Well, I finally did it! I replaced my decrepit, slow, temperamental computer with a nice fresh brand new laptop. (Note to my old computer – don’t take it badly you served me well for many years but it was time to move on – thanks for the years of service!) As thrilled as I am about having a new computer that blows my old machine out of the water the bad news is that I have now have to use Windows Vista.

I have read about Vista since it was released and heard many a horror stories from my fellow geeks about how unstable and annoying it is to use Vista so I was nervous about what my experience would be like. My biggest concern with using Vista was whether all of my programs would be compatible with Vista as I did not want to have to upgrade all my software to have a functioning machine.

I have to say – so far so good. I have come across a couple of programs that I had problems running on Vista but after a quick visit to the software support site was able to get the software running without issue. In typical Microsoft fashion the developers moved some utilities and software around within the operating system making it harder to locate them but it is not impossible.

The new look and feel does take some getting used to and I am still not completely sold that the new Vista interface is all that great. It is nice to look at and the transparent windows give a nice affect but it is not a must have feature. If the look and feel of the new Vista is not to your liking then it can be changed to look like Windows XP to make the transition easier.

Since I have only had the computer for a couple of weeks I am still learning all the features of Windows Vista but so far I have nothing really bad to say about the new operating system. It appears to be stable and pretty fast. Though I have not really worked it yet it has yet to crash.

As I start to become more familiar with Vista I will provide additional articles explaining the operating system and my experience in greater detail. On a final note – a week after I bought my new computer my old computer *completely* died (after eight years of service) – talk about in the nick of time!