#1: The Ribbon
If you have used other Office 2007 applications, you are no doubt familiar with the Ribbon — and you either love it or hate it. Outlook 2007 uses the Ribbon, too, but not to the extent of other Office applications.

The main Outlook window doesn’t use the Ribbon, but most of the forms do. For example, start a new e-mail message or appointment, and the resulting Outlook item form includes the Ribbon. As in other Office 2007 applications, the main appeal of the Ribbon is that it exposes commonly used features. What’s more, the Ribbon exposes useful features that many users don’t know about or don’t bother with because they don’t want to spend the time hunting for the feature.

I’ve been using Office 2007 since the earliest beta and didn’t discover until this week that you can minimize the Ribbon. Right-click on any group on the ribbon and choose Minimize The Ribbon. Take the same action to restore it.

#2: Navigation Pane and To-Do Bar
Outlook’s Navigation Pane provides a quick and easy way to navigate Outlook’s folders, views, calendars, date navigator, and other items. When Microsoft introduced the Navigation Pane in Outlook 2002, it was a big improvement over the Outlook Bar. There are a couple of nice additions to the Navigation Pane in 2007.

You can now minimize the Navigation Pane to gain more screen real estate for messages, the calendar, and other views. To minimize the Navigation Pane, click the double left chevron in the upper-right corner of the Navigation Pane. This control changes to a double right chevron. Click that to restore the Navigation Pane.

When the Navigation Pane is minimized, it acts like the Windows task bar in auto-hide mode. Just click on the Navigation Pane to open it. After you select an item from the Navigation Pane, it minimizes itself again. If you don’t want to use the Navigation Pane at all, choose View | Navigation Pane | Off to turn it off. Choose View | Navigation Pane | On to turn it back on.

The To-Do Bar works much the same way as the Navigation Pane. You can configure the To-Do Bar to be minimized from the View menu. Then, when you need to use it, click on the double chevrons to expand or collapse it. You can also click on an area of the minimized To-Do Bar to temporarily expand it.

#3: RSS feeds
RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, is essentially an XML-based means to format news stories and other dynamically changing Web content so that RSS-aware software applications can access and retrieve this content automatically. Outlook 2007 supports RSS feeds, enabling you to receive information automatically from news and other Web sites that offer RSS content. RSS content arrives in Outlook much like e-mail messages and is stored in the RSS Feeds folder by default.

The easiest way to add a feed is to click on the RSS Feeds folder and then click on one of the featured feeds in the resulting RSS directory. You can also right-click on the RSS Feeds folder and choose Add A New RSS Feed to open the New RSS Feed dialog box, in which you enter the URL for the feed. To modify an existing RSS feed, choose Tools | Account Settings and then click the RSS Feeds tab. Here, you can set the synchronization schedule, change the folder to which new items are delivered, remove a feed, and make other configuration changes for the feed.

#4: Instant Search
Instant Search is one of those features you’ll come to love in a hurry. Instant Search in Outlook 2007 integrates Outlook with Windows Desktop Search to enable you to almost instantly locate items in Outlook. For example, you can type in a word or phrase and find every e-mail in the current folder that contains that word or phrase. You can also expand the search to incorporate all mail folders, including those stored in your archive folders.

Windows Desktop Search is included with Windows Vista. To use Windows Desktop Search on a Windows XP computer, you must download it from Microsoft. (For a look at how to use Desktop Search in Windows XP, see “Add Vista-like search capabilities to Windows XP.”)

Searching in Outlook 2007 is easy. Just click in the Search Inbox field located at the top of the current message window, type a word or phrase, and press ENTER. Outlook performs a search and displays a list of matching items in the window. Click Try Searching Again In All Mail Items to expand the search to all message folders. Click the X beside the search box to clear the search.

#5: Color categories
Categories in Outlook help you organize and locate information. They’ve been improved in Outlook 2007 with the introduction of color. Previous versions of Outlook offered colored flags you could use to identify items, but they were text-based categories. Now they’ve been replaced by color categories in Outlook 2007. The category color appears in the message header and in the Categories field in the header list. The main advantage of using color categories is that they make it possible to quickly identify items based on their category.

To assign a category, click the item and then click the Categorize button in the toolbar. You can select an existing color category from the resulting drop-down list, or click All Categories to create and assign a new category. The first time you use a color category, Outlook gives you the opportunity to rename it. Just type a new name in the resulting Rename Category dialog box and click Yes. If you don’t want to rename the category, click No.

You can easily organize a view by category. Simply click the Categories header to group by color category. You can also use a predefined Categorized Mail search folder to locate all message that have category assignments.

#6: Quick click category
Another handy color category feature in Outlook 2007 is the quick click category. This feature lets you assign a color category to a message with a single click.

To set the quick click category, click Categorize in the toolbar and then click Set Quick Click to open the Set Quick Click dialog box. Select the desired category and click OK. To apply the Quick Click Category to an item, just click in the Categories field for the item.

#7: Flag recipient for follow-up
You’re probably familiar with Outlook’s follow-up feature that lets you set a follow-up flag for items. For example, you might want to flag a message to follow up the next day with a phone call. A handy feature in Outlook 2007 is the capability to flag a message for a recipient to follow up.

For example, assume you want the recipient to take action by the end of the week on a message you send. When you are ready to send the message, click the Follow Up button in the Options group on the Ribbon, then choose Flag For Recipients. In the resulting Custom dialog box, choose the desired follow-up action from the Flag To drop-down list. Specify a reminder day and time and click OK. Then, send the message. When the reminder time arrives, the recipient will receive an Outlook reminder regarding the item.

#8: Calendar overlay
If you manage multiple calendars, you’ll really appreciate Outlook 2007’s new calendar overlay feature, which lets you combine multiple calendars into a single view. For example, you might track your personal appointments on a separate calendar from your business appointments. Or maybe you want to merge a sports calendar with your work or personal calendar, or look at two or three staff members’ calendars in one view. Calendar overlay provides a great means for identifying conflicts or getting a complete picture of your schedule.

Merging calendars is easy. Open the Calendar folder. Then, in the Navigation Pane, place a check beside the calendars you want to view. Outlook displays the calendars side by side. In the name tab at the top of one of the secondary calendars, click the View In Overlay Mode button to overlay the calendar with the primary one. Repeat for any additional calendars you want to overlay. To view the calendars separately, click the View In Side-by-Side Mode button in the calendar’s name tab.

#9: Scheduling Assistant
If you’re using Outlook 2007 with Exchange Server 2007, the Scheduling Assistant can help you choose a meeting time that works best for all of the specified participants. Unlike the AutoPick Next feature, which just automatically selects the next time slot that fits everyone’s schedules, the Scheduling Assistant analyses attendees’ schedules and suggests several times for the meeting. The Scheduling Assistant identifies for each suggested time how many of the attendees and resources (such as meeting rooms) are free. You can click on a suggested time slot and then choose a meeting room from the drop-down list of available rooms Outlook offers.

#10: Out-of-office scheduling
The Out Of Office Assistant, which enables you to generate out-of-office messages when using Outlook with Exchange Server, has also been improved in Outlook 2007. When used with Exchange Server 2003 or earlier, the out-of-office features are essentially the same in Outlook 2007 as in Outlook 2003. The only difference is the dialog box you use to specify the out-of-office message and rules. To set out-of-office options, regardless of which version of Exchange Server you are using, choose Tools | Out Of Office Assistant.

When used with Exchange Server 2007, you have additional out-of-office features. First, you can schedule your out-of-office period ahead of time. To do so, open the Out Of Office Assistant, choose Send Out Of Office Auto-Replies, select Only Send During This Time Range, and enter the beginning and end dates and times for the out-of-office period. When the start date and time arrives, Exchange begins sending out-of-office replies.

The other Exchange Server 2007-specific out-of-office feature is the capability to send out-of-office replies to people inside your organization that are different from the replies that go to people outside your organization. The Out Of Office Assistant dialog box offers two tabs, one for internal replies and one for external replies. Just click the appropriate tab and enter the out-of-office reply you want to use for that group.

All in all this forceful application has so much in it than 2003 or the Apple 2004 versions it is easy to choose this as a jump to version. Buy it and enjoy it.

Comparing OS X to Windows Vista is a correlation fraught with peril. There is so much to like in each operating system that picking a winner in each category was difficult and bound to get me flamed. What follows is a non-exhaustive examination of OS X Tiger and Vista. Clearly, Leopard is on its way and will change the game considerably, but since Steve hasn’t called to tell us when or where that’s happening, we’re going to work with what we have.
So, without further ado, let the OS X vs. Vista bumfight begin.

UI – This is one we can really sink our teeth into. As we said before, Vista is very attractive and easy to grasp. Whereas OS X still has a number of strangeMac-isms stuck in its craw (red, yellow, and green window buttons, anyone?), Windows is extremely straightforward.
First, I rarely use Finder and instead have taken to using Path Finder, a richer and more information-packed shell. If Vista wins in this case it is in the preview functions available at the bottom of the window. While both operating systems have strikingly similar shells, this simple bar at the bottom saves hours of frustration. Clearly, this can be modified in both OSes, but out of the box this is a big plus for Vista.

Otherwise, the rest of Vista’s improvements are purely aesthetic. I consider Vista “better looking” than OS X at this point, but only in the Aero UI and only at a cosmetic level. Not surprisingly, many of the improvements stop at the application level and it is quite disconcerting to see old applications like Paint show up inside Aero’s fancy glass UI. OS X is an older UI and it now shows. It’s hard to fault Apple’s older standards, but they do have a lot of catching up to do in terms of visual presentation of data.

Winner: VISTA

Security – Here’s a tough one. Which is more secure? The operating system with no known viruses or an operating system built on a platform that, at last count, had five bajillion (this number is based on strict statistics) security holes? That said, Vista is a definitely a step in the right direction. You cannot do anything—run a new program, install a piece of hardware, or blow your nose—without Vista pinging you on it. Vista also includes virus and adware scanners—which some say lock out competitors products—and advanced phishing protection.

But OS X has one thing going for it: our trust in its innate goodness. I’ll download anything and everything, secure in the knowledge that I won’t get logic bombed into oblivion. Worms are rebuffed and Internet hacks are almost non-existent. While Vista will definitely have some sort of major exploit emerge within the next year, with OS X I can visit porn site after porn site without worrying that some insane Direct X application will destroy my files. I still don’t feel comfortable enough with Vista to trust it to keep me safe. That’s why I got my Dad a Mac Mini. His XP machine was so full of junk that it was almost unusable. Now he is able to do everything and I don’t have to act as his 24/7 tech support drone.

Winner: OS X

Speech Recognition – Hands down, Vista. Voice recognition in OS X is an afterthought at best and cripple-ware at worst . I’m not big on voice recognition, but I do know when someone has gotten it right.

Winner: VISTA

Web Browsing – Internet Explorer 7 is quite nice, but it can’t beat Mozilla on either platform. Whereas both operating systems have had tabbed browsing, through Mozilla, for years, for IE to introduce it this late in the game is a travesty. Out of the box, Safari is considerably quicker and easier to manage than Vista’s icon-heavy IE 7. Thankfully IE 7 has improved phishing detection, but it’s too little too late in this case.
On the other hand, Safari has a lot of problems browsing much of the web. Sites fail to load properly almost by default and as a result. the browser has distinct usability issues .

TIE

Multimedia Authoring – Vista is blessed with a very powerful set of media authoring tools that rival or improve on the iLife collection. Vista’s Photo Gallery photo organization tool is considerably approved over XP’s “Ummm… stick them in that folder over there” system of organization while the Movie Maker and DVD Maker applications owe much of their usability to iLife itself. You can easily create multimedia with Vista out of the box.
The Vista Suite - Photo Gallery, MovieMaker, and DVD Maker

Nevertheless, iLife is still the gold standard for powerful movie and DVD authoring along with intelligent photo browsing and sharing. With iPhoto, you can share photos with other Macs on the network, for example, and iMovie and iDVD are powerful without being overwhelming. I would be comfortable editing professional video using iMovie. I don’t feel the same comfort with Vista’s applications.

Winner: OS X

Widgets/Gadgets – This is a tough one. Apple’s Widgets are hobbled because they require a single click to enable. Clearly, Vista’s always on sidebar of gadgets is considerably more useful than the OS X Dashboard but the glut of available widgets makes us like OS X a bit better. Again, it is too early to tell, but at this point I prefer Vista’s sidebar over Dashboard.

Winner: VISTA

Kernel – Clearly it is difficult to compare as Windows and OS X are built on two divergent technologies that are years old and, in some cases, not very well documented. As a layman and, at least in a current SDK and kernel development sense, a non-programmer, I can only say that OS X is based on a FreeBSD and Mach kernel while Vista is based on NT and its attendant technologies.
Windows has a number of interesting improvements added to its presentation layer as well as its search system. These run neck-and-neck or a close second to XNU (that’s what they call the OS X kernel. Who knew?) One major issue, however, is the graceful mounting and unmounting of external devices. Windows has OS X beat hands down thanks to differences in the file system and the way disk activity is given priority in the kernel. This is a huge pet peeve.

OS X is opaquely open-source while Windows Vista is ostensibly not. While a direct value cannot be placed on either of those two descriptions, fans of Linux will definitely be comfortable with OS X while Windows fans can go years without touching the command line. Both of these operating systems are “graphical” in the broadest sense, which has kept the mass of kernel functionality hidden from the average user.

TIE

Performance – Now we get down to brass tacks. Which operating system “works” better? I’ve used OS X every day for the past two years and used XP regularly before that. On a two year old Pentium 4 machine with an equally aged graphics card, Vista runs like a champ. This is very strange to me and my brain is having difficulties processing it. I have a Mac Pro with two Dual Core Xeon processors and 1GB of DDR2 RAM and the PC is running at about 3.20 GHz. So what is going on here?

Like it or not, operating systems accrue a number of slowdown issues over time. This is a completely fresh Vista install while the Mac Pro has been in constant use for about four months. Does this excuse poor performance on Apple’s part? No, but it does give us pause. If Vista is this peppy out of the box, how peppy will it be once the disk and registry are full of garbage? I can’t answer that right now, but for my money I would say Vista is considerably more impressive, from a productivity standpoint, than this Mac Pro. Would I switch? Probably not—I love everything OS X has to offer. Is Vista a great OS? Yes.

Winner: VISTA

Verdict – In the context of this examination, we see that Vista is currently pouncing all over OS X Tiger in most scenarios. Microsoft has considerably improved its flagship product and should be applauded for taking so many modern operating system concepts and dragging them front and center. That said, what should you buy? Clearly, everyone’s use case is different. As a certified Mac fanboy, I would recommend OS X to anyone who has no interest in experiencing the many negatives that drove me away from XP in the first place, namely weak security and a lack of media authoring tools. Vista is currently in its infancy, however, and the jury is still out on security and ease-of-use over time. If you have to use Windows, use Vista. If you want to join millions of happy Macites, go right ahead. The choice, as they say, is yours.

Introduction

Every machine on the the Internet has a unique number assigned to it, called an IP address. Without a unique IP address on your machine, you will not be able to communicate with other devices, users, and computers on the Internet. You can look at your IP address as if it were a telephone number, each one being unique and used to identify a way to reach you and only you.

The Address Itself

An IP address always consists of 4 numbers seperated by periods, with the numbers having a possible range of 0 through 255. An example of how an ip address appears is: 192.168.1.10

This representation of an IP address is called decimal notation and is what is generally used by humans to refer to an IP address for readability purposes. With the ranges for each number being between 0 and 255 there are a total 4,294,967,296 possible IP addreses.

Out of these addresses there are 3 special ranged that are reserved for special purposes. The first is the 0.0.0.0 address and refers to the default network and the 255.255.255.255 address which is called the broadcast address. These addresses are used for routing, which will not be covered in this tutorial. The third address, 127.0.0.1, is the loopback address, and refers to your machine. Whenever you see, 127.0.0.1, you are actually referring to your own machine. That means if you clicked on this link, http://127.0.0.1, you are actually trying to connect to your own computer, and unless you have a webserver running, you will get a connection error.

There are some guidelines to to how IP address can appear, though. The four numbers must be between 0 and 255, and the IP address of 0.0.0.0 and 255.255.255.255 are reserved, and are not considered usable IP addresses. IP addresses must be unique for each computer connected to a network. That means that if you have two computers on your network, each must have a different IP address to be able to communicate with each other. If by accident the same IP address is assigned to two computers, then those computers would have what is called an “IP Conflict” and not be able to communicate with each other.

IP address classes

These IP addresses can further be broken down into classes. These classes are A, B, C, D, E and their possible ranges can be seen in Figure 2 below.

Class Start address Finish address
A 0.0.0.0 126.255.255.255
B 128.0.0.0 191.255.255.255
C 192.0.0.0 223.255.255.255
D 224.0.0.0 239.255.255.255
E 240.0.0.0 255.255.255.255

If you look at the table you may notice something strange. The range of IP address from Class A to Class B skips the 127.0.0.0-127.255.255.255 range. That is because this range is reserved for the special addresses called Loopback addresses that have already been discussed above.

The rest of classes are allocated to companies and organizations based upon the amount of IP addresses that they may need. Listed below are descriptions of the IP classes and the organizations that will typically receive that type of allocation.

Default Network: The special network 0.0.0.0 is generally used for routing.

Class A: From the table above you see that there are 126 class A networks. These networks consist of 16,777,214 possible IP addresses that can be assigned to devices and computers. This type of allocation is generally given to very large networks such as multi-national companies.

Loopback: This is the special 127.0.0.0 network that is reserved as a loopback to your own computer. These addresses are used for testing and debugging of your programs or hardware.

Class B: This class consists of 16,384 individual networks, each allocation consisting of 65,534 possible IP addresses. These blocks are generally allocated to Internet Service Providers and large networks, like a college or major hospital.

Class C: There is a total of 2,097,152 Class C networks available, with each network consisting of 255 individual IP addresses. This type of class is generally given to small to mid-sized companies.

Class D: The IP addresses in this class are reserved for a service called Multicast.

Class E: The IP addresses in this class are reserved for experimental use.

Broadcast: This is the special network of 255.255.255.255, and is used for broadcasting messages to the entire network that your computer resides on.

Private Addresses

There are also blocks of IP addresses that are set aside for internal private use for computers not directly connected to the Internet. These IP addresses are not supposed to be routed through the Internet, and most service providers will block the attempt to do so. These IP addresses are used for internal use by company or home networks that need to use TCP/IP but do not want to be directly visible on the Internet.

If you are on a home/office private network and want to use TCP/IP, you should assign your computers/devices IP addresses from one of these three ranges. That way your router/firewall would be the only device with a true IP address which makes your network more secure.

Common Problems and Resolutions

The most common problem people have is by accident assigning an IP address to a device on your network that is already assigned to another device. When this happens, the other computers will not know which device should get the information, and you can experience erratic behavior. On most operating systems and devices, if there are two devices on the local network that have the same IP address, it will generally give you a “IP Conflict” warning. If you see this warning, that means that the device giving the warning, detected another device on the network using the same address.

The best solution to avoid a problem like this is to use a service called DHCP that almost all home routers provide. DHCP, or Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, is a service that assigns addresses to devices and computers. You tell the DHCP server what range of IP addresses you would like it to assign, and then the DHCP server takes the responsibility of assigning those IP addresses to the various devices and keeping track so those IP addresses are assigned only once.

Conclusion

IP addresses and their function on the Internet is an important concept to understand. Hopefully with this tutorial you will have a firmer grasp on this concept, which should help you troubleshoot problems and bring a better understanding of how the Internet works.

What’s the right size for an internal IT staff? When does it make sense to build a relationship with an outside contractor to supplement your internal staff? I frequently hear from small- and medium-size business customers about the challenge of finding this balance.
Ask yourself some questions:How important is technology in running my business? The more fundamental IT is to running your day-to-day operations, the more likely it is that you will need strong internal IT skills to manage it, or will at least need to take a strong, hands-on role in managing your external staff.

What technology skill sets are critical to my business? Small and medium-size businesses often need many of the same technology skill sets that larger ones do, but they don’t have either the luxury of or the need for a full-time expert in each tech discipline. As a result, SMBs may either depend on generalists to handle tasks they’re not qualified for, or they simply don’t deal with a particular tech challenge. If the task requires 8 hours or less per week, you should consider outsourcing it to American Tech Support.
What are the skill sets of my IT staff? I find that the smaller the firm, the more likely it is to have a IT staff of generalists with fairly interchangeable skills. Either create some differentiation within the team based on the skills you require (don’t forget that each area needs primary and backup coverage) or consider an arrangement with an external firm to provide specific expertise when the need arises.

Do I have a road map for major technology infrastructure upgrades over the next 12 to 24 months? In most cases, a small business won’t. The most common split between the use of internal and external IT resources is to have internal resources manage day-to-day production and to use external IT resources for project-specific work. If you do have a technology road map for the next 12 to 24 months, it’s likely that you can afford to have your own development staff. Either way, makes sure that you involve your production staff in development projects so that the functionality you are creating can be properly managed after the handoff.

What are the growth plans for my business over the next 6 to 18 months? The two elements that most frequently affect its size are technological advancements and user growth. You can learn about the first by keeping up with industry literature; the second requires that you keep your IT staff size in harmony with any growth in your user community.

Finally, remember that using external IT resources isn’t about outsourcing to some big, faceless organization overseas. There are lots of small and medium-size businesses in your community that specialize in technology support like American Tech Support. Look to them to help with any of your external IT needs, based on the criteria above.

Well that just depends on who you ask, and if the person is myself then you are going to get the following four reasons why I personally would not even bother with Windows Vista.

…Windows Vista won’t run Microsoft Word any faster, won’t make your presentations look any better, and if my own experience is any indication then Vista is not going to make managing your PC any easier either…. To make matters even worse this *new* version of Windows is really just the Windows Server 2003 kernel in colorful clothing with some snazzy new mini-applications…. Additionally, my own informal tests on my Macbook Pro seem to indicate that Vista upgrades will likely run existing applications slower than XP for many folks forcing the purchase of new hardware just to “keep up”. Bottom line; Vista does not add any substantial new features for new or existing Windows users and may even be a significant reduction in speed for some users who dare to upgrade from XP on today’s hardware.

…One of the first things you are going to notice is the new interface which is a major case for the bifocal lens thanks to the excessive use of transparency. Unnecessary eye candy is everywhere, and seems to not add or enhance any features that might make users more productive. No well thought out GUI tricks like OSX’s expose here, just pure bling that quickly becomes annoying on all but the fastest PCs. The bottom line; Windows Vista does not bring anything new to the table other than more gizmo-style features that only serve to get in your way when you are trying to actually get some work done.

…Security will still be a major problem - Since Microsoft decided not to build Windows Vista on the longhorn kernel (which was rumored to be a complete rewrite, or close to it) they ended up leaving many of the known problem areas of Windows XP (and other previous versions) still in place…. This layer is visible to the user in the form of dialog boxes that pop up every time you require “administrator” or direct access to system resources, something that seems far too common on the Windows platform…. Bottom line; constantly annoying pop-ups intending to improve security will actually result in even greater problems as users begin to blindly click “Ok” even more than they already do now.

…The reality is that you can do everything promised by Windows Vista in Windows XP today with less hassle and in most cases faster than you could in Windows Vista on the same hardware. If you already use Linux or Mac OSX then Vista is not going to impress you anyway so don’t even bother taking a look.

New systems running Vista are heartier still, typically having a dual-core processor of around 2 GHz and 1 Gbyte of memory.

…By encouraging users to put systems to sleep rather than turning them off, the systems will seemingly boot much faster.

…The system, made by Polywell, contained an Asus M2 NBP-VM CSM motherboard with a 2.2 GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ dual-core processor and 1 Gbyte of memory. Engineers benchmarked the system using PassMark Software’s PerformanceTest benchmark, which can be used free by anyone for up to 30 days.

The PerformanceTest software runs multiple tests on the CPU, graphics subsystem, memory and disk drives to generate composite average scores for each category.

…Running XP, the system earned a PassMark rating of 468.3; that’s 16.4 percent faster than Vista, not an insignificant difference. Race car drivers will go to great lengths to shave a few tenths off their elapsed times but rarely perform upgrades that hurt performance. Yet upgrading to Vista can lessen a system’s performance by as much as 58 percent, depending on what’s being processed.

…More specifically, Vista beat XP at CPU string sorting, 2D graphics shapes, simple 3D graphics, medium 3D graphics, memory writes and random disk seeks.

For CPU string sorting, XP processed 2064.8 thousand strings per second, while Vista processed 2080.1 thousand strings per second. For the 2D graphics shapes test, XP processed 29.2 thousand shapes per second, and Vista processed 30.4 thousand shapes per second. For the simple 3D graphics test, Vista processed 125.8 frames per second, and XP processed 134.0 frames per second.

In the medium 3D graphics test, XP processed 16.0 frames per second, while Vista processed 18.6 frames per second. For the memory write test, XP processed 950.5 MBps and Vista processed 954.6 MBps. And for the random disk seek test, XP processed 2.91 MBps, while Vista processed 3.88 MBps.

…For the 2D graphics lines test, Vista processed 76.3 thousand lines per second, whereas XP processed 138.3 thousand lines per second. For the 2D graphics rectangles test, Vista processed 39.7 thousand images per second, and XP processed 94.3 thousand images per second.

…In the 2D graphics fonts and text test, Vista processed 115.2 operations per second, while XP processed 172.7 operations per second. For the small block memory allocation test, Vista processed 1349.3 MBps and XP processed 1861.6 MBps. For the large RAM memory test, Vista performed 127.2 operations per second, and XP performed 229.2 operations per second. For the sequential disk read test, Vista processed 32.4 MBps, whereas XP processed 65.4 MBps. For the sequential disk write test, Vista processed 39.4 MBps and XP processed 60.6 MBps.

The significant differences in these individual tests resulted in significant differences for the overall 2D graphics mark and overall disk mark…. The differences in those two main categories greatly contributed to the 16.4 percent overall difference between the two operating systems.

After running PerformanceTest under Vista, engineers installed and ran Microsoft’s XML Mark 11 test to measure the .Net runtime performance…. The XML Mark 11 test can be downloaded from Microsoft’s Visual Studio Download Center.

…The XML Mark test was originally written by Sun Microsystems about two years ago to show Java’s XML processing speed relative to .Net 1.1’s XML parsing. With the release of .Net 2.0, however, Microsoft adopted the test and was able to show that C# code ran just as fast as Java code.

Because Vista includes .Net 3.0, engineers had to recompile the C# code using Visual Studio 2005 extensions for .NET Framework 3.0 (WCF & WPF), from the November 2006 CTP version. Microsoft does not have a finished .Net 3.0 framework out yet for Visual Studio developers.

…For XML Mark to compile and run properly on both operating systems, engineers added .Net 3.0 as an additional prerequisite to .Net 2.0, instead of eliminating .Net 2.0 from the compilation process completely.

…The XML Mark showed that XML applications run faster on XP than on Vista when both operating systems use .Net 3.0 runtime…. With the DOM parser test, XP ran about 20 percent faster than Vista. However, Vista ran about 3 percent slower with the stream parser (SAX) test.

…The DOM test provided a more precise view of .Net’s memory architecture because of the large objects it created and deleted.

…And unless it’s imperative that users have an operating system with a more exciting look and feel, XP will offer better performance than Vista.

I need it sooooooo bad I am just going to burst all over the place like a ripe pimple if I don’t get me some Vista soon. Now, as to the whole “Vista doesn’t do anything you can’t already do with XP” bit; well, you can’t just go quantifying needs like that…. If you throw me just a bit of Vista, I’m sure I can get it together enough to finish this…… So, listen - Microsoft needs us to buy Vista for the sake of their profits. What’s good for Microsoft is good for the consumer.

…You already have XP, and alternatives like Linux are free.”: Time is money.

…• “It’s outrageously overpriced”: When something is this good, it doesn’t matter the cost…. I mean, how can it be overpriced, if money is infinite?

…I mean People really really like buying new kit.

…• “Applications that don’t work”: This is merely an opportunity to buy more stuff, and people love buying stuff (See #4).

• “It’s a big fat target”: Now this is exactly the kind of insensitive, prejudiced rubbish I’d expect from APCMag…. Besides, if Linux were as popular as Windows, and made it impossible to get anything done without being administrator, and integrated Internet Explorer with the operating system kernel, and included gigabytes of legacy code and nasty hacks just to make sure stuff written for Win95 would still run, then Linux would be a pretty damn easy target too.

• “UAC”: Look, all UAC means is that the user has to click “OK” a few more times than usual. What’s the big deal - users are used to clicking “OK” anyway, what with Windows having wizards for every damn thing, and pretty soon users don’t even think about it, or read the dialog or anything, so it’s really not much of an inconvenience, once the user is properly trained. And the extra security of having that enormous “OK” button to click on is very much worth it.

…nothing more than a liability to you, the user”: Now, hang on a minute. I may not know what big words like “liability” and “to” mean, but I’m pretty sure you’re saying something bad about DRM, and I for one won’t stand for it. DRM is a philanthropic effort on the part of movie studios and record companies to ensure that the consumer gets the best possible product for their money - none of this nasty pirate stuff.

…• “The Draconian License”: Hey, it’s not easy to eke out a meagre living as a predatory software monopoly, on the bones of your arse, scratching in the dirt for some meagre crumbs, and along comes the callous, uncaring user who suddenly wants to buy/build a new computer without buying a new copy of Windows…. Remember, What’s good for Microsoft is good for the consumer.