February 26, 2007 at 11:32 am
Windows Vista has been available to consumers for about a month, and it has been reviewed many times.
Personally, I quite like Vista. I find it to be a solid Windows release. I would easily recommend it to anyone who doesn't have a problem with early adoption issues that tend to arise. I haven't really run into any, with the exception of OpenGL support on my ATI graphics card (which ATI fixed on the day of Vista's release). Other people, however, have had issues with applications and drivers, so your mileage may vary.
Reviews have had a tendency to downplay Vista's UI, more or less just saying “Yeah, it's pretty. So what? That doesn't really matter.” I think they don't give it enough credit. Vista is pretty. It looks really good. The animations they've added to the UI really add an extra level of slickness to the whole experience. I would honestly go so far as to say that the UI improvements are reason enough to seriously consider Vista. They're that good.
Vista has regularly been accused of copying Mac OS X. Now, I do see some things in Vista that appear to have been lifted out of OS X, but the big things pointed out in most reviews were not actually taken from OS X, and it bothers me how many reviews are spreading false information. I'm speaking specifically about Gadgets and fast searching. Both of those features were first demoed running in Vista (then called Longhorn) at PDC '03, which, being in the year 2003, meant that they were shown off before their equivalents (Dashboard and Spotlight) were revealed at WWDC '04.
To conclude: I think Vista is a good release, I suggest you consider buying it if you don't mind early adoption hiccups, the UI is really pretty, and please fact check before you accuse people of things.