The most annoying Vista-isms so far

Here's the first (that I've seen, at least) of articles listing some of the numerous gripes about Windows Vista. The bottom line, really, is that unless you're buying a medium to high-end PC today, it's not worth upgrading from XP. And be glad you're not one of the poor schlubs who bought a $500 nVidia video card and can't get the proper Vista drivers for it.

Microsoft Really Can Make an OS That Looks Good?

Yes, if you believe Paul Boutin's review of Vista in Slate. He describes a visually exciting update of the PC's operating system. Just how far Redmond has to go is obvious to anyone who uses OS X on a Mac and then gets thrown back into the freezing cold swimming pool of XP ugliness. Boutin makes a great point about all the bells and whistles, though:

Operating systems shouldn't be exciting. Like a good government, a good OS should mostly get out of the way. It needs to stay up and running, prevent invasions from intruders, and avoid ugly surprises. When judged by those criteria, Vista is up to the task.

He goes on to say that Microsoft got religion on security and is now taking its various flaws more seriously. A lot of people remain skeptical, though, and you can be guaranteed there will be hundreds of indignant journalists writing anti-Gates screeds as soon as Vista's problems bubble to the surface. They'll be right, of course. Nonetheless, if you don't want to buy into the Apple worldview (err, price structure) and aren't ready to spend weekends learning Linux, you're stuck in Gates' world, and well... we're just living in it.

Why You'll Want Your Own Home Server

Lost amid all the excitement over the Apple iPhone and Apple TV, Microsoft previewed its own piece of technology awesomeness, Windows Home Server. The idea is to make operating a server user-friendly enough to appeal to casual computer users. Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows explains why this is such a big step forward:

When you think about the market for a home server-type product, you obviously need to consider how many people there are out there who would want and could take advantage of such a product. According to Microsoft, the market for WHS is quite big: There are over 40 million people worldwide that have broadband access and 2 or more PCs at home. They've got important data stored on those PCs, including digital memories (photos and videos), work and personal documents, financial data, and more.

The problem, of course, is that as more and more people use PCs to store their important data, the user base, overall, gets less and less technical, and the needs of the market migrate down to the mainstream. For this reason, WHS needs to serve the needs of average users as well as more advanced users (you guys). What Microsoft expects is that most of the people who acquire the first version of WHS will be enthusiasts. But they'll be so excited about the product that they'll evangelize it to others. And the product needs to work for these people.

Negative Outlook

Some people aren't happy with some major changes to Microsoft Outlook 2007. Check out the screen shots to see just how important graphic rendering is to making our e-mails look good. I know a lot of people are forced to use Outlook at work. And it is packed with features, but there really is no reason to use it at home, where Mozilla Thunderbird performs the same function and is free.