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I was on the beta list for Windows Vista and recently downloaded and installed it. Here are my thoughts:

Install: I had to download a rather large ISO image which wasnt too bad. The toughest part was realizing that for some reason this ISO wants to be burned to a DVD at 4x or lower speeds. My DVD burner runs at 16x and kept failing the burn. I went through about 5 DVD’s before I went on line and found the solution. Finally got it to work.

Windows Vista Advisor is a program you run on your xp machine to see if you have any hardware or software that will be missing drivers or have any problems on Vista. I came up clean. So needless to say I was really surprised when the Install asked me for DVD-Drive Drivers when I was half way through the install. Still cant figure out why it was able to read the dvd to do the install but couldnt figure out how to load drivers for it. Somehow I was able to click Cancel like 10 times and it said the install failed but was still in Vista mode. So I kept going. It eventually installed.

Once up and running I found the interface at first glance to be VERY COOL. much more useable and crisp. Reminds me of some really cool operating system I know. Oh thats right, it looks a bit like Mac’s OSX. So funny that Microsoft is playing catch up in the interface game, I find it ironic but glad that there is a check/balance out there keeping the Redmond gang on their toes.

So once Vista came up,

What I like about it:

• Speed. Its noticeably faster. I setup a system where I can swap out my old hard drive and Plug in the vista hard drive rather quickly using a Hard Drive Swap Setup . When I put my old XP drive back in and re-booted, i noticed that it seemed sluggish. I have nothing to back this up it just seems like they spent more time tightening up the interface code to make it snappier.
• Look and feel.
• File browser There is a Mac like file browser that looks like this.

What went wrong: lots of missing drivers and some software (including quicken 2005) didnt work well
What needs to get better: better driver support and less hardware requirements.
Overall Impressions: seemed very solid and performance was improved for UI stuff.
Screen Shots: Here are some screen shots that should capture what the look and feel is.
My Desktop
The new Start Menu

One of the cool new features: Hold down the windows key and press Tab to see the 3d navagation structure: