OK, so I've suffered through the betas and RC1 and RC2 (Release Candidate = not quite done yet), and now through two succeeding RTMs (Release To Manufacturing = the finished product) So what's the final version of Windows Vista finally like? Is it worth the pain of upgrade?

I'm not going to spend much time telling you how pretty the Aero interface is, or how cool the Flip3D task switcher is – the computer press has already given lots of space to these features. I intend to relate some experiences with hardware and software that I have encountered. I'll sometimes talk about the new features, as these are the reasons for upgrading to Vista, but I'll mainly be focusing on the stumbling blocks, as these are the reasons that you may want to wait until the problems that relate to you are resolved. If you went through the XP changeover five years ago, you are in for a similar experience with Vista.

I've previously written bits about Vista and done Vista presentations for PCC, and now hope to provide you with some insights gained from experience with the final version of Vista. I plan to submit a “pains & gains” column on Vista to PCC News over the next few months as it makes its way into the marketplace and on to your desktop. What I can offer here is some real-world experience with hardware and software support, as well as a perspective gained from a programmer's view of the workings of Vista and how it affects you through the interface, as well as a comparison to other OSs that I regularly use, Linux and Macintosh OSX.

I am an unabashed Linux geek, so what am I doing messing with Vista? I tell myself that I need to know Vista because my Windows clients are going to ask me about it, and I need to give them a better answer than Microsoft's marketing department will give them. I participated in the beta program and even rejoined MSDN (Microsoft Developers Network) for the carrots they offered, one of which was a downloadable .ISO image of the final RTM version when it was released to MSDN on Nov. 17th. There is some real-world pain involved with upgrading to Vista, and I'd like to relate some of these experiences, for you shall certainly share my pain if you decide to go with Vista the minute it hits the street.

First, a bit of background on Vista: five years in the making, yet still rushed to finish on time. The Upgrade Install bug in the Nov. 8th RTM release, which destroyed existing XP installations, was fixed and the RTM was re-released on MSDN on Nov. 17th. This RTM version is the one that is going to computer manufacturers so they can preinstall it on the computers they sell.

After all this introduction, let's get on to some hard information. Bear in mind that I am talking about the final version of Vista, not the beta or RC versions.

Though I mentioned this previously, it's worth mentioning again because it will affect everybody. Vista has a new security feature called “User Account Control” that is intended to protect the system from “unauthorized changes” that can affect the system or other user's settings, particularly from malware and spyware. It does this by popping a dialog in your face every time something tries to write to certain system or user folders. It also does this whenever you attempt to do a normal software installation even if you are logged in on an administrator account. It came up during installation of Microsoft, Adobe and Corel software. In the case of Adobe and Corel software, it also made the installation fail, even though I told it to allow the changes during installation. Installation of this software did not succeed until I turned off User Account Control. To turn off User Account Control, go to Start -> Control Panel -> User Accounts -> and click the link for “Turn User Account Control on or off”. Once you have turned it off, Security Center will complain that it is off, and penalize you by reminding you it is off every time you log on to the system, but this is a small price to pay for normalizing the system.

Among the hardware that you can expect to lose with Vista is the ubiquitous Creative Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 series of sound cards. Vista has a two-channel audio driver for the card, but you lose 5.1 surround sound and the game port. Thus, I not only lose 6-channel capability of my $100 5.1 Surround speaker system, I also lose the use of my $120 Microsoft Force Feedback Pro joystick. Creative's Web site says they do not plan Vista support for the Live! 5.1 series of sound cards – I must upgrade to at least a $150 X-Fi card to get back both of these capabilities. I am NOT pleased, as I have Live! 5.1 cards in two of my computers.

Judging from manufacturers' Web sites, many scanners are going to be abandoned under Vista as well. This is similar to what happened when XP came out. (i.e. The manufacturer chose not to write an XP driver for the scanner.) My HP ScanJet 6300C doesn't work in Vista, and HP's Web site is depressingly silent about scanner support in Vista. Of the twenty or so different scanners of different makes that I have plugged into Vista, none of them over two years old would work.

Printer support, on the other hand, is quite good. Judging from the printer database, it looks like almost everything that works under XP will also work in Vista. The Vista drivers are as rudimentary as XP's though -- you will need to get the manufacturers' drivers for high resolution printing in many cases.

Early returns are in on Vista. Many of the developer forums that I belong to are abuzz with Vista experiences, from installation (or failure thereof) to device support (or failure thereof). I intend to relate more of these in upcoming articles.

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