Windows Vista: Impressions from a Linux Perspective
July 18th, 2007
This is not a Linux-is-better-than-Windows thing. I am not very ideological when it comes to computers and software. I am pragmatic. The reason I left Windows 98 was that it made me crazy. I wanted to do things and Windows 98 didn’t let me do those things. Since I have a fairly good understanding of how my computer works, and since I consider myself the owner of my computer, I wanted the possibility to control it on all levels. The blue screens, the “illegal operations” and the destructive waves of viruses made me turn to Linux. To me Microsoft had become a word associated with Windows 98, an operating system which was hopelessly insecure, ugly, slow and annoying in most ways. (Sorry Bill, that is my honest opinion…)
Certainly, Linux had what I wanted. The internet developed a large reservoir of instructions on how to do almost everything in Linux, and once again I became the master of my computer, not its slave. For six years Linux and open source software has brought me what I want: An excellent tool to do my job with, a functional access to all kinds of non-drm-media, and something very nice to play around with. However, tempus fugit. XP has been out for years, and finally Windows Vista (aka Longhorn) appears on my brand new HP-laptop. I could simply burn the system recovery disks, delete the whole thing and install Linux, but why the hell, I give Vista a try! And yes, both the world and Windows have changed.
An immediate crisis occur when I realise that there is still no native support for multiple virtual desktops in Windows. That is a problem to me, because I need several desktops. One for surfing and reading mail, one for writing, one for a media player, and one for bashes and system things. Bill, you have to admit that multiple desktops are not only nifty, they are necessary! I don’t know who invented them, it was certainly not Microsoft, but kill your pride and enable multi-threaded brain work!
The media situation is really a dream in Windows Vista. To configure my TV was easy with nVidia’s control panel. (I do think that Ubuntu 7.10 will include a similar tool.) On this point Linux has been a nightmare of editing /etc/X11/xorg.conf and restarting the X server hundreds of times. I was also surprised to realise that, unlike Windows 98, there are no problems playing an encrypted DVD on my box, with one simple click. Good. To import my Music collection and playing it all randomly, as I always do, was very straightforward in Windows Media Player. Good.
Then of course the drm system enables access to online movies and lots of wonderful material. It is certainly nice, although I do have problems with it. It closes a wall around the proprietary operating systems which looks as nothing else than a good old monopoly strategy. Money talks. It would be easy to develop a digital rights protection (drp) system which could be binary distributed to Windows, Linux and Mac users. The long haired freaks in sandals might preach on the evilness of closed source software, but let them preach, I only want to watch all the wonderful movies legally!
The ability to control file and folder permissions properly (I know that it was there in NT and XP) is a huge step compared to Windows 98 (which made my grandmother a potential evil hacker). The multiuser system is satisfactory. Although I do suspect that ordinary ignorant users will create one account with administrative privileges and use it for all purposes. That is a very bad idea: “Hey! Let’s all be root!”
And since Gimp and Openoffice works in Windows I somehow manage to feel home in Vista. But I miss my virtual desktops, and I do not want to use the visually unripe Vista Virtual Desktop Manager. Neither do I feel like buying one of the countless proprietary alternatives. This should be a part of the operating systen, at least as an option.
I have to say that after a week with Vista I think I could survive using it. However, maybe my impression will change after a month or half a year?