The future is now!

Hooray! Tonight marks the start of a new era in computing as Microsoft's newest operating system, Windows Vista, and business suite, the 2007 Office System, both launch across the country for use by the general public. I still stand by my previous statements that this is the best Office suite yet thanks to the sheer number of beta testers (like me!) that put it through it's paces last year and this year. Sporting a new user interface, the new Office is not only good looking, but very productive and intuitive once you get over the small initial learning curve.

I will back the launch of Vista as well, but with some hesitation because it's still lacking in driver support and application compatibility. For example, nVidia drivers are available but still incomplete, my HP scanner doesn't have drivers available yet (but HP promises them this week), Nero has issues creating audio CDs, and Microsoft Money 2007 (among many others) requires administrator mode to run correctly. On the bright side, there is quite a bit of software that runs without a problem and all the rest of my hardware was installed and fully-functional during the initial installation. In addition, there is the increased security, integrated search, slick new look, and a bevy of performance-enhancements like ReadyBoost and SuperFetch and automatic defragging of hard drives to keep your system in tip-top shape. Make sure you run the Upgrade Advisor before diving in to see if your hardware is supported and if your software will be compatible. Whether or not you choose to believe any of the $500 million in advertisements is up to you, but we should all face the fact that our Windows-based PCs will all be running on Vista sooner or later, so basically it's just a matter of when.