Michael Dolan Dot Com

Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007

Thank you for your patronage Microsoft; I’m using Windows Vista (for now).

I rarely check my web stats, but reading Stephen’s post on network services for whatever reason prompted me to look at my website stats. So one view I can see is the most frequently visited IP blocks that visit my site. This is interesting b/c if you resolve the most common IP addresses to the ARIN owner, you can see where some of the most frequent visitors might be located.

Number 3 on my list of most frequent visits for the last 12 months was 65.54.188.17 — which resolves to…. Microsoft, Redmond…

So this could mean a few things… (rampant speculation below):

1. Microsoft is interested in what I say and is taking Linux to heart – perhaps doing massive Stage 1 Gentoo installs (shame that’s pretty much gone as a practice…),
2. Perhaps Microsoft employees are interested in subjects like what it takes to have a truly successful open source community of developers, open standards, investors, and multiple vendor collaboration…
3. Microsoft wants to gather competitive intelligence based on my work at IBM based on what I write here (hmm… good luck)
4. Microsoft employees are very interested in comparing the Canon Rebet XT and XTi (search stats show it’s a popular search query)
5. I need to write more about Vista, Windows Server, and .NET and cater to my audience.
6. Microsoft is secretly trying to drop signals that I should join their company and figure out a better open source strategy for them than threatening IP suits against customers…

Ultimately, I think this stat tells me #5 ;-)

So the interesting piece here is I just started using Windows Vista on a new system this weekend (promptly added Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon as a dual boot). When it comes to operating systems and software, I’ll try ANYTHING and so it was time to refresh my Windows desktop knowledge.

I’ll post more as I have time, but I’ll kick all of this off with what I like about Windows Vista:

• It’s a step up from Windows Me (ok, but really, XP was so much faster… what happened)
• Vista implements UAC (FINALLY), although … poorly… but it’s there at least.
• Vista went a whole 4 days before being infected with the first virus (ok, I trusted public IP port 80 traffic to it… could say it’s my fault, but no, doubt it)
• IE7… nicely integrated, finally has tabs, slimmer interface
• DVD support out of the box??? Maybe one of the other software vendors slipped in the DVD codecs, but I think they actually came with Vista this time – good move.
• Microsoft Outlook Express is now renamed Windows Mail and so far seems better than Outlook Express if you ask me. Simple email app – not much to screw up. I switched to Outlook 2003 already.
• Windows Sidebar – widgets everywhere – ok, maybe just one or two, but the eye candy is appealing. The performance bar widget I downloaded revealed that approx 33% of my 2GB of RAM is used up in an idle state – yes, nearly 666MB is devoted to just having Vista sit there doing nothing…. dare I start an application? and aren’t the triple 6’s an odd omen??
• Windows gets an A for the visual appeal of the artwork and color schemes. I really do like the visual experience.
• Drivers – I thought this would be a horrible issue based on what I read, but my system (albeit a new system) didn’t really have any driver issues except for 1 (USB Audio… still can’t get that to work….). I have a ton of peripherals (printers, scanners, external burners, HD camcorder, cameras, etc) and aside from my speakers everything else worked (after downloading the appropriate drivers of course). Why Microsoft cannot find a better way (ahem, ala RHN) to distribute updates and drivers is beyond me….

That’s it for now. Of course I have the laundry list of “I wish it did X” issues, and so far I’m a bit disappointed, but no operating system lacks some bright spots. The Windows Vista install process was actually quite appealing – loved the changes (especially the hard drive configuration).

Anyway – to those Microsoft employees reading this, start posting comments – could use some increased interaction. I’m actually trying out Vista and taking it for a spin – I didn’t realize PowerShell did not ship with it, but I intend to check it out. Not sure what else is new, but I’ll peruse the usual “here’s what’s new in Vista” tech sites when I have time. If you have anything cool to point out I’d like to hear it.