Windows current beta offerings

Vista, IE7, One Care, Desktop Mail, Live Messenger

This post is more of a blog post than a news item, but I felt I'd like to talk about the beta programs I'm currently running.

                 I know M$ have a huge program that is nearing the final stages, over the next few months we will have fully operational version of all the above.

                 I think personally they have taken on a massive task, not to just redesign the OS that most of us use but to revamp / design all the old add ons (messenger, outlook express) and offer up brand new security programs such as Windows Defender and One Care.

The organization and collation of these projects must have been immense, I know this seems as I'm on a retainer from M$ but some times you have to stand up and say well done. I have in various other articles over the last few months had a pop at M$, and with good reason I think but for now I have to say OK you done good!.

So i thought we can have a quick look at each of the above programs and see how they fit in with XP or Vista

Vista

I think most of us know by now that Vista is about to go Gold sooner rather than later, is it all it's cracked up to be or in a nutshell is it worth the $200 to $300 price tag? If you already have XP, personally I would say NO, XP is an excellent OS which I have been learning how to manipulate for the 4 or 5 years and it can still surprise me with its versatility.

Vista is nice smooth, very palatable to eye, has nice and sleek new themes and icons, it has appeal to those of us who like to organized with all there media and dozens of other aesthetically pleasing properties etc. but really does it do that much more, ask me in four years and tell you if its that much better, I don't think so. But saying all that I will buy it because its new and I'm the type that has to have and I think this is where M$ will win.

  IE7

I have used IE 7 from a very early stage, I like it , I have tried firefox which is not bad, had a look at opera and others but for me I like IE, some will say I'm M$ hypnotized and firefox is much better, maybe for you but for me I like IE phising is annoying, I think this slows everything down but all in all good I like it

We are about to get the finished version whether it will be this month or not I think it,s worth waiting for and a good upgrade from IE6 plenty of new features and security apparently is a s good as it can be. 

One Care

 One Care a newish beta will probably not be ready by the time VISTA ships will follow hot on the heals, it will not be bundled as this apparently is unfair competition, cant see it really but there you go. So it will be an add-on that you have to buy. What is it, well

Quote from M$

Well it is all that. a little cumbersome I find and I'm not sure the performance plus, where auto defrag is on. I'm just starting to use this so will be trying to get a full feel, but I don't think its all that bad and it keeps everything together, some say you need to have strong firewall etc, personally Ive ran with the XP firewall since the beginning and had no problems, I'm sure others will disagree. as I said its nice and neat so you don't need lots of different progs. I like I think.

Window Live Mail desktop

I'm not sure I like this new idea from M$ I have been using this for about 6 weeks or so and  I'm  so not impressed, I don't know whether this wil be an add on or what , I think it will be like messenger now you can have it if you want it sort of thing.

Well me personally I don't like any of M$ email clients thats from this one  to the early outlook express and certainly not outlook which I use at work and its naff, I like my google mail and all that goes with it so I will stick with that. there is nothing here to entice me.I find that it is cumbersome, slow and difficult to read with huge ads, sorry M$ total NAFF is what they say where I come from and I agree,

To top it all I have had a hotmail/windows/MSN/microsoftpassport etc for about 5 years now all of a sudden I need a new windows live account whats that all about. get a grip M$.

Live Messenger

Live messenger has been on the go for some time now and I not even sure if its still beta or not wait Ill check, oops no it's not so I don't suppose it should be here, well not much to say anyway its alright does what it always did, I don't think they changed much from 7.5 really just made it fit in with the rest with soft logos and pastel colors etc.

Summary

As I said at the beginning I think M$ have worked hard and have been successful in producing a different suite of desktop programs and utilities, I think we also have to appreciate that every time they do this it makes the next one ten times as difficult, the steps that were taken between Window 3.1 and 95 were huge, and again between 95 and 98SE but not so much between 98 and 2000 but again were huge between 200 and XP , but not so big between XP and Vista maybe there is a pattern here and we can expect a massive change for the next, I think not really. Vista will succeed and rightly so It will become a benchmark for eye candy as XP did and has become..