Windows XP Thursday, May 08 2008
I don't have a lengthy review, or even very much to say about it other than a couple comments. First off, I'm using Windows XP Professional. It does everything Windows 2000 Professional did. Some new features include the ClearType technology, a new start menu, a new task bar, new folder display, and improved user switching.
The ClearType technology is amazing. The day I learned that the MacOS anti-aliased screen fonts I was so incredibly jealous. I longed for the day that I wouldn't have to look at hard, jagged fonts on the screen any more. Well that day has come and ClearType is literally amazing. Just a small feature like this makes everything look so much nicer.
The new start menu is neat. I wouldn't say the start menu itself is so amazing you should go out and get Windows XP (although ClearType is something I would say that about), but it's pretty nice overall. Your most recent programs show up, at which point you can pin them to the start menu so they don't go away. Other than that, the start menu isn't all that exciting.
The new task bar is great. Open a new window and watch the task bar buttons actually move and animate as a new button is shown in the task bar. Not only that but when you open a lot of programs (as I usually do), the task bar buttons stack on top of each other, so the 8 Internet Explorer windows you have open will stack into one button and a menu will appear when you click the button allowing you to select which instance you want to activate. The other cool thing about the task bar is that the system tray hides infrequently used icons. Personally, I'm a stickler for keeping my system tray clean, but at least with this new one if I happen to have a few programs open that put icons in the system tray, Windows XP will be nice and hide them for me so I don't constantly have to look at the icons I don't care about.
The new folder display I'm not sure if I like or not. It's not amazing, but I really like my details view. I don't like large folder icons so I'm not a fan of that, but I definitely am a fan of the left-hand side menu options that shrink and grow based on what you currently have selected in your folder.
Last and most likely least, is the user switching ability built into Windows XP. At the most it's neat. For me at least that is. I am the only one who uses this computer, so switching between different users isn't really necessary, but I can definitely see how keeping all of your programs open and letting someone else log on and not screw up whatever you were doing is a really great thing.
The last thing to mention is that Windows XP is just plain old pretty. The menus look nicer, and I am so relieved to see that horrible gray window color gone. Everything is rounded, soft, and relatively pleasing to the eye. There are a few bugs apparently, only one of which I've experienced (my display properties window closing itself whenever I choose a JPG as my background), but so far I haven't seen anything too terrible to deal with. It was an incredibly smooth install, I clicked the mouse button a few times, got the computer up and running after that immediately, and it had drivers for every single piece of hardware I have -- I've never had a Windows install find drivers for all of my hardware. I'm amazed.
So all in all, I would definitely suggest XP. For a while I was really jealous of MacOS X, and in a small way I still am (it still has some prettier things than XP does), but overall this is the nicest looking and responding OS Windows has put out.
Just a note, I don't know how well the UI responds to computers with less RAM (since I have 786MB), but RAM is cheap so get a lot of it and toss it in your computer along with Windows XP.
The ClearType technology is amazing. The day I learned that the MacOS anti-aliased screen fonts I was so incredibly jealous. I longed for the day that I wouldn't have to look at hard, jagged fonts on the screen any more. Well that day has come and ClearType is literally amazing. Just a small feature like this makes everything look so much nicer.
The new start menu is neat. I wouldn't say the start menu itself is so amazing you should go out and get Windows XP (although ClearType is something I would say that about), but it's pretty nice overall. Your most recent programs show up, at which point you can pin them to the start menu so they don't go away. Other than that, the start menu isn't all that exciting.
The new task bar is great. Open a new window and watch the task bar buttons actually move and animate as a new button is shown in the task bar. Not only that but when you open a lot of programs (as I usually do), the task bar buttons stack on top of each other, so the 8 Internet Explorer windows you have open will stack into one button and a menu will appear when you click the button allowing you to select which instance you want to activate. The other cool thing about the task bar is that the system tray hides infrequently used icons. Personally, I'm a stickler for keeping my system tray clean, but at least with this new one if I happen to have a few programs open that put icons in the system tray, Windows XP will be nice and hide them for me so I don't constantly have to look at the icons I don't care about.
The new folder display I'm not sure if I like or not. It's not amazing, but I really like my details view. I don't like large folder icons so I'm not a fan of that, but I definitely am a fan of the left-hand side menu options that shrink and grow based on what you currently have selected in your folder.
Last and most likely least, is the user switching ability built into Windows XP. At the most it's neat. For me at least that is. I am the only one who uses this computer, so switching between different users isn't really necessary, but I can definitely see how keeping all of your programs open and letting someone else log on and not screw up whatever you were doing is a really great thing.
The last thing to mention is that Windows XP is just plain old pretty. The menus look nicer, and I am so relieved to see that horrible gray window color gone. Everything is rounded, soft, and relatively pleasing to the eye. There are a few bugs apparently, only one of which I've experienced (my display properties window closing itself whenever I choose a JPG as my background), but so far I haven't seen anything too terrible to deal with. It was an incredibly smooth install, I clicked the mouse button a few times, got the computer up and running after that immediately, and it had drivers for every single piece of hardware I have -- I've never had a Windows install find drivers for all of my hardware. I'm amazed.
So all in all, I would definitely suggest XP. For a while I was really jealous of MacOS X, and in a small way I still am (it still has some prettier things than XP does), but overall this is the nicest looking and responding OS Windows has put out.
Just a note, I don't know how well the UI responds to computers with less RAM (since I have 786MB), but RAM is cheap so get a lot of it and toss it in your computer along with Windows XP.
One more thing I forgot to mention. Windows XP was able to find a printer on my workgroup here at home, on a computer that was on but even while the printer itself was off. That's something I've never seen Windows 2k do..