Windows Vista RC1 and IE 7
I am writing this on a computer running Windows Vista RC1. This release is much better than the last Vista beta that I installed. Everything seems to be working and operating smoothly out of the box. I think the interface may be more cohesive as well, though I need to use it a lot more to get a better feel for that.
I actually like how things look and work so far. It’s interesting to me how they keep “dumbing it down” while making the overall look and feel seem more sophisticated. Taking a cue from Apple, obviously. I did switch my Control Panel to Classic View with List details, so at least I can have something the way I’ve always liked it.
I’m not gaga about Vista, but it’s nice enough and experience has shown that it’s always handy to have a head start on new Microsoft products. After all, every new Windows release becomes the desktop standard in short order.
The other Microsoft product I’ve started using recently is Internet Explorer 7. In addition to the copy installed with Vista, I’ve installed the release version of IE 7 on several Windows XP machines. The interface is fine (but what’s up with turning off the menu bars by default in IE 7 and Vista?) and the way tabbed browsing is implemented is intuitive. I haven’t seen any glaring reliability or compatibility problems. I’ll still use Firefox or Camino as my main browser, but it’s nice to have a more useful IE available when necessary.