Give Windows Vista a chance?

Something called Pop Matters has an article detailing eleven good things about Windows Vista, which hits the consumer market next month (or next year; you never know with MS).

I enjoyed the article (even though I rip it below), and I do realize that Vista is for the masses, which means unwashed hordes of people who think professional wrestling and American Idol are entertaining. Still, most of the points made in this article are for real dummies. You know the type -- people who are, perhaps, good at their professional career, but absolutely clueless about the rest of the world.

1. When you move your mouse over the borders, you’ll find they’re a little thicker so it isn’t as hard to grab them and expand the size of a window.

I've seen people who have trouble resizing windows, and they're mostly idiots. No problems resizing, so why mess with it?

2. If you hold the Tab and Windows keys down (as long as you’re not using the low-end Basic version), Vista takes all of your open Web pages and presents a sideways 3-D view of them.

I'll withhold judgment until I get a chance to see this feature.

3. With the “preview pane,” you have the ability to preview files and Web pages before you open them.

Some websites use a similar gimmick, and it annoys the hell out of me. Yahoo News is one example. Can't stand it.

4. Search ability is integrated throughout the operating system so you can search for something inside any folder or dialog box.

Again, I know this feature is handy for morons. I can't ever remember losing files on my computer(s), and I've owned PCs since the early 1980s. A file structure is no different than paper files in a desk drawer, where I've likewise never lost anything BECAUSE IT'S FUCKING ORGANIZED.

5. Vista has a built-in version of the Windows Media Center user interface, which was once a separate version of Windows XP.

I would have to try this before I comment, but my initial feeling is not good. For $100 I got an excellent video capture card, with in's and out's, and it has a media center interface with remote control. The Windows Media Center would have to be a lot better than my add-on before I'd care.

6. I like the built-in parental controls that you once had to install on your own.

Good idea for anyone with kids, but as is so often the case, 3rd party vendors can sell you a much better system.

7. Vista comes with DirectX 10, graphics software that enables game developers to pack more action into 3-D animated games.

This has no meaning. XP and earlier versions of Windows can be easily upgraded as each new version of DirectX is released.

8. If you have the bad habit of not backing up your PC, there are fewer excuses with Vista.

Another feature exclusively for people with low I.Q.s. Let me get this straight -- people have important files they don't want to lose, and it's a simple task to make a backup, and they don't do it. And now an even simpler scheme for making backups comes along and that's going to save people from their own idiocy? I have nothing more to say.

9. One of the big improvements in Vista is the Windows photo gallery. You can easily take the “red eye” out of photos by clicking on someone’s eyes and dragging a box around them with the mouse.

Another moron feature. I use Photoshop because I possess the intelligence to use it.

10. The best-looking feature of Windows Vista is Dream Scene, a cute visual detail that Microsoft kept secret until Bill Gates’ keynote Jan. 14 at the Consumer Electronics Show. With Windows Vista Ultimate, the high-end $399 version of the operating system, you can set any video as the background wallpaper of your computer.

My $100 add-on card I mentioned earlier does this. I've had it for years. Even better, I can have any of my 350 cable channels as my desktop wallpaper. Most of these new goodies for Vista have been around a long, long time for anyone with the basic intellectual curiosity to discover them.

11. One feature guaranteed to save a few years from your life is that you can change the default on how to either put the computer to sleep or to shut it down with a single mouse click. No more questions like, “Turn off computer?” when you click to shut down.

This is worth mentioning? Until I can say, "Computer, shut down," with a Patrick Stewart accent, I really don't care about the button scheme to shut them down.

Look, all I really want in my next version of Windows is for the damned OS to remember my universal folder setting, which is "detail". Every version of Windows I have used since Win95, which includes 98, 98SE, 2000, and XP, has the flaw of forgetting universal folder settings, and it infuriates me. If Vista fixes that problem, I'll consider buying it.

Bitching aside, the article was fairly good. I recommend it, and I didn't spoil everything.