I'm excited for Vista
Posted by Whitney Young Thu, 01 Jun 2006 04:11:30 GMT
I’m not a fan of Microsoft. In fact, most of the time I really despise much of what comes out of Redmond, but I’m excited for Windows Vista to come out. No, I’m not excited because I plan on using it. No, I’m not excited because I think it has a lot to offer. From everything I’ve seen and read so far, there appears to be little new in Vista from a user standpoint. Maybe things will be easier to set up. (Who are we kidding? That won’t happen.) Maybe it will be easier to navigate between different things you’re doing with their eye candy that looks a lot like things Apple did in OS X years ago. But who cares? People will continue to beat into the ground how great Vista is and everything new that it has to offer. Others will continue to beat into the ground how those features have been around in other applications / operating systems for a long time. None of that really matters, though. What matters is how many people upgrade.
I’m a hard core nerd. I pre-ordered Tiger when it came out. I’ve already checked out Ubuntu Dapper and plan on installing it on my girlfriend’s laptop for her (to replace SuSE 10) in the next month or so. I have more outdated GNU/Linux install CDs than I could ever possibly need (for use as coasters). I like technology and finding out what’s new. There are a lot of nerds. Then there are people like my mom and my sister. I’ve given both of them the option of upgrading old OSes to something that’s a little more current. I’d do all of the work for them, and they’d get something faster, easier, etc. Do they care? Not really. What they have works, and it works just fine. My sister let me upgrade her OS, but my mom said no. That’s all well and good, but add on top of that the choice that users have when upgrading to Vista. I lost count after 3, but there are apparently some absurd number of choices for which version of Windows Vista you could buy. Yes, the sales man will be kind enough to tell you which one to get, but too much choice sometimes isn’t really good. Most people stick with the same OS that they got on their computer (unless they have a problem and some dorky computer person (like me) tells them to upgrade). This issue has been talked about before, too, though.
Since I’ve avoided the real reason that I’m excited for Vista for so long, I might as well come out and address it now - Internet Explorer. I hate Internet Explorer these days, and I don’t any more time with it than I need to. I remember the good old days back in the 90s when the browser wars were brewing. I loved IE for a while then. I remember switching back and forth between IE and Netscape a couple of times, but eventually IE won the war. But then the girls and guys in Redmond relaxed. (I believe one of the head developers was asked to leave, too.) And in the mean time a once great product has deteriorated.
I don’t think that IE 7 will fix all of the problems that IE 6 has, but I think at least it’s a step in the right direction. I doubt I’ll be recommending people to use IE over Firefox for a long time, but the point is that at least there is being work done. I’m excited for Vista simply because PCs that ship will ship with a better web browser. More people will be upgrading to IE 7 without really knowing it just because they bought a new computer.
Sad that the one thing I’m looking forward to in Vista is the upgrade of a piece of software that I hate, but I did start by saying that I’m not a fan of Microsoft. Anyone surprised?
