Vista was released today, so I’ve decided to do a line-by-line of the new features like I did for Mac OS X Tiger.
Windows Aero: A new look
Like Klodiscope for Mac OS 9 or like Beryl for Linux, Aero is a high memory using window manager that has been created by Microsoft.
Unlike Klodiscope or Beryl, however, Aero is ugly. I’ll let this picture do the explaining for me:
It looks like something I made in Photoshop before Frank fixes it up.
Instant Search: It’s like Spotlight, but with a security problem
A new feature introduced in Windows Vista has a shocking resemblance to Mac OS X’s Spotlight. A tool that fully indexes your hard drive so you can search not only via filename, but my meta tags as well as text-content.
What a great idea! Put the entire contents of an email into a database that can be read from and written to by any application. Apple pulled this off simply because there are no security holes in its system. On Windows, however, this new “tool” is bound to be exploited by every single hacker who knows how to compile something.
Complete PC Backup
Whoa. Windows got something right.
Unlike the crap that Apple is trying to pull on us with “Time Machine,” it looks like Window’s Vista’s backup and restore software is… good!
You can backup your entire system to an external hard drive, and restore it. All from within the OS, in an uncharacteristically easy way.
Better start using it, because knowing Windows, you’ll be doing plenty of restores.
Windows Fax and Scan
Once again, Window’s is catching up with the rest of the pack. Image Capture on the Macintosh and several different Linux applications have been able to do this for a long time.
Of course, Microsoft had to “integrate” their software, so you’ll need to use Outlook.
Windows SuperFetch
Look at this quote from THE OFFICAL MICRSOFT WEBSITE:
Windows SuperFetch helps improve PC responsiveness and helps make system performance more consistent. Windows SuperFetch tracks which applications you use most often and when you use them—and then it preloads those applications into memory to ensure quick access.
What a god awful idea! My eMac, which has 1 GB of RAM, which, even by today’s standards is not THAT shabby, would not be able to do much if I had “SuperFetch.” SuperFetch pretty much ensures that all of my memory is in use, so that if I happen to stumble upon an application that I use “regularly,” I can skip the 3 seconds it takes to load the program to RAM.
Windows Defender
Yay! Apparently Microsoft is going to work towards making their systems better and secure, but your going to have to use a whole separate application.
Parental Controls
Once again, they’re playing catch-up with Mac OS X. However, they seem to have done this pretty well… AKA, the same way Apple did it…
BitLocker Drive Encryption
Now, this is perhaps the one category where Windows has leaped ahead of Mac. Full hard drive encryption. Not just your home folder, but your entire drive. Windows: 1. Everybody else: 1 * 10 to the .
Standard Accounts
It’s about damn time! Who’d have though that there would be a user somewhere between retard (limited account) and genius (admin account)? Once again, Windows catches up with the rest of the world.
Entertainment Features
Oh look, iLife and Frontrow, except not as good. Not much more to say…
Feel free to comment / reply and correct me if I’m wrong or bash me into the ground.
