Windows Vista was released at midnight today. Woohoo?
I played with Vista while it was in beta. I liked it and thought that Microsoft added a few nifty things. However, I was bummed that WinFS was dropped from the feature list. A few other planned features were canned as well so that Vista would ship on time. This didn’t bother me all that much. But within the past couple of days, a few facts give me cause for concern:
- Vista is crazy-expensive.
- When installing an “upgrade” version of Vista, you need a previous version already installed on the computer. I love clean installs. Having to install Windows XP (or another supported previous version of Windows) and then Vista is lame. And seriously, have you ever seen a Windows upgrade install ever go smoothly? Hardly.
- Vista will DRM us to death.
For my home computers, I think I’m done with Windows. I’ve given this some thought and I think I can do it with little transition pain. Now I won’t be replacing my PC hardware with Macs anytime soon, since I don’t have that kind of money…not yet, anyway. 😉 I think Ubuntu is well on its way to becoming the primary operating system on my home computers. I already use it in a virtual machine, so I’m comfortable with it. Compared to other Linux distros that I’ve used in the past, it’s by far the most usable. There really isn’t anything that I’d be missing.
Web Browser
I’ve been using Firefox on Windows for 3+ years and I’d continue to do so on Ubuntu.
Email
A dedicated email client is not something that I need since I use Gmail, which is browser-based.
Instant Messaging
Like Firefox, I’ve already been using the browser-based Meebo. And there is a Linux version of Skype.
Fun dynamic scripting languages
Python, Ruby, PHP and Perl are all available to Linux.
Word processor and spreadsheet
I mostly use Google Docs and Spreadsheets now, but OpenOffice does have a Linux version too.
Media and iPod sync-ing
Rhythmbox will do the trick.
For work and skill development, I’ll still need Visual Studio, SQL Server and IIS. That can be taken care of by creating a Windows virtual machine in VMWare Server.
Games would be the only drawback to going all-Linux all of the time. Mind you, I don’t play as many games as I used to. So if I ever start jonesin’ for some gaming, I could always create a small Windows XP partition and dual-boot. I think I’d rather have a Wii anyway.
As soon as a get a home storage solution, I think that’s when I’ll switch. I really can’t find any compelling reasons to keep running Windows.
6 Responses to "vista blahs"
However, just because YOU are comfortable with something does not mean the rest of us (ME) are/is comfortable with Ubuntu. There are others to think about especially when you know me and change 😛
Dear Co-CIO of the Bellini Residence,
I guess I’ll have to give you a demo so that you can see first-hand how usable Ubuntu Linux is. 😀
Still can’t believe people loving Vista so much right now. I’m just going to wait a month and laugh at them when they switch back to XP, because there’s no drivers available for Vista. You can forget about getting the 64 bit system drivers.
It’s not like companies have had a long time to develop drivers only a couple years :/.
I’ll be sticking with XP until I win that 15million lottery drawing tomorrow night :D.
After I win I’ll give you some so you can buy Dena her own computer with whatever she wants on it :D. Less complaints from Dena the better. 😉
I’m not sure if the reason for lack of drivers for Vista is because the manufacturers’ wasted time. Device drivers in Vista run in User mode (a very good idea), instead of Kernel mode, as was the case with Windows versions up to now. So there’s probably a bit of a learning curve, even if the API for the Vista driver SDK abstracts the differences enough so that developers don’t notice the changes in an in-your-face sort of way. But that’s probably not the entire reason for the lack of Vista-compatible device drivers.
If I was a hardware manufacturer, the first thing I’d want to concentrate on is getting drivers ready for the OEM versions of my hardware bound for the Dells, HPs and Gateways of the world. The reason being, I doubt many people rushed out to actually buy a copy of Vista to use on their “older” hardware. Most people using Vista now are doing so ’cause they have bought (or will soon buy) a new computer with Vista on it. Dell and HP would crack the whip at a manufacturer like nVIDIA to get Vista drivers for their new GeForce 8800 GTX cards ready to go, because they’re shipping Vista-loaded systems now. On the other hand, who’s cracking the whip at Logitech to get drivers for their 3 year-old webcam Vista-fied, since the owners of those devices are likely still running XP and won’t upgrade to Vista any time soon?
I am NOT complaining…but would like to know what I am using on OUR computer. He sometimes gets an idea in his head and just goes with it. Leaving me in the dust 🙁 Poor poor Dena 🙁 ha ha!!!!! 🙂
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