I
have a secret. I don’t hate Vista. I wanted to, though. A big, glassy turd salad, I thought. When I buy my next computer, I’m gonna get that XP downgrade so I don’t have to put up with Vista’s crap, I thought, like a smug jerk.
Sadly, I was pretty much totally wrong.
I didn’t get the downgrade, but it wasn’t my choice: I got a refurbished HP Pavilion laptop ($600 from buy.com - I recommend it if you’re in the market) that came with Vista Home Premium. Fortunately, my cheapness got in the way of my desire to jump on a Vista-hating bandwagon. Here’s a summary of what I like:
- It Looks Nice By Default. Design trends have changed a little in the years since XP. The default glassy dark color scheme is classy and understated and has some visual depth, like you’d imagine computers in The Year 2008 should look like. (Although I wonder what it would have looked like if Microsoft didn’t have OS X to cheat off on the interface test.)
- Same-Day Search Results. Have you ever searched for a file on XP? If it isn’t on the desktop, you might as well go order a pizza. Vista’s searches are quick, as if some sort of computer is searching through some sort of database of information.
- Not so Crashy. Programs are gonna crash, but its what the OS does with a crashed program that can make all the difference. If Photoshop freezes up, but the OS can shut it down right away without hitting Ctrl-Alt-Delete 50 times, I’m ok with that.
- Desktop Widgets. I’m sure I’ll get tired of them, and they’re a total ripoff of Mac OS X (and not done as well, either), but whatever. I like having the retro ’60s clock. What purpose does that serve again?
- More Compatible Than It Gets Credit For. It saw my wireless router and hooked up right away, even though the router was made pre-Vista and the manufacturer (Belkin) said it would be a crap shoot if it worked or not.
- Easy to Install Fonts. Microsoft added an “install” option when you right-click on font file, so you don’t have to dig until you find the Fonts directory. Sounds lame, but it saves time. Sad Fact: I’ve actually downloaded fonts and been too lazy to install them.
So if Vista is so awesome, why isn’t anyone buying it? How come Vista’s first two months barely beat XP’s first two, even though there’s about elevendy billion more computers on Planet Earth than in 2001? Here’s my theory: It’s because XP SP2 doesn’t suck. That’s why I didn’t want to upgrade. XP is solid. Windows 98, the OS most people replaced with XP, did suck. It crashed all the time. People wanted to replace it as soon as possible. But XP works. I spent hours on it everyday, and it’s not perfect, but it’s unobtrusive enough to not make me hate it, and isn’t that all you can ask for in an operating system?
There is still some weirdness. About 5% of the time, when I turn the computer on, the desktop photo is gone. Going to the “Personalize Appearance and Sounds” screen (Why did they change it from “Desktop Settings”?) brings it back. Maybe it’s just me. Apparently, when Vista SP1 comes out, this same “feature” is supposed to be one of the ways that Microsoft bugs you to death for having a stolen copy of Vista. It could be a lot worse.
I also Super Hate the ugly new Office Suite (Trial), and the lame-ass Works suite that can’t even open some Word files. All problems easily fixed with OpenOffice.
Other than that, there’s not much going wrong with it, and I’ve used this computer a lot in the month I’ve had it, and I’ve logged a lot of hours on various Adobe CS3 apps, which all seem to run with alarming smoothness.
So no one wanted to hate Vista more than me, but my unscientific, anecdotal evidence can’t be wrong…right? Maybe it’ll make me want to change my desktop wallpaper more often.
