Vista

I've been running vista semi-succesfully since Friday evening. I say "semi" cos the 64 bit version, as usual, doesn't have proper driver support yet...

The 32 bit version has better support, but still my soundblaster has the crappiest drivers I've ever seen (still beta).

Otherwise, nVIDIA's drivers are doing the job ok, and everything else is automatically configured. So, what's the big deal?

Well, for me vista is a MASSIVE improvement over XP, and is a great O/S to work with! For starts, it features tons of eye candy, which I am a sucker for. From the way windows fade in and out, to the way the title bar is see through (kind of like a lens), to the way you can put HD videos as your background (yes, ages ago we could do that on windows 98 with 3rd party software, but this is built in to the system so takes very little resources), and those massive icons that are beautifully detailed (I love big icons). One cool feature is that windows shows a thumbnail of pictures and movies (yeap, old too) BUT if the file's a movie it adds 2 little cellulloid strips around the edges, and the icons are the same ratio as the movie itself! (see picture)

I could go on and on about the visual things...

In terms of the OS itself, admittedly it doesn't offer that many new things that anyone who's used a mac in the last 3 years hasn't seen. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, cos we all know that Apple's OSX is a great system, so to have something like it on a PC is great. There's the built in instant searches, the quick bar on the left of windows for quick access to your favourite parts, and finally user-based system decisions that have been a stable of *nix system since they first began! So now, if a programme wants to change some system files, windows alerts you and asks for permission. Let's hope it can't/won't be exploited.

The start menu has been radically overhauld too, and now instead of spreading out gradually, it actually opens out in one single menu. So when you click an item, it just unbranches underneath, in the same menu. A bit slow, but needs getting used to and when you're used to it, you'll realise it's better than the old style.

Another nice touch I found is that when a programme crashes (yes, windows, still crashes!), the system goes online to see if a solution has been found for this. I presume that in the following years MS will have a big (huge!) database of crashes and potential cures. Either that, or it will be useless (just like the XP attempt at going online to find what a file extension is).

From a quick gaming point of view, I disabled my soundblaser and enabled the mobo's built-in sound device, which is fully supported in vista. The sound quaility sucks but at least it's working in 5.1 and not buggy. I mainly tried FEAR and I have to admit I think it's way faster than on xp with the same hardware and settings. More about VISTA gaming once drivers have settled.

There's loads more to discover and do, but I haven't really messed around a lot. One thing I wish existed was "springy folders", like on OSX. This lets you move a file around by dragging it on to the icon of the destination, if you don't let go, the icon opens up and you can then go to folders inside that, and they open up too etc etc. Once you've reached your destination, you drop the file there and OSX automatically closes all open folders and takes you to your starting point. A great system, if a bit difficult to explain in words.

Finally, I leave you with a screenshot of my favourite feature, the "show all windows" button. Note that the screenshot does no justice to this, as windows are updated in real-time (so a video carries on playing, and games are moving also, etc etc). Great to find the window you want to work on easily.