Dave's Brief Reviews

Windows Vista Home Premium

I have just done a clean install of Windows Vista Home Premium edition on my HP computer. My computer has somewhat less than the advertised optimal system requirements, but still runs it fine. I have a 2.3 ghz AMD Athlon processor, 1 gigabyte of RAM, a 200 gig hard drive, and a graphics card with 128 mb of onboard memory.

Positives

Vista has increased security; for example, all installations or system changes bring up a permission window requiring administrator ok.

Vista has increased default control over the system tray, a situation somewhat like MSCONFIG running all the time, with Windows making the decisions. (You can still manually call up MSCONFIG.)

Vista has the advantage of sub-user accounts being able to do much more than with previous versions of Windows. This adds a layer of security; you can use a sub-account most of the time, and system changes cannot be made therefore while you are on at that time, either by you or anyone else, without typing in the administrator password.

Vista's desktop and graphical user interface is attractive (are they immitating Macintosh OSX a little?).

Unicode is built in. Now any file name or URL, etc, can be in Chinese or any other language. And main fonts like Times New Roman, are now more fully Unicode, i.e., can do fully accented / cantillated Greek and Hebrew.

Internet Explorer that comes with Vista works better than the beta versions of IE 7 that had been previously released.

Windows Vista boots up faster than previous versions of Windows.

Negatives

Compatibility obviously is lacking for many of my software programs, such as my ZoneAlarm Pro firewall; it simply will not install or run. Others of my programs refuse to install, but then, (a good thing about Vista) Vista brings up a window after a failed install and offers to install it again using recommended settings for Vista. This often works the second time with a supposedly incompatible program.

I have not yet been able to figure out a way to get Vista to run my Apple Laserwriter Select 360 printer. I bought it in 1992, and it has been a great, reliable printer, through and including Windows XP, using a Windows 95 driver. However, so far, Vista refuses to use the Windows 95 driver, and will not otherwise see or automatically install the printer on the LPT1 port. Furthermore, Apple is not listed as a printer manufacturer at all on the install hardware control panel. Thus, I don't even have the option of highlighting Apple and my printer, and then using the wizard to find an updated driver, like you do with everything else.

My main media player has been Winamp, but it does not work reliably on Vista. So I am using Windows Media Player 11, but it just does not sound as clear to me. However, I have just found that Apple i-Tunes works fine on Vista.

Yahoo Messenger voice chat does not work on Vista, any version of Yahoo voice chat, not even the latest version, contrary to what Yahoo says on their web page. The latest version of Yahoo Messenger will allow you to type in chat in Vista, but not allow you to use the voice feature.

There will be other incompatible programs that I could list here, I'm sure.

Browsers

Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 beta 3 (IE7)

First of all, I would post this feedback on Microsoft's forum, if they hadn't required a "Passport" sign in. I hate that stuff. So I am doing it here.

POSITIVES

This version overall is maybe a small improvement over IE6. The first improvement I noticed is that it seems a little faster.

Another improvement I noticed is that it correctly displays the Unicode glyph called Fraktur Capital M on my Unicode Font Samples page. Whereas IE6 displays an empty box instead of that glyph. BUT, Firefox and Opera were already displaying that glyph correctly, so Microsoft has been behind the others in Unicode compliance.

One more new feature I like is that when you save a web page, it combines all the graphics files with the text as one single file, instead of like before with a text file plus a separate folder containing the graphics.

Internet Explorer still has the easiest controls for changing the size of the type on web pages that one is viewing. Most defaults are ridiculously large.

UPDATE 10/14/06
I now have IE 7, version 7.0.5450.4, and it displays Unicode rather well. Go to this link and compare how the Unicode superscript numerals display for the Papyrus manuscripts, compared to Opera and Firefox. I prefer how IE7 renders them. Firefox and Opera distort the sizes.

NEGATIVES

IE7 will not let me "view source" on a web page. When I tell it to do that, a window comes up that says "cannot find notepad.exe." I long ago deleted notepad.exe from my computer, since it is not capable of opening some of my large text files. So who needs it? I deleted it and made the default text editor in the "file types" registry a free program called "EditPad Lite 5.4.5," from JG Soft. They offer a free download for Windows and Linux.

It offends me very much that when I installed the IE7 beta, Microsoft over-rode my file type preference for EditPad Lite. Microsoft, this is the kind of control-freak practice that makes you hated.

The installation of the IE7 beta also over-rode my setting to make Firefox the default browser for links opened from other applications. Again, this offends me, and the bottom line is that I will steer people away from the Internet Explorer browser.

The Refresh button is now on the right. That takes getting used to.

Another thing I don't like, from the perspective of a web-site owner, is that IE7 asks for the favicon.ico every time someone visits a page, whereas IE6 would only ask for it if someone added your page to their favorites list. Maybe some users might like IE7 better if, they don't want the webmasters to know if they added the page to their favorites.
Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 (IE6)
Microsoft IE6 is okay, but as stated above, it is behind all the others in Unicode compliance. For example, IE6 will not display the Unicode glyph called Fraktur Capital M on my Unicode Font Samples page. But Firefox and Opera were already displaying that glyph correctly. Firefox and Opera are faster than IE6 as well, in my opinion.

One thing I do like about IE6 is that you can add a button to the toolbar that lets you shrink or enlarge the fonts with one click. And that it remembers this setting. The other browsers should add this feature.
Mozilla Firefox
This is my favorite browser at this time.

The main complaint I have is that the file icon is too loud, too orange and annoying. I prefer IE6 or IE7's subdued, mellow icons. If they would tone down the Firefox icon, I would be much happier.

Another complaint I have is that unlike IE6 and IE7, in Firefox it is not as easy to set the fonts smaller globally. You can do it though. In IE you can add a button at the top to do it with one click.

I like the customizable shortcut button bar at the top. (Opera can do this as well, called "web panels" but it is not there by default like in Firefox.)

I like the way the Firefox browser does the find function. It is a little window on the bottom left that does not have to pop up and obscure the page you are viewing. It takes some getting used to, but this is an improvement over Internet Explorer's method.

I like the fact that in the Firefox browser, you have the option to shrink the toolbar buttons on top. But, I would prefer they were even more shrinkable like in IE. I prefer to reserve as much of my screen space as possible for viewing of what I am browsing, not seeing the software.
Opera 9.1
I think this is the fastest browser. I have a few complaints.

I think the toolbars and buttons on the top of the screen are too large, and thus take up too much screen space. I want to use the screen space to see the web page I am browsing, not the software. This is what I always liked about classic Macintosh software; you could make all the buttons and toolbars disappear in software in general, leaving your screen space for what you really want to use it for.

So, I didn't immediately find a way in Opera 9.1 to shrink the buttons and toolbars, and this is a major negative for me.

Opera does not have as good cookie control as Firefox and IE7. There should be an easy way to permanently block tracking cookies from notorious adservers.

I do like Opera though, simply because it is the fastest.

Cellular Telephone Companies

Ranked from best to worst; and the difference between the top and bottom ones is immense.

1. T-Mobile
2. Sprint / Nextel
3. Verizon
4. Cingular / AT&T. There may not exist a company I hate more than Cingular Wireless.

Symantec /Norton System Works 2005

This company had a huge display in an electronics store advertising that if you had an earlier version of Norton Utilities, you could upgrade to Norton System Works 2005 for a net cost of 0 dollars, after two rebates. So I paid over $100 dollars and sent in the rebates with all required documentation, and never got any rebates, after almost two years. This company's decision makers should be in JAIL, because they stole over 100 dollars from me, by using their false advertising to induce me to pay them.

Symantec, PLEASE sue me for defamation. I would LOVE that. I could then expose your blatant, patent fraud. I still have all paperwork and receipts.

DO NOT FALL for their rebate scam. In fact, I declare that anyone who uses rebates instead of simply lowering their prices, is someone you want to avoid.

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