Tech Test Drive: Vista's pretty, but it's a shameless Mac OS X imitator

[onehandle]

I praise Microsoft's new Windows Vista operating system, and I also curse it.

Vista certainly is pretty. PC users long used to the dowdy Windows XP will do a double take at Vista's translucent images and groovy 3D effects. Vista also is crammed with powerful, useful new features, like lightning-fast file searching, photo organizing and movie-DVD burning.

But after waiting five years — as in half a decade — for this thing, I think I should get something revolutionary, a PC operating system so astonishing it makes the competition look laughably primitive. The almighty Microsoft made this, right? So Vista — being released to consumers Tuesday — has to be jaw-droppingly superior, right?

Well, it's not. Vista hardly rocked my world during weeks of testing. It's a fine Windows upgrade, but it's also a shameless rip-off (and not quite the equal) of another major operating system, Apple Computer's Mac OS X.

That begs the question: Why not just use OS X?

http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/living/16555680.htm

[kestrel91316]

1. Some of us adults don't need and couldn't care less about

"translucent images and groovy 3-D effects". My computer suffers from enough visual clutter and sensory overstimulation as it is.

Vista and Mac's OS X sound perfect for immature hyperactives, however.

[Scout]

2. "immature hyperactives"

yeah, all those people in the world who are successfully using the Mac OS X are just immature hyperactives, uh huh.

:eyes: someone's got a bug up their ass :rofl:

go ahead and feel superior, while the rest of us laugh.

[supernova]

3. I made the switch and bought a MacBook

I've been in IT for 15 years and have always used PCs. I was looking forward to getting a ThinkPad when I suddenly lost my job last November. I had finally had enough of the "looks like a knock off of Mac OX" comments. I'm someone who prefers to go to the source; so when I was finally ready to replace my 10 yr old desktop PC last week, I bought a MacBook.

I'm so glad that I did. Not only is it easy to use, it's flexible and the design is impeccable. Where and how you expect things to work, they do. PCs are clunky by comparison.