Opinion: Vista's Pros and Cons

Computerworld - While the naysayers were still calling for Microsoft not to ship Windows Vista until sometime in the spring of 2007, Microsoft announced that it is definitively on track to deliver Vista this year to business users and in January 2007 for everyone else. What does this mean for you?

Well, Vista is not something that can be ignored, and every organization is going to have to come up with a policy for Vista deployments pretty soon (or end users are just going to take matters into their own hands). When Micro­soft launched Windows 95, I estimated that, between Microsoft and all its partners, about $500 million would be spent on marketing. This time, it’s likely to be well north of $1 billion spent in an effort to get end users and IT professionals on board with the migration.

When I look at it, I see four major things that are compelling about Vista and four big issues with migration. Here’s what to look forward to and what to watch out for.

What’s Hot

Improved reliability and security. Windows XP was a good operating system, but let’s face it — five years ago, no one foresaw the security and reliability problems that would come to plague PCs. Microsoft has learned a lot since the launch of XP, and it shows. Vista is much more stable and secure than any previous version of Windows.

Protected-mode Internet Explorer. One of the biggest vulnerability points has been Microsoft’s IE browser. While the just-released IE7 addresses a lot of security issues, IE7 running on Vista takes things to the next level. Running in protected mode, the browser is totally isolated from the rest of the operating system and actively protects against malicious code. This alone is worth the price of admission.

Aero Glass. Computers on TV never run XP; they run slick-looking user interfaces (but, alas, draw text on-screen as if it’s moving at 300 baud, with annoying sound effects). It’s mostly eye candy, but it’s really nicely done eye candy. Vista’s user interface is actually pretty slick and might even look good on CSI. Reverting to XP after using Vista with the all of the Aero elements enabled is a chore. This is how computers should look in the 21st century.

Media centricity. Media is a first-class citizen in Vista. Tight integration with Windows Media Player and the Windows shell make it really easy to browse, navigate, tag and play all the content that’s important to you. Music, pictures and video all work just the way you think they should.