If you’re not doing anything else for the next few hours, here are a couple of Windows Vista reviews you might want to read. I’ve skimmed them both.
First up is Scot Finnie’s 20 Things You Won’t Like About Windows Vista at ComputerWorld. Scot admits that the negative approach isn’t necessarily an accurate picture:
Microsoft has also managed to add a good deal of benefit and improvement in Windows Vista — enough good things that it may be even easier to collect 20 things you’ll like about Windows Vista. But that’s a different article (one you can read almost anywhere).
I thought this graphic and its accompanying explanation on page 2 were interesting (click through to see the chart in a more readable form):
The bars represent Scot’s subjective assessment of the usability of major desktop operating systems from the last 25 years (taller bar = better usability). That tall bar at the left is Mac OS X, the current leader in OS usability. The bar at the far right, by contrast, is CP/M.
What I find interesting are the #2 and #3 bars. #3 is Windows XP, which Scot ranks as more usable than Windows 2000 or Linux and a noticeable improvement over the MacOS. Here’s a close-up:
If I’m reading the chart right, Microsoft has managed to make significant improvements in usability in a beta release of its next operating system. Based on that visual, I would expect the upgrade decision to be a slam-dunk for anyone who’s committed to the Windows platform and doesn’t want to switch to Macs. Scot’s written conclusion seems a little incongruent:
So, why is the year-old Mac OS X Tiger so much better than Windows Vista, which Microsoft won’t even ship before January 2007? It isn’t that Apple has put more effort into its operating system; Microsoft has mounted a gargantuan effort on Windows Vista. It’s that the two companies have very different goals. I’ve come to believe that Microsoft has lost touch with its user base.
I don’t have enough hands-on experience with the Mac platform to assess its usability, but I can compare XP and Vista. I agree with the conclusion that Vista is going to be a lot more usable than XP. And yes, there are a few things you won’t like. I don’t agree with everything on Scot’s list, but it’s a good read.
If you finish that review and you still have an hour or two left in the day, you might want to check out the 500 Hour Test of Tomorrow’s Windows “Vista” at Tom’s Hardware:
We spent about 500 hours with the most current version, putting this new Windows operating system through its paces. In this review we also include more than 130 screenshots, and provide an overview of all the many different programs, settings, and functions that this new Microsoft offering delivers.
Fair warning: It’s 40 pages in all, and roughly 20 percent of the feature (starting on page 32) is devoted to the built-in games that come with Windows Vista Ultimate Edition. Also, the UAC section on page 18 is a little confused. You’ll get a much better look at how UAC works if you look at my ZDNet series: Part 1, Part 2, and especially Part 3: How Microsoft can save User Account Control.
Ed Bott 
I think the upgrade in place decision is anything but a slam dunk. A lot of people simply don’t have the hardware to run Vista with decent performance. Most upgrades will happen as a result of new machine purchases, which I believe is usually the case with new Windows OS releases.
Carl,
Of course decisions of price, timing, hardware compatibility, and app compatibility trump everything. I’m not saying that people are going to camp overnight to buy Vista, only that Scot’s assessment in the graph seems to mirror my impression that most people will be favorably impressed with Vista’s usability and should find the change positive.
Ed,
I actually agree with you that the “upgrade” market for Vista will be very good. I also agree that people will like the OS when it’s finally done. I was just pointing out that I think most people will buy new machines rather than upgrade in place. When people ask about Vista, and they will, I’d recommend that unless their PC is less than a year or two old, they go buy new hardware.
The nice side effect is that a new machine gets rid of the spyware infection every other home computer has. 😉
There are very few sites that make reading an article as painful as Tom’s Hardware does. In this case, the want us to click through 40 individual pages.
That is so l995 and causes me greater pain than any issues I’ve faced in installing and using several Vista Beta and Office 2007 Beta builds.
Why do they continue to wrap such great writing in a site so reminiscent of a splog? Haven’t they heard of Print This Article functionality?
Carl,I agree, hardware would be an issue. People that bought their pcs a year ago or even a month ago in that matter would be pretty upset. Why can’t Microsoft make the transition a little easier? And what’s going to happen to all those consumers who bought pcs that have 512 MB of Ram running. It is a pretty demanding jump for an OS upgrade.
THE KING HAS NO CLOTHES–
THIS IS NOTHING BUT THE SAME KIND OF JUNK THEY TRIED TO PUT IN MILLENIUM 2000 —
VISTA WILL BE GONE BY THE END OF 2008 AND REPLACED WITH A WINDOWS XP TYPE UPGRADE–
GATES SHOULD FINALLY GET RID OF THE GUY THAT KEEPS WTTING THIS KIND OF STUFF-MILLENIUM DIDN,T WORK THEN AND IT DOESN,T WORK NOW–EVEN WITH THE NEW VISTA NAME ON IT-!!!
Frank, please STOP SHOUTING.