"Lang Murphy" <lang_murphy********.com> wrote:
[color=blue]
> There are folks that have had "good" Vista experiences and folks that have
> had "bad" Vista experiences.[/color]

Agreed. I've seen some folks smile like the dickens after using their new
machine for just a few minutes, and, from a good OEM, Vista can be pretty
snazzy out of the box. (I really like it when folks smile like that.)
[color=blue]
> Why do some folks have "bad" Vista experiences? My opinion (and it's just
> that, I don't claim, as others do, to have an all encompassing experience
> with everything under the sun when it comes to Vista or XP or Linux) is
> that, yes, Vista has bugs, yes, 3rd party drivers can contribute to poor
> performance, and yes, the UI is majorly different than XP.[/color]

It's not that the UI is "different". IMHO, Microsoft waited too long to
make the folder tree as important as it is in Vista, after hiding it for
years in Windows Explorer on the Accessories menu on 2000, XP, and (I think)
ME. But better late than never. In fact, I wanted an even more drastic
change to the UI: no keyboard! And if finding some things, e.g. some
Control Panel items, are a little harder for Joe "The Store Guru" Bookkeeper
to find, that's fine by me! (Although he'll eventually find them and I'll
get a call about a problem.)

My main problems with the UI are that

1) some important configurability has been removed (e.g., File Types),

2) some UIs are unnecessarily redundant (e.g., folder permissions' initial
display dialogs),

3) some reduce accessibility (e.g., Sound's "hidden" inactive devices),

4) or remove functionality (e.g., Backup), and

5) what is worst, IMHO, is the mis-synchronization that is possible between
Explorer's folder and contents panes, and the fact that you have to hit F5
to be sure you're seeing a folder's contents accurately.
[color=blue]
> That all said... I don't disagree with the gist of your post. I guess if
> you're going to have to support your customers then you might consider,
> especially when it comes to the UI, learning how to get around in Vista so
> you can help your customers. Best of luck![/color]

It's not me that I'm worried about: /they're/ the ones who'll have to spend
a lot of time relearning a visual "language" with which they've finally
become comfortable. Personally, I think it'll be worth it -- once the bugs
are worked out and some third-party publishes software that'll let me
configure things that used to be readily available before. Until then, I am
/sooooo/ grateful that Remote Desktop and VPN still work! I don't have to
answer a lot of questions over the phone. I can just fix it or demonstrate
it for them.

But I appreciate your comments.

--
David Dickinson
eveningstar at die-spammer-die dash mvps dot org
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