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Should I get Windows Vista? Lately we have been hearing questions like "What is this new Windows Vista all about?", "Should I upgrade to Vista?" and "I'm buying a new computer...should I wait until I can get one with Vista?" We thought that these questions deserved an answer. (If you don't know, "Vista" is the name of Microsoft's latest version of the Windows Operating System, which is the software that makes your computer run, if you have a PC. If you have a Mac, then this letter doesn't apply to you, but any PC using friends that you have might find it useful.) The real answer to the question "Should I get Windows Vista?" is a complicated and much debated one, so we will spare you that. After all, if my car mechanic starts talking about "55cc lunge-howlers and 16 guage ODN conduits" my eyes start to glaze over, so I know what it must feel like when a computer geek gives you far too much information. The short answer is simple: No, don't get Vista. At least, not yet. Without getting into anything that is excessively geeky and technical, there are two main reasons why we don't advise getting Vista in the near future.
Reason 1: It is new (and as such, untested in the real world)
Some things are best when fresh, like produce and stock tips. Some things tend to only be good when they've aged a fair bit, like cheese, wine, and you guessed it...software. Pretty much any product that involves a lot of brand new software, especially if it was written from scratch, is going to be loaded with bugs, security holes, and other problems. Windows Vista is a major step forward in many respects. As such, a large portion of it has been created entirely from scratch. While it is often a good thing to start fresh, in the software world as with anything, it usually takes a while for all of the kinks to be worked out. As far as our reasearch can tell, Vista definately does not have the kinks worked out yet. Both virus writers and legitimate researchers are finding major security holes in Vista at an alarming rate and it hasn't even been fully released to the public yet. Windows Vista may be very much like Windows XP. Windows XP was, quite frankly, a complete train wreck when it first came out because so much of it was new. After a few years of fine-tuning and bug-fixing, it gradually turned into a decent Operating System. On the other hand, Windows Vista may be very much like Windows Millenium. Windows Millenium was a train wreck when it first came out and never got much better. It has been called the "Windows Mistake Edition" and PC World voted it one of "The 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time". Our magic eight-ball says "All signs point towards Vista eventually being reliable," but only time will tell.
Reason 2: Hardware support is currently inadequate
This bit is a little more technical. If reason 1 was enough for you, you can skip this section. Windows Vista is designed from the ground up to be an ultra-secure (from the perspective of the movie industry) platform for playing High Definition content in such a way that you can't copy it. When I say "ultra-secure" I mean something along the lines of "psychotic and unreasonable." All video and audio hardware, in order to be fully compatable with Vista and High Definition content has to also be "ultra secure", using special encrypted signals even for one bit of hardware to talk to another inside your computer, as well as when for your computer talks to a monitor or TV. All of this is just an attempt to make it impossible for you to copy a High Definition DVD, or other "Premium Content." This hard-core security technology has just come out with Windows Vista, so only hardware made in the last several months could possibly support it, and at that only the high-end expensive hardware. So odds are that large portions of your computer are not up to snuff by Vista standards and therefore, not compatible. Why does this matter? Microsoft has decided that if you don't have 100% ultra-secure hardware, Vista will see this and take action. This can be anynthing from making your screen fuzzy and blocky when you try to play "Premium Content," refusing to play "Premium Content" at all, or Windows Vista even refusing to work at all. Microsoft says it they won't do that last, but the fact remains that they made Vista in such a way that they have the power to completely disable your old hardware at any time. Also, if you buy a "secure" video card or monitor now, you might still have problems. Suppose that year from now someone somewhere in the world figures out how to unlock that model of hardware so they can copy HD-DVDs or something smilar. When word of this gets out, Microsoft and/or the Motion Picture Association of America can and will send commands to your computer which will re-define your hardware as "not secure" and make it behave just as if it was old hardware, with the same consequences as described above. Even though nobody went into your house and set up your computer to copy HD-DVDs, the fact that in theory it could will be enough to label it as "insecure" and revoke your ability to use it to its full capabilities. In addition to this extra "security" being forced on you, there are also completely benign technical issues. A lot of old hardware drivers won't work in Windows Vista unless the hardware manufacturers re-write them. There are completely valid technical reasons for this, but that doesn't make it any less annoying for the consumer. Especially if, as will happen in some cases, manufacturers opt not to release any Vista compatable drivers at all for old hardware.
Conclusion
The simple fact is that for reasons both business related and technical, much of your existing hardware may not work in Windows Vista, and even if you buy a machine labelled as "Vista Ready," it may not work properly a year from now. On the other hand, a year or two from now we might find that most old hardware drivers (except for video cards and monitors) have been patched to work with Vista and that Microsoft and the MPAA are not being quite as draconian as Vista gives them the capability to be. Time will tell. Likewise, in a year or two Microsoft may have worked the kinks out of Vista and turned it into an excellent, stable, secure, high-performance Operating System. Again, time will tell. As it stands now, however, if everyone reading this letter upgraded to Windows Vista next week, Technical Reinforcements would make a lot of money fixing all of your problems. Hardware companies would make a lot of money selling you a lot of new hardware or even whole new computers. Microsoft would of course make a lot of money selling copies of Windows Vista. Most of you, on the other hand, would have that much less money and quite a few headaches and grey hairs to boot! It all comes down to this: You don't want to be the first, or even the hundredth, person to fly in a new, experimental airplane. Much better to wait and be the ten thousandth person to fly in a well-tested airplane. Hold off on getting Vista until it's been "battle-tested" for a few years, unless you have a need that absolutely requires Vista. Let us computer geeks get the grey hairs for the moment and save you some money in the process.
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