I recently tried out windows Vista and I was sadly disappointed. I use windows XP at work (programming), and I use mac at home. So I am familiar with both but tend to think OS X is a better more stable OS.
So What Did I Like?
This is pretty negative on a whole so I am going to try to start it off on a positive note. Vista seems much more responsive than xp. When I press the sleep button on my laptop, the screen fades and it goes to sleep right away.
I also really like the built-in search on the start menu, it is a far cry from quick silver on the mac or colibri on windows but it is much better than nothing.
And I like the UI, partially for the glossy effects but mostly for novelty.
No DVD Decoding Software?!?!?!
On a long car ride my wife popped in a dvd and windows media player started up, only to display a dialog claiming that the system did not have a compatible dvd decoder. W.T.F, on a mac if I pop in a dvd it just plays it; DVD's are common place now and people should not have to jump through hoops just to watch a movie. Looks like I am back to my old stable Media Player Classic, this is what windows media player should be (excusing the UI that is), it just plays everything without hassle.
DVD playback is one of those things that should just work. Way to go Microsoft you missed the boat yet again.
UAC - Windows Security Model
Believe it or not this was one of the features that I was looking forward to in Vista. I am used to a similar security model on the Mac OS X, where it asks you for a password if you install a program. If you adjust system settings you simply have to unlock the preference pane with your password.
So, when I recieved my first dialog box asking for elevated UAC permissions it filled my heart with glee. I only had to click 'Ok', I didn't need a password or anything special but still that is better than nothing. As time went on this became more and more annoying. Everytime I installed something or opened a zip file off the net with would ask me for permissions; When ever I change settings it would ask me for permission. The signal to noise ration os to low, end users will likely always just click ok (it doesn't require a password so it is just another dialog) and power users will probably set there system to elevate UAC permissions automatically without prompting. I have heard reports that UAC has been greatly improved since beta, I can't even imagine how annoying the early version was.
Way to go microsoft. You had a perfectly good working model from OS X and you screwed it up.
Windows Switcher
I can only assume that this feature is in response to OS X's expose. While it has all the eye candy and showy-ness of Expose might as well lay down and die if you consider usability. Here are my two big complaints with windows switcher:
- With many windows open, each window occludes the window behind it.
- When you mouse over the windows they are not labeled, meaning that you generally have to cycle each window to the front to see what it is.
When expose on the mac each window is shrunk until they all fit on the screen without overlapping. You can see each window plainly and it is easy to tell what each window is. If there is a question you can mouse over the window and it will pop-up the title of the window.
Windows switcher looks pretty but that is pretty much it; at its core it is just alt-tab wrapped in a glossy 3D interface, nothing more.
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