Unlike the majority of people I know, I actually don’t mind Vista! It’s an improvement from XP, which, while stable, was starting to get stale. I hear all those Vista-related horror stories, but the only problem I’ve ever had was with the dreadful UAC (which I just disabled ).

I’m going to upgrade to Windows 7, mostly to keep my computer up to date, and also based on recommendations from several people who’ve been using the release candidates. I still have this dream of switching to Kubuntu as my primary OS. It’s currently installed on my laptop here along with Vista; I just never have time to use it enough to get comfortable with it.

Oh, and I also want to touch on who is really to blame for Vista sucking the big one on laptops. If you guessed laptop manufacturers, you deserve a prize. When Microsoft launched Vista, they allowed manufacturers of new machines (PCs and laptops) to give customers a choice till XP was originally set to be shelved forever. The branders who built their own PCs gave customers the choice while laptop manufacturers did not. They loaded Vista on every level they sold starting at the very bottom where the components were cheap and not meant to translate into any actual CPU muscle support. This meant that your laptop was now running a much bigger operating system that it could ever handle. To make matters worse, laptop manufacturers only put in the bare minimum of RAM needed to run Vista adequately let alone efficiently. No wonder you could have chiselled that email in stone faster! Give Vista the CPU and RAM it needs, and you will never find reason to hate the way it performs.

The inherent problem with Vista on laptops is that it’s not really O/S suited to run at bare minimum, and yet every day we see entry level machines running it. It’s crazy. It’s like putting a Ferrari engine inside a Smart Car. C’mon! Be sensible. And all of the laptop manufacturers did it to cut costs – and on a lot of models that weren’t expandable enough to accommodate any service pack growth as they came down from Microsoft.

Again, not a Microsoft problem. Vista works. It works beautifully on PCs with hardware expansion to grow with the service packs. Vista works but not very well on any of the entry to mid level laptops with even the maximum RAM installed. But, all of this is a moot point since all machines after November or so will come loaded with Windows 7… with, again, the bare minimum of RAM (I’m sure).

Lastly, I really, really wish people would open their eyes and realise Vista isn’t going anywhere. It’s the future of Microsoft and their operating systems, and that Windows 7 is, in fact, Vista Lite. We are all going to have to move forward with the new operating systems because Microsoft is committed to never going backwards. They never have, and never will, revisit old technology. Not matter how many consumers beg. And those that begged for continued support of XP *cough*businesses*cough* should accept that fact now and start saving their pennies for the October 22nd launch.