Over all, I liked Office 2007 very much. The only thing I could not test was weblog posting, since dasBlog is not currently supported in the Beta version (it will be in the final version). I surely hope it will work well!

Instead, I have different feelings wrt Windows Vista. I followed Longhorn closely from the first PDC (2003?) and I was really looking forward to see it. Remember the “native kernel + managed subsystems” part? The three pillars, Indigo, Avalon and WinFS? Well, Indigo and Avalon are great but will be part of .NET 3.0, also available for XP, and WinFS is dead

So, what’s the point of Windows Vista? The three pillars gone, it remains the new UI, the improvements to the kernel and window manager, and the improved security model.

Running as a simple User and having to use tedious runas commands to do very common tasks on my notebook (such as changing IP, power profile or directory permissions) I thought the new LUA model of Vista will be great for me. The default user is still marked as “Administrator”, but I think (hope?) it is a simple User account under disguise, and when performing security related operations (i.e. clicking on buttons with the little shield) the security token is upgraded and substituted with one of the Administrator group, if the user grant the permit.
This is my first complaint: why they did that? Be clear, use default account from the Users group and simply ask for an Administrator password before running administrative programs, or on their first security related operation; then make the admin take ownership of the whole program. Surely, it is safest to ask every time if a program can do this or that…or not? People gets bored very easily, and do not always read what it is written on dialog boxes. Normal users almost never do that, they only try to get rid of that annoying (or for someone scary) box that prevent them “using my computer”. Despite this, the new LUA is still better than the previous situation.

The new window manager-UI instead is great. And I’m not only speaking about all the eye-candy (transparencies, the new Flip 3D I already love, the shiny new icons, the sidebar etc.) but also about usability. I love the new explorer UI and the new Open and Save dialog boxes. Finally we went a step further, stripping away the file menu where is no longer useful (like in Office 2007, where it “evolved” into the ribbon) or necessary (like in Explorer and Internet Explorer, where it is… no more!). The click-able locations on the address bar, the search box in the toolbar (yes! No more stupid search dogs…) and the new copy/move progress dialogs are some things I have waited for, and they are really great. And the Sidebar is both useful and beautiful to see (only one complaint: why is it not easy to hide and show it? Maybe with a F-something key, a-la Exposè?).
On the negative side, I have found the new UI very poorly configurable and customizable: If you chose Aero, you can’t even change colors. Very little can be done, but maybe this is the price to pay for a mainstream and “standardized” OS.

Finally, I know this is only a Beta, but I had a LOT of problems installing programs: cygwin does not work, it is impossible to register file extensions for some programs (7-zip comes into my mind), other programs crash without reason. Even SQL Server 2005 needs a patch to work correctly! There is still much work to be done, and it passed a lot of time. Maybe Mini is right, and the Windows team need to change direction.
The course the event took really disappoints me. Vista is great, but not so great and not so radically different to justify for me the switch from XP (a 5 year old OS!). I love .NET, and the managed and secure world, and I’m with Gary McGraw when he says that Vista is a missed opportunity for a new, modern and secure OS; the three-years-ago Longhorn still looks better to me than the actual Vista. I’ll have to wait for Singularity… :)