Conclusion... for Now
Overall, in order to rate Vista we have two different competitors we need to look at: MacOS X "Tiger" and Windows XP. Although Vista is the same operating system in both cases, how well it performs is all relative to what it is being compared against.
Vista vs. Tiger
If you read our initial Beta 2 preview, then you can stop reading now as Vista has not changed enough to drastically alter our view on this comparison. In short, Mac enthusiasts can breathe a sigh of relief because Vista won't be causing a reverse-switching phenomenon any time soon. Vista is good, good enough that it will stop the hemorrhaging and greatly reduce the number of switchers for the time being. However it's not better than Tiger for Mac users and it isn't going to pull anyone back, so the operating systems are at a stalemate at the moment until Leopard and/or Vista SP1.
In Microsoft's corner, Vista's file-I/O improvements keep it solidly ahead of Tiger. The SuperFetch family of abilities is clearly beyond Tiger, as Tiger's own caching system doesn't have the speed or refinement to match what Vista can do and it makes a remarkable difference. System Restore/Volume Shadow Copy is also well beyond what Tiger can do, and although this is apt to start debates at VSC versus Apple's already-revealed Time Machine technology, only one of them is in a shipping operating system and that's Vista.
In Apple's corner as we've mentioned before is Exposé, which will continue to weigh heavily in the favor of Apple as it's a simple-but-powerful tool to boost productivity. Apple's other strengths here are also related to their UI, as the Finder is still a better organized file browser than Explorer, and they have done a better job enforcing a consistent look and feel across their own applications and even 3rd-party applications.
In the middle then are their respective application suites, in which there is no clear winner. Windows Calendar is the closest single thing we've seen to being an Apple knockoff (it's iCal) while Internet Explorer 7+ is the new benchmark for Safari. Meanwhile iTunes does a much better job as a media player than Windows Media Player, and Windows Mail with phishing protection keeps users safer than Mail.app's security-through-minority nature which doesn't prevent phishing.
Given how long Vista was in development and how long after Tiger it is being released, it's almost a bit sad to see that Microsoft couldn't come up with something that was far above and beyond Tiger. Leopard will undoubtedly change things again, but for now Vista could have surpassed Tiger only if Microsoft had done more sensible things with the UI. Nonetheless Windows users will be happy to have a version of Windows that finally isn't lagging behind MacOS X.
Vista vs. XP
Among those that won't become switchers, Microsoft's own worst enemy is itself, as it needs to prove that Vista is a worthwhile upgrade to XP when XP is already so refined. For many users in the consumer space, Vista is simply a version of Windows where (to borrow a quote from Field of Dreams) "If you build it, they will come." These people will get Vista on their new computers and they'll like it because it is good, but having never had the chance to decide if they didn't want it.
For everyone else who does get a choice, more often than not we believe the choice will be Vista. As we've stated before it's not perfect, but it's quite good. There are some very good reasons not to use it in some cases (system requirements, compatibility, and OpenGL performance), but for those machines that the above do not apply to, there are numerous useful features in Vista that warrant an upgrade if you find that you're the kind of person that will use them. Vista's SuperFetch and Search technology are both reasons enough to migrate from XP, as they easily improve productivity and performance.
Vista is a worthy upgrade and an even better choice as an operating system for a new computer. At the same time there's still ample room to grow; hopefully we'll have even fewer complaints once Service Pack 1 is released later this year. Hopefully Microsoft will spend some time improving features as opposed to simply bug fixing, though, as right now some of the design decisions still need work.
Overall, in order to rate Vista we have two different competitors we need to look at: MacOS X "Tiger" and Windows XP. Although Vista is the same operating system in both cases, how well it performs is all relative to what it is being compared against.
Vista vs. Tiger
If you read our initial Beta 2 preview, then you can stop reading now as Vista has not changed enough to drastically alter our view on this comparison. In short, Mac enthusiasts can breathe a sigh of relief because Vista won't be causing a reverse-switching phenomenon any time soon. Vista is good, good enough that it will stop the hemorrhaging and greatly reduce the number of switchers for the time being. However it's not better than Tiger for Mac users and it isn't going to pull anyone back, so the operating systems are at a stalemate at the moment until Leopard and/or Vista SP1.
In Microsoft's corner, Vista's file-I/O improvements keep it solidly ahead of Tiger. The SuperFetch family of abilities is clearly beyond Tiger, as Tiger's own caching system doesn't have the speed or refinement to match what Vista can do and it makes a remarkable difference. System Restore/Volume Shadow Copy is also well beyond what Tiger can do, and although this is apt to start debates at VSC versus Apple's already-revealed Time Machine technology, only one of them is in a shipping operating system and that's Vista.
In Apple's corner as we've mentioned before is Exposé, which will continue to weigh heavily in the favor of Apple as it's a simple-but-powerful tool to boost productivity. Apple's other strengths here are also related to their UI, as the Finder is still a better organized file browser than Explorer, and they have done a better job enforcing a consistent look and feel across their own applications and even 3rd-party applications.
In the middle then are their respective application suites, in which there is no clear winner. Windows Calendar is the closest single thing we've seen to being an Apple knockoff (it's iCal) while Internet Explorer 7+ is the new benchmark for Safari. Meanwhile iTunes does a much better job as a media player than Windows Media Player, and Windows Mail with phishing protection keeps users safer than Mail.app's security-through-minority nature which doesn't prevent phishing.
Given how long Vista was in development and how long after Tiger it is being released, it's almost a bit sad to see that Microsoft couldn't come up with something that was far above and beyond Tiger. Leopard will undoubtedly change things again, but for now Vista could have surpassed Tiger only if Microsoft had done more sensible things with the UI. Nonetheless Windows users will be happy to have a version of Windows that finally isn't lagging behind MacOS X.
Vista vs. XP
Among those that won't become switchers, Microsoft's own worst enemy is itself, as it needs to prove that Vista is a worthwhile upgrade to XP when XP is already so refined. For many users in the consumer space, Vista is simply a version of Windows where (to borrow a quote from Field of Dreams) "If you build it, they will come." These people will get Vista on their new computers and they'll like it because it is good, but having never had the chance to decide if they didn't want it.
For everyone else who does get a choice, more often than not we believe the choice will be Vista. As we've stated before it's not perfect, but it's quite good. There are some very good reasons not to use it in some cases (system requirements, compatibility, and OpenGL performance), but for those machines that the above do not apply to, there are numerous useful features in Vista that warrant an upgrade if you find that you're the kind of person that will use them. Vista's SuperFetch and Search technology are both reasons enough to migrate from XP, as they easily improve productivity and performance.
Vista is a worthy upgrade and an even better choice as an operating system for a new computer. At the same time there's still ample room to grow; hopefully we'll have even fewer complaints once Service Pack 1 is released later this year. Hopefully Microsoft will spend some time improving features as opposed to simply bug fixing, though, as right now some of the design decisions still need work.
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haplo602 - Monday, February 5, 2007 - link
Yes I am biased. I am fed up with MS. All the delay was for what purpose ?Yes please, point me to the documentation, I'd be glad to learn something.
vailr - Thursday, February 1, 2007 - link
A quick look on Newegg shows the least expensive DX 10 cards (all NVIDIA 8800 based) are priced around $400. When can we expect to see DX 10 cards costing: <$200?Brazos - Friday, February 2, 2007 - link
I believe that Nvidia is releasing a broader range of directx 10 gpu's in March. They're supposed to be for the low - mid range video cards.PrinceGaz - Thursday, February 1, 2007 - link
Vista Enterprise/VLK also includes BitLocker, it is not a feature unique to Ultimate Edition, but like you say it requires a TPM to be used and if I had a TPM on my mobo, I certainly wouldn't have the hateful chip enabled.
Before you say that Vista Enterprise is not a copy that any of us are likely to personally choose, because unlike XP it still requires activation, bear in mind that Enterprise edition activation is rather different from other versions and likely to be the first that is cracked indefinitely. Given that you also recommended Vista Business as the preferred version of Vista for experienced users unwilling to pay the extra for Ultimate, that makes Enterprise even more viable as it includes a superset of Vista Business features and the only things it is missing from Ultimate are a few entertainment oriented apps that no one will miss. That's not to say I condone unlicensed use of Vista Enterprise, I'd never say anything like that here, but I think the use of it may be a lot more prelavent than the article suggests.
stash - Friday, February 2, 2007 - link
BitLocker does NOT require a TPM chip. It can also use a usb flash drive to store the key material.
Ryan Smith - Saturday, February 3, 2007 - link
BitLocker requires a TPM chip. This confused us at first too when we were working on the article, but the documentation in Vista for BitLocker clearly states a TPM chip is required. If it's a 1.2 chip or higher the key is stored on the chip, otherwise it's stored on the flash drive.If it was possible to use BitLocker without a TPM chip, we would have more than likely thrown in some BitLocker benchmarks.
mlambert890 - Saturday, February 3, 2007 - link
You're wrong Ryan. BitLocker does NOT require TPM chip. You can store the decrypt AND recovery keys on a USB FOB. Just go here and read scenario 3:http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsVista/en/libr...">http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsVi...57-b031-...
Ryan Smith - Saturday, February 3, 2007 - link
Interesting; we looked for something like this when we were doing the prep for this article and came up empty-handed. It's nice to see it's there, though I'm not sure for the reason on why MS would go out of their way to disable this option and not leave any instructions in the Vista help on how to enable it. Thanks for the link.stash - Saturday, February 3, 2007 - link
Couple of reasons:First, it is a hell of a lot more secure to use a TPM to store key material than a USB flash drive. A TPM is essentially a smartcard soldered directly to your motherboard. It is physically and logically tamper-resistant.
Secondly, BitLocker will only do repudiation checks of the system files with a TPM. When using a TPM. the hashes of certain system files are stored in the TPM. On boot, they are compared and if they have been changed, the user will be notified.
So, are you going to answer my question about which common 3rd party apps require admin rights to work properly? Cause right now, my impression of that comment is that it is pure FUD.
LoneWolf15 - Friday, February 2, 2007 - link
I was concerned about this too, but my new issue of MaximumPC shows how to use Vista's BitLocker without a TPM.Instead of the TPM holding the security key, you need a thumbdrive to do it instead. Doesn't require a high-capacity one, so any cheapie should do (though I'd choose one with a somewhat bulletproof casing to ensure you never break it and end up screwed).