Windows Vista: The good and bad
Bad: Windows Vista ships in far too many product editions, requiring users to make hard decisions about which to get and, ultimately (pardon the pun) spend too much money to get all the features they want. For consumers, there are really only two choices: Vista Home Premium and Vista Ultimate. Both are expensive, but both are also feature-rich. To choose, simply look at the Ultimate features that aren't available in Home Premium and decide whether you can live without them.
Good: On the other hand, Microsoft is now making previously niche features like Tablet PC support and Media Center available to a much bigger audience than ever before. More to the point, these features are now available in retail versions of Windows for the first time. I cannot imagine why they waited this long.
Good: Windows Vista is easier and faster to install than ever before, and that's true if you're an individual user or a corporate admin seeking to deploy the system automatically across numerous desktops. Vista's componentized design makes this possible.
Good: Vista is beautiful, and all that FUD you read about needing new hardware to run the Aero user interface is false. If you have a reasonably new PC (i.e. one that is less than two years old), Vista should run just fine, and it will look wonderful doing so.
Bad: Like all Windows versions, Windows Vista is a memory hog, and you should take Microsoft's minimum RAM recommendations as the comedy they are. You will want at least 1 GB of RAM to run Windows Vista, and 2 GB is the sweet spot if you're a heavy multitasker like me, a gamer, or a frequent user of creativity applications. That said, RAM is cheap, so this isn't the huge problem some will make it out to be. But it is an inconvenience.
Good: The Windows Vista user interface is a big improvement over that of XP, with integrated search features that really work. It's also instantly familiar, because it uses the same Start Menu/taskbar scheme you learned years ago. It's also a bit inconsistent at times. Microsoft needs help with fit and finish as always, though Vista is more solid in this regard than previous versions.
Good: Windows Vista's security features are top-notch. It remains to be seen how this will play out in the real world, but my guess is we'll see a lot of security activity in the first quarter of 2007 and then things will settle right down. Microsoft did it right this time.
Good: Windows Vista performs as well or better than Windows XP on identical, modern hardware. No, your Celeron M system isn't going to be a screamer. But let's be honest here. It never was.
Good: Windows Vista is far more reliable than Windows XP, and its new instrumentation capabilities will help find and repair any problems that do arise more quickly.
Good: Windows Vista provides exactly the Internet capabilities that users expect, with a dramatically improved version of Internet Explorer that is no embarrassment (like previous versions were).
Bad: Friends don't let friends use Outlook Express, and despite the new name, Windows Mail is just Outlook Express.
Good: Windows Calendar, Windows Sidebar, and the new Games Explorer (and games capabilities in general) are surprisingly solid additions to Windows and applications that you will definitely want to check out.
Good: Windows Vista's digital media applications are generally excellent, especially the new Windows Photo Gallery and Windows Media Center.
Bad: Microsoft is sending mixed messages by releasing a separate media player application called Zune. Also, the company should have learned from Windows Me that bare bones media applications like DVD Maker are a mistake that reflect poorly on Windows.
Good: As you would expect, Windows Vista's networking capabilities are best of breed, thanks to a rewritten network stack and some well-considered UI work. Nice job there.
Good: Windows Vista is a first-class mobility solution with amazing Tablet PC features, a new Mobility Center, touch screen support, and more.
Bad: Windows Ultimate Extras should be made available to other Windows Vista users, at a price. Restricting these often-fluffy add-ons to only the most expensive Vista version is a slap in the face to users who can't afford Vista Ultimate.
Good: Windows Speech Recognition. Seriously, check it out.
Good: Windows Vista's hardware and software compatibility is excellent, and a major achievement.
Bad: Wait a year on x64 unless you really know what you're doing. Niggling software compatibility issues will dog most users until developers get up to speed with x64-specific issues.