Vista, for HD displays only.

After a few failed attempts to switch on Vista I have made it – at least I think so, it’s been a couple of days, my new hardware has more memory than 32 bit XP could handle, I have no access to polish version of 64 bit XP (only Polish MUI and I have bad experience with those), all my usual games work OK, I have used to the annoying „needs your permission to continue” dialog. So it’s probably final – at least my home box, my works stuff is still better with XP.

My first impressions:

• it’s cute – kinda like Linux Gnome or KDE 5 years ago ;P
• it’s hungry – >1GB of RAM just to run the system and basic stuff (eg. antivirus, browser)
• it’s annoying – the User Access Control (UAC – „needs your permission to continue”) is kinda like sudo for windows, but without password prompt, I’m not sure if it’s really secure or little bit secure and a lot of annoying.
• it took plastic surgery – most of the core tools and management utils are the same, but they have new, after lifting surgery look, and some are the same in a new nicer window
• it’s rearranged – all that you know form XP is there somewhere, but to access it you must know new pathways
• it’s confusing – the new UI (tree views, summaries, gadgets, etc) is little bit too much and is hard to read, I hope so that I will get used to it and won’t get confused all the time. (Does the default font’s changed?)
• it’s shiny – why the task by must be so shiny, it’s like the reflected sun is constantly blinding you making it hard to read
• it’s big -could those icons get any bigger?

The last point is my point. I have an old SXGA monitor and it has a little bit to low resolution. I’ve seen Vista on the HD1080 laptop display and it was looking great, those bit icons where just the right size, but the default font is maybe little bit to small.

But hey, those are first impressions and maybe after I get my work computer upgrade I will find Vista as ergonomic as XP? Don’t get me wrong I like the direction it’s taken, maybe some things could be done better or left alone the old way, but I’m sure it’s all for the better.

PS. I had similar impressions when switching from 2000 to XP and I have adapted and I am satisfied with the way I can work on it. I just do not like to learn all-new to often, so I hope that there will not be Windows UI rearranging for a couple of years 🙂