Now from the Don’t Knock It Til You Try It Department comes word that I’ve fallen upon a copy of Windows Vista to try it out (yes, legally). So I will do so on the primary x86 machine at home.
This will be, of course, the final determining factor about what I do… either branch off completely to the Mac or stick with Windows/PC.
Here’s to hoping it’s a good experience… cough.
So I’ve pulled down the latest Parallels software and thrown it on my Mac. My first action was to do a leap of faith and blow away the VM of Windows that I’ve had for some time and reinstall it as a Boot Camp’d partition.
Then, I fired up Parallels and told it to use the partition. Shockingly enough, it works… and it works well.
It’s scary for Microsoft when software has advanced so far that they can corral Windows into a window or a partition, either way… with little user effort. VERY little user effort.
Is it just me, or did the iSight cameras (non-integrated) disappear from the Apple Store?
Could we be seeing an upgrade in the iSight line in the near future?
I’ve already been asked my opinion 3 times on Vista – once by a power user and twice by “typical home users” who are eying some low-cost computer out there with Vista running on 512mb of RAM.
No, that’s not a typo.
I’m going to start pointing people to this URL, where I heartily recommend they run screaming from Vista and get a Mac.
I will also note that since I will not be going Vista and I’m getting off the Windows bus, I will not be supporting friends and family who get Vista, then expect my help when it screws up. Sorry.
So the negative spin last night and this morning on Vista is Microsoft’s decision to enforce the notion of the “upgrade version.” You cannot install Windows Vista without Windows 2000 or XP already installed on the system. This bucks the previous process of installing Windows from scratch, but proving you own the prior version by inserting the disc for verification.
I’m going to go on record as saying I don’t like this – not one damn bit, but I saw it coming. Given the “smackdown” mentality Microsoft has gotten themselves into, this was just a natural evolution. They’re merely enforcing what the license terms say should happen. One item you might want to be aware of though – when reading the Vista EULA… once you install the Vista upgrade, the Vista rights/EULA completely supersedes all licensing agreements for the previous version. This means you essentially lose your rights to even install the prior version of Windows ever again.
If you thought your Exchange deployment ever made your life miserable, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. If you’re the Exchange admin of a small business deployment, you’re likely to strut around your office and just tell people to get over it.
If you’re an admin of a large enterprise, March is your Month of Suffering. Prepare to sob like a baby.
Congress enacted this little thing called Daylight Saving Time, right? Well, then they decided to make it happen three weeks sooner in the year 2007. They passed this law in 2005.
I meant to write a post last night and catch everyone up to the fact the our son BunBun has started school. His first day was yesterday (Wednesday the 10th) and he did wonderfully. He came back to mama just once, then on the second goodbye, he was just fine with it. He made friends, played outside and had a wonderful time.
I’m very proud 🙂
Sorry I didn’t have a chance to catch you up to this fact. We’ve been terribly busy at work as usual.
So tomorrow starts Macworld. I for one am extremely excited. I wish I had a shot at going this year – perhaps next year I can head out there.
I think there will be wonderful things coming out of Cupertino. Can hardly wait 🙂
Had a further little email chat with Jennifer about Vista’s licensing. She pointed out this article on ZDNet, so I wanted to make sure I bring it to everyone’s attention.
It’s clear to both of us in our discussion, however… that these modifications just aren’t good enough. It doesn’t solve the “ick” factor of knowing that Microsoft is watching how you compute – every day, every night, every boot. To me, that makes it the ultimate deal killer. The general distrust is the nail in the coffin.
Here’s a good article on the Inquirer about why Microsoft Vista is not an option for at least 1 tech worker.
I’d imagine others are coming to the same realization. I already did several months ago.
