I ended up installing Windows Vista on a different machine than I claimed previously. The machine its installed on is yet another server (P4 2.4GHZ, 1GB RAM, Onboard GPU, Gigabit NIC & 40GB Harddrive). First I’ll say I like the installer for the most part. Its a beta still, but it is graphical, has a nice interface for mucking with the partioning, etc. My only cavet about it is that its very hard to tell if its still working or how complete it is ( many stages dont have any visual indicator).
As for the actuall use of it. Its boots really fast, but does take up 5gigs right on install. I like the look and feel — the black start menu is a little… strange but not horrible. Its similar to XP, but takes another giant leap forward. The file explorer is still perplexing me — they are taking a very mac feel. Its not “C:\” its “>Computer > Local Disk >”. “Documents” in file explorer is listed as “> (Username) > Virtual Folders > All Documents”. The reports earlier were 100% true about the dropping of “My” prefix. Its not “My Docs” or “My Pics” or “My Computer”. Also you previously were able to add windows components from “Add/Remove Programs”, but I cant find anything to do with adding in windows components at all. At the same time many areas have been revamped completly (Like “Add/Remove Programs”).
I just took the one screen shot (at the top of the article on the left) for now. Its of the file explorer on c:. It really doesn’t look as good as it should since the GPU on the server running Vista isn’t very good (Also I took this shot over Remote Desktop). I may post more shots latter but I don’t want Microsoft to p0wn me (they can email me if they have a problem w/ the picture ).