Anilrgowda

t's only fitting that Microsoft is showing its "cards" about Vista, it's new operating system, here in Las Vegas, because I feel like I'm in a poker game. And if you tried to read my poker face, you'd read indecision.
At the Microsoft Vista tent here at CES I had the opportunity to speak with a family that was a part of the Microsoft beta test. The family was one of 50 that Microsoft supplied with brand-new machines running Vista; each family contributed to finding bugs in the early beta versions of the operating system and making suggestions for improved use.
The family I spoke with, the Regans, of Maryland, were positively gaga about how easy it was to use Vista relative to their old Windows XP machine. They talked about the ease of finding files, setting up secure areas for their children, and working with photos with the fervor of the newly converted.
While it's terrific that Microsoft actively sought input from real, live families, with a little bit of grilling, I discovered that the family received clean builds of the operating system every few weeks on pristine new desktop machines. They received Office 2007 and all the other accoutrements of the Microsoft environment pre-installed, as part of the package. And while they did a lot of things on their computer, you got the clear sense that they were not exactly overtaxing the system. So they were a great touch point but not exactly a comforting endorsement for what my own Vista move would be like.
Then I went and spoke to Brian Livingston, author of the new Windows Vista Secrets available next week on Amazon. Brian and I concurred that most average consumers be a lot happier buying a new PC with Vista pre-installed rather than upgrading to Windows.
CNet, meanwhile, gave Microsoft Vista its Best of Show award, while over at ZDNet, George Ou just reported a pretty sobering list of bugs, mostly with multimedia playback, in the near final release of the operating system. Ou is not alone; there's a veritable bug hunting fest going on all around the tech publications, with lists of bugs, from the irritating to the debilitating, cropping up everywhere.
Windows Vista will be available on new PC machines beginning January 30. It's already available as an upgrade to corporate users, and the upgrade versions for consumer users are expected to ship shortly.
One thing everyone agrees on is that Vista is a truly beautiful-looking environment that lets you do many of the things you may do already (sticky notes, instant searching of your desktop, photo organizing, visual windows thumbnails) using third-party applications. And there's been lots of praise for Sidebar, a series of Windows gadgets that give you everything from a clock to a currency converter or stock ticker are useful and attractive.
At the New York Times, David Pogue may have said it best when he gave big kudos to Microsoft for building one very large, very pretty operating system that wins on looks but may have a few lacks.
So I've got my $1,800 carefully squirreled away to plunk down on my new laptop on January 30, but I'm getting cold feet. I'm all for working in a pretty environment, but pretty isn't going to pay the bills. I need to be able to keep working without spending days as a bug hunter. What about you? What are you plans for moving to Vista? Lay down your cards.