Windows Vista (and Office) out… finally
After five years of ups and downs, Microsoft has finally released Windows Vista, its’ new operating system. Released simultaneously, Office has been revamped with a radical new interface. We haven’t had a chance to significantly use either yet, but we’ll be interested in improvements (or degradations) in usability, elegance and style. Reviews have been mixed so far, to say the least, but our initial experiences have been positive - especially in terms of the ‘richer’ feel of the interface, including system-wide text anti-aliasing (at last). Many of the criticisms have been aimed at the perceived sense that Microsoft is playing catch-up to Apple’s Mac OS X, while this is true, it is also a good thing. In many areas, such as security, visual experience, ease-of-use and stability, OS X has been far better than Windows for a while. The launch of Vista means that finally there is some competition for Apple. Competition, that is, in terms of user experience. In terms of sales and impact to the way the vast majority of people will interact with their computers, Vista has already won.