I got the Windows Vista RC downloaded (all 3+ Gb of it). I burned it to a DVD, then backed up the XP operating system I was working on. The machine has an AMD 64-bit dual core with 2Gb of RAM and a 250 Gb hard drive, as well as DVD RW, video card, Network Adapter, and monitor. The machine was new, and the only thing I had used it for was to download Vista and burn it to the DVD. The machine was supposedly ready for Vista, but if you read the verbiage on the Microsoft site, until the actual release of Vista, anything could happen.
The machine booted from the DVD and asked if I wanted to install Vista. Since I chose to install the 64 bit version of Vista, keeping the 32 bit version of XP that had been installed on the machine wasn't an option. I deleted the XP partition and reformatted the hard drive. This process was much smoother than the same process in XP, and the graphical user interface appeared with mouse support earlier in the process of Vista installation than it does in the XP installation. When you install XP, there are several character based screens you navigate through before you get to the familiar Windows look and feel. With Vista, you're looking at a graphical user interface almost from the beginning.
Vista then asked the familiar questions about time and time zone, keyboard layout and language, and how I wanted to configure my internet access. There are fewer questions in the Vista installation than the XP installation. The process, however, has a slow point when all of the Vista programs are copied to the hard drive and decompressed. This seems much longer than the XP process which presents the time remaining on a sidebar with a changing screen that sells the new features of XP. This type of entertainment may appear in the final release of Vista, but the waiting screen is pretty plain in the release candidate.
The install went well. Vista found drivers for all of my devices, set the resolution of my screen properly, and launched itself. Office 2007 installed well, and the machine is performing well. The Aero Glass interface has some interesting features (be sure to try the Windows Button + Tab combination [similar to Alt + Tab, but much prettier]).
I noticed that Microsoft had heard the critique that you had to press the Start Button to Shut Down. The familiar green Start button has disappeared. In its place is a 3-d look button with a graphic. It doesn't have a label, so everyone just seems to be calling it the--you guessed it--start button.
I haven't had enough time to play with Vista to give an opinion one way or another yet, but it's worth a look. I don't think I would deploy a release candidate in production work...and there are several security vendors harassing Microsoft about the weaknesses in the product. In this case, I think time will tell.
