Just a little more of Microsoft Vista…

Now that Vista has finally gone “RTM” ( Release to Manufacturing ) I am sure many people are just itching to acquire it through retail or preinstalled on a new PC , or an express upgrade to Vista from your PC manufacturer.

Those users who get it from their PC maker have little choice on which version they get, those waiting to purchase it in a shrink wrapped box via retail have a major decision to make: What version?

Wait one moment, What Version? Yes counting all flavours in 32 bit and 64 bit there are more than 12 versions but to be fair most people will only need to decide on 3 or 4 variations of this new operating system from Microsoft.

Come January 30 , 2007 the release date for Vista there could be alot of confused PC users who want Vista. Microsoft’s site has a break down of the versions available just point your browser to this site and get a company P.R. created page -

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/editions/default.mspx

But if you want a real detailed explaination of all the versions and what is included and missing then you’ll want to go here

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/winvista_editions.asp

My take on it: for home use Vista Premium or Ultimate is your choice, for business it will be the Enterprize or Business editions that will be rolled out.

Whatever choice you do make ensure that your PC has the “horsepower” to run it to ensure an excellent user experience!

Vista is coming… So?

It might be only a matter of days or hours from now that Microsoft announces that it’s new Operating System ” Vista ” goes gold… being sent to manufacturing. How many years has it been since we last saw a new OS from Microsoft? could it be over 4 years WOW. In the world of technology 4 yrs relates to 5 or 6 generations of new hardware: cpu’s video cards, motherboards, even hard drive technology. There is technology that did not even exist 4 or 5 years ago… flash memory first comes to mind.

So what does this all mean to the average PC user? not much. Once you get past all the ” eye-candy ” that Vista will throw at you, it is still only an operating system. Most users don’t have much to do with OS directly. Sure you create, modify, and delete files be it a Word document, a spreadsheet in Excel or even Pictures you have taken with your digital camera. But that’s my point, users interact with specific applications, they don’t care how Windows, OS X, Linux take care of all the rudimentary tasks, there just what to ” click ” on an icon and what they expect to happen does happen.

The technical media is rampant with articles of what Vista can do and not do compared to Windows XP or even Apple’s OS X. Only geeks or users mildly interested in such things read these articles. How many times can one keep reading someone’s opinion or comparison of different features or lack of. The old days where you had upto a dozen computer magazines and even tech ” newspapers ” is gone. Too expensive to produce and not a big enough audience. Only on the net are these types of computer or technology based media cost effective.

Most people will have their first experience with Vista only when they purchase a new PC or their place of business rolls out Vista. The icons that they are all familiar with are still there even though they look much more colourful, application windows are still there BUT look it becomes partially transparent when something behind it is covered. WOW !

Sure Vista looks nice, but is it more secure. Will it be able to fend off the nasties that exist when using a browser or sending e-mail. No matter what Microsoft have or will say about the most ” secure ” windows yet… Time is the only way we will find out if it is secure.

Hopefully, at last we will have an OS that will truly be plug and play. No matter what you connect to your PC Vista will find it and through some magic make it work. Oh my goodness my PC is finally in like a MAC!

What are your thoughts ?