So many people are weighing in with opinions on their personal 'Vista Experience,' that I thought I'd give it a try. I've been working with Vista since beta 2, and have recently recieved my very own copy of Vista Business... And I couldn't be happier.
Vista is not capable of something insanely amazing. It looks nice, it has good pre-installed software. It has efficient searching and file management. It has voice recognition software. (That works! I use it all the time!) It comes equipped with everything you need to make something work, right out of the box. Windows has finally met my expectations for a good OS.
I can't say much in the way of network security in Vista. I'll have to wait until it hits officially on the 30th, and TAP companies migrate to Vista. Microsoft learned a lot with the release of SP1 and SP2 for XP, and they say that fiji will contain essential bug fixes and upgrades. Everyone instantly jumps to the conclusion 'They are intentionally distributing a bad product'
Well, I hope not everyone draws that conclusion, cause that would put the world in a sad, sorry, state. Microsoft developed, to the best of thier ability, a sound, secure operating system. The system is perfectly secure for the normal user to install and use it on a regular basis. Any security holes that are found at this stage for the home user will be patched when SP1 comes out, but odds are, these won't come up. The main reason that fiji is already being developed, is so the companies, with the big networks, can take this, the already finished, but not perfected product, and have a say in how it 'gets' perfected.
Ok, 'perfected' is a very bad word to use in this case. I'll use 'improved' because I know it is essentially impossible to 'perfect' something as immense as an operating system.
What I can say something or another about, is the new interface. It's new, it's shiney. If you poke it, it will do something funny. It is a happy, friendly, great black ball of fun and cool little gadgets. The sidebar, not an innovation. Integrated Voice Recognition, not an innovation. Active searching, not an innovation. Aero, and the cool window-flip effect thing with windowskey-tab, not an innovation. But all put together with windows, something you expect to be sluggish and unresponsive, or just plain not work, reacts quickly, easily, and once you get used to the combination of smart searching, using voice commands, and learning your way around the upgraded explorer interface, greatly increases productivity.
I'm going to cut it short (or long, depending on which side of the OS fence you are on) and say in closing; Windows has always evolved to try its hardest to meet the needs of its users. This new version I think, has finally evolved to the point where it fully meets the needs and expectations of its users.