I know, I know…you’re wondering why this is in the open source blog. The reason is simple: I have used open source operating systems for a long, long time now. I have championed against Microsoft for over ten years. But when Techrepublic liked the idea of me writing some Vista content for them, I couldn’t say no. Of course this meant me actually using Vista. So I thought it would be interesting for the open source crowd to get my initial reaction to my explorations with Windows Vista. You know, see how (or if) it stands up to Linux. It was a hard pill to swallow for me. It might be a equally as hard for you. Let’s find out. Shall we?

Installation

To begin with I didn’t have to do any installation. I wish I would have but I knew how finicky Vista was with hardware so I wound up having to purchase a new laptop. This was the first strike against Vista. Why? Because I knew, with 100% assurance, that I could download the latest, greatest version of Linux and get it up and running (with full-blown 3D desktop and everything the Aero desktop has to offer) on any machine I have. With Vista - it’s a crap shoot. Unless you have hardware with that magical sticker that says that machine is certified for Vista you just never know.

And of course this brings up one of the many really nasty points about purchasing a machine with a Windows operating system - you rarely get an install disk. Why is that? I paid the “tax”. I bought the machine with an operating system on it. And we all know that Windows likes to be re-installed every so often. But without that disk - no dice. Fortunately I could create a “back up” disk so I could re-install the OS should it need…but only on that laptop. Oh but wait - this is Microsoft so I can only install the OS on one machine anyway. So much for that gripe.

First Boot