Vista is here, where is Vista?
Not for the common user (*due* for the end of Jan 2007), but the enterprises can already start playing with the entirely rewritten OS from Redmond… So, to see if it’s really worth it, some people put down their 10-reasons-to-switch-to-Vista, while others their 10-reasons-to-avoid-Vista. Let’s start with the reasons to approach Vista, and in the next post the reasons to keep your XP (I give for granted that no Linux or Mac user will pass to Vista)…
10 good reasons (criticised):
1) DirectX 10 will be Vista only. If you want to play with the next games you need Vista (or an Xbox360?).
2) Improved security. Vista will feature an anti-malware/anti-spyware, plus a better firewall, and several layers of controls (and no ServicePack 1,2,3 with patches?).
3) Integrated search engine. A sort of Google Desktop or Mac OS Spotlight (yep, that’s *new*!).
4) Multiple language environment. It should simplify the deployment in big companies (doesn’t matter if you can’t read the word document in Chinese of your colleague, though).
5) Activesync. Syncronisation with Windows Mobile made easy (if they don’t crash…).
6) Aero interface. Separated from the kernel to give more stability (although it runs on DirectX) and demanding processing power to the GPU (unfortunately it will be available only in the more expensive versions).
7) Freeze dry. Auto-saving of the open documents and applications before rebooting, so to start from where you left (but it still doesn’t say how many times you have to reboot per day).
8) Support for XPS. A new way of saving data (based on XML) indipendently on the application (concurrent to pdf format, but proprietary, again M$ here).
9) Superfetch. Prefetching system to assing priorities on the most used processes, respect to those active in background (another linux *new* feature!)
10) Networking. Completely rewritten the TCP/IP protocol, featuring a double layer IPv4 + IPv6 and a Peer2Peer function (so now you can freely share your music through M$?).
