Vista's pretty but we may as well stick with XP, thanks

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Product: Windows Vista
Website: The Vole
System Requirements: Absolute minimum - 800mhz processor, 512 MB of RAM, a 20 GB hard drive with 15 GB free
Price: Basic Edition - £179.99
Edition reviewed, Windows Vista Ultimate - £369.99

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AS MANY OF YOU will be aware, Thee Temple Ov Thee Vole has provided a bunch of bloggers and writers with fancy-pants laptops, equipped with Microsoft's latest cashcow, Vista. Seeing as the Vista launch is imminent - not to mention Vole has stuck a countdown to the launch on my lovely free machine - we at the INQ thought we'd provide you with a hack's lowdown on the OS.

Firstly, and most obviously, Vista is shiny. Really shiny - it sure does look slick, which may well bring over a few image-concerned potential Apple converts. When you boot up your machine and Vista loads, you're greeted with a Brian Eno-produced soundbite that's about three thousand times less offensive than any other MicroVole noise of OS' past, that doesn't, in fact, make you dash for the volume control on yer PC.

There's a few nice additions that will make your overall geeky computer sessions slightly more pretty, too - transparent windows by default, for example, look rather pleasant. In fact, I'd say that the whole package is considerably less garish and more acceptable-looking than anything else Microsoft has put out to date. There's no green hill with a blue sky as your default background anymore, instead replaced with a calming swirl of inoffensive colours, perfect for staring at as you procrastinate, much like I am about to do now.

Okay, I'm done. That was very shiny and satisfying. A nice little feature on Vista, for sure, is that if by default you attempt to open anything possibly dodgy, the Vole brings up a little box asking you for your permission - this could be considered annoying at times, but if it asks you if you really want to run VIRUSLOL.exe, you'll be thankful, I'm sure.

Another little, but nice, feature is the new help section - no longer are you limited to reading everything absolutely obvious about your problem, or alternatively e-mailing Microsoft and waiting until forever for an answer. Now you can download help updates off the web, and the built in help is far more handy and extensive, too.

I'd also like to point out that that sodding dog on the Windows XP search page has barked up the right tree and is now no longer around to pester you with his little magnifying glass.

In Short
I really am torn on Vista. I've got Vista Ultimate edition, supposedly the best Vista about town, yet I can't help but feel that I wouldn't mind sticking to XP.

I've always been a Windows user, never having dabbled with Linux or Macs - and no, I'm not a Microsoft fanboy, it's just easier, okay? - and while Vista is a whole lot prettier than anything previously put out by Windows, while it does have improved security and a nicer interface, I still wouldn't mind just sticking with XP.

I won't downgrade, I've no reason to, but if it came to splashing out the cash I'm fairly certain that while XP is still up and running, I wouldn't upgrade either. While it is most certainly not a bad product - in fact, it's quite good - I'm struggling to find much of the "innovation" that the Vole has been bragging about for quite some time.

Get it, but maybe just not yet. Especially if you're skint. ?

The Good
There's a nice and shiny interface, improved security and all round less error messages than I've had with XP. Minesweeper has proper explosions that really hits it home when you click on one. Less obnoxious start-up tone.

The Bad
Extremely pricey at the moment and will take a hefty machine at best and an above average one at least to run - even at its most basic. I would say an upgrade is unnecessary at the moment - if you want a nice, shiny looking desktop and decent security, you can certainly do it without Vista.

The Ugly
Drivers! While there are plenty of drivers available for download from Microsoft and elsewhere, you'll still find a fair few programs simply aren't compatible. And that, my friends, is annoying. Also, while you can operate in "classic" mode, I find that browsing around in Vista is fairly clunky and irritable.