before i start, let me say that i have never used Vista. in fact, i have never even seen a computer running Vista. i love my XP. it's old enough and stable enough that it can be hacked and customized to a very great extent, and i have it set up to look and work exactly how i want it to. the main reason i skipped Vista is that i only recently got a machine that could handle it well. i've had it a few months now, and since news of 7 was already widespread when i got it, i never bothered even thinking about Vista, i've just been holding out for this beta.
i grabbed it as soon as i found out it was loose, and managed to set up a dual boot a few days ago. my first impression was positive. it looks much better than screenshots i've seen of Vista - the harsh blacks and blues are gone, replaced by much subtler blue-gray tones, which i really like. the effects are wonderful, and even with everything turned on, it runs on less than 25% of my measly 2gb ram, which is a nice surprise given what i've heard about Vista.
i love the new taskbar. it looks good and works great. so far my only gripe is having to hold SHIFT to open a new instance of an app, i wish it could be done with the mouse alone. i love the menus and jump lists that pop up, and i'm really looking forward to a time when 3rd party apps are taking advantage of these - lots of potential there. i'm also in love with the Show Desktop button by the clock. the peek feature is great for checking on gadgets! also, the window snap features are wonderful. i'm not sure how handy the new shake feature is though... start menu is great, i like how it reuses the same space for menus.
i grabbed it as soon as i found out it was loose, and managed to set up a dual boot a few days ago. my first impression was positive. it looks much better than screenshots i've seen of Vista - the harsh blacks and blues are gone, replaced by much subtler blue-gray tones, which i really like. the effects are wonderful, and even with everything turned on, it runs on less than 25% of my measly 2gb ram, which is a nice surprise given what i've heard about Vista.
i love the new taskbar. it looks good and works great. so far my only gripe is having to hold SHIFT to open a new instance of an app, i wish it could be done with the mouse alone. i love the menus and jump lists that pop up, and i'm really looking forward to a time when 3rd party apps are taking advantage of these - lots of potential there. i'm also in love with the Show Desktop button by the clock. the peek feature is great for checking on gadgets! also, the window snap features are wonderful. i'm not sure how handy the new shake feature is though... start menu is great, i like how it reuses the same space for menus.
as far as productivity, Explorer is a vast improvement over what i know from XP, though i can't say how many new features it has over Vista. i use Directory Opus in XP. it installed OK in 7, but when i use it to manipulate files, my whole filesystem gets corrupted, and i can't write anything to the disk until i reboot and chkdsk fixes indexes. i ended up having to reinstall 7, and now i'm without my DOpus. i find it very difficult to get things done in Explorer, expecially without any kind of dual pane system. but there are some bits i do like about it - libraries are a nice idea, checkbox file selection is handy, dynamic thumbnail sizing is great, and favorites in the jump menu are awesome. of course, DOpus has all of these too. i'm really anxious for them to update their software so that it's compatible with 7, and so that i can add custom items to the jump menu. that's going to be fantastic!
UAC is horrible. i know better than my computer does, i don't need its advice. and when i turn it off completely, gadgets and other bits on the desktop stop working, so i have to take a middle ground. irritating. also i've still not managed to disable the Action Center, though now i don't think i want to, it just warned me that it was about to send a bunch of DLLs to Microsoft for analysis for Defender. hmm..
i've been having a hard time finding settings and things, but that's what happens with a new OS i suppose. i hate the screen that comes up when i hit CTRL-ALT-DEL - can i change that to just open task manager? i like the Resource Monitor, not sure if that's 7 or if it was in Vista too...
ok now as far as compatibility goes, it's a mixed bag. everything but my wireless card worked right out of the box, and i had my wireless working within minutes with the latest driver i had tucked away on a drive someplace. other than Directory Opus messing everythign up, i've also had a problem with a game (Bioshock) which refused to move past the splash screen. all other software i've tried (including a few older games) has worked fine.
last words - it's remarkably good for a beta! i'm anxious to see how it progresses. i don't know how long it took for Vista to catch up in terms of hardware and software compatibility, but i'm guessing the wait is going to be long, especially since the official release is a year or more from now. in the meantime i'll keep using XP, but boot into the latest release of 7 when i have time to explore. by the time it hits the shelves, i want to know it as well as i know XP
UAC is horrible. i know better than my computer does, i don't need its advice. and when i turn it off completely, gadgets and other bits on the desktop stop working, so i have to take a middle ground. irritating. also i've still not managed to disable the Action Center, though now i don't think i want to, it just warned me that it was about to send a bunch of DLLs to Microsoft for analysis for Defender. hmm..
i've been having a hard time finding settings and things, but that's what happens with a new OS i suppose. i hate the screen that comes up when i hit CTRL-ALT-DEL - can i change that to just open task manager? i like the Resource Monitor, not sure if that's 7 or if it was in Vista too...
ok now as far as compatibility goes, it's a mixed bag. everything but my wireless card worked right out of the box, and i had my wireless working within minutes with the latest driver i had tucked away on a drive someplace. other than Directory Opus messing everythign up, i've also had a problem with a game (Bioshock) which refused to move past the splash screen. all other software i've tried (including a few older games) has worked fine.
last words - it's remarkably good for a beta! i'm anxious to see how it progresses. i don't know how long it took for Vista to catch up in terms of hardware and software compatibility, but i'm guessing the wait is going to be long, especially since the official release is a year or more from now. in the meantime i'll keep using XP, but boot into the latest release of 7 when i have time to explore. by the time it hits the shelves, i want to know it as well as i know XP