I just bought a new laptop last Friday and, being an advocate of Open Source and everything that is Linux-related, I'm ashamed to admit that Vista, at least Vista Home Premium, was, well, okay, so to speak. What made me realize it was ok was mostly the hardware it was running on. The Blue Notebook, equipped with an Intel Core Duo processor, a gig of RAM, 120 gigs of storage space, a dual-layer multi-dvd burner, and a lot of bells and whistles, simply hummed away while running Microsoft's latest abomination. The notebook, which I'm officially dubbing as BB (as in B.B. King), has bluetooth, firewire, and USB connectivity, as well as a built-in dialup modem and LAN card. The notebook earns two-thumbs-up, as it has technology that can keep up with the times, or at least for a couple of years, and is relatively cheap at PhP 36K (roughly US$ 840). Systems with the same specs averages around PhP 45-60K (US$ 1075 - 1400). What was amazing with BB was that there were buttons that aren't really buttons. It's like a touch screen, except that it's not on the screen, but on the casing itself, and there's a volume control that you just slide your finger on the bar to increase or decrease the volume, much like the one on an iPod. And then there's Vista. With hardware that can compensate for the requirements of the monstrosity that is Vista, I can hardly complain. Aero is working smoothly, although when I installed something that affected Firefox, it reverted to the Basic scheme. I was confused by this error, thinking there must be something wrong (hopefully) with the software. This will give me a reason to bash the OS, because Firefox was working a moment ago, and now, it is not. By working, I mean compatible with Aero. I then proceeded doing what comes naturally when being faced by a new error. I rebooted. And it now works. Vista's Sidebar, much like OS X's Dashboard, is somewhat of an annoyance, and yet, it can also be enjoyable, as it can display thumbnails of your pictures in your Pictures folder. Something lifted off Google Desktop, IMHO. The only thing that's bugging me, so far, is the User Account Control. It's a real bugger, literally, as it always asks if you want to let a program do what it's supposed to do. It may be useful to catch an unknowingly-installed spyware or trojan executing on its own. Microsoft finally did something right, and wrong at the same time. All in all, Vista is okay, as it sports a feature much like OS X's Expose, and it focused more, I think, in aesthetics than user-experience, in which Aero exceeded my expectations. I would've given it two-thumbs-up if it weren't for the bulky security updates already waiting to be installed upon first booting. Microsoft is still lacking in beefing up security, even if they already beefed up Vista's security. I guess there are two ways for Microsoft to be secure. One is to go Open Source, which is highly unlikely, and the other is to disable all network connectivity and prohibit application execution.