I am writing this after about 10 months of use. I am using Vista ultimate 64 bit version on AMD Athlon X2 PC , 2GB DDR2 RAM and 1 GB video memory hooked up to a 19" LCD display
I find it much more robust and resilient to the third party applications and their memory / CPU hogging routines.
Whenever those happen I have seen Vista still responding well enough to close those programs without shutting itself down which is a big improvement from XP days.
The desktop search in the start menu itself is a great tool too. I hardly open the programs nowadays and instead type the name and select the right link from the search window.
The much talked about aero is good but mostly when you are not working on something. During work this feature is neither evident nor much useful.
The user level access control too is a good feature both for home and office users alike since most people still have power or admin user rights and this feature restricts any program to use those rights without entering the password again. This ensures an interactive and authorised access
Program startup is a bit slow at times especially when the PC itself is starting up. Also the inbuilt defrag leaves something to desire. However I have started using a freeware tool JKdefrag (GNU License) which does a pretty good job of defragging even the larger files.
The task scheduler is pretty advanced with event based trigger etc. So is the event viewer and the performance monitor.The new windows mail can be used for POP / IMAP mail accounts. Support for web based hotmail as in outlook express is no longer there.
Windows Calendar is a good feature to have a planner without investing in costly programs like MSOffice.
Inbuilt DVD player is excellent for its video and audio capabilities. Also with appropriate hardware one can have a full home theatre (5.1) setup. One can even share your media library on a static or dynamic basis incase one’s interested in creating a home media network.
Display is good with smooth rendering even in high speed action.The sidebar too is a good feature where commonly used gadgets can be put up for easy access and usage. More and more gadgets are coming up everyday and if needed, one can just create one’s own gadget even without much scripting knowledge.
IT admins should love it for the scope of objects that can be controlled through group policies. This is something most admins would have looked for to let the user run programs with elevated privileges but not install new ones. Similarly most of the settings on the OS, Internet explorer, firewall etc. are now controllable through group policy.
Most of the new devices, accessories and applications on windows are Visat compatible but the older ones might still have a problem unless their manufacturer has released an updated & compatible driver.
Am yet to test the speech engine. Will update once I have. Pirated use may have limited benefits as most of the updates are now available for genuine OS users only.