Microsoft Windows Vista Review

 

 

 

It has been months since the commercial release of Windows Vista. Since January of this year, there has absolutely been no stopping the avalanche of talk about it. It has either been seen as the newest groundbreaking technology or as the most expensive rip off in history. There is probably no apparent end in sight to the torrent of arguments and counter arguments. This actually makes us wonder what everyone is so hyped about.

 

XP and Vista

 

Perhaps the greatest criticism comes from the people who love and remain attached to XP. This is not some blind form of loyalty to an ageing system. The continued enthusiasm over XP stems from its continued usefulness and stability. Although Vista can offer new features, they are just not the kind of features that have created a new need. XP still answers the basic needs of most average users.

 

The move to Vista will also be difficult for many because of hardware requirements. Vista has often been compared to XP in this respect since XP has always been easy to support and compatible with hardware and software.

 

Mac OS X and Vista

 

Aside from the great number of XP fans out there, Vista also has the Mac OS X fan base to contend with. Some experts agree that Mac OS X is simply not the best choice all of the time. Then again, looking at Vista and OS X, they are starting to look dreadfully similar. A closer look may reveal that Vista actually does have higher capabilities but a lot of its features look too much like Mac OS X. Is it fair to say that Vista is a real rip off? Then again, Microsoft has worked hard on this and their track record says that although they may not have been 100% original, their products in the past have been useful and accessible.

 

Editions

 

XP users just had to choose between two editions and that was it. Although better XP editions and upgrades and improvements did come after a few years or months, XP users faced little complications with the system. Things are different with Vista. If we had to be really exact about it, there are, at the very beginning, seventeen Vista versions with some features absent form one version or another. The prices of each edition, by the way, don’t come cheap.

 

Hardware Requirements

 

A lot of users also feel that the hardware requirements for Vista are simply too high. Not every average user has high performance hardware that will allow Vista to function well. If you do not have the best graphics card for example, you can forget about Vista’s aero.

 

Related to this issue is the fact that Vista tends to take up a lot of your unit memory. Vista just carries too many features that if you run just a few programs together, you’ll find that your memory will run out easily.

 

Features

 

Although Vista has its fair share of critics, some people still feel that it has great things to offer. On top of Vista’s feature list is added security with such features as user account control, parental control and anti-spyware. Vista also features such great additions as improved networking and search capabilities. The elegant and slick user interface is also something to look forward to for some users.