Published by marco on
This article was originally published on the Encodo Blogs. Browse on over to see more!
If you’re planning to buy a computer this holiday season—and you don’t opt for the shiny goodness of an iMac or iBook—then you’ll probably be getting Windows Vista. Windows Vista is very shiny and pretty and probably sounds like a great alternative to its predecessor, Windows XP. However, the minor improvements to the file explorer and organization (and major ones to look-and-feel) are far outweighed by both hardware and software compatibility problems as well as a draconian approach to security. All in all, you spend far more of your precious time (and nerves) coddling the system rather than doing actual work.
Windows Vista is not a worthwhile upgrade to Windows XP for any user—advanced or novice—and should be avoided if at all possible. Most vendors now offer Windows XP as a drop-in replacement when buying a new computer, with an option to upgrade to Windows Vista when the first service pack is available.
All observations are based on a single-user trial of Windows Vista installed for 9 months; final impressions are based on the version of Vista available in the middle of November, 2007.
In February, Microsoft released Windows Vista, the long-awaited successor to Windows XP. Here at Encodo, we installed it on one developer machine[1] for several reasons:
The initial – very positive – impressions are documented thoroughly in First Days with Microsoft Vista (parts I and II). After nearly 9 months of testing, the verdict is in:
“Avoid Windows Vista until further notice.”
And we’re not the only ones; Vista recently made #10 in the list of Top ten terrible tech products (CNet-UK). We, too, have capitulated and gone back to Windows XP installations for all desktop computers. Vista survives only inside a Virtual PC image, which we installed for testing purposes only.[2]
Though we don’t recommend Vista for anyone, we especially don’t recommend it as the primary operating system for developers[3]. Among the many reasons for our decisions are the following major ones:
Windows XP, for all its faults, has achieved a relatively stable release after many years in the field and is a much better choice for any user. Users that have their hearts set on the upgraded Vista look-and-feel, “Aero Glass”, should wait for until the first service pack has been out for a few months—which should be around the middle of next year. Developers that have their hearts set on Vista should forget it: Vista is not ready for use as a developer operating system and offers no advantages in that regard over Windows XP.