Theo Moore

Well, I took the plunge recently. I was able to obtain a copy of Vista Ultimate, and I upgraded my primary machine to Vista.

Well, ok, I am sort of getting ahead of myself. I actually upgraded to 3 GB of RAM, and installed a 512 MB video card, then I upgraded to Vista.

The install was actually incredibly painless. I wiped everything, and loaded it up with few snags. Biggest problem I had was finding a Vista compatible driver for my onboard sound card. Yeah, I know...onboard sound...how lame. Never been one to spend a whole lotta money on that part. Just don't need that much coolness for sound. But that was it..the only snag, and I fixed it in about 15 minutes. I also ran into some of the updates for the re-install of WoW with permissions on the update files. I also didn't find the OS as intrusive as some commercials have suggested; occasionally it would ask me about something but not nearly as much as advertised.

My initial impression is very good. I like the interface very well. It's softer, and more organic....seems more friendly...more (dare I say it) like some fruity computers I've seen. I don't know that Aero is a huge deal, but it does look pretty slick.

I still stand by an assertion I made earlier in this very blog where I couldn't see why someone would upgrade and I stand by that. Had I not had a way to obtain a copy of the OS (Note a fully licensed, owned by me copy), I wouldn't have spent the money on it. I still think that you could easily wait until your next machine to get it. So, it's a good OS, and no doubt more secure than XP, but so far I am not convinced that it's worth spending a ton to upgrade for the average user.

More on this as time goes on, I've no doubt....