Well, I must say I enjoy it.
I was at home sick today(convienent eh?) when I realized it launched today. I hurried to my local bestbuy to see it and Office 2007(which costs almost 3 times as much as the OS) on display. They had mostly the Ultimate version(not suprised, I don't know anyone who will shell out an extra 100$ for bitlocker and remote desktop), and basic. It seemed as if everyone went straight for Home premium. There was one Home Pre. left, so I counted my blessings and checked out.
When I bought my laptop, it said I could get the version I bought for free, but shipping would take 6-8 weeks. They hadent even confirmed my faxed recipt, so I decided to screw it and if the free one ever did come, i would sell it or give it to my dad. I rushed home like a giddy school girl and attempted to install.
It gave me the option to retain all my files and just upgrade the OS, or delete all my stuff and install it. Me, being the adventerous one I am, chose to delete all my crap and just have vista.
Once it started it showed a window with a cool background in the back. The window had a vista theme to it, so it was cool having a small preview. The window started copying some files, then did some other stuff. At the top it had a friendly little reminder that it would restart several times during installation. When they say several, they mean 3. I decided to let it do its thing while I play some Halo 2. I played 3 matches and came back in time to see it do its second reboot. No big deal, you didn't have to click any buttons or anything, it was all automated. After it was done, it started in crappy graphics mode with the windows vista basic theme(like areo, but not see through, or nice).
The first thing you want to do after installing is update it. Chances are, Vista didn't come with the latest drivers for your graphics card. If you try to change the theme to aero before you upgrade your card, it wont show the option for aero. Once you upgrade some stuff, everything will look a lot nicer.
After messing around for an hour or so, I started to get a feel for it. I tested a few programs, most of which worked. I tried the demo of Office 2007, and it was very nice. Not 350$ nice, but nice. The OS had cool sounds for actions you do, and it had cool transitions for window movement(minimizing, etc..).
You can change the color of the windows to suit your tastes. I left it at default(I'm a default kind of guy), but I know others will want to change it. What really made me happy was that there are no colors chosen for you, you can make it any color with a color mixer. I thought that was nice of them.
Window Flip 3D was a blast. Its pretty much Microsofts new replacement for ALT+TAB. It took me a while to figure out how to do it, but I got it after a while. You hold the windows key, and tap TAB. You can hit tab again to turn the windows, or select one with your mouse(much easier).
After Flipping for about 10 minutes, I ventured onto Windows Mail. Windows Mail is basically the new version of outlook express. It comes bundeled with Vista, it doesn't cost anything. It works well from what I've tested, and it looks nicer. Time for Windows Media Player.
Forget WMP11 on XP. This is different and better. Well, maybe not better, but definatly different. It gets a new vista theme, and looks way cooler. Also, windows photo gallery incorperates the theme too. Other than the nice UI, its basically the same thing
Windows sidebar is awesome. Im sure you all have seen it. Its the thing that holds the gadgets. Gadgets are fun. From clocks to stocks, it has a wide array of types of gadgets.
All in all, I like Vista. I'm sure others will to. If you do everything right, it'll be easy to install. If you mess anything up, I'm not sure what will happen. Either way, somthings going to happen after you hit install. Just hope its somthing great. Chances are, it will be.
My rating. I would give Vista a 9 out of 10. For features, it excells. But, if you don't want any features, then there isn't much reason to upgrade. Chances are, when you buy a new computer, you will get it anyway. So, sooner or later, everyone will have it. its really just a matter of how badly you want it. For 160$, I think its worth it.
Now about the 350$ office...
