The "Wow" Starts Now. But for How Much?
03/22/07 03:25 PM Filed in: Technology
Just the other day I
went out to eat at the Olive Garden. It happened that
the wait to get in an eat was about 45 minutes, so we
decided to go over to Office Max to buy a few things.
I walked in the store and realized, "Hey, Windows
Vista just came out!" (This was several weeks ago.) I
made my way over to the software isle and found the
section of Microsoft goods. I was quite taken back.
Seriously. I think I fell backwards. I shoved my hand
in pocket and brought out my phone to call Joey.
"Joey, you're not going to believe this! Have you
seen the prices for the 2007 line from Microsoft?"
"No. What are they?" I relayed the following information to him.
Windows Vista Home Basic: $199.99
Windows Vista Home Premium: $239.99
Windows Vista Business: $299.99
Windows Vista Ultimate: $399.99
Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student: $149.99
Microsoft Office 2007 Standard: $399.99
Microsoft Office 2007 Small Business: $449.99
Microsoft Office 2007 Professional: $499.99
Microsoft Office 2007 Ultimate: $679.99
Microsoft Visio Standard 2007: $259.99
Ironically, Ultimate, which is supposed to be the complete package, doesn't actually include Microsoft Visio. I don't know why.
Now that we have the prices laid out, I would like to point out that I actually used Windows Vista the other day, so I can finally speak from experience! Here's my first impressions of Microsoft's new Operating System.
I sat down at a Vista laptop and was impressed with the new visuals. Pretty icons, shiny new taskbar; everything had a water-like reflective appearance, making it look very appealing. I opened the Recycle Bin and the Help Center, just to see what the windows looked like. I like the new shape of the minimize, maximize, and exit buttons in the upper-right corner of the windows. I liked the animation that was shown when opening, closing, and minimizing programs. It did seem a bit jerky when maximizing a program, but I could live with that.
As you roll over icons, they start to glow, which looks very nice.
The PC I was using had 2GB of RAM, and with that amount everything seemed to open and close fairly quickly.
Microsoft has really improved on the behind-the-scenes matters of their OS. Security is greatly improved, and integration with networks and other devices in your house, such as your cell phone, PDA, Xbox, and TV is nearly seamless. Microsoft still has the hold-your-hand notifications that it's known for to alert you of every little change you make, just in case you didn't mean to make it. I think it would make me feel better if my OS didn't assume I was an idiot. I want it to protect me from things like viruses, spam, worms, and such. But I don't want it to alert me every time I open a pop up, or change a simple setting.
All of your most imoprtant information is immedietly delivered to you with the new Sidebar that is implemented into Windows Vista. It's not annoying. It doesn't jump out at you too much and distract you from the important things you're working on. It's just there if you want to look at it for the weather, news, or whatever you have it configured to show you.
Visually, I was very impressed with my Vista experience. But the interface just still isn't intuitive! Not only that, but why is that someone who has been using a Microsoft Operating System for over, including DOS, for all 18 years of his life is confused and lost in the new Windows Vista? Continuity is your friend, Microsoft.
Why is it that there is no longer the "Start" button? It's now just a circle with the new Windows logo on it. You can figure that out pretty quickly by knowing that the "Start" button has always been in the lower-left corner of Microsoft's Operating Systems, but an OS shouldn't assume things about it's users.
I right-clicked on the desktop and a menu dropped down. I looked to the bottom of the menu, and yet another change had been made to the simple desktop options menu. Where Microsoft used to call the bottom button "Properties," they changed the name to "Preferences." Again, why do we need to change something if it already works and people are already used to it? We can assume it does the same thing as the "Properties" button did in Windows XP, ME, 98, and 95, but our eyes are trained to look for "Properties" not "Preferences."
When I clicked on the Start Menu, I was lost... where were all of my programs? The "All Programs" button did a terrible job of jumping out at me, and it did a fabulous job of blending in all too well with the Start Menu. And since this was a fresh install of Windows Vista, I didn't have any favorite programs yet. When I did click on "All Programs", I glanced right, waiting for the Start Menu to expand and show me a list of all my programs. It didn't. Microsoft condensed the Start Menu, and now when you click "All Programs" it displays all your programs over where your "Favorite Programs" used to be. That was a bit annoying, I thought, because it was just one more step then to get back to my favorite programs. It also was a hassle because instead of spreading everything out for me to see all at once, I had to scroll through everything.
Microsoft has been bragging about Instant Search since they announced that they were making a new OS, oh... six years ago. I wasn't impressed. Instant Search isn't actually "instant." I mean, once you press Enter, it searches. But to me, an "Instant search" should search AS I type for the letters I have typed thus far. When I did press enter, it didn't work! I typed in "Control Panel." I pressed Enter, a blank dialog popped up for less than a second, then disappeared. That was the end of it. I tried again. I typed "Adobe" and pressed enter. Again, blank dialog opened and closed, but no Adobe. I don't know if this was a glitch or if I was doing something wrong, but if I was doing something wrong then I must state my main pointa gain: An OS should be intuitive, user friendly, and painfully obvious.
Easily my FAVORITE part about Windows Vista: I apologize, but the only thing I know to refer to them as is "Smart Folders." I don't know their official name in Vista, but they're amazing! Finally, Microsoft has done away with "My Pictures", "My Videos", etc. We now simply have "Pictures", "Videos", "Music", etc. Here's where it becomes truly genius. You never have to add any files to these folders! That's why they're smart. The sole purpose of these folders is to keep a list of every type of file that would be associated with that folder. Of course, this is customizable. Pictures scans your hard drive and will present to you every file type found that could be a picture of some kind. Music looks for any audio format. You get the idea. If you think about this for a second, these amazing Smart Folders eliminate third party organization software like Picasa, iPhoto, and Adobe Photoshop Album. Granted, Picasa is still a wonderful tool for enhancing your photos. But now, even with Picasa, you can just point Picasa to your Pictures folder and Windows Vista already has everything organized! You can now enhance your photos all you want in Picasa without worrying about losing them or anything tragic like that.
On that note, this is great for people like my Grandpa. It's perfect for helping avoid the, "Junk, where did I put that file?" feeling. Yes, there is a "Documents" folder as well. It's like having a default search built in to the OS, except every time you want to see every single picture you have on your hard drive, you don't have to run the search again, because it's already run itself. All you have to do is click on the folder where it compiled the list of all these files. It's brilliant, I tell you!
But how much is brilliance worth? Granted, I love a lot of things about Windows Vista. And there are several things that frustrate me about Windows Vista. But, of course, if you know me, I'd have to get the Ultimate edition. I'm not willing to fork out $399.99 for the next OS. And I haven't even begun to talk about the hardware upgrades that are almost always required, and are going to cost you even more money.
I'll let you decide for yourself whether Vista is worth it or not. Microsoft was kind enough to compile a list of 100 reasons to switch to Vista. I'll be sticking with Windows XP, personally.
Click here.
(Grandpa, you CAN'T upgrade!)
"No. What are they?" I relayed the following information to him.
Windows Vista Home Basic: $199.99
Windows Vista Home Premium: $239.99
Windows Vista Business: $299.99
Windows Vista Ultimate: $399.99
Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student: $149.99
Microsoft Office 2007 Standard: $399.99
Microsoft Office 2007 Small Business: $449.99
Microsoft Office 2007 Professional: $499.99
Microsoft Office 2007 Ultimate: $679.99
Microsoft Visio Standard 2007: $259.99
Ironically, Ultimate, which is supposed to be the complete package, doesn't actually include Microsoft Visio. I don't know why.
Now that we have the prices laid out, I would like to point out that I actually used Windows Vista the other day, so I can finally speak from experience! Here's my first impressions of Microsoft's new Operating System.
I sat down at a Vista laptop and was impressed with the new visuals. Pretty icons, shiny new taskbar; everything had a water-like reflective appearance, making it look very appealing. I opened the Recycle Bin and the Help Center, just to see what the windows looked like. I like the new shape of the minimize, maximize, and exit buttons in the upper-right corner of the windows. I liked the animation that was shown when opening, closing, and minimizing programs. It did seem a bit jerky when maximizing a program, but I could live with that.
As you roll over icons, they start to glow, which looks very nice.
The PC I was using had 2GB of RAM, and with that amount everything seemed to open and close fairly quickly.
Microsoft has really improved on the behind-the-scenes matters of their OS. Security is greatly improved, and integration with networks and other devices in your house, such as your cell phone, PDA, Xbox, and TV is nearly seamless. Microsoft still has the hold-your-hand notifications that it's known for to alert you of every little change you make, just in case you didn't mean to make it. I think it would make me feel better if my OS didn't assume I was an idiot. I want it to protect me from things like viruses, spam, worms, and such. But I don't want it to alert me every time I open a pop up, or change a simple setting.
All of your most imoprtant information is immedietly delivered to you with the new Sidebar that is implemented into Windows Vista. It's not annoying. It doesn't jump out at you too much and distract you from the important things you're working on. It's just there if you want to look at it for the weather, news, or whatever you have it configured to show you.
Visually, I was very impressed with my Vista experience. But the interface just still isn't intuitive! Not only that, but why is that someone who has been using a Microsoft Operating System for over, including DOS, for all 18 years of his life is confused and lost in the new Windows Vista? Continuity is your friend, Microsoft.
Why is it that there is no longer the "Start" button? It's now just a circle with the new Windows logo on it. You can figure that out pretty quickly by knowing that the "Start" button has always been in the lower-left corner of Microsoft's Operating Systems, but an OS shouldn't assume things about it's users.
I right-clicked on the desktop and a menu dropped down. I looked to the bottom of the menu, and yet another change had been made to the simple desktop options menu. Where Microsoft used to call the bottom button "Properties," they changed the name to "Preferences." Again, why do we need to change something if it already works and people are already used to it? We can assume it does the same thing as the "Properties" button did in Windows XP, ME, 98, and 95, but our eyes are trained to look for "Properties" not "Preferences."
When I clicked on the Start Menu, I was lost... where were all of my programs? The "All Programs" button did a terrible job of jumping out at me, and it did a fabulous job of blending in all too well with the Start Menu. And since this was a fresh install of Windows Vista, I didn't have any favorite programs yet. When I did click on "All Programs", I glanced right, waiting for the Start Menu to expand and show me a list of all my programs. It didn't. Microsoft condensed the Start Menu, and now when you click "All Programs" it displays all your programs over where your "Favorite Programs" used to be. That was a bit annoying, I thought, because it was just one more step then to get back to my favorite programs. It also was a hassle because instead of spreading everything out for me to see all at once, I had to scroll through everything.
Microsoft has been bragging about Instant Search since they announced that they were making a new OS, oh... six years ago. I wasn't impressed. Instant Search isn't actually "instant." I mean, once you press Enter, it searches. But to me, an "Instant search" should search AS I type for the letters I have typed thus far. When I did press enter, it didn't work! I typed in "Control Panel." I pressed Enter, a blank dialog popped up for less than a second, then disappeared. That was the end of it. I tried again. I typed "Adobe" and pressed enter. Again, blank dialog opened and closed, but no Adobe. I don't know if this was a glitch or if I was doing something wrong, but if I was doing something wrong then I must state my main pointa gain: An OS should be intuitive, user friendly, and painfully obvious.
Easily my FAVORITE part about Windows Vista: I apologize, but the only thing I know to refer to them as is "Smart Folders." I don't know their official name in Vista, but they're amazing! Finally, Microsoft has done away with "My Pictures", "My Videos", etc. We now simply have "Pictures", "Videos", "Music", etc. Here's where it becomes truly genius. You never have to add any files to these folders! That's why they're smart. The sole purpose of these folders is to keep a list of every type of file that would be associated with that folder. Of course, this is customizable. Pictures scans your hard drive and will present to you every file type found that could be a picture of some kind. Music looks for any audio format. You get the idea. If you think about this for a second, these amazing Smart Folders eliminate third party organization software like Picasa, iPhoto, and Adobe Photoshop Album. Granted, Picasa is still a wonderful tool for enhancing your photos. But now, even with Picasa, you can just point Picasa to your Pictures folder and Windows Vista already has everything organized! You can now enhance your photos all you want in Picasa without worrying about losing them or anything tragic like that.
On that note, this is great for people like my Grandpa. It's perfect for helping avoid the, "Junk, where did I put that file?" feeling. Yes, there is a "Documents" folder as well. It's like having a default search built in to the OS, except every time you want to see every single picture you have on your hard drive, you don't have to run the search again, because it's already run itself. All you have to do is click on the folder where it compiled the list of all these files. It's brilliant, I tell you!
But how much is brilliance worth? Granted, I love a lot of things about Windows Vista. And there are several things that frustrate me about Windows Vista. But, of course, if you know me, I'd have to get the Ultimate edition. I'm not willing to fork out $399.99 for the next OS. And I haven't even begun to talk about the hardware upgrades that are almost always required, and are going to cost you even more money.
I'll let you decide for yourself whether Vista is worth it or not. Microsoft was kind enough to compile a list of 100 reasons to switch to Vista. I'll be sticking with Windows XP, personally.
Click here.
(Grandpa, you CAN'T upgrade!)