coreyjames66 said:
In my humble opinion, this whole topic is just so much hoo ha.
Heh, I agree corey. I was just looking through Vista's new features, as posted on Wikipedia. Here are a few gems:
Internet Explorer is upgraded with support for tabbed browsing, RSS, a search box, a phishing filter, and improved standards support.
No! Internet Explorer will have
tabbed browsing?? This technology is way ahead of its time - it will never catch on! And a search box? What am I going to search? I already downloaded the Internet yesterday. In all seriousness, I'm glad that the spankin'-new, next generation of Windows will come with a browser that can do all the same things as the browser I'm using right now (think of a smoking-hot little animal with a bushy tail).
Windows Update: Software and security updates has been simplified, now operating solely via a control panel instead of as a web application.
Wait, I thought they were giving us a new version of Internet Explorer? I guess it's still not good enough for downloading updates.
Games: Every game included with Windows has been rewritten to take advantage of Vista's new graphics capabilities. New games include Chess, Mahjong Titans, Purble Place, and Hold 'Em.
Ah, finally we can all play poker with brand-new, DirectX 10-compatible graphics cards!
Search: significantly faster and more thorough search capabilities, similar to what is offered by Microsoft's own Windows Desktop Search, Copernic, and Apple Computer's Spotlight. Search boxes have been added to the Start menu, Windows Explorer, and several of the applications included with Vista.
The last time I used Windows' search function, I was looking for a file that
it said was missing. I found it, by the way.
The "My" prefix on folder names has been dropped, and "Documents and Settings" has been renamed to "Users". The "Pictures", "Movies", "Music" etc. folders now reside in the user's main directory, not under "Documents" as in previous versions of Windows.
The work that's gone into this new version of Windows is nothing to sneeze at, folks. It's things like renaming folders that make it no wonder that Vista has been delayed for so long.
And let's not forget:
Touch-screen support will be included.
So that the one guy who has a touch-screen monitor can feel that warm sense of satisfaction. Seems like using a touch-screen takes more energy than moving a mouse.
Granted, there are a few useful things, such as
Windows System Assessment Tool (WinSat), a built-in benchmarking tool which analyzes the different subsystems (graphics, memory, etc), and uses the results to allow for comparison to other Vista systems, and for software optimizations.
and
Windows Defender: Microsoft's Anti-spyware product has been incorporated into Windows, offering protection against spyware and other threats. Changes to various system configuration settings (such as new auto-starting applications) are blocked unless the user gives consent. New version uses Windows Automatic Updates, and is compatible with the limited account.
But knowing Microsoft, the Windows Defender will probably be a weak point ripe for exploitation.
All in all, I'd say this is definitely worth a couple hundred bucks and a complete overhaul of my system. Thanks, Microsoft.