Here are some thoughts about the Blip.tv Windows Vista video:

• A Combination of Windows CE + ME + NT – Never used Windows CE or ME (although my friend had it and didn’t seemed too difficult to work with). I’ve used NT in a corporate environment and it seemed to work fairly well, given it is a Microsoft product.

• Six Versions – I recall a while back when they were introducing Vista the six different versions. I have the Home Premium Edition. Not really sure how that compares to the Basic Home Edition (other than it must be better if it has the word ‘Premium’ in it) or for that matter the Ultimate (which I guess is the best).

• Windows Aero (3-D) – Yes it is kinda cool, but I’ve heard it can slow down the overall performance. Haven’t really noticed this considering it runs a heck of a lot faster then my XP machine ever did. On a semi-related note one neat feature involves the task bar when you hover your mouse over a windows in the task bar you get a thumbnail preview of the window.

• Blue, Black and Red Screens – I have yet to get a BSD or any other colored screen of death. Did get a message the first day that explorer had an error and needed to restart but I think I caused that by trying to install an incompatible programs into Vista.

• Microsoft Messenger & Security/Permission Windows – I have not seen any signs of the messenger yet. Seen my fair share or security and permission screens, especially the UAC.

• Virus Protection/Windows Defender – AVAST Antivirus works well with Vista. Microsoft must have partnered up with Symantec as Vista comes with a free 30 or 45 or was it 60-day trial version of Norton Internet Security (NIS).  I don’t recall how long it was, all I know is I immediately removed it from the system. As for firewall I found Sygate would not work and since they don’t support their free version any more I had to find something else. I am using ZoneAlarm now and works fairly well.

• Tech Support – I have never had to (nor do I ever plan on) contact Microsoft Technical Support. If their phone support is anything like their website…

So far Vista has not been that bad.  My biggest complaint is the UAC. not having the ability to ‘remember’ my choice. Hopefully Microsoft will improve this when SP1 comes out. As Gene Thomas pointed out, the learning curve is not too bad and it could very well be that people who have had the most difficulties are the ones who have tried to upgrade their machine to Vista.  Five years ago when my system crashed, I decided to go with Win XP only to discover that my current configuration then would run Win XP, but not very well.  I ended up getting a whole new machine at that point.  I did the same with Vista, except I really didn’t have a choice since it was already preloaded.

One more thing back on my initial announcement, vladimir prieto pointed out “one day is not enought. history speaking, windows tends to defragment and make disorder just by using it. so weeks of use or maybe a month, would be a finest opinion.“.  True one day is not enough and yes I’ll make it a point to report back in a couple weeks.  Still this is running so much better than my XP system was.  Of course that could be because I have 2x as much RAM and a much faster processor than my FIVE year old XP machine.  Also keep in mind, during those five years I never did a reinstall of Windows XP.