giant! Spread the word of Linux!
8. Tyler | April 3rd, 2007 at 6:28 pm
Linux isnt bad, but some people CANT use anything but WINDOWS because all other software companies either stopped making for, or don’t have the correct version, for any other OS aside from Windows. Vista isn’t terrible but it surely isn’t perfect.
9. Derf | April 3rd, 2007 at 7:34 pm
I have Ubuntu and I have removed Windows from my home completely. (not the glass ones
)
What’s going to happen is Linux distros will pop up with some pretty cool features in response to Vista. In fact something I am wondering - if Vista took 3-6 billion dollars for MS to develop - can they even afford to write another new OS? Vista may be their last big fling.
Windows 95 was probably in the low tens of millions of dollars to develop. Then W98 in the same ball park. Then XP - a major step up. Vista - can they even begin to think abt another new OS in less than ten years?
Vista may be Microsofts last hurrah - their next big move - a Linux - based OS!!!!
Derf
10. Derf | April 3rd, 2007 at 7:40 pm
Vista cost 3-6 billion dollars. They don’t have enough money to keep this up.
Linux will rise to the challenge. Microsoft is facing tough times.
My bet is their next big OS is going to be Linux-based.
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