Windows Vista and Office 2007: Should I Switch?
March 19th, 2007, third revision (a rewrite)
Update: Please read some important notes regarding Windows Vista. In short, many programs that were designed for and run under Windows XP do not run under Vista.
Regrettably, I have to retract some of the things that I wrote about Vista, now that it has been out a bit longer, and after some more research.
Early benchmark testing by Tom's Hardware, and others, showed that XP far outperformed Vista on nearly all accounts, considerably in some cases (90% slower, or more). But, for games written to run using DirectX instead of OpenGL, will perform a little better with some video cards designed just for Vista, like ATI (now owned by AMD) new 512MB X1950 with AMD's new drivers (my brother works at AMD, and one of the jokes has been that now AMD owns ATI, maybe now their drivers will get better-- looks like they have). The Vista OpenGL drivers are still in the works, so OpenGL performance hasn't improved under Vista.
There have been several reports (anatech.com, PC Word, techage) that 2GB-4GB is ideal for running Vista, but even with that memory, Vista is still slower that XP.
Some applications won't run at all under Vista, so it is best not to upgrade at all at this point. Windows Vista also is still buggy, and it will likely be another two years before the system can be considered stable.
One thing that's very annoying with Vista is the multiple versions for it: Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, and Ultimate. If you get the Business version, you will be missing all of the nice features of the Home version. But, the home version, like XP Home, does not allow you to connect to a corporate network. Vista Ultimate, on the other had, is equivalent to XP Pro, in that it offers all the capabilities of home editions and the business edition. If you are buying a notebook, and you really want Vista, you Vista Ultimate should be the version you chose.
Windows Vista Enterprise is the server version of their new OS. However, in no case should you connect a Windows box to the unprotected side of your network. Windows has had a history of bug related issues-- and Vista Enterprise defiantly will have it's share. Linux is still the best choice for Internet related servers due to its speed and security, followed closely behind by Solaris and Mac OS X (both of which are Unix operating systems).
You can continue to expect newer versions of Windows to run slower than previous versions. This is because Windows is coded using C++, rather than C like Linux. While I won't go into too many details on why this is the case, it is enough to say that C++ programs run slower than those written in C. Also, when you extend objects--a collection of both code and data in object oriented programming (OOP) terms-- the new "extended" object runs slower because an extra layer was added to it. Whenever you add a new feature to an object, you are extending it-- and Windows Vista has a lot more features.
For home users with kids, there is only one reason why you would want to switch to Vista: Parental Controls. This is a new feature integrated into the new Windows operating system. It allows to control when your kids can use the computer, even if you're away from home-- you select what time they can use the computer by checking boxes on a schedule. But there are already software programs out on the market that do this.
Vista's Parental Controls also allows you to select what game ratings your kids can play (some newer games will include a code telling Vista what they are rated). This is a very nice feature if you have children who spend too much time playing video games. But, beyond that, there is very little in Vista that is revolutionary. Vista will do a great job of making your kids very angry with Microsoft, however. Their games also won't run as fast as they did under XP.
In short, unless your buying a computer for your kid to use, don't get a system with Vista unless you have no other choice-- but, right now, you still do. We will continue to offer XP until we are no longer able to buy it. Also, some of the major OEMs are continuing to sell PCs with XP to businesses.
Office 2007
Office 2007 has changed is file format to "Office Open XML" (OOXML). What this means is that now Microsoft Office will no longer be storing it's documents in a binary format that is very difficult to read, even for Microsoft programmers (one programmer at Microsoft was quoted saying that even he didn't know Office's file format). This is because Office 97/XP/2000/2003 all were basically a dump of whatever was in memory (sometimes stuff would be included in the document that people didn't want in there, which is VERY bad if you're editing a classified document in an attempt to produce a lower security version).
Microsoft has essentially extended the OpenDocument format that OpenOffice.org has been using for years, which format was standardized by ISO. Microsoft has followed suit, and now their version of Office produces XML documents in a format they have submitted to ECMA for standardization.
There are numerous problems with OOXML "open standard," in that too much of it really isn't open-- such as elements that behavior is left undefined. Also, Microsoft continues to refuse to use preexisting standards, and instead chooses to create it's own.
The good news is that, now with OOXML being at least mostly open format, you should see it well supported in the free, and already Microsoft Office and Access compatible office suite, OpenOffice.org.
You can read more about OOXML on Wikipeida.
If you must use Office rather than the free OpenOffice.org, then Office 2007 is the best choice, simply because of the new file format. But there is one thing to keep in mind: The menus in Office 2007 have been completely redone, so you will have much to relearn. The menus are now always displayed on the screen (there are no pull-down menus like before), and you have to click on tabs to access them. This new format uses up much more of your screen than before (about 3-4 times more than IE 7.0 uses for it's menu).
There is one caveat we have about Office 2007 at this point: OEM versions of Office 2007 are "medialess" licences. This means we must use a preinstall kit to install the software on the computer, and, unlike the operating system, you won't get a CD. Until Microsoft changes this marketing policy, we will be a little reluctant to offer Office 2007 on our systems over Office 2003.
Microsoft doesn't allow us to create recovery CDs to ship with our computers, so it's a little silly for them only offer a medialess license version of Office 2007 for system builders.