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Vista Commentary - Pro's and Con's

The Microsoft Vista Operating system hit the ground running on March 31, 2007. Manufactures and distributors alike heralded the new operating system as a evolutionary marvel of design, functionality and creativity.

Over a year later let's see how the new Microsoft Operating System (OS) has fared. I have listed my belief as to the pro's and con's of this operating system.

Con - There are still too many hardware peripherals not supported by this operating system:

Don't blame Microsoft. Blame your hardware manufacturer for not creating the drivers for their products. Microsoft provided ample opportunity for the hardware manufactures to create acceptable drivers for their hardware however; the manufactures used this opportunity to try to get you, the consumer to purchase new hardware, rather than spending the resources to create the drivers needed to support your existing hardware. The issue with drivers has eased and will continue to ease with release of service pac 1 for Vista from Microsoft, and manufactures responding to the complaints from knowledgeable customers. There are still many older peripherals that will never work with the Vista operating system and all for the better I say because if your equipment is that old it should be replaced.

Pro - All new hardware and most hardware 3 years or newer have Vista drivers available.

We recommend the Vista operating system to all of our clients. The system performs well and has the security needed in today's environments. Most companies and end users have newer equipment and therefore will never experience any issues with the Vista operating system. If your equipment is older I recommend not upgrading to Vista, just wait until you get a new machine and you will get Vista want it or not.

Con - Many older software packages that we have grown to know and love will not work with the Vista operating system:

Many of us have grown to believe that any Microsoft product will work with any Microsoft product. This has changed with Vista. A prime example of this change is when using older versions of Outlook (Older than Outlook 2003) with Vista the Outlook software will not retain the users password. I believe there is a work around for this issue but as of this writing I have not found it. Many older software can be run in legacy mode. Which is to say that you can tell the OS to run the program as a Windows XP or older operating system and in most cases the software operates properly.

Pro - No more hunting for the software you want to run:

With XP; if you were like me you did not want a bunch of shortcuts on your desktop so you clicked START - ALL PROGRAMS and searched through the sometimes never ending list of programs and the program nests until you found what you wanted to click. With Vista; click the START Icon and type the first few letters of the program or file you want to access. The new search indexing in Vista expedites the search process. In XP a search can bea tedious and time consuming process.

Con - Vista is a power hog:

Windows Vista requires a great deal of RAM, HDD space and Processor power to perform well when loaded with it's default settings. Many of the bells and whistles of this OS can be turned off and allow for good performance even on slower machines however those bells and whistles make up a good portion of my Pro's sections.

Pro - Vista is beautiful and functional:

The look and feel of this intuitive operating system is miraculous. From Aero (clear frames and flip) to the above mentioned search to security and management for the skilled user or technician, this product has it all. I have been a Vista user from beta release 1 and use it for all workstations in our offices. Every user once indoctrinated becomes enamored with the form and function of this wonderful operating system.

Just one more thing. Since upgrading our systems to the release version of Vista we have not experienced any greater issues with this operating system than with XP. With anything new you will experience growing pains but what you receive in the end is growth and experience. Don't be left behind just because you heard there were problems with Vista, move forward and embrace the future.

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