|
FalconFly
|
Since I've been toying around and got flamed alot for voicing my bit of an Opinion about MS Vista, I thought : let's give it another shot under full productive conditions...
So I went ahead and installed Vista 64 Home Premium Edition SP2 and am taking it for a spin.
Well, here's my thoughts & experiences :
The good :
- Aero GUI Look&Feel looks nice when supported by your Hardware, kinda looks slick (liked the colors much better than WinXP default Desktop)
- has DirectX 10 and option for future DX11 (if you're a Gamer and want/need it)
- 64bit Driver and Software support hasn't given me much problems, only few Programs didn't work (and Vista64 gave advance notification about known problems, which gave a good heads-up)
- SP2 removed alot of the enourmously laggy response times indeed, general response speeds feel pretty much like Win7 RC I tried a while ago (still nothing I'd call speedy - but acceptable for everyday use)
- File Copy/Move Dialog gives nifty transfer performance details when desired
- Resource Monitor gives useful insights about system utilitzation
The bad :
Quite alot, don't know where to start, so everything in no particular order...
- UAC :
Considering that it has already been compromised, its concept being broken and exploits exist, this utter pain in the arse feature should be removed completely.
I mean, you click on an OS function - while being logged in with a User account with Administrator rights *hint* , it asks for your okay (well fine, "Yeah I really clicked that, make it happen")... just for another 2nd confirmation Window to pop up and ask again.
Typical Admin response : "Yes, stupid, I want it, what didn't you understand about "make it happen!" ?!"
Additionally, UAC does a good job of preventing legitimate and correctly installed Software to start, you'll be lucky if you get an Error Message from the failing Software (because UAC won't tell you that it just trickedfu**ed you once again).
- Administrator vs Administrator
Can hardly believe - let alone understand - it, but... for Win95, Win98, Win98SE, WinME, WinNT, Win2000, WinXP, Linux, BeOS, OS/2, Solaris, BSD, Unix, MacOS and every other OS existing... Administrator means : Administrator.
When I'm Admin on a Computer, the OS has to obey and do nothing I did not tell it or allow it to do. And it has to do anything I tell it to do, including self-destruction should I so wish. Period.
Not for MicroSoft Vista, however...
Here, the actual Administrator is hidden and requires a manual tweak to unhide the account after a Google research. Additionally, the OS is lying about the User Account having Administrator rights - it does not, actually far from it!
That's a complete No-Go, right there.
- Background Services
Now we all know different Operating Systems come with their share of background services to afford stable operation and functionality of all User-Selected features.
Vista, however, takes the overload to a new peak. There's heaps & bounds of services set to auto-run that either do not make any sense, serve no purpose or mean severe security risk in the given configuration. A good ~70% of the services I could safely shutdown without losing any desired functionality - and that's bad news, considering not few of these services were plain undesired...
- Resource Usage
Most already know, but the way this OS is wasting resources (RAM, CPU, I/O bandwidth) left and right is absolutely... astounding.
It's not a showstopper, considering how cheap RAM and suitable CPUs have gotten, it's plain ugly to look at.
Where a fully patched Win2000 sits there at far below 100MB Idle usage, WinXP was the first to exceed it (mainly a toll induced by incorporating .NET)... Vista takes a good 400-500MB actual RAM right after booting, some 200MB+ being reserved just for the Kernel alone (!) which at least has enough dignity to move to Swap to some extend. You can actually further increase it by just activating some of the "Sidebar" functions. I can't recall active Desktop or TweakUI-type Utilities ever using anything in that vicinity, despite having had far more features to choose from.
I can fit 3 or 4 operating Systems with far more functionality into those dimensions.
- Font Antialiasing (Cleartype)
Basically a nice Idea for all those TFT panels that do not allow setting the sharpness of Pixel Interpolation and Display, where pixel-accurate thin fonts are used.
However, it not only antialiases the thin Fonts (where it works very well), but also for any other Font. That makes bigger or bold fonts look like your TFT is broken - or like you need to see an eye doctor fast. Blurry is the best description.
- GUI performance issues
Saw the same under Win 7 RC, but ironically setting the GUI to "max performance" (every eyecandy turned off) will actually decrease performance. And it does this to a point where using the (supposedly now lightning fast) GUI even with a high-end GTX295 and latest drivers feels like running it off a 1997 8MB PCI card with rather average GUI acceleration.
Appears to be a bug in the Vista classic GUI design, as doing this does not seem to fit well in the Vista Display driver model optimized for Aero.
- Windows Explorer
Oh, that's a good one. Although not as catastrophic as Win 7, here's what happens when you open it by right-clicking the Start button :
...tons of tons of folders appear which make no sense at all (thanks, I have my own order when storing files on a harddrive). Up to a point where you have to actually search your Drives - which likely won't show all the way down below, even on a 40" display.
....My Images
....My Music
....My Documents
....My Movies
....My Sexual Preferences
....My evil world conquer Plans
....My (whatever) blah blah
Dozens of them.....
Deleting all of them also got me my very first "Oops, I need to re-install". After deleting one of these too many, the Explorer - anytime you opened it anywhere - popped up a hughe error message, stating it can't find the desktop.ini (despite it being right there, where I opened the Exporer).
Needless to say, my first trip to "System Restore" just told me "sorry, I took some 5GB off your HD space already for restore&index data but I can't do anything for you". Oh my, thank you Vista.
Ironically, even manually restoring the deleted folder and copying the missing file from another folder according to the error message did not change anything. Great.
Also funny, if you were always bugged about the Explorer always opening an initially rather useless Sub-Sub-Sub-Subdirectory on the C Drive - the entry Folder to your Start Menu...
It now does the same! Sounds fair, doesn't it ? Well, not quite, because this it where it takes you
C:\User\(Account)\AppData\Roaming\MicroSoft\Windows\Start Menu\
Not quite useful, isn't it? I can tell, it's not funny to close all those sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-subdirectory panes 50 times a day.
It's now even easier to click "Computer", which now is the only place where you can start browsing your Drives with a sane mind... Ouch.
- Explorer Part II : Window Size and Position
From the dawn of Windows, the OS has managed to remember the last position and size of the Explorer Window.
Apparently this was a long standing bug, because : now it will not anymore!
Add this to the 50 times pane-closing and scrolling 2 screens to find your Drives, and you will understand why alternative File Managers have suddenly moved back into User focus and interest.
The Explorer basically has become unusable, unless you have masochistic tendencies...
- Explorer Part III : Folders, File/Folder Sizes and Names
Hopefully you didn't get too used to having the Explorer display the Folders exactly like you wanted to in the past - because these times are over!
Unless you invest alot of time into telling it how to display every fecking single "folder type" the way you want. You may still select the Option to "Display every folder like this current one" - except it just won't work.
Additionally, once you've managed to sort all this out - don't dare to copy a new File Type Vista recognizes into that nicely displaying folder - because it will soon switch to another Format, just because it thinks your Document Folder has transformed into a Movie Folder...
And if you would like to how much space your Files actually take on the Harddrive - the Explorer unfortunately can only estimate that. That's right, it gives an estimate and has lost its capability to show you a real, true figure. You can download 3rd party Utilities to get that job done now - thanks to Vista screwing itself over the usage of Symlinks.
- Hard Drive activity
If you love your HD - don't install Vista.
Why?
Directly after you install Vista, your Harddrive will be under some form of permanent Benchmarking - at least so it will feel.
This will go to a point where you could safely disconnect your Case PowerOn LED and rely solely on the HD Activity LED - because it will be on like 90% of the time (!)
Even if you disable Prefetch, Restore Points, Indexing, Volume Shadow Copy and all similar features & services - the Problem remains to a large extend and opens another one : after closing smaller or bigger applications (and a resting LED), the game starts again at this point.
It really feels like just opening any Applications opens a brand new, full Restore Point on the HDD and literally Hundreds of MB are being transferred.
It would be funny to install Vista on a UDMA disabled IDE Drive. CPU usage would be 100% all the time and that HDD LED would like never go out again.
Needless to say, this truly insane I/O behaviour will not quite increase overall System responsiveness nor Gaming performance.
Lifespan of an average HD could easily be cut in half or less.
If your HD is noisy during I/O - buy ear plugs!
Absolutely unacceptable.
- Defrag
...after seeing the permanent HD Benchmark, one might make a frantic attempt at optimizing HD performance with a nice run of Defrag.
While it will work, it now doesn't show you anything anymore (not even a lame progress count). Additionally, its capabilities are less than that of a limited freeware Defrag software (apart from attempting to decrease Boot time speed, it's defrag of Files only and not even all Files qualify). Hardly worth calling it such.
- Installing Updates
...since the dawn of Windows, installing an Update has caused Windows to perform the installation, request a restart, do some mild configuration at boot and then get you back where you belong - the Desktop, ready to go.
Well, now it's inviting you to play a little game : how many restarts does it take and how often will the "Installing, Part 1 of x, xx% done" repeat itself.
It just steals time but it's a strange mix of funny and irritating to watch, seeing the OS telling you upto 4 times that it is (supposedly and apparently) doing the very same thing - over and over, until it actually finishes and actually boots all the way.
- System Options/Settings
Forget all you've done since Win95, i.e. right-clicking a network icon in the Tray and make a quick adjustment to IP settings or alike.
If you make the mistake of following one of the "Wizards" offering their help (which are a bit like those annoying people who persistently want to sell you their goods in some 3rd world country), chances are you end up somewhere you've never been. Chances also are, neither those Wizards, nor the Windows Help will get you out of it, because instead of simply setting a fixed IP for your LAN you like created a WLAN/LAN bridge for a Company level WAN you don't even have.
Things basically are not where they belong (and where they have been for 15 years of Windows) or their functions are scattered across 6 different menus.
Setting up your screen resolution, background image, Screensaver, GUI style, GUI effects, advanced Display and Monitor properties and 3D Preferences... used to come from one Applet and occur inside one single Window - that is no more, be prepared to take a tour through a better part of the Control Panel applets just for those "quick" settings - if you find the right ones that is.
Additionally, some of these Control Panel applets will open a new Window, while some will open in the same Window.
It makes for some classic moments of Admin work when you close the Applet Window to "go back", just to find out you just closed the entire long-searched Control Applet Page which holds the one setting you're been looking after for 15 Minutes. Sweet...
- Security and Privacy
Here's where Vista is really blowing up.
Given all default options and standards after an installation, you could basically also rent a shared hosting at Homeland Defense or the NSA.
You're sitting in front of a shiny looking GUI that in the background permanently creates tons and tons of indicies from absolutely all conceivable File types - including their content. Absolutely unprecendented.
If any other piece of Software would do anything like that, it would be labelled a critical security and privacy risk and end up as something like "Vista.W64.harvester" in the Antivirus and Spyware listings.
If i.e. a Google Bar extension or their Chrome Browser would do anything like that, you'd see every IT magazine on the planet warning unsuspecting Users of it - the company name would be torn to pieces by both professional IT and the users.
Add to that a mix of Update and Callback services that the integrated Firewall (naturally) lets all on free bypass, plus a permanently active Harddrive - an experienced Admin cannot possibly trust that System... not even for a split second.
During the experiment with Vista64, I have all those "services" disabled completely and still can't put any private Data anywhere near this System - because it still does it to some extend.
It's all stored safe&sound in Backups on my Linux hosts and on external USB Drives.
The whole System basically gives the Look&Feel like it is heavily compromised with dozens of Trojans competing for I/O bandwidth - right from the default Install.
If any other OS would suddenly behave this way, its Admin would rip off the LAN cable, cut power and do in-depth Antivirus/Trojan/Rootkit scans. And that's a default Vista, this is exactly what you get.
That is just the tip of the iceberg, a "quick & dirty" list of all that came to mind as I wrote. I could easily extend this for pages and pages.
In my book, Vista takes the bottom spot of all existing OS'es I have tried so far - and there were many since my old CP/M days on an Apple IIc.
Recommendations : lots of Aspirin, a burning desire for pain & suffering, several pounds of chocolate (or similar) for Endorphines. You will need them, if you approach Vista as a grown, experienced Administrator - this OS is certainly not made for this breed of people.
|
Home
