My Microsoft Windows Vista Beta 2 Evaluation

[ieatcock 0]

Keep in mind I wrote this for a the bbLean community, but decided to share it with you guys.

Well, as many of you may know, Microsoft decided to release of second beta of its Windows Vista.

Everyone and their sister was downloading Windows Vista

Luckily enough, I got word of it before the massive rush of downloaders and was able to get it relatively quick. I guess a lot of people had SLOW downloads due to the many people jumping on their chance at using Vista.

Installing:

I must say, right off the bat I was a little dissapointed. The one word summary of installation, and even pre-installation, is slow. But hey, what do you expect from MicroSHAFT. I'd say installing took me a good hour. But quite an easy install. All I had to do was enter my product key, set my time zone and date, and answer a few set-up related questions. Then just let it sit. You can walk away for about and hour, but as anxious as I was, I sat there messing around with a guitar, while watching the screen.

 

The OS:

Startup came, and I was asked for a username and if I wanted a password. I chose the username Matt;reflecting my birth name; and no password. Logged in and was awestruck by its beauty. I've seen screenshots of it before, but I must say, actually looking at and playing with the interface is so much more than just seeing screenshots of it. It's like having bread and water for weeks, then finally having a huge turkey dinner. It's just that much better. But anyways, that's besides the point. Unlike all of the other times I've done a fresh install of and OS, I did not have to dig around for my video and NIC card drivers. I was connected to the internet instantly and my display resolution was automatically set to 1280X1024, instead of being stuck at 800X600 like I always am until I find my display drivers. I immediately began taking screenshots.

Screenshots:

Here's the fresh desktop:

http://www.harvestourdemons.com/upload/files/1/vista/1.PNG

 

Unfortunately, simply idling in explorer takes up ~550MB of Ram:

http://www.harvestourdemons.com/upload/files/1/vista/2.PNG

http://www.harvestourdemons.com/upload/files/1/vista/3.PNG

 

Internet Explorer 7 (which I was hoping would look a little better) and the Start Menu:

http://www.harvestourdemons.com/upload/files/1/vista/4.PNG

Yes, IE now has tabs! Can you believe it?

 

The new My Computer:

http://www.harvestourdemons.com/upload/files/1/vista/5.PNG

 

The new Explorer/My Pictures:

http://www.harvestourdemons.com/upload/files/1/vista/6.PNG

 

The annoying pop-up-and-then-darken-everything-else box that comes up when you run a npn-Microsoft .exe:

http://www.harvestourdemons.com/upload/files/1/vista/7.PNG

 

The Vista Sidebar (with a little note from me to microsoft):

http://www.harvestourdemons.com/upload/files/1/vista/8.PNG

 

New Background:

http://www.harvestourdemons.com/upload/files/1/vista/9.PNG

 

Windows Media Player 11

http://www.harvestourdemons.com/upload/files/1/vista/12.PNG

 

bbLean and Windows Vista: do they play nicely?

Sort of.

Can bblean be run on Windows Vista? What's that? Yes?

http://www.harvestourdemons.com/upload/files/1/vista/10.PNG

Yes!

 

bblean and updating Windows Media Player 11:

http://www.harvestourdemons.com/upload/files/1/vista/11.PNG

 

And last but not least, the thing that brought a tear to me eye, I was unable to install as default shell. I'm sure the developers of bblean can fix this in a jiffy when Vista has its official release:

http://www.harvestourdemons.com/upload/files/1/vista/13.PNG

 

Evaluation:

Well, what most people want from an OS is stability. Vista seemed stable enough, at least more stable than older versions of windows. I tried running Windows Media Center and got a crash right away. I'm hoping that's on the to-do list of Microsoft. I wrote this whole review while running Vista and bblean combined and had no problems. As far as I'm concerned (and please keep in mind I simply played with Vista for about a half hour before I wrote this review, didn't try much that might challened the stability of the OS)

Stability: 8/10

 

Speed is another thing we want. And the Vista shell taking up about 550MB of ram is a big blow, especially to those with a lower budget system. I noticed that my mouse was a bit laggy. Typing seemed a tad-bit laggy, but not as much as the movement of the mouse. Windows appeared instantly, as well ass menus and other things.

Speed: 6.5/10

 

Last but not least, we want style. And Vista definetly has it. Micorosft has incorporated the stylish, sleek, glassy appearance to Vista. I'd hate to say it, but if I were to keep Vista as my main OS (which I'm not going to do), I would stick with explorer instead of bblean because of the clean, glossy look. If only Microsoft could work on making vista less of a resource hog. It's been said before, and I whole-heartedly agree with it: Vista resembles the Mac OSX WAY too much. That's what bring it down, in my eyes.

Stlye:9/10

 

Overall, Vista is looking great. Bill needs to do some more work on it, but he seems to be aiming to please all types of users, whether it be gamers, students, businessmen, or just your average user. IE7 has a LOT more security features than it did before. Micorosoft is attempting to downsize the amount of viruses people inflict on themselves by warning you before opening an unkown executable. I'd say they are headed on a good path.

Overall: 7/10

[ch.AzN 0]

it looks the same...just better graphics and stuff...but seems like it would make things slower

[Poply 178]

vista system requirements are crazy. anyways, it looks like its pretty good, havent heard anything really bad about it.

[ieatcock 0]

Yeah, besides it being a resource hog, it's nice. It seems to have enhanced security. But I think I'm going to stick with XP when Vista comes out because Vista is going to be pricey.

[SHUK4KU 0]

it looks really good but as you said people with low budget computers will start to hate it.

[NickF 1]

Psst buy 1 gig+ of ram :thumbsup:

[ieatcock 0]

I have 1 gig

[shakez0rMD 0]

i heard you can only run D3D currently, is that true?

[ch.AzN 0]

i prob wont get it right away

[Solarton 0]

lol my dad said that thing is a space hog and he also said that it has a load of glitches and screwups . he also said you need like 160 gigs of space lol

[Poply 178]

its good if u want to play games on the computer. im not sure what the system requirement space is, but im sure u dont need a 160 gig HDD. it probly will have glitches when it first releases, but thats a given.

[Gamepin126 18]

Vista is stupid. Don't get it.

[Poply 178]

uh huh... and how do u propose i play my computer games? or are u saying just stick with XP?

[karolat 0]

It definitely looks WAY too much like the Mac OS. pretty funny

[Gamepin126 18]

uh huh... and how do u propose i play my computer games? or are u saying just stick with XP?

XP in all it's buggy glory is still more stable than Vista, it's crashed my laptop twice. Know how XP's explorer.exe shell runs at ~30mb of ram? Well Vista's runs at 550mb CONSTANTLY.

 

That's right, go play your computer games.

[Poply 178]

heh, wow. why does it take up so much memory?

[Solarton 0]

ive got no idea whatsoever.but i think ill just stick with xp it never crashed on me unless i did soemthing incredible that was parctically impossible for the system to handle. or my bro's porn ****ed it in the ass(as his porn is ass porn)

[NickF 1]

The visual styles use all that memory. You'll need at least 1 gig to have a decent Vista rig.

[jordysge 0]

That is insane!!! WAY TOO MUCH RECOURCES USED!!!

 

Yea, I say stick with XP for now. At least until it has been out for a while and the price of hardware drops to compensate. But who knows if that will happen...

 

Have a good one!

 

-Jordan

[NickF 1]

Its really meant for 2007-2008.

Anyway, vista is just a trasition between XP and a total windows revision.

[ch.AzN 0]

80% says Gates

[Xthar 136]

vista is the worst os ever made

[ch.AzN 0]

vista is the worst os ever made

not true...

[NickF 1]

No, Windows ME was.

[ch.AzN 0]

No, Windows ME was.

correct