Windows Vista

Everyone by now should have at least heard of the new creation from Redmond; the latest and, said to be, greatest version of Windows to date. It is very flashy and comes packed with standard features that go beyond Calculator and Pant including: Windows Calendar, Windows Mail, a new photo management and editing tool, parental controls, a fancy new interface, Direct X 10 and much more. Vista also starts programs much faster than XP using a technology called Superfetch witch will predict when you will use an application and pre-load part of the program.

This all sounds fine and dandy, until you look at the cost of running something this fancy. I have had to install Vista at work for testing purposes and this is what I found:

1. The default installation consumes 13.5GB of disk space.

2. Logging into the desktop and having no programs running uses over 400MB of RAM. (I have had an XP system run usable with under 128MB of RAM.

3. The average memory usage throughout the day running standard apps, such as Firefox, Thunderbird etc., is over 1GB. Whereas in XP, these tasks would average around 200MB.

4. A modern video card is required to take advantage of the new desktop eye candy and to make it usable.

5. After only a couple weeks of usage and only installing about 200MB worth of software, my disk usage exceeded 25GB. I had not copied any of my personal or work files to the system. This extra disk usage is all hidden and nowhere to be found. (This could however be caused by the automatic backup that Vista does with all your files. It makes shadow copies of files whenever their is a change.)

6. High cost to purchase such an operating system, unless you get it with a new PC.

7. A lot of popular software programs have compatibility problems running on Vista.

8. Lack of printer drivers.

And so on.

Their are in fact enough issues with Vista that most businesses wont even touch it with a ten foot pole. This is an operating system that would cost, even a small business, thousands of dolors to adapt. If you think about what it would cost for a small shop with ten computers to upgrade to Vista, it's no wonder the business world is sticking with what they have, or are seeking alternatives. The cost to upgrade ten computers is much more than running down to your local Staples or Office Max and picking up a handful of Vista DVDs (at $200 - $400 a piece, the cost of the OS itself is enough to scare you). No, all or most of those computers will need to be replaced or upgraded with modern hardware, so lets add the cost of hardware to our budget. We now have ten new computers running Vista, and then come to find that a lot of your software isn't Vista compatible. Lets blow a few thousand more dolors to purchase upgrades to all of our existing applications. Do some math with these thoughts and find out for yourself if it would be worth it to upgrade.

Their has been a lot of talk about how Microsoft ripped off several features from Mac OS X. Here is a couple videos that speak for them selfs.

Did Microsoft rip-off Apple Mac OS X in Windows Vista?


The Real Windows Vista


My recommendations:
-Windows XP - If you currently use Windows XP and are not looking to upgrade or try anything different, it would be best to say with what you have. Windows XP is the most widely used operating system and therefore, the most supported. Almost any piece of software that is written--including hardware drivers--will run on Windows XP.

-GNU/Linux - The first commercial Linux distribution appeared in 1993, and others were soon to follow. During this time, Linux was rumored to be "just for geeks" because the system was mostly operated from the command line, and for it's difficult installation process. The Linux operating system has come a long way during it's short life with us in the computer world. In my opinion, Linux has made the leap from Windows 95 to Windows Vista in a matter of four years--whereas, Microsoft took ruffly ten years. This being said, I believe Linux is a perfect candidate for an alternative operating system. If you are looking for something new, or if you want to resurrect an old computer with a decent and usable system, Linux might be the answer for you.

Their are literally hundreds of different Linux ditros, all having a specific purpose. Distrowatch provides a top 10 list of distributions that will help in making the decision of which one will work best for you.

-Mac - If your looking to buy a new system that will do everything, looks pretty and is easy to use, Macs provides a beautiful user interface with all the standard features, software and tools that you need to do just about anything right out of the box. The best way to see what a Mac has to offer, is to see it for yourself. If you have a local Mac store to play and drool in, I would highly recommend it. Macs are one of the easiest systems to use and they are very fast, stable and secure. Here is a link on their web site that covers all the standard features that ships with every Mac that leaves the store. This is one of the most impressive feature packed and deliciously beautiful operating systems you will find.

I hope you have been convinced that Windows Vista is not ready for the real world. I also hope I was able to open your eyes to realize that Microsoft isn't the only "big boy" in town with an operating system. Their are in fact several hundred operating systems available for everyone to choose from, free and commercial alike. We have the freedom of choice in this world of computers and I hope you have the courage to get your feet wet and try something new.